Sayen Park Botanical Garden (30 acres), also known as Sayen House and Gardens, is a municipal park and botanical garden located at 155 Hughes Drive, Hamilton Square, an area within Hamilton Township, New Jersey. The garden is open year-round from dawn to dusk without charge, though park activity is at its peak in the spring.
A botanical garden or botanic garden is a garden dedicated to the collection, cultivation, preservation and display of a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and other succulent plants, herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may be greenhouses, shadehouses, again with special collections such as tropical plants, alpine plants, or other exotic plants. Visitor services at a botanical garden might include tours, educational displays, art exhibitions, book rooms, open-air theatrical and musical performances, and other entertainment.
Mercerville-Hamilton Square is a census-designated place and unincorporated community located within Hamilton Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the CDP's population was 26,419. As part of the 2010 Census, the area was split into two CDPs, Mercerville and Hamilton Square.
Hamilton Township is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. The township is within the New York metropolitan area as defined by the United States Census Bureau, but directly borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and is part of the Federal Communications Commission's Philadelphia Designated Market Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township had a total population of 88,464, reflecting an increase of 1,355 (+1.6%) from the 87,109 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 556 (+0.6%) from the 86,553 counted in the 1990 Census. The township was the state's 9th-largest municipality, after having been ranked 10th in 2000. The township is located immediately east of the city of Trenton, the state's capital.
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The garden began in 1912 when Frederick Sayen (1885–1981) purchased the site with his wife, Anne Mellon (1886–1977), a daughter of the Mellon family. The Sayens built a "bungalow" home in the Arts and Crafts style, though with Victorian interior design, and surrounded it with plants and flowers acquired during world travels. The principal collections include species from China, Japan, and England.
The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, whose members include one of the longest serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries.
A bungalow is a type of building, originally developed in the Bengal region of the subcontinent. The meaning of the word bungalow varies internationally. Common features of many bungalows include verandas and being low-rise. In Australia, the California bungalow associated with the United States was popular after the First World War. In North America and the United Kingdom, a bungalow today is a house, normally detached, that may contain a small loft. It is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof, usually with dormer windows.
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that began in Britain and flourished in Europe and America between about 1880 and 1920, emerging in Japan in the 1920s as the Mingei movement. It stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms, and often used medieval, romantic, or folk styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform and was essentially anti-industrial. It had a strong influence on the arts in Europe until it was displaced by Modernism in the 1930s, and its influence continued among craft makers, designers, and town planners long afterwards.
The Sayen site became municipal property in 1988, when Hamilton Township purchased the site from developer David Cellars. The park was opened to the public in 1991. The township expanded and improved the park in 2003. [1] Today the garden contains more than 1,000 azaleas, nearly 500 rhododendrons, and more than 250,000 flowering bulbs for spring display, as well as ponds, bridges, gazebos, and walking trails.
Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus Rhododendron, particularly the former sections Tsutsuji (evergreen) and Pentanthera (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks. Shade tolerant, they prefer living near or under trees. They are part of the family Ericaceae.
Rhododendron is a genus of 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae), either evergreen or deciduous, and found mainly in Asia, although it is also widespread throughout the highlands of the Appalachian Mountains of North America. It is the national flower of Nepal as well as the state flower of West Virginia and Washington. Most species have brightly coloured flowers which bloom from late winter through to early summer.
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area.
Sayen House and Gardens hosts an annual Azalea Festival each Mother's Day, during which Sayen House is open to the public from 10AM to 4PM.
Mother's Day in the United States is an annual holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Mother's Day recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well as the positive contributions that they make to society. It was established by Anna Jarvis, with the first official Mother's Day celebrated at St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908. In the United States, Mother's Day complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father's Day, Siblings Day and Grandparents Day.
