Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion State Historic Park

If you travel east from Niagara Falls for about 1 1/2 hour, you arrive in the beautiful New York Finger Lakes wine region. In the lovely town of Canandaigua, you will find Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion State Historic Park.

Sonnenberg was the summer home of Frederick Ferris and Mary Clark Thompson. It is considered on of the nations most extensively preserved country estates of the Victorian era.

Federick was the founder and director of the First National Bank of the City of New York. The bank helped establish what is now Citibank.

When the Thompsons purchased Sonnenberg in 1863, it included a brick farmhouse and twenty acres.

A variety of flower beds, greenhouses, orchards, and outbuilding surround the 50 acre mansion.

The original landscape reflected the gardening style that was popular at the time. Both formal and informal gardens with the naturalistic, park-like grounds were planted with unusual specimen trees and flowers.

Below you see a beautiful Cooper Beech that Alfred and I loved. This type of tree would be beautiful in the Middle Tennessee landscape which is also in zone 6 like much of New York. A variety of flower beds, greenhouses, orchards, and outbuilding surround the 50 acre mansion.

The original landscape reflected the gardening style that was popular at the time. Both formal and informal gardens with the naturalistic, park-like grounds were planted with unusual specimen trees and flowers.

Above, you see a beautiful Cooper Beech that Alfred and I loved. This type of tree would be beautiful in the Middle Tennessee landscape.

Design Style

These geometric and "organic" shaped flower beds were scattered along the lawns and paths. They contained brightly colored tropical and subtropical flowers which were planted in intricate patterns.

This method was called "carpet bedding" because the plantings reminded visitors of oriental carpets.

These geometric and "organic" shaped flower beds were scattered along the lawns and paths. They contained brightly colored tropical and subtropical flowers which were planted in intricate patterns.

This method was called "carpet bedding" because the plantings reminded visitors of oriental carpets.

Pictured here is the red flower is a fernleaf peony. We plan on purchasing one of these for our garden.

It is a unusual peony that may be placed in the front of your perennial border. It will bloom through-out the summer in most areas.

Featured here is one of the many formal garden areas of the mansion where roses and unusual species were displayed.

Showcasing interesting and unusual specimens was the main focus of Victorian gardens at this time. Mary Thompson was known to travel the world in search of interesting plants.

One interesting story we were told while there is that Mary and her husband had booked passage on a ship from Europe. While there, Mary heard about some tulips in Holland that she wanted to purchase. Consequently, they ended up missing their ship. It's name was the Titanic.

This type of garden style was replaced during the 19th Century when botanists started to collect plants from all over the world. This transformed landscape gardening in Europe and America.

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Specimen plants were replaced with old-fashioned flowers that were grown in cottage gardens of Colonial America, and by native species that were used to crated a natural effect.

Today the gardens reflect the transition form Victorian landscape practices to the more eclectic garden styles and perennial plantings of the popular "country place" estate style.

Featured below is a beautiful, rustic stone summerhouse with a limestone canyon (or grotto) and the Japanese Gardens.

For more information visit the official Sonnenberg Garden web site at www.sonnenberg.org