Lynne & Timothy
About Brookside Gardens
Yew Garden
Ceremony
Neatly trimmed hedges frame the idyllic Yew Garden. As you enter under an arch of fragrant climbing hyacinth vine, you’ll see a tidy lawn bordered by a mix of colorful seasonal plantings, including annuals like open-faced, vibrant vinca and exquisite tropicals like tall, vivid canna lilies. Included in the bordering beds are the unique flowering crabapple trees, trained to have parallel branches in the espalier style. As you stroll along the central path, notice how striking the bright blooms are against the dark backdrop of the evergreen yew.
Fragrance Garden
Cocktail Hour
A visit to the Fragrance Garden is a multi-sensory experience. Each plant has been selected not only for its beauty, but also its olfactory allure. In the center of the garden a series of hexagonal beds, joined like honeycomb, are filled with seasonally fragrant flowers: delicate tulips (Tulipa spp.) and fritillaria (Fritillaria spp.) in Spring, ambrosial stock (M. incana) and angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia spp.) in Summer; and herbaceous chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum spp.) in Autumn. Be sure to walk the boundaries of the garden to find fragrant perennial gems like gardenia (Gardenia spp.), pineapple mint (M. suaveolens), and ponderosa lemon (Citrus x pyriformis). Arbors draped in wisteria (Wisteria spp.) line the northern edge, shading wooden benches with graceful clusters of purple flowers in the warmer months and golden leaves when it’s cool. Take a rest under the copper-roofed gazebo in the heart of the garden and enjoy the sweetly scented air.
South Terrace
Reception
From spring to fall, 30 different types of flowering bulbs bloom in succession under the ginkgoes in the South Terrace, bringing color to the garden month after month. Be sure to find the pre-historic beds on the Visitors Center Terrace to see ancient horsetail and ginkgoes, plants that have been around since the dinosaurs roamed.