Bryan Knowles
Public Gardens Manager, Inniswood
As you may or may or may not know, Inniswood plants seven seasonal display beds every year. Each year a theme is chosen to help challenge staff to help ensure that designs are different from year to year. Choosing the theme can be difficult, often taking input and inspiration from all staff, with final selection left to the horticulturist. This year however, picking the theme was relatively easy. We would have been remiss not to participate in celebrating America’s 250th birthday. Thus the “Americana” theme was born.
Much thought goes into each bed design, with planning starting as early as February. Once designing is done, plant acquisition begins. This is no small task. We are talking about 6,000 plants! Of the 6,000 plants used, we grow about 2,000 in our greenhouse and the rest are purchased through wholesalers. We over winter some plants in the greenhouse and move them out into the gardens every year. Mostly we use annuals, and planting needs to occur after the frost-free date, which here in central Ohio is usually around Mother’s Day. Since Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer season for us, we like to have all the plants in the ground by then. This leaves us about 10 days to plant 6,000 plants!
We hope you get a chance to visit Inniswood this summer and see the “Americana” theme in person. Below is a description of each display bed and how it is tied to the “Americana” theme.
FIREWORKS
The celebration of America’s birthday starts off with a bang! The gardens at the entrance to Inniswood, off Hempstead Road, are inspired by fireworks. Dramatic, dark foliage from plants like Pennisetum ‘First Knight’ and Solenostemon ‘Wicked Witch’ represent the night sky leading up to bright, intense pops of color from plants like Sunpatiens ‘Electric Orange,’ representing fireworks.
SEA TO SHINING SEA
The crescent shaped bed at the east end of the parking lot is inspired by the phrase “Sea to Shining Sea” from the patriotic song ‘America the Beautiful.’ This bed will represent plant communities and unique landscapes from west coast to east coast. Think colorful poppies representing California, agave and cacti representing the southwest, spruce trees in the Rockies, corn to represent our agricultural roots in the Midwest, and tropicals in Florida.
MELTING POT
This small pocket garden’s design, “Melting Pot,” is inspired by a photo of swirling colors in a bowl of soup. Just as our country’s diverse cultures come together to define the American identity, different flowers and foliage swirl together in this bed near the parking lot restroom, to complete a beautiful overall design.
HISTORICAL QUILTING
Separated into quadrants, these beds in the Circle Garden highlight America’s rich history of quilting. Each quadrant is planted in a different historical quilting pattern.
‘OLD GLORY’
You can’t celebrate America without a tribute to “Old Glory.” A simple plant palette with a huge impact; this Oval Bed, near the Herb Garden, with its curvy path through the middle, looks like a flag blowing in the breeze. Full out, patriotic, red, white and blue.
PLEASURE GARDEN
Inspired by a historic gardening trend, the boxwood beds outside Innis House have been planted as a “Pleasure Garden.” This 18th-century trend expanded a garden’s use beyond those that were utilitarian, such as gardens for food or medicine. Americans began to have the time and resources to explore a plant palette that was a visual pleasure. With nods to more formal European gardens, you’ll find these beds anchored by decorative structures and annuals planted in a geometric design.
MAXIMAL
This display bed on the Brookwood Trail is inspired by the “Maximal” movement. Garden maximalism celebrates a “more is more” mentality when it comes to plants. There are over 60 species of plants in this design, with lots of different colors and textures all working together. This small garden uses more modern horticulture design techniques, and a diverse plant palette to maximize the space available.
A QUARTET OF VEGETABLE GARDENS
This square garden in the Sisters’ Garden is sectioned off into quadrants, each representing different eras of vegetable gardening in America. Starting off, we have the “Three Sisters” planting technique used by Native Americans, who planted maize, beans and squash (the three sisters) together. Beans grew up the maize stalks, using them for support. The beans helped fix nitrogen (a crucial element needed for plant growth) in the soil to help the growth of the corn and the squash. The squash grows low and wide, helping to suppress weed competition and conserve water evaporation.
The next quadrant is planted as a veggie garden similar to what settlers of Ohio would plant in the 1880s, like our teammates at Slate Run Living Historical Farm would plant. The third quadrant represents the Victory Gardens that popped up all over America during World War II to help feed our families and support the war effort back home. And finally, the fourth quadrant is planted in the Square Foot method, a more modern method of veggie gardening. This technique is often used in smaller spaces like raised beds, and breaks the planting area into 1-square-foot sections instead of rows, maximizing the amount of veggies able to be grown in smaller spaces.
