Zibby Tozer does everything with exuberance. She’s renowned for dinner parties that embrace a wide circle of friends, old and new. She collects art, often paintings done by friends. She’s a competitive bridge player. She serves on multiple boards in the city, most to do with dance and the arts. She’s a floral designer. And there’s her garden, a passion project since 1987, when she and her husband, Jim Tozer, bought Uplands Farm in Stanfordville.
The gardens didn’t exist when she first toured the property, but she could see the potential. The 1855 Victorian needed lots of work. “The restoration went on for years. Some things about the house, like the old floors, were wonderful. But the house was dark, so we added the wings” on either side of the main house.
“Later we added the conservatory; Jim calls it The Crystal Palace, because he thought I was being extravagant,” Tozer says. It is, however, a wonderful setting for those big dinner parties and bridge competitions.
“When I started gardening, I knew nothing; but I studied books every night, and learned as I went. I took a course at the Bronx Botanical Garden,” she says. But mostly she experimented. “I made lots of mistakes. A lot of plants have many species, and they can each behave differently. I put in a form of lysimachia that took over half my garden. I like most things, but this plant I hated. It’s just a vigorous plant you can’t get rid of.”
In fact, there’s not just one garden. “I had a dappled- light garden, which was shaded by an old tree. When that fell over, it became a high light garden—and some of the shade plants thrived. So you never know,” she says.
“I planted an herbaceous border with the plants very close together, like an English garden.”
The Romantic Garden, which is a circular bed off the stone terrace, is populated with plants alluding to love: bachelor’s button, love in the mist, plants that have love in their name.
Tozer pays attention to things like leaf size and shape, and color. “Every garden should have gray in it. I like pale grays. I found a fascinating plant at Paley’s in Sharon, called crambe cordifolia, or flowering sea kale. It has cloud-like little flowers above it. It’s so intriguing, and it grows really well in our area.” Proving that not all experiments end badly.
Tozer is also a big supporter of the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook. “When I joined the board, it was very difficult for me. I’ve done a lot of projects in my life, ones that always have an end and you see the result. But with science, you have milestones. I found that a huge challenge,” she says.
“I’m an artist, but I’m fascinated by science.” That’s apparent in her approach to gardening: forever experimenting, noting the results, and ready to try something new when the situation calls for it. The gardens at Uplands Farm are the perfect marriage of science and art, with a dash of exuberance thrown in.
By Tara Kelly
Photographs by Rana Faure
