BY Christina Gillham  |  Sunday, Oct 23, 2011

Living just a block from the Van Vleck House & Gardens, I have long been aware of its charms. Still, my visits there have been mostly guided by the behavior of my children: when things get a little too rambunctious inside, the close proximity of Van Vleck has provided a much needed breath of fresh air.

Recently, however, after hearing about a new self-guided audio tour of the historic property, I went to explore the gardens on my own. The tour is done by cell phone and visitors can phone in to hear a recorded message from one of 10 locations around the property’s 5.8 acres. The tour is self-paced, so it can be as quick or as leisurely as you want.

I wanted to do the full tour so I dialed the tour number, which is posted prominently at each of the ten locations, and began at the first spot, in the courtyard garden behind the house. There I learned that the massive Chinese wisteria wrapping itself around the house’s Doric columns are an astonishing 70 years old, well past their life expectancy. Along the rest of the tour, I was given similar details about gardens’ plants, trees and flowers, as well as the often fascinating history behind them. (I couldn’t help but chuckle when I heard that Joseph Van Vleck, Sr., moved his family out to Montclair in 1868 from Brooklyn. How many thousands of Brooklynites have followed since?)

Each location’s recording is its own independent feature, so you don’t have to do the tour in order. And if you find the information at each spot too brief, the recording gives you an opportunity to press another number to get more horticultural details about a particular planting. There is also a children’s version for any little ones who have tagged along.

One caveat: A few times I lost my cell phone signal. I don’t know if it was because of the windy day or because my cell phone is, well, from the last decade. Fortunately, you can simply dial the tour number again and get right back to where you were, without having to go through the introduction again. But sometimes you might have to move around a little to get a clear signal. (Hopefully the frustrations of dealing with modern-day technology won’t interfere with your attempts to be at one with nature.)

The cell phone tour program will run for two years, thanks to a donation from Datamation Systems, which provided the funding for the program. The gardens are open from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year. Visit www.vanvleck.org for more information or www.oncellsystems.com

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