February
28, 2003 You'll
Want to Go Down this Path: MHC's Spring Flower Show
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Photo:
Todd LeMieux
Thomas
Clark, gardens superviser, and Ellen Shukis, director of
Mount Holyoke's Botanic Garden |
Groundhogs and weather
forecasters hold no sway at the Mount Holyoke Botanic Garden,
where spring has sprung in time for the thirty-first annual spring
flower show. Thousands of blooms are ready for viewing (and smelling)
at the show, which is called "Down the Garden Path."
It runs March 1 through 16 in MHC's Talcott Greenhouse.
Hours are 11 am to 4 pm daily.
Surrounded by fragrant hyacinths, narcissus, pansies, daffodils,
crocuses, magnolias, and primroses, as well as brightly colored
forsythia, tulips, and balloon-like "Pocketbook Plants,"
visitors follow a garden path that displays a range of landscaping
materials, from formal cut blue stones and carefully laid bricks,
to less formal sections of green grass, loose gravel, and irregularly
shaped stepping stones. The path passes through a garden gate
and leads to a wooden bridge that arches over a running stream,
then winds its way through a wooded area carpeted with mulch,
leaves, and pine needles.
Ellen Shukis, director of the Botanic Garden, found inspiration
for this year's show in lectures and books by garden design
expert Gordon Hayward, who will present a slide lecture titled
"The Intimate Garden" Wednesday, March 5, at 7 pm
in Gamble Auditorium. The lecture will be followed immediately
by a reception in the Talcott Greenhouse.
An expert in the field of garden design and a certified member
of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, Hayward
has written dozens of articles for Horticulture Magazine
as well as five books, including Garden Paths: Inspiring Designs
and Practical Projects (1997), Garden Paths: A New Way
to Solve Practical Problems in the Garden (1998), and
Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Good Garden Design
(2003).
After walking "Down the Garden Path" in Talcott's
Show House, visitors may stroll through the greenhouse's
permanent collection of plants, which includes ferns, orchids,
bromeliads, aquatic plants, cacti and succulents, as well as other
tropical, subtropical and temperate plants. The warm conservatory,
with its bamboo, figs, calabash, palms, banana plants, and other
tropical specimens is a popular retreat for winter-weary visitors.
To learn more about the show and lecture, call x2116 or visit
www.mtholyoke.edu/go/botanic.
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