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Rhode Island
UMBRELLA FACTORY GARDENS
4820 Post Road
(Route 1A), Charlestown, RI 02813
(401) 742—0045; gift store (401) 364-6616
Patrick Shellman
Hardy
and old-fashioned perennials, annuals, and container plants.
Daylilies, Custom-planted hanging baskets. Small
specialty nursery. Open April 15 through September, daily 9-5.
No catalog or mail order. Cut flowers. Customized containers
The
Umbrella Factory is a weird name for it: a rambling antique
farmstead, in continuous use since 1760, now housing a series of
funky gift emporia and a terrific plant nursery. The main gift
bazaar, incongruously called the Fantastic Umbrella Factory,
carries Betty Boop magnets, rubber snakes, Japanese paper
lanterns, and retirement crying towels (but no umbrellas). Nursery
visitors enter the complex through a cedar arbor, pass under a
white wisteria pergola, skirt the gift emporia, and proceed
through a small atmospheric garden to the five hoophouses that
comprise the Umbrella Factory Gardens nursery. Under the
discerning eye of its owner, horticulturist Patrick Sheilman,
Umbrella Factory Gardens (in business here since 1980) specializes
in old-fashioned perennials, spring annuals, and ornamental
hanging baskets for sun or shade.
We
are not the first container gardeners to appreciate the quality of
plants at Umbrella Factory Gardens. For years, well-heeled
gardeners from Providence and the Rhode island shore have had
their hanging baskets custom-planted here every spring. Umbrella
Factory Gardens produces the most gorgeous moss baskets we have
seen in any nursery, crammed with colorful, durable annuals in the
highest style. During our visit, we noticed one luscious moss
basket filled to abundance with pink verbena, gray hellchrysurn,
white and purple superfina petunias, and Swan River daisies an
exquisite all-pink basket combining tiny ‘Tom Thumb’ fuchsia,
double rose impatiens, and dwarf pink Cobbitty daisy... and a
basket brimming with brilliant, scarlet-flowered tuberous begonias
paired dramatically with cascading chartreuse ipomoea. An unusual
doughnut-shaped basket, planted entirely in white million bells,
looked like a fairy wreath. Among the potted annuals, we found
blue anagailis and a stunning zonal geranium with ruby flowers and
near-yellow foliage, aptly named ‘Persian Queen’; both were
reserved for a customer. Our visit occurred in June and we learned
our lesson: Arrive early for annuals and hanging baskets or,
better yet, bring in containers in April for custom planting; the
wonderful annuals are mostly gone by Memorial Day.
If
the moss baskets at Umbrella Factory Gardens pay the bills, the
pot-grown perennials are, according to the owner. “like
chocolates.” The nursery carries a handful of rarities, such as
a hot red pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) described in
the garden press as “horticulture’s ‘It’ girl”; the only
hardy Cactus native to New England (Opuntia huinifusa); and
a graceful yellow wood lily (Lilium canadense) that is
nursery-propagated, and no longer grows wild in Rhode Island. In
the main, though, the perennials at Umbrella Factory Gardens are
well-known plants that gardeners still love: cranesbill geranium,
bottle gentian, old-fashioned iris, white phlox, and delicate
meadow rue. The nursery’s fine collection of field-grown
daylilies includes the best near-whites (such as ‘Gentle
Shepherd’) and a pretty pink called Bamba Music’, all at
reasonable prices. Cut flowers grown for the florist trade, such
as gladiolus and sunflowers, are available to retail Customers
through the season. On the way out, visitors can stop at the
exotic rooster cage (FEED ZEE ANIMALS 25 CENTS) and at Dave’s
Den for black lights, bead curtains, hemp twine, and hula hoops.
Directions:
From Providence, take 1-95 south to exit 9/Route 4 south and
continue when it changes to Route 1. Take the Ninigret
Park/Tourist Info exit, make a U-turn onto the Post Road (Route 1A
North); The Umbrella Factory is a mile on your right. From the
south, take 1-95 north to exit 3, then take Route 138 east, Route
2 south, and Route 1 west to the Niriigret Park exit, and follow
directions above.
Nearby
attractions: On Umbrella Factory grounds, Spice of Life Natural
Foods Café (401-364-2030) serves lunch and cappuccino under the
shade of an immense maple. Scenic Gardens, 4909B Old Post
Road/Route 1A, Charlestown, RI 02813 (401-364-6580), is a nursery
known for unusual trees and shrubs and for its large collection of
roses. The town of Charlestown has the darkest night skies in
southern New England; every dear evening just after sunset, the
Frosty Drew Nature Center and Observatory, Ninigret State Park,
Route IA (401-364-9508), allows Visitors to view the heavens
through a large modern telescope. The Ninigret National Wildlife
Refuge is home to the region’s only native cactus, Opuntia
humlfusa.
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