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Tradition blooms at Maiden Point
Ross leaves mark on historic farm with colorful gardens
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by EMILY BARNES
Shasta daisies are among the flowers in the gardens bordering the guest cottage.
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Maiden Point Farm, since 1950 when former Wyoming Gov. Nellie Tayloe Ross purchased the river house on Cuckold's Creek in Issue, has served as the family compound.
Nellie Tayloe Ross, the first female governor in the U.S. — she served in office in Wyoming 1925 to 1927 — was also the first female director of the U.S. Mint, from 1933 to 1953. When she bought Maiden Point it was in a state of disrepair. There were chickens living in the home, said William Bradford Ross III, the home's current occupant and, arguably, one of Tayloe Ross's favorite grandchildren.
Nellie Tayloe Ross embarked on interior upgrading and restoration projects. Her son, William Bradford Ross II and his wife, Dorothy, lived in the home while their children led fast-paced lives in cities like Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Va.
"With a historic house, you think of yourself more as a caretaker," said Robinette Ross, the wife of William Bradford Ross III, better known as Brad, who remembers first visiting the farm when he was about 9. "You are taking care of it for the next generation, hopefully enhancing it."
Robinette Ross, the former publisher of the Chronicles of Higher Education and the Chronicles of Philanthropy, moved to Maiden Point full-time about three years ago after retiring. Her mother-in-law, Dorothy, had planted holly bushes in front of the one-and-a-half-story home built in the mid- 1700's with bricks hauled over from England. Boxwoods transplanted from George Washington's boyhood home also took root at Maiden Point, a working cattle farm that is home to about 10 horses, too. Robinette, a city dweller, was not accustomed to life on a farm. She remembers the massive projects the family undertook, the fences her son, William Bradford Ross IV (also known as Brad, like the other William Bradfords before him) and husband built, the clearing and burning of brush that took years, repairing the pothole-marked drive leading to the farm.
She recalled after one early project saying to workers, "Well, we're finished." Only to be told, "Farm work is never finished."
That's how she is approaching the gardens she tends on the grounds. An artist who used to dabble in watercolors and loves color and texture, Robinette found herself drawn to gardening, researching on the Internet and picking the brains of garden center employees.
Her artist training came in handy.
"I look at it as having a palette, having a variety of colors," the grandmother of three said, adding that she wanted to create an English-like garden.
She found out what plants and flowers would thrive in the Southern Maryland humidity, what would attract wildlife, such as butterflies and bees. She planted the bully Gooseneck Loosestrife that takes over gardens later learning it has been banned by garden centers. But the butterflies and bees love it, therefore so does Robinette Ross; she just fights back against it, drawing her line in the soil, so to speak.
Despite an interest in decorating and art, Robinette doesn't have a drawn-out plan when it comes to her gardens.
Maybe it's her eye, one that is drawn and inspired by Monet's watercolors and those painted by Renaissance artists.
"There wasn't a structured plan," she said. "I love color and textures. All of this just happened serendipitously."
Robinette's green thumb rubbed off a bit on her husband, who started a vegetable garden, a complement to the herbs — tarragon, rosemary, basil, mint — potted outside of a screened-in side porch, close to fig trees that survived and thrived despite brutal, untrained trimming by Robinette's son, Brad.
Proponents of the Grow Local, Buy Local movement, the Rosses prepare summer salads with produce fresh from their gardens, while Robinette searches out flower stands off the beaten path. The gardens have two compost piles. The weeds and yard clippings transform into soil for the gardens.
"Nothing is wasted," Robinette said.
A wren has built a small nest in one of the planters, a turtle lays its eggs along the vegetable garden fence, Robinette shoos her son on horseback off the back lawn, a feral cat turned tame, Barney Beatrix, roams the gardens' brick paths while indoor cat, Tater Tot suns on the porch. The dog, Baby Doll, is napping. Ospreys nest along the creek, while a family of geese waddles around the shore.
For a city girl, farm life has taken some getting used to, Robinette concedes, but Maiden Point, with its chicken coop-turned-guest-house, pool and 300 acres, is an oasis for the family — daughters, Tayloe and Nellie live with their families out of state in Kansas and Oklahoma, respectively.
Brad and Robinette have every intention of keeping the farm in the family. The river house decorated with oil paintings of its matriarch Nellie Tayloe Ross and patriarch the first William Bradford Ross (who was the governor of Wyoming before dying — the couple was the first independently elected husband and wife governors), presidential memorabilia culled from the family's personal connections with political movers and shakers.
The gardens only add to the storybook look. The Rosses, despite their political pedigree, are down to earth and approachable, a legacy passed on to Brad by his grandmother, who even if she was the first female governor in America, was, at the end of the day, his grandmother, whom he doted on and who doted on him.
The couple feels their home is a treasure, one that has a history meant to be shared.
"Old homes have to be seen," said Brad, adding that Maiden Point has been on the Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage, with about 900 people coming through. "Younger generations have to see them, that's what conservation is all about."
Robinette's gardens will be there for future generations, she hopes.
"Each generation has changed things a bit," she said. "We're project-oriented people here. There is always something to do. But it's a labor of love, dedication and preservation."
