April 30, 2026
Perennials in the Rapp Family Ravine Garden dance across the historic steps, creating a dynamic sense of movement through the landscape.
This is your penultimate update of the 2026 Spring Blooms presented by Wild Birds Unlimited season. Yes, every year I look forward to the excuse to use this word in a professional writing piece. You’ll continue to suffer annually for my sake. We’ve gone on a wild ride together over the last few weeks, weathered everything Mother Nature has thrown our way, and come out the other side to a lush, verdant landscape teeming with life.
If you come into The Garden in the next couple of weeks and ask if there’s “any color,” I will have the overwhelming urge to roll my eyes and laugh at the absurdity and audaciousness of the question…30,000 spring annuals went in the ground a month ago for this very moment in the spotlight. Give them their due reverence, please.
Vivid gold ranunculus (Ranunculus Magic™ Golden Yellow) echo the rich tones in nearby violas (Viola cornuta Sorbet® XP Morpho).
And sure, most of the most bodacious bulbs are done. I can give you that. But this is where the real fun starts. The Garden is no longer little puddles of color splashed across a beige background. It is finally alive and vibrant. So much so that even the masses of remaining seasonal color can get lost in the grandeur of it all until you soften your eyes and take in a single vignette at a time.
The Living Collection draws you through rooms masterfully constructed with plants to move you through the space, make you pause and look deeper, feel comforted by their intimate shelter, or a surreal sense of scale. A dynamic garden space is born from the practice of intentional artistry that influences everyone who experiences it, whether they’re conscious of it or not. It’s what Percival Gallagher (of the Olmsted Brothers Firm) intended as he laid out the Oldfields estate, and what our horticulturists today continue to play with as they edit and refine their garden areas in the unending pursuit of creative expression.
White elder-leaved valerian (Valeriana officinalis subsp. sambucifolia) pops up from a matrix of sedges at the back of the Katharine B. Sutphin Border Garden, drawing you towards the Garden Terrace patio.
Botanical oddities beg for attention, but are easily overlooked the pace of our day-to-day hustle. Slow down. Feel your body. Look at the details – flower shape, textural contrasts, the sunlight, or funky patterns and colors.
Sweetly scented, oddly shaped crimson blooms of sweetshrub (Calycanthus × raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’) are blooming on the Horticulture Society Overlook Garden to be enjoyed if you slow down to take notice.
Ornamental onions are waving in the wind like happy Koosh balls. I dare you to pat one and not be at least a little bit delighted. Some of those with shorter stature, like Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’ (Photo 1 below) near the Beer Garden and Allium ‘Gladiator’ (Photo 2 below) by the Formal Garden are in peak form this week. However, I’m anxiously awaiting the opening of the ‘Ambassador’ at the front of Lilly House soon.
Ornamental onions (Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’) add a bright pop of purple against chartreuse and gold foliage at Garden Terrace.
Perennials burst from the ground everywhere around us with fanfare. Baptisia blossom around every corner. Hostas announce their re-emergence with foliage as bright as can be. Phlox, iris, bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii in Photo 1 below), and columbine (Aquilegia sp. in Photo 2 below) all create the seasonal delights we gardeners savor through May.
Threadleaf bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii) bloom in the Garden for Everyone in a plume of fine-textured foliage and misty-blue flowers.
Native spring ephemerals are at their peak. This vignette of wild phlox (Phlox divaricata ‘May Breeze’), yellow toadshade (Trillium luteum), ferns, and sedges between the Formal Garden and the Ravine Garden knocks the wind out of me every time I see it. I can never quite capture the complexity offered in its feathery-soft grasses, strappy-structured foliage, and woodland-style whimsy.
A glade of woodland, native ephemerals at the top of the Rapp Family Ravine Garden make for an enchanting moment.
This week marks the start of peonies exploding open around campus. Did you know that they’re the state flower of Indiana and have a mutualistic relationship with ants? The plants trade sugar produced by the flower buds for protection from harmful pests.
An aptly named Itoh peony (Paeonia ‘First Arrival) begins to bloom behind Lilly House.
The horticulture team at Newfields uses vegetable greens in their designs to add structure, texture, and fill in spaces left by fading bulb foliage. You’ll find a variety of kale, cabbage, chard, bok choy, radicchio, mustard, lettuce, and even pink-stalked celery (Photo 1) in many of the seasonal displays. The frilly, dark-leaved mustard (Brassica juncea ‘Ruby Streaks’, Photo 2) was a fan favorite on almost every Spring Blooms tour I gave this season. The juxtaposition of the bright green stem, soft texture, and maroon-purple color make for a stunning fabulous addition to many of the displays.
Pink-stalked celery (Apium graveolens ‘Chinese Pink’) echoes the brightly colored snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus Snapshot™ Purple) nearby in the Woodstock Drive display.
Containers offer a chance to enjoy a bouquet on steroids. Gobs of plants are bunched in thoughtful combinations offering us the chance to get up close and personal to those short-statured annuals like the violas, pansies, ranunculus, and dusty miller. I couldn’t get enough of the Garden Terrace planters this week. There are still a few you can dedicate as part of our BloomStruck program!
Containers tucked among the steps of the Playhouse make for dynamic, stunning pops of interest that liven up the hardscape of the building and patio.
This is your loving reminder to look closely and savor every detail of this beautiful season. Feel the cool breeze against your skin, they’re soon to be replaced by a muggy stillness. Smell the sweet fragrance of the last lilacs and shaggy fringetrees (Chionanthus species, Photo 2 below). Gently pat an Allium (Photo 3 below) and feel your heart lift. Sit and watch the bird feeder in the Orchard. Exist in this beautiful space, lovingly crafted for you to lose yourself in.
Warmest Wishes,
Jaime Frye
Ranunculus is the standout plant at of the week, especially this Ranunculus Tecolote® Café in the Sutphin Fountain plantings.
