Botanica has nearly 20 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens.
Bright, showy flowers with sculpted hedges and water features mixed with wildflowers and a bit of xeriscaping.
With more than 4,000 varieties of plants on site, there’s always something new to discover and maybe try in your own garden. Botanica draws around 300,000 visitors a year from all 50 states and several foreign countries.
But there’s an area that a lot of people miss.
Botanica’s Woodland Walk is a much more subdued experience; the natural forest blends with carefully planned trees and shrubs. It was unpaved in the beginning and some visitors didn’t realize it was there.
Pat McKernan is the landscape supervisor at Botanica.
“So our original director, I kept telling him people would not leave a paved walk when they're walking in the garden. … And he was sure I was wrong,” McKernan said.
“One day we were out here … and four elderly people walked up to the end of the sidewalk, kind of looked all four directions, turned around and walked back.”
That was apparently proof enough. McKernan and Janet Lyda, Botanica’s lead garden ambassador, were my guides as we explored the now paved path, winding through the woods with all its textures and multiple shades of green.
“One of the things that I tell people when they walk through the woodlands is they need to walk very slowly so that they can observe,” McKernan said, “because some of the flowers that are in this particular garden are a lot more delicate.”
In fact, most plants in a woodland garden do their blooming in early spring, sometimes before the trees have begun to leaf out. There are still some surprises in mid-fall – flowers pop up here and there, a few bright annuals but more of those delicate varieties.
Like the Lily of the valley, Columbine, Solomon’s Seal and … the toad lily.
“It's a sad name for a nice plant,” McKernan said.
There are places to sit and listen: a bird garden with a bridge overlooking a shallow hollow; the Frank Smith Woodland Glade nestled into another low area and surrounded by bushes and a wall.
“In this garden, my original thought was within five years when you were in here, it was going to encase you with shrubs … so you can sit here and read a book and no one would know you were here,” McKernan said.
The tree canopy was so thick that some of the bushes didn’t survive but the deep shade has its own magic.
Sitting in the glade, you eventually hear the softer sounds of nature – wind through the upper branches, birds and, even in October, a few insects. For a while, you’re away from the rush and noise of the city.
The Woodland Walk is beautiful no matter the season, but if you visit now, the light is golden from trees just starting to turn and you might just have the place to yourself.
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