Olbrich in October

Before attending the opening reception at Olbrich Botanical Gardens for their fall fiber exhibit, Mark and I took a quick spin through a couple of areas at Olbrich that are closest to the Atrium entrance. I bet we weren't out there for much more than five minutes, but when I looked at the images that had caught Mark's eye, I realized they illustrated some of the design ideas that Olbrich does so well.

Here are five concepts from our five minute tour. 

SCULPTURE

Whether it's an abstract object as here, or floral like Sylvia Beckman's gorgeous bronze Hosta leaf just outside the Atrium, Olbrich offers visitors some of the best public sculpture whether we're talking design or placement. The rest of the city should take a lesson from them.

This sculpture is raised on a plinth to give it more presence and to keep it from getting overshadowed by the plants. The sharp angles of the sculpture nicely play off of the rounded box balls and the wavy Hakonecloha grass and Chamaecyparus.

STRUCTURE

Whether its a shed, a stone wall, an arbor or a support for a vining plant like this wisteria, Olbrich offers a lesson in finding the right look as well as the appropriate size and strength of materials for the job.

TEXTURE

I continually find textural combinations at Olbrich that go way beyond perennials. Placement of shrubs, grasses and trees are treated with the same attention to contrast and repetition that most of us only give to our flowers. 

SCALE

Getting scale right — that's the relative size of elements to each other and to the whole garden — is one of the big challenges of gardening, no matter the size of your garden. Olbrich gets it right whether the space is intimate or wide open. 

This little tree below is large as far as Japanese maples in our region go, but it's small when put out into the garden. Solution: Put it in a pot so it's raised up and has added stature — and put it near a path where you can't miss it.

Below: the sunken garden and reflecing pool. Look at the relationships of the width of the path to the pool and the height of the hedges. The sculpture at the center of the border is given a little breathing space and placed next to mid-size shrubs rather than adjacent to the trees. (We also got to see the pool empty with its innards exposed — which is always of interest to anyone with a water garden).

The Great Lawn is the largest open space in the garden and Olbrich takes full advantage of it making it seem as expansive as possible with big plantings on the edges. Also note that this garden uses evergreens in the foreground compared to the Sunken Garden where the evergreens are the backdrop for ornamental trees to create different kinds of effects.

LIGHT & DARK

Olbrich creates a sense of mystery and anticipation with changes in the natural light. Some spaces are left bright and open like the Great Lawn while others twist and move in and out of the light like the path below where you have to walk under shade trees.

Structures offer a dry and shady spot to rest that emphasizes the light elsewhere in the garden.

Pergola, grasses and shrubs all contribute to the sense of moving in and out of darker and brighter spaces as well as focusing your attention on the rose garden tower in the distance. 

Don't wait much longer to make a fall visit to Olbrich while its landscape is looking so lush and lovely. 

Comments

[Cindy at enclos*ure]

I love the boxwood balls with the grasses. And I notice that Olbrich has the same chairs as the Union Terrace.