The Garden Plan
The garden’s designer, Jacqueline van der Kloet, shares her thoughts on the site and her plan to make a beautiful and instructive spring garden in a small space.
“The COLORBLENDS spring garden is meant to inspire, educate and of course be an enjoyable place to visit.
To the northwest is the beautiful house; to the southwest is a garage that will serve as a garden shed, and fences and windrows run along the property line. The southeastern exposure has a fence to give some privacy from the neighbor’s house, and on the northeast side is the entrance to the garden. Some old trees provide a nice canopy and protection from the fierce afternoon sun in April but also give the space a certain charm.
Within this framework, a new garden has been designed, one in which COLORBLENDS will show a part of its catalog ‘in the flesh.’ The idea is that visitors will be able to walk through different areas planted with spring-flowering bulbs and get ideas for their own gardens. There will be a lot to choose from. The 2015-2016 plan is pictured to the right. For example:
- An encyclopedia of daffodils along walkway gives an up close view of the beauty and diversity of daffodils.
- A raised bed with 11 varieties of miniature daffodils. They are planted by variety, but there is also a nice, natural mixture for those people who want a ‘wild’ look.
- A tapestry of wild tulips, with flowers of many shapes and colors, sprinkled in the turf.
- Moisture-tolerant bulbs planted in a damp area. Though no spring-flowering bulb will grow in standing water, snowflakes and Spanish bluebells can naturalize very well in soil that is too wet for tulips and daffodils.
- For keen gardeners, a mixed border of perennials, shrubs and bulbs. Oak-leaf hydrangeas, boxwood, periwinkle and bleeding hearts are completed by such spring-flowering bulbs as snowflakes, striped squill, windflowers and Spanish bluebells.
- And then of course, there are the Colorblends—carefully choreographed mixtures of tulips that can stop traffic on the street.”
So much to see, so many ideas to explore. If you’re in the area, we invite you to stop by.
