While on my drive up to Boston, MA I decided to stop at Green Animals Topiary Garden. Green Animals is located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and is the oldest and most northern topiary garden in the United States.
This small country estate in Portsmouth was purchased in 1872 by Thomas E. Brayton (1844-1939), Treasurer of the Union Cotton Manufacturing Company in Fall River, Massachusetts. It consisted of seven acres of land, a white clapboard summer residence, farm outbuildings, a pasture and a vegetable garden.
Mr. Brayton’s daughter Alice gave the estate its name because of the profusion of “green animals.” She made the estate her permanent residence in 1939. Upon her death in 1972, at the age of 94, Miss Brayton left Green Animals to The Preservation Society of Newport County. Today, Green Animals remains as a rare example of a self-sufficient estate combining formal topiaries, vegetable and herb gardens, orchards and a Victorian house overlooking Narragansett Bay.
Gardener Joseph Carreiro, superintendent of the property from 1905 to 1945, and his son-in-law, George Mendonca, superintendent until 1985, were responsible for creating the topiaries. There are more than 80 pieces of topiary throughout the gardens, including animals and birds, geometric figures and ornamental designs, sculpted from California privet, yew, and English boxwood.
When you enter Green Animals you must go to the house to get your tickets. Be sure to get the map, it will contain a numbered listing of the topiaries so you will know what you’re looking at when you’re walking around the property. Even on the overcast day that I visited Green Animals it was beautiful. Along with the topiaries there are beautiful, colorful flowers everywhere. My favorite topiaries were mostly animals, but they were all just lovely. I saw one of the groundskeepers trimming one of the topiaries. He was kind enough to tell us a bit about topiaries. It was very interesting, I had no idea they took decades to grow. There was framework for a new topiary in place, which made me think of those lawn animals people put out in their yard at Christmas. There’s a children’s garden area where you can see many different vegetables, herbs and plants growing.
Green Animals is open seasonally, so be sure to check the schedule before going.
Here’s a slideshow containing 20 of my favorite photos from Green Animals.
And if you don’t have time to watch the slideshow now, pin the lion topiary below and come back at you convenience.
Green Animals is located at 380 Cory’s Lane, Portsmouth, RI 02871.
There is a fee to get in. If you’re only visiting Green Animals the tickets are $14.50 for an adult and $5.50 for children ages 6-17. Other tickets are available if you are visiting other Newport Mansions properties. They did extend a discount to me as a member of the AAA Auto Club.
Where is your favorite place to see topiaries?
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Green Animals website
What a wonderful topiary! I tried shaping our bushes at our old house once – it did not go well! Topiary carving takes a lot of skill, it turns out! Looks like a lovely place to visit!
My favorite place to see topiaries is at Disneyland outside It’s a Small World.
That topiary is so cool! This looks like a place my family would really like to visit.
I love seeing topiaries, they are so neat and require so much talent! We have some in the Botanical Garden right down the street from me.
How awesome! We have some great topiary places around, especially at our local zoo!
I’m not sure we have any places locally that have topiaries. I wish we did, I’d love to see some, they are sooo cool!
I didn’t know there was a place to go to see topiaries. My mom loved them for years and would collect mini ones and photos of them as decoration. Wow, these are amazing!
This place looks like sooo much fun!
Oh gosh I love topiaries! I am going to have to check locally and see if we have somewhere to view them. This is a great post!
I don’t believe that I have ever been anywhere that had something like this, but it would be a beautiful sight to see!
Disneyworld first, Disneyland second, then many amusement parks which now feature this art form.
I would love to visit this place and review it myself.
Oh wow. I’ve never been to a topiary garden but I’ve always loved the few here and there you see when you’re visiting the zoos. always amazing at how talented the people are who create them.
I’ve only been to topiary gardens over in Europe – but for some reason have never visited one here in the states. Portsmouth, RI is only a few hours from us and I know my daughter would get a huge kick out of these. We’ll definitely have to plan a trip!
Wow! I loved all the pictures. This looks like an amazing place to visit.
Mykl is originally from RI. I’m going to ask him if he ever visited this garden. It looks awesome.
Oh how cool! I’ve always been super impressed by topiaries- I’ve never seen one in person, though!
I don’t think I have ever seen topiaries in person before. I remember seeing some in the movie Edward Scissorhands, and loved those.