You can tell that it shan't be an "ordinary" garden when you see Geranium x cantabrigense 'Biokovo' tucked between the roots of a tree on the street. By the way, I call this a "point and shoot garden" because it is: most of my blogs I have to do a lot of trimming and framing shots--but not this one: I just uploaded all my pix (removed a few duplicates) and what you see is what I shot in the same sequential order at one of three gardens I saw the Friday before the North American Rock Garden Society's "Gala" Study weekend last week, I knew I was in for a treat...
I believe the Garden is a half acre (more or less--with only a tiny pad of bluegrass out front as a nod to convention). Instead, every square inch that wasn't pathway consisted of elegant sweeps of various perennial groundcovers--all perfectly grown and combined artistically with an Oriental flare...
A lovely sedge I didn't recognize used effectively,
More sedges...I love these graminoids!
I suspect you could identify the plants as well as myself...and although the garden contains a magnificent collection of perennials, it's really a garden about texture and views. So I shall be mum for most of this post and let the garden speak for itself (it's very voluble in verdure!)....Oh yes: there's some wonderful garden art along the way, that hardly needs commentary either. So enjoy! With only the occasional murmur from my singular Greek Chorus.
We just missed seeing this in bloom: it must have been a wonderful show of Iris cristata. |
The rusty rustic circles spell out "Ich Liebe Dich"--a charming sentiment to display I think! |
What an amazing color on this Geum! |
This means "exit" in Chinese--just in case you wondered (my eight years of study of the language should come in handy SOME times).
Wonderful chains of samaras on this mystery maple |
And even a huge flowered ladyslipper--a hybrid (from Frosch perhaps?)....
Here Linda is walking ahead of Frank. We were lucky to have the host/designers show us around. Linda and Mark both have a hand in the Garden and both obviously enjoy it enormously. They had fabulous anecdotes about its origins and development that would make a compelling book. It's worth joining NARGS just to meet people like them!
What better way to end than this rather emphatic and very functional sculpture. Thanks for joining us on our stroll!