The Moonlight Garden

The Moonlight Garden. A Masterpiece of American Garden Style Design. Mina Edison decided to create a more traditional garden space after the original Fort Myers Laboratory was removed and sent to Dearborn, Michigan, in 1928. She asked preeminent landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman to design an enclosed garden where family and guests could relax and enjoy the surrounding foliage. Shipman's plan featured a rectangular reflecting pool, and densely packed perennial plants more attuned to northern climates., Mina Edison, an accomplished gardener herself, eventually used plants more accustomed to the Florida heat and climate, which consisted of Italian cypress, azaleas, lilies, begonias, and the bougainvillea that originally existed along the old laboratory. Throughout the following decades, several types of tropical plants were tried or added to fit the Southwest Florida climate. The garden underwent restoration in 2005 and now displays tall, trimmed Podocarpus that resemble Italian Cypress and various white and blue plants to catch the moon on clear evenings, as well as several plants known for their fragrance., Upon completion in January, 1929, the Fort Myers Tropical News described the garden as: "Surrounded by a tall trellis, over which hang scarlet bougainvillea, now in full bloom. The garden itself consists of about 25 separate beds, laid out in a neat geometric pattern.", (caption) , Left: Members of the Edison Park Garden Group visit with Mina inside the Moonlight Garden, circa 1931., (sidebar) , "I prefer to look on my work as if I were painting pictures as an artist." , - Ellen Biddle Shipman, 1869-1950 , Born in Philadelphia and raised in the American frontier, Shipman learned gardening and a love of nature from her grandmother. She defied tradition when she divorced at the age of 19. With three children to support, she quickly put her horticultural talents to work creating residential gardens across the United States (over 600 in her lifetime). Her signature "American Garden" style, a blend of Colonial Revival and Arts and Crafts styles, created intimate outdoor "rooms" with geometrically placed borders and drift beds that changed with the seasons., (caption) , Above: Ellen Biddle Shipman in 1890. , Below: Shipman's design for the Edison Moonlight Garden. , Inset: The Edisons sit on a bench in the Moonlight Garden, circa 1930.