May 1, 2016
Spring is one of the most vibrant and anticipated seasons at the Allen Centennial Garden, and this year it is especially welcome. If you’ve been wandering in and around the Garden during the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed a few thousand new pops of color in the English Lawn.
I had the great pleasure of designing and installing this new addition to the Garden last summer with the help of many wonderful Garden volunteers. Everything was carefully planned; from the selection of over 3,000 spring-flowering bulbs to the planting layout and grassy pathway design. A few of the bulbs flowering include: Narcissus ‘Ice Follies’, Narcissus ‘Cheerfulness’, Muscari aucheri ‘Ocean Magic’, Muscari armeniacum, Hyacinth orientalis ‘Blue Eyes’ and ‘Delft Blue’, Scilla siberica, and just a few Chionodoxa luciliae ‘Alba.’
The bulb lawn is set within a traditional English Garden design and I took inspiration from a myriad of similar and well-known precedents including the Kensington Palace Gardens, Ascott House Gardens, and the Keukenhof Gardens. While each formal garden had a unique display of spring bulb lawns, they all created a sense of seemingly effortless whimsy, which I attempted to capture in my design. So while you enjoy a stroll through the trimmed grass pathway, simply view it is as the gilded frame to an Impressionist-style effusion of deep purples, ocean blues, and creamy whites that hope to catch your eye.
By Saige Henkel | Former Horticulture Intern