Louise Wrinkle said it wasn’t a “crisis” but a “mid-life reversal”.
“The first half of my life was dedicated to horses, but then I got into gardening in a big way,” he said.
It started when Wrinkle inherited her parents’ home on Beechwood Road in Mountain Brook more than 35 years ago, and she “had some decisions to make” about what to do with the property.
“I wanted to make everything natural, to see that it had always been there,” he said.
And now, the 92-year-old woodland garden is one that people from all over the metro area and beyond look to for inspiration. It will be one of four area gardens featured during the Garden Conservancy Open Days on May 4, the first time the event has been held in the city since 2009.
“My philosophy was ‘listen to the soil’; I wanted the soil to speak for itself,” said Wrinkle, who is a founding member and director emeritus of the Garden Conservancy. “I have the trees and the mountains and the valleys and the water, and I wanted to have everything as undisturbed as it could be, and choose what was good and not have a style imposed on it, but let it be itself.”
Her daughter, Anne Wrinkle, said she had been in “great awe” of her mother’s horticultural experience for a long time.
“She really created a respect and admiration and expertise for the subject, and local gardeners came to her to help as a mentor,” Anne Wrinkle said. “Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Jemison Park – they consider her a great ally. She really fostered a love for plants and let nature speak for itself and decide what it wants to do.”
Camille Butrus, a Mountain Brook resident and Garden Conservancy board member, said Louise Wrinkle “has been a mentor to everyone in Birmingham who has gardens” — herself included.
“He was very helpful to me; he made all kinds of suggestions, and they were perfect,” said Butrus.
The Butrus property, which features Italian gardens, a woodland garden, a greenhouse and citrus groves will also be presented during the Open Days.
“There’s a lot of different things to see,” Butrus said. “We bought the house in 1996, and I’ve been renovating the garden ever since. Every two years, I add something new.”
The other two gardens to be featured are called ‘The Dancer’ and ‘Rooms with Views’. More information is available on the Garden Conservancy website.
Cliff Weathers, the director of communications for the Garden Conservancy, which is based in New York, said that the restart of Open Days in the area is a “great return”.
“We understand that this is a very important garden region, and we are happy to return,” he said.
In addition to the four gardens featured, there are “so many other people with beautiful private gardens, so we hope this inspires something that can become a tradition again in the Birmingham area,” Weathers said.
Open Days will also include a special event the following day – the premiere of a new documentary about Louise Wrinkle’s garden, which will be shown on May 5 at 3 pm at the Virginia Samford Theater.
The film is the fifth in a documentary series, and it’s the first time the filmmakers have had the opportunity to interview the person who started the garden, Weathers said. “The film is Louise giving her perspective, and creating a discussion about southern gardens in general and what a southern garden is,” he said.
It also includes interviews with “some of the biggest voices in gardening in the United States,” Weathers said.
The premiere of “A Garden in Conversation: Louise Agee Wrinkle’s Southern Woodland Sanctuary” will be followed by a panel discussion on southern gardens, native plants and conversation.
It will also be accompanied by the reissue of his book, “Listen to the Land: Creating a Southern Woodland Garden,” which sold out of its first edition.
Anne Wrinkle said that her mother’s book is “her story; part memoir and part garden documentary photographs, both her own and professional photography.”
“Her garden has been featured in other publications, but this was her chance to write her own story,” she said. “It’s a guide for gardeners of all types, even novice gardeners – it’s very easy to use.”
The weekend offers a chance for hundreds of people to experience the private gardens of area residents, Weathers said. “These have not been opened in any way in years, and this is an opportunity to see this physical work of art that you know, but have not had the opportunity to see them.”
The Garden Conservancy Open Days event is set for May 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $5 for conservancy members and $10 for non-members. For more information or to book tickets, visit gardenconservancy.org.
For more information on Louise Wrinkle’s book and documentary film about her gardens, visit louisewrinkle.com or order the book from Little Professor Bookshop.
