A Guest At The Wallis House

Last week I was a guest at the Wallis House, which is the home of The Garden Club of Kentucky. I got to speak with a lovely group of ladies on how to attract birds to your landscape. Hopefully I inspired them to plant some new plants in their gardens that the birds will appreciate.

The Garden Club of Kentucky was incorporated in 1931. It is divided into districts, 5 total in Kentucky, and has over 50 local chapters. You can join any local garden club or you can join the Garden Club of Kentucky at large. You can check their map to see which clubs are local to you.

The Nannine Clay Wallis House & Arboretum in downtown Paris, Kentucky is their headquarters. The house was built in the 1850s on its 4 acres of land. The property was bequeathed to the Garden Club of Kentucky upon Wallis’s death in 1971, who was the second president of the club.

The house is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is rentable for weddings, meetings, and other special occasions. Definitely consider supporting this venue for your next special event! The home is open to tours by appointment, but the Arboretum is open to the public daily dawn to dusk. They have some neat trees, including the Kentucky Grand Champion Northern Red Oak.

I was partial to this Basswood.

While both in the genus Tilia, In America, we call the species Basswood (like Tilia americana), and in Europe, they’re called Lindens or even Limes.

After I spoke, we had some super cute sugar cookies and lemonade a lady made for us!

Before I left, I was then given something to take home with me. A Wallis Rabbit! This rabbit has an interesting story!

Before we left, we walked around the Arboretum grounds, which had a lot of nice spring color…

…some interesting garden nooks…

…and a goldfish pond.

If you’re around Paris, KY make sure to stop by the Wallis House for a walk around the gardens.

I put my ‘William Wallace” rabbit where I had seen the real rabbit who lives in my yard had been the day before, eating the phlox flowers…