The Wilderness

These pictures are of the part of the garden called The Wilderness. It is not exactly what you expect the wilderness to be like, but for a fancy garden it is- full of native plants, long winding paths, and in the summer the herbaceous plants are thickly and lushly planted (I know this only from looking at photos). It is a very beautiful and understated part of the garden and it looks great in the late afternoon light.

View from the end of the wilderness, looking out to the countryside.

More views.

Side note: Plants from the 80's

Something I have been thinking about today is about plants being "in fashion." Certainly gardening in Vermont certain plants are popular at certain times. But yesterday on two separate occasions, two separate gardeners referred to two separate plants as being "from the 80's." I kind of laughed because I think they were both kind of right, but I had never really thought about plants being in or out like clothing fads or home decor. The two plants labeled as kind of 80's were Cordyline (a major plant used in the red borders and spend their winters in pots in the green house) and the other is pampas grass. I was also told that grasses are extremely unpopular at Hidcote (according to one gardener) and they have slowly taken out many of the grasses over the years. I thought that was funny too because I LOVE all my grasses (though I didn't used too, why would you plant grass in your garden?) They are so beautiful in amongst all the other perennials, giving the garden wonderful airy textures and movement. Anyway, I am now thinking about many plants and imagining which decades they might fit into. However, just like New York fashion trends, it takes awhile before Vermonters catch on (if they ever do), maybe plant trends are the same way. In 10 years we might all rip out our grasses because they were so the 2000's.