Update 2007.12.12: Added links to related posts and Arboretum Web site, including their page of past photos of the Quilt Garden.
The Quilt Garden is one of a series of gardens bordering the promenade at the North Carolina Arboretum. It’s redesigned every year with a different combination of annuals in a different design based on traditional quilt patterns of North Carolina.
As you approach, from ground-level, the garden is colorful, but the pattern is not obvious. You climb the stairs to the overlook to get the full effect.
The center of the overlook is aligned with other features of the landscape, and a view to the mountains beyond, to give you the view in the photo at the top of this post. This is as formal as the gardens get at the Arboretum.
Back at ground-level, the plants themselves are interesting. C.C. noted that they could have spaced the yellow more closely to fill in the pattern.
And from the right angle, the pattern reveals itself at ground-level as well.
Related Posts
The New Baker Exhibit Center
The North Carolina Arboretum
Links
Arboretum Quilt Garden, Past and Present, North Carolina Arboretum
That is an insanely cool idea. What is the little yellow-leaf plant, some kind of veronica?
I think it was an Alternanthera sp. Joy Weed.
Xris,
This is such a knockout. Would love to see an archive of past quilt patterns and will go snooping for such. Your pictures are gorgeous. They capture how some plants possess the rich but dusty colors of old fabric.
Good wishes,
J.
I like the quilt garden!
Elkhart County, IN is developing a Quilt Garden Tour in 2008. The tour includes 7 communities and 12 huge quilt gardens and 11 quilt murals. Very cool!