Winter Highlights in Olguita’s Garden

Although it may seem there is little to see in a winter garden, Olguita’s Garden will show you otherwise. In October, the summer annuals were removed and replaced with over 2,500 cool-season annuals, some of which were hand-sewn and others sourced from local nurseries. The color palette consists of romantic hues of rose, white, apricot, and lavender. Each area of the garden displays a unique yet cohesive colorstory. 

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In the amphitheater, the garden borders are flanked with horned violets. Layered behind are snapdragons, wallflowers, and Chinese mustard. The snapdragons will come into bloom early spring displaying lofty vertical spikes of white flowers dusted with pink. In the spring, tulips and ornamental onions will emerge, completing the full intent of the planting design.  

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Although the Seven sons tree leaves have fallen, the showy rose-pink flower calyces (or collection of sepals) remain along with a better view of its attractive exfoliating bark. Planted below its branches are coral bells, snapdragons, horned violets, and spotted deadnettle creating a complimentary display of rose, lavender, silver, and apricot-bronze. Dutch hyacinth will make her appearance in spring as a vibrant salmon complement.  

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In the double border, visitors will be greeted with an embrace of their favorite cool-season annuals. Horned violets exhibit robust growth topped with soft lilac petals that darken with cooler temperatures acting as a perfect companion to Icelandic poppies with their papery white petals and striking yellow center. To connect this area with the remainder of the garden, wallflowers, snapdragons, and Chinese mustard are also found here. A variety of tulip and daffodil cultivars will emerge in the spring to show off a beautiful combination of colors including vibrant salmon, velvety purple, and dusky rose backed by common foxglove with its tall spires of bell-shaped flowers.  

The winter garden is also a time that some specimens of the permanent plant collection shine. Several cultivars of lenten roses reveal hues of creamy pink and wine red flowers.  Arborvitae fern, a type of club moss, creates a carpet of lacy, frond-like foliage below the hybrid magnolia. In the winter months, the foliage transitions from deep green to bronze. In addition, Korean arborvitae is a rare ornamental conifer that lines the long sidewalk as you walk towards the Lee playhouse. Its sprays are matte green on top that contrasts with a silvery-white underside, and reminds us of Flo Chafin, friend and expert plantswoman who grew these years ago. 

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Olguita’s Garden was designed for year-round beauty, and it is winter that gives us the chance to appreciate the structural and evergreen plantings as well. The double border is backed with clipped, evergreen tea olive hedges, while the water feature and Neel Reid columns are encompassed by a circle of camellias. Littleleaf holly hedges define the edges of some planting beds, and dwarf mondo grass provides an evergreen carpet. Dwarf conifers and Japanese ternstroemia are used as ball-form topiaries for a contrast in shapes within borders. On either end of the long, narrow garden there are deep planting beds of shrubs and trees, both evergreen and deciduous, to seat this garden in scale along the museum facade and provide many seasons of flowers and foliage interest. 

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The Gardens team plants all the spring-blooming bulbs between October and December. From March through May visitors can expect to see a sequential bloom of the over 1,600 new flowering bulbs – tulips, Dutch hyacinths, ornamental onions and daffodils – in addition to the flowering plants of the permanent collections. Olguita’s Garden is a place of beauty that can be found in bloom all year long.