Planting annual flower beds gives an opportunity for creative design. Combining different colors, textures and plant heights for brilliant, season long displays can be tricky for an inexperienced gardener – you need to know your plant material and how it is going to perform throughout the season. The Annuals Team at CBG make it look easy, but it takes a great deal of planning for the multiple annual beds to blossom into splendidly colorful displays.
Cutler Botanic Garden is honored to be one of approximately 360 gardens in the United States designated as an All-America Selections (AAS) display garden. AAS, a non-profit educational organization, evaluates and promotes new plant varieties nationwide. As an AAS display garden, Cutler Botanic Garden receives seeds or plants of past and recent AAS winners, carefully chosen to thrive in this region. The AAS varieties are labeled to educate the public, so that they can make reliable selections when acquiring plants for their own gardens.
In keeping with this honor, Cutler Botanic Garden has enthusiastically entered this year’s AAS Landscape Design Challenge. Under the creative vision of the Annuals Team, led by the 92-year-young Joe Kille and co-leader Karen MacKenzie, this year’s theme of “A Whimsical Garden” was brought to life. The challenge seeks to infuse innovation, color, and a touch of magic and whimsy into the garden designs.
Joe Kille, a seasoned 30-year veteran Master Gardener, shared his enthusiasm for the AAS selections and their impact on the garden’s charm. “Each year, we begin planning our annual beds in October. I use graph paper planning where each of our 1500 to 2000 plants will be placed. In addition to our centerpiece AAS Display Bed, we have a Wedding Gazebo, satellite beds, as well as 8 other annual beds of various shapes and sizes. Working with the AAS selections each year has added innovation, color, and variety to our display beds. Signage and plant labeling throughout the garden shows our commitment to AAS and educating the public on these plant varieties.”
This year’s “A Whimsical Garden” theme took on an extra layer of charm as some team members embraced the challenge of planning individual annual beds. Kenyon Merriwether, a passionate nature lover, designed a captivating pollinator-friendly garden shaped like a Monarch Butterfly. Inspired by the vivid colors of the AAS flowers, Kenyon’s design seeks to raise awareness about the importance of conserving Monarch Butterflies. “I’m hoping this will continue to show the public that we need to keep this species front of mind when we plant our gardens,” she expressed.
The AAS Landscape Design Challenge is offered every year nationwide with a different theme each year. The competition is stiff with many larger botanic gardens that have paid staff. Our last entry into the competition was in 2015, earning an Honorable Mention for Cutler Botanic Garden.
For a preview of the design challenge beds and the gardeners who created them please watch this news video from WBNG-TV:
https://www.wbng.com/2023/08/23/cutler-botanic-gardens-enters-all-american-selections-challenge/
Cutler Botanic Garden invites visitors to enjoy the enchanting landscapes created by their dedicated team of Master Gardener Volunteers and Cornell Cooperative Extension staff. The garden is open to the public year-round from dawn to dusk for self-guided tours, encouraging individuals of all ages to discover the wonders of horticulture and environmental stewardship.
