Lyndale Park Gardens

Minneapolis GBF - Day 1 - Garden #3

Our third stop of the day at the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling was Lyndale Park Gardens, a 61 acre park which was founded over 100 years ago on the shores of Lake Harriet by Theodore Wirth, the superintendent of the Minneapolis Parks System at the time.

The gardens include a one acre rose garden, a peace garden and an annual-perennial garden, the latter being where I spent the limited amount of time we had.

The plants ranged from the familiar:

I think it's practically a necessity to include a
"bee on a flower" photo :)

to interesting plants that I had never seen before, such as this one with beautifully edged leaves:

To really appreciate it's gorgeousness, a close-up is in order:

This next one, which seems to be another variety of the plant above, is particularly striking:

As I'm only starting my journey when it comes to ornamentals, I often find that the plants/flowers I don’t know outnumber those that I do.  I'm hoping that one of my Master Gardener blogging friends can enlighten me on what these plants are as I would love to include them in my own garden.  Update:  My wonderful blogging friend Helen from Toronto Gardens came through with the likely ID for these plants:  the first one is a Euphorbia while the second appears to be an Alternanthera.  For more details, scroll down to Helen's comment where she provides a couple of links.

I recognized this guy as it already graces one of my borders, for example, but I had no idea what it was…now I know :)

Blazing Star (Liatris spicata)

A thicket in the middle of a grassy expanse was endlessly fascinating to passersby, both young and old.

Several of the borders were arranged according to colour which is quite helpful when you are looking for plants of a given colour to add to your own garden.  I was drawn to the blues:

Salvia

Ageratum

Evolvulus glomeratus

Salvia...again ('cause it's so pretty)

Delphinium

I’m also on the lookout for interesting grasses – this one was particularly lovely, but I unfortunately forgot to find out the variety:

Thank you to another blogging friend - Jane at Close to Home -
for the possible ID on this beautiful grass:
Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum').

But just because you see a (seemingly) well behaved plant neatly occupying a corner of the bed in a public garden doesn't necessarily mean that it will do the same in your garden.  Gooseneck loosestrife really caught my eye but, apparently, it can become invasive under the right conditions:

Gooseneck Loosestrife - Lysmachia clethroides

We have been undergoing a massive cleanup of our borders this year and one of the biggest issues is eliminating plants and shrubs whose spread is difficult to control (many of which are garden centre staples).  The lesson here is that it pays to do a bit of research before introducing new plants or shrubs into your garden, regardless of how commonplace they may seem.

And then there are plants that require some extra effort when it comes to maintenance.

Canna lilies

Canna lilies are beautiful (although perhaps a bit too showy for my tastes), but the rhizomes have to be lifted, stored over the winter, and replanted every year.

I've never grown ornamental cabbages as I would rather grow those that will end up on my plate (taste before beauty and that sort of thing), but they do steal the show in a border, especially when planted as a grouping:

Now that I think of it, I find it rather strange that I've never seen holey ornamental cabbages, considering the prevalence of cabbage whites in most areas.  Are the plants in these public gardens perhaps sprayed with BT or are they simply not as appetizing to the butterflies as the tastier versions that we humans eat?

I really liked this twiggy structure and am thinking this would be a great DIY project:

Gotta get my zinnia fix – an annual that I’ve developed a newfound love for ever since they found their way into my own garden this past summer:

Cleome's are so beautiful and, according to one source, reseed themselves.  They are on the list of annuals that I'll be trying at some point:

Cleome

One interesting thing I noticed was that ornamental sweet potato vines are quite popular nowadays, both in Minnesota and back home in Ontario – something I wouldn’t expect in a northern climate:

I’m wondering if that’s a new thing or if I simply didn’t realize that’s what they were until I started growing them.

Lyndale Park is known for its rose garden which contains over 3,000 roses (!) but we, unfortunately, were being called back to the bus just as I was walking towards it.  Oy!

That’s one thing that you quickly learn when you are touring the fling gardens – if you dawdle too long in one section of a garden, you will have to rush through or completely miss other sections.  Well, I thought I had learned that at the first fling in Toronto, but for some reason, it keeps happening.  I may have to resign myself to the fact that I’m a dawdler, when it comes to gardens anyhow, which means that sometimes I miss out.  But I thoroughly enjoy the parts that I do experience, which is really the point, now isn’t it?  :)

P.S.  Give me a bean, fava and pea plant and I will quickly identify which is which, but I'm still finding my way when it comes to ornamentals.  Not all of the plants in the gardens we visited were labeled, in which case, I've done my best to identify them when possible.  If I've misidentified any of the ornamentals in this post (or you know what any of the "mystery" plants are), please feel free to let me know in the comments :)