Ever-changing: tending Bunny Mellon’s garden in the fall

Even as the weather begins to chill and summer’s vibrant blooms near the end of their cycles, Oak Spring’s formal garden remains a place of beauty. Fall and winter are an important time for plants to rest and rejuvenate in preparation for the warmer months, and this spring is set to be a particularly exciting one for OSGF: the garden will be on the Garden Club of Virginia’s Historic Garden Tour come April. Tour proceeds will go to the Garden Club of Virginia to fund the restoration and preservation of more than 40 of Virginia’s historic public gardens and landscapes, a research fellowship program, and a project with Virginia State Parks to celebrate GCV’s centennial.

“(Gardens) follow the cycle of all living things - never remaining the same.
”

— Rachel "Bunny" Mellon

Although winter is a fairly quiet time for plant life, there is still plenty to keep OSGF’s skilled gardeners busy: plants to remove or cut back, bulbs to get into the ground, and some operations - such as plant propogation and caring for tropical plants - to be moved into the glass house.

We asked head gardener Judy Zatsick to share a little bit about what goes into caring for the garden as the weather gets colder. Click through the slideshow below to stroll along.

As fall descends on Oak Spring, the formal garden begins to change color: different from the spring and summer, but still as beautiful as ever. Plants like ornamental peppers and mums cast it in autumnal hues of red, orange, and dark green.

Flowers like celosia bloom throughout the fall (and pollinators like them too!)

Judy snaps a picture of a lemon tree, one of the tropical plants that will be moved into the glass house before winter. Judy said her favorite thing about working in Bunny Mellon’s garden is “the joy that I feel about the spaces she created - they’re so graceful and elegant.”

While mostly empty in the warmer months, the glass house will soon be filled with plants. As Bunny Mellon did before them, the gardeners will tend to fair-weather species like topiaries, amaryllis, and orchids from the warmth of the indoors.

Watering plants is a little trickier in the wintertime. Plants don’t “drink” water as quickly as they do in warmer months, yet they need water in their roots to insulate them against the cold. Winter air can also be quite drying, and roots can’t absorb water from frozen ground. It’s a good idea to make sure your plants get watered sufficiently before a freeze.

Evergreens keep color in the garden throughout the seasons, and the unique ones at OSGF also need to be carefully pruned year-round to maintain their shapes. Bunny Mellon’s interest in the geometric aesthetics of medieval European gardens is clear in this tiered holly tree.

Although vibrant flowers like these are on their way out, the garden is gearing up for another burst of color come spring. The gardening team will plant 15,000 bulbs in November, including pansies, daffodils, and tulips. “It’s going to be a spectacular show,” said Judy.