New Canaan Now & Then: The Lee Garden

‘Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris.

The Olive W. and George S. Lee  Memorial Garden on Chichester Road is an amazing tribute to the Lees’ dedication to gardening. 

Mr. Lee was born in June 1897 and raised in Rutherford, New Jersey. He attended Hamilton College and worked as a tax accountant until 1962 when he retired and devoted his time to his garden. His wife, Olivia Wagner Lee, was born in Rutherford New Jersey and was the daughter of Elizabeth Smythe Wanger and Henry Wagner. Ms. Lee was a graduate of the New Jersey State Teachers College.

Mr. Lee’s brother, Frederic Paddock Lee, was the author of the “Azalea Book” and he gifted a dozen Gable azalea hybrids to the Lees as a housewarming gift when they moved to New Canaan in 1940. Gable azaleas were the product of Joseph B. Gable, who was born in 1886 and grew up on the family apple orchard and farm near Stewartstown, Pennsylvania. By 1926, Joe Gable had started a small nursery business and published his first listing of ornamental plants for sale. Originally offering a variety of young evergreens, trees and shrubs including some native azaleas and rhododendrons, Gable’s primary interest eventually shifted to developing rhododendrons and azaleas that could survive the rigorous climate in central Pennsylvania and New England. One of the most famous of his hybrids,”Pink Louise Gable,” is included in the Lee Garden. 

Mr. Frederic Lee attended Columbia Law School after Hamilton College and became an expert on agricultural problems and counseled in the preparation of many farm relief bills. He was a professor at Georgetown Law School for six years and specialized in administration and constitutional law. Frederic quipped “ I used to take walks in the Hackensack Meadows, identifying plants. Later, in Columbia Law School, I took Real Property under Professor Abbott, a very brilliant man, who spent his weekends taking botany walks. I wasn’t doing very well until I was able to tell him one day that Turks Cap lily can be found in the Jersey meadows. That’s how I passed Real Property.” Frederic also served as the chairman of the advisory counsel of the National Arboretum from 1946 until his death in 1968 at the age of 75. 

Mr. George Lee began propagating azaleas in 1952 and began his nursery “the Mousetrap Nursery” in 1955. The azaleas were sold for $3.50 or 3 for $10. Mr. Lee posted amusing ads in the New Canaan Advertiser, including this ad which ran in April 1959: “Finding both Chichester Road and the proprietor has baffled many, Chichester Road is over that a way and the proprietor is equally as elusive.” In 1962, Mr. Lee was elected president of the New Canaan Conservation Counsel. He also was a founding member of the American Daffodil Society and served as its president from 1957 to 1960 and served as the Executive Director from 1966 until his death in January 1978.  He established a system which still handles all business matters for the Society, and his services to the Society and his accomplishments there shaped the organization’s character. George was editor of the Daffodil Handbook published by the American Horticultural Society in 1966, still considered by many to be the most useful book on daffodils. For several years he published a New England Regional Newsletter that was read nationwide. He donated a set of horticultural volumes to the New Canaan Nature Center which included approximately three hundred volumes with many of them signed by the author. 

Olivia Lee died in October 1955 in Bennington Vermont. The Lees had been on a brief vacation at the time of her passing. She was active in the community, serving on the board of the Red Cross during the war years, acting as a trustee of the Congregational Church and member of the board and past president of the Visiting Nurses Association. She was also active in the Children’s Services of Connecticut. At the rear of the 2.7 acres of the Lee property there is an extensive wildflower walk. George Lee credited his wife with being more knowledgeable about wildflowers. In her memory, the Garden Center (now the New Canaan Beautification League) placed a St. Francis bird bath on the terrace of the Lee home which can still be seen on the terrace by the shed. An article in the New Canaan Advertiser mentions in 1971 that it was Mr. Lee’s intention to donate his garden in memory of his late wife.

In June 1974  membership in the American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta was extended to Olive W. Lee Memorial Garden. The garden was recognized because it contains an outstanding collection of hardy azaleas and rhododendrons (possibly the largest in New England in 1974) as well as an important collection of daffodils, wildflowers, and rare plants. In January 1978 a zoning permit for the use of the Lee property as a nature walk and arboretum and garden with occasional plant sales by the Garden Center of New Canaan was submitted. A permit was issued in September 2015 to demolish the house on the property and another was issued in March 2018 to erect the shed. The existing shed was constructed using parts of the Lees’ family home, including the fireplace and the hardwood floors (there are hardwood floors in the now attic of the shed). The New Canaan Beautification League houses their reference lending library in the shed and continues to care for the property with the same devotion as Mr. Lee. On the terrace from what was the Lee’s home, New Canaan resident Faith Kerchoff pointed out the ideal vantage point to see the garden in its true glory when the azalea blooms are at their most majestic. In May 2023 a ribbon cutting ceremony was held to inaugurate the new gate that adorns the entrance. For more information about the Lee Garden or the lending library see newcanaanbeautification.org.