As a garden designer, Mrs. Mellon employed vertical spaces. Espaliers and climbing roses cover the stone walls of the formal garden. This pretty climbing rose adds a touch of soft yellow and lovely fragrance to greet visitors at the side entrance gate.

This view of the upper terrace and blue kitchen patio illustrates the simple, elegant beauty of the Mellon residence designed by H. Page Cross. Playful drumstick alliums and blue iris wrap up the spring planting design.

A pair of geese and their goslings enjoy the warm weather by the Springhouse Pond.

A visitor “hangs out” at the BCCF.

The BCCF recently acquired Shenandoah and Cub Run Creole chicks from Tangly Woods Farm in Keelzetown, VA.

Iris germanica, German, or bearded iris were a favorite flower of Mrs. Mellon. Bearded iris have three upright petals (standards) and three lower petals (falls) with a fuzzy strip (beard) to attract pollinators. We selected this ethereal shade of blue from Mrs. Mellon's cutting garden and added large clumps of this fragrant beauty to the Square Garden, where a blue color palette dominates.

Shimmering, papery petals in a bowl shape are a trademark of Papaver orientalis. The lovely blooms of this perennial poppy in shades of orange, pink, white and red were grown for Mrs. Mellon to use in arrangements. Annual poppies such as California, Shirley, and Iceland poppies seed freely in the formal garden, adding a touch of whimsy and surprise.

Mrs. Mellon created a large potager garden in her walled garden at Oak Spring in the French tradition. Rows of colorful vegetables, including 'Little Red Gem' lettuce, 'Wild Garden Mix' mustard, 'Zermatt' leeks, and bronze fennel add color to the spring show.

This lovely white anemone style herbaceous peony originated in Mrs. Mellon's cutting garden on the Rokeby Farm. Gardener Todd Lloyd tended to hundreds of colorful peonies, iris, poppies, dahlias and other blooms in the cutting garden there. These long lived historic plants were used for bouquets and arrangements that Mrs. Mellon displayed in her residences and shared with lucky friends!

Peonies highlight the formal garden at Oak Spring in late spring. Fragrant fuchsia blooms cover this large double herbaceous peony at the back gate of the garden.

The upper terrace of the formal garden was constructed by our talented stone mason, Tommy Reed over the course of several years. Large boulders, including sandstone, were split by hand and put in place. This work of art adds an air of structure and permanence to the garden and provides small pockets to place white alyssum and the silver-foliaged plants Mrs. Mellon enjoyed.

The Square Garden is formal in its symmetry and layout. Annual rye grass planted in the early spring helps set off the planting design and the charming guest house where Jackie Onassis and her family often stayed.

Papaver rhoeas, or common poppy, glisten in Oak Spring’s wildflower meadow following a night of rain.

Members of Oak Spring’s purple martin colony crowd their nesting houses.

The Mary Potter crabapple arbor casts shade over the walkway leading into the formal garden.

Purple pansies color the wings of the butterfly-shaped beds in the Children’s Garden.

Beaureguard Purple Snow Peas grown at the BCCF.

Baby barn owls spotted in one of the property’s silos.

A young fawn nestles in the long grass under a Hardy Orange Tree outside the Oak Spring Garden Library.

Dew drops dot a sugar snap pea at the BCCF.

One of the Arboriculture, Landscape, and Conservation team’s recent reforestation projects (as seen through poppies.)

An ant crawls along the pale pink petals of a rose.

The beautiful dual tones of an itoh peony, one of several varieties grown at Oak Spring.

The yellow, star-shaped flowers on these foxtails in the pollinator garden are just beginning to bloom. Soon, each flower will be covered in tiny flowers, attracting many beneficial bees and insects.

A May Day basket created by Assistant Gardener Jordan Long brightens the garden gate on an overcast day. The basket includes boxwood (buxus,) ninemark (physocarpus,) lilac (syringa,) African daisies (osteospermum,) forget-me-not (myosotis,) veronica (veronica gentianoides,) ornamental onion (allium,) geum “petticoats,” woodland phlox (phlox divaricata), and ghost fern.

Pleached Mary Potter crab apples are blooming, with Matrix True Blue pansies, Golden Parade tulips and Anemone blanda below.

Blue Parrot tulips, epimedium, and lavender pansies fill the bed at the base of Poncirus trifoliata, the Hardy Orange tree, in the Upper Terrace.

This pelargonium arrangement in the formal greenhouse was created by assistant gardener Allissa Montgomery, who was inspired by an 1829 illustration in the Oak Spring Garden Library collection.

90 percent of Pelargonium species originate in South Africa. This delightful collection not only reflects artwork from Mrs. Mellon's library, but her love of this genus and other plants from South Africa which she tended in her glasshouse.

Through careful planning, the Square garden has offered color and blooms to visitors since the beginning of March when early dwarf daffodils joined blue pansies to welcome the spring. White and yellow mid-season tulips followed. Tulips 'Ballade' and 'Queen of the Night' are now fading as late blooming Camassia leichtlinii 'Caerulea' and Allium 'Gladiator' wrap up the show.

Elegant Tulips 'Merlot' and 'Very Chic' dance above Narcissus 'Yellow Cheerfulness' in the tea bed. The cool temperatures this spring encouraged a long and lovely display.

A fox cub peeks out from its den on Rokeby.

Newly hatched eastern bluebirds found in one of OSGF’s nesting boxes.

Carrots grown at the Biocultural Conservation Farm, getting ready to be delivered to local food banks.

Dandelion seed heads glow in the setting sun in the rich meadows at Oak Spring. Although Dandelions may annoy us in our lawns, the seeds are enjoyed by a range of songbirds including chipping, field, house, song and white throated sparrows; American goldfinches and indigo buntings.

Five barn owl eggs discovered in one of the silos.

The blooms of the Mary Potter crabapples in the allee, pollinated by hundreds of bees from our on site hives, are setting fruit that will feed birds throughout the winter season.

A path of clover cutting through the wildflower meadow.

In the spring, Mrs. Mellon tucked Sweet alyssum into pockets in the paving stones of terraces here at Oak Spring. This technique was used in many gardens she designed for others as well and is a signature of her unique style. As spring leads to summer, drought loving herbs like thyme and Artemesia replace the Alyssum, providing fragrance as guests walk through the space.

Iberis, Primrose and Blue Frost pansies, and species tulips are on display from the Gallery window.

Cool blue accents of Muscari armeniacum and 'Valerie Finnis' peep through Mexican Feather grass in the Pollinator Garden. Ivory Floradale and Shogun tulips, and Frittilaria persica add vertical height.

An elegant espaliered Viburnum carlesii on the back of the Honey House sweetens the air in spring with its spicy cinnamon fragrance.

French Blend Rose tulips mingle with Frittilaria persica 'Green Dreams', Lamprocapnos spectabilis, and emerging foliage of peonies.

This stately 260 year old White Oak offers a quiet resting spot and casts lovely shadows on the lawn.

Staff have discovered bluebirds nesting in four out of the seven bluebird boxes our Arboriculture, Conservation, and Landscapes department installed on the property.

Five bluebird eggs!

Radishes grown at the Biocultural Conservation Farm. 100% of the farm’s produce has been donated to local food banks in light of the COVID-19 situation.

Wild onions growing by Goose Creek.

The graceful allee, installed around 1960, casts dancing shadows down its 120' length.

The Guest House bed overflows with tulips 'Akebono', 'Red Princess' and 'Silver Cloud' and Narcissus 'Katie Heath.'

Sunny yellow pansies, Muscari 'Babies Breath' and Lady Jane species tulips fill the butterfly in the Children's Garden.

Phlox subulata 'Emerald Blue' creates a lovely blanket of purple blooms at the Gallery.

Anemone blanda 'White Splendor', Muscari 'Siberian Tiger', Tulip Spring Green, and Matrix white pansies brighten the shadows of the White Garden.

Long shadows over the garden.

The BCCF taking proper COVID-19 precautions while getting turnips ready to donate to the food bank.