The cultivation of the tulip stretches back to the Ottoman Empire (fourteenth to early twentieth centuries). The word ‘tulip’ comes from the Turkish word for turban, and this flower was growing in Turkey as far back as AD 1000.

As you survey the 23 acres on which Agecroft Hall sits, you may notice two low cut areas on the back lawn. The bowling green is a low-mowed rectangular area for playing lawn bowls, but the other spot may not be so self-evident. Take a look at the map below and find the maze design behind the house.

Agecroft Hall and Gardens Has a beautiful sunken garden. It shines during the spring, when it is filled with tulips. But it is full of lovely flowers and plants at year round.

Fragrance gardens were very important to a Tudor manor like Agecroft. The sweet-smelling flowers and herbs that would be grown in the fragrance garden would be used for cleaning and making perfumes.

Charles Gillette drew on several of the landscape traditions he studied while in Europe. Therefore, the gardens we have at Agecroft are not designed to represent one particular time period, but rather create the variety that one would see at a grand European estate where the gardens were developed over centuries.

The gardens at Agecroft Hall in Virginia were designed by landscape architect Charles Gillette. Born in Wisconsin in 1886, Gillette knew early on that he wanted to work in landscaping.

During the Tudor period, Spring was one of the most exciting times of the year for many people. Just as their church services and Palm Sunday would have reminded them of their Christian message of hope and rebirth, all around them greenery was shooting up and flowers were blooming, and while the days were getting longer they were also becoming warmer.

During the Tudor era, especially in the reign of Henry VIII, English gardens began to develop a distinct style. The gardens during this time period followed the traditions of Middle Eastern gardens, which were often enclosed to offer protection from the heat.

Try these wonderful cross buns made with refrigerated buttermilk biscuits. They are sure to be a crowd-pleaser during this Lenten season!

What better way to usher in spring and celebrate the growth it has to offer than with a frolicking holiday? May Day, celebrated on May 1st throughout modern Europe, is just such an affair and is steeped in long-set traditions.

Lady Day, the Christian Feast of the Annunciation, celebrates the day when the Virgin Mary learned she had conceived the child Jesus. Lady Day falls exactly 9 months before Christmas.

Tudor women were very busy throughout the entire day. Like their husbands, who worked in the fields from dawn until dusk, women had a multitude of chores to take care of throughout the day before they could rest at night and prepare to do it all over again in the morning.

The vast majority of men in Tudor England, some 8 in 10, spent their days working long-hours outside in fields, where they were often to be found plowing the land with the help of a hard-working team of oxen or horses.

Now, the plowman did not work alone. He had to rely on his trusty team of oxen or horses, and before he could rely on them, he had to train them. An ox or horse won’t be ready to work were it to suddenly find itself in a new and strange situation, hitched up to another animal with a heavy burden dragging behind it.

Let’s find out what it is like to sweep with your broom made of twigs. Practice sweeping outside in the dirt or on the sidewalk or driveway.

Chances are, if you give someone a broom, they are going to want to sweep with it! What better way to rid floors of dust, crumbs and debris?

Herbs were a big part of the spring cleaning routine. They were used in soaps for washing linens. Herbs were also an important component of perfumes, which were used to make people and clothing smell better.

Getting rid of bugs is a topic that comes up quite a few times in housekeeping manuals during this time. Most people lived on farms. Even city dwellers would often have a few animals.

When most people think of the gardens at Agecroft Hall, they think of the tulips in the Sunken Gardens and exotic plants in the Tradescant garden. But when Agecroft was a manor in England, there also would have been gardens that provided food and herbs for medicine.

The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or Easter, is the holiest day of the Christian liturgical year.