Love in bloom: 'Into the Garden With Charles'

In 1983, Clyde Phillip Wachsberger, master gardener and author ("Daffodil," "Rose"), bought a 300-year-old crumbling saltbox Colonial on a small patch of bare land in Orient. At the time, Wachsberger -- or "Skip," as he was affectionately called by friends -- was middle-aged, single and devastatingly lonely. He threw himself into the work of building a grand garden that would transform the grounds, and ultimately his life -- the subject of his exquisite memoir, "Into the Garden With Charles" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28).

Through a personal ad pointed out by a friend, Skip also found and fell in love with Charles Dean, of the memoir's title. Illustrated by Skip's enchanting watercolors, the book charts the seasons of his magnificent garden alongside his 16-year relationship with Charles, until both love affairs are cut short by Skip's cancer. Even the book's chapters are landscape-based, with each focusing on a different offering from the private half-acre garden. Skip grew everything from tulips to tropicals and trees; stories emerge out of cucumber magnolias, passionflowers, peonies and pink horse chestnuts. The result is a luminous account of a life painstakingly sown and reaped.

Skip died in November, but Charles and the garden continue to help one another survive their loss. In a recent telephone call, Charles discussed his life with Skip, the beauty of Orient and their horticultural undertaking.

Skip was intensely romantic, but went without romance for so long. How did finally finding love transform the two of you?

The fact that our lives crossed paths is just a miracle. The core of the book is not just about our romance, but about love: how much he loved Orient, the house, the garden, the water, how much he loved his dog, Rover, and how much he loved me. This guy had an immense capacity for love! He was 51 when we met and I was 47, and we both felt that finally this was the person I was always looking for and never found. He said he wanted to write the book to give hope to people who were lonely and single and felt it was too late.

Why did Skip love the place so much?

Skip considered Orient the most beautiful place in the world. He'd traveled to Greece and Italy, Indonesia, Thailand, Tokyo, and more, and he really had the knowledge to say that. So imagine being in this garden: you are in the most beautiful place, in the most beautiful place!

Can you describe the garden?

Everyone who reads the book will have an imagined garden in their mind, and that's wonderful. The garden really was an imaginary creation of his, a romantic idea. What began as a cottage garden developed into something much more, with a layered complexity from the ground to the sky, with flowers, vines, enormous trees, and shrubs. He has things blooming even in January and February. In summertime on the patio you feel like you are in the middle of a wild jungle with lawn furniture!

What was the last summer in the garden like for you and Skip?

I worked really hard while he was dying to keep the garden as cared for and weeded and pruned and fussed over as much as he would have done. I wanted it to look really good for his last summer. I know how to take care of it -- I did it for 16 years with him, but he was the real gardener. I was the assistant. He said, "When I go, it is going to be your garden -- I don't want you to second guess yourself and ask if Skip would want this. Don't worry if I would approve." By the last summer, the garden had matured -- he spent 28 years creating it and he got to see it finished. At the end, he said he had everything he ever wanted in his life.

The memoir's publication must be so bittersweet for you. What is it like reading the book now?

When he was writing, Skip said, "This is a memoir, but I hope you realize I wrote this as a love letter to you." I can see that. He wanted to put down what those 16 years together had been like for him, our history. He originally said he was doing it for everybody else, and to be an inspiration, but then when he knew he was dying I think he wanted to leave that to me. I read the book this past weekend cover to cover and I was able to fully appreciate what he'd given me and understand what I'd given him. Reading the book was like being with him again.