10/29/2026
I have a memory I’d like to share as we celebrate the success of a very special person and book. 🌳
Sitting in our garden office in the Apple house on lunch hour, flipping through books I came across a black and white photo. In modest handwriting were the words. “The gardeners who taught me espalier pruning.” The handwriting was hers and the photo was a group of gentleman gardeners taken in the Potager du Roi.
Fast forward. One late Summer morning, along with the rest of the garden team at Little Oak Spring we filed through the wooden gates on the East side of the garden just as the sunrise broke the whitewashed stone walls.
A memory I was about to cherish forever was in motion. We’d just completed the restoration of the garden and Linda wanted a photo of the team to archive with the upcoming book release.
Under the direction of Linda Jane Holden and the capture genius of Roger Foley We have The Gardeners on the Schoolhouse stairs to memory bank.
As the Gardens of Bunny Mellon by Linda Jane Holden Bryan Huffman Thomas Lloyd makes it 10th printing in the eighth year since its release Vendome Press .
I’m feeling forever grateful to these three amazing souls for preserving in print the history of Ms. Mellons gardens and including us in the endeavor.
Whenever asked my takeaway from working in Mrs. Mellon’s garden my response will always be that I was blessed to receive a priceless education through the White Oak doors of a garden gate.
Head gardener: Randy Embrey
Garden team:
Laura Booth
Kate Cliffton
RP
Carly
Renèe Pusser
Hunt Country Gardens• DC Lee
