Cornell Plantations Winter Garden

The docents for the Cornell Plantations took a review tour of the Winter Garden at the Plantations that was originally made possible through funding by Whitey Mullestein.  The season for tours is quickly upon us, even earlier due to the mild winter.

The Winter Garden was designed to be attractive to both students and other guests during the winter season when the ground is usually covered with snow.  The hardscape of the garden includes Llenroc flagstone retaining walls, stone paths, and a large millstone.  The millstone reminds us of the many mills that provided employment years ago along Fall Creek.  Ezra Cornell was involved with working with Beebee (as in Beebee Lake) with his mills before Ezra was president of Cornell University.

I tried to capture some of the elements of the Winter Garden, namely the colors of the evergreens, the varying shapes of the trees and bushes, and the color and textures of the bark.  Come and visit the garden as well as the Brian Nevin welcoming center where there is a gift shop and rotating art displays. http://www.cornellplantations.org/

The following quote is from that website:

"Mullestein Winter Garden

Plantations’ newest garden, this one-acre site contains over 700 plants chosen for their interesting bark texture, bark color, unusual growth habits, winter fruit, cones, or evergreen foliage. These qualities provide color and interest during Ithaca’s long winters, making the winter garden a year-round destination for visitors. Plants found in the garden include shrubby dogwoods, willows, birches, hawthorns, and small conifers in different shades of blue, silver, green, and gold, which provide an attractive backdrop for the bright fruit and bark colors."

Here are some photos I took today.

Millstone

Path to Young garden

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Catalpa tree in Young garden

Bark on River Birch

Bark on White Birch

River Birch

Notice many shapes and colors of evergreens