Filed under: Gardening, Flowers
Like any great room, a great garden needs to balance style and substance. Here, the spaces that do it right.
The High Line in August. Photo: Marie Viljoen
Despite some serious competition from parks to the south, north and even across the East River in Brooklyn, Manhattan's High Line is widely acknowledged to be the new jewel in New York's horticultural crown.
Pictured above is the Chelsea Grasslands section of the elevated railroad. In a planting design conceived by Piet Oudolf, cultivated meadow grasses and perennials are mixed with native plants to create a sophisticated mosaic that remains true to the essence of the opportunistic weeds and grasses that used to spring from the gravel and abandoned tracks.
Here, a masterful combination of grasses and perennials provides interest in every season. In August the splashing yellow of black-eyed susans, statuesque prairie dock and willow-leafed sunflowers dominate the color scheme while rich, rusty sneezeweeds in low mounds beside stands of purple broadleaf ironweed offset the bright daisies. Sporadic, lighter highlights wild quinine, which peaks in July, signal the turning season, while red switch grass gives an early hint of the fall to come. Form and texture as important as fleeting flowers, and the spiky orbs of Eryngium seed capsules are juxtaposed beside prairie dropseed whose airy, early stems of seedheads herald a sequence of grass bloom that peaks in early fall.
For a full list of plants visit the Highline's August Bloom List and find more images of the stunning August Highline at 66 Square Feet.