Mary May (Polly) Binney Wakefield
(January 25, 1914 – October 25, 2004)
Mary “Polly” Wakefield was a trained horticulturist, landscape designer, plant
propagator, collector, and an advocate for many environmental issues of her time. Born
in 1914, Wakefield grew up and spent her life at the Wakefield Estate, which had been
in her family for 300 years. She attended the Lowthorpe School of Landscape
Architecture for Women, and in 1952, she married George Kennard Wakefield.
Wakefield devoted her life to observing and studying nature. She continually enhanced
her knowledge of arboriculture and propagation methods, using her personal garden as
a laboratory and test ground for new plant introductions. She developed a special
passion for Kousa dogwoods and cultivated over 300 Kousas from seed. Wakefield
ultimately patented seven new Kousa cultivars, including ‘Greensleeves’ and ‘Fanfare,’
which remain two of the most valued dogwood cultivars today. In designing her own
garden, Wakefield defied convention and created a space that blends formality with
whimsy and order with wilderness.
Today the Wakefield Arboretum is a certified Class II Arboretum, a Reference Garden
for the American Conifer Society, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The landscape at the Wakefield Arboretum features gardens designed by Polly
Wakefield including terraced gardens, a Kousa dogwood allée, a conifer garden, and
more than 500 different woody plant species. Over the past 10 years, the arboretum has
added many new native plant species to the collection, planted a new apple orchard
featuring 25 heritage varieties, and created walking trails passing through woodlands
and wetlands.
The arboretum offers classes ranging from pruning shrubs and trees, and cultivating
mushrooms to botanical cyanotype printing and creating a pollinator garden.
