To create a successful perennial garden, it's important to select the right plants for the area, use nutrient-rich soil, and monitor its development - feeding, grooming, and adjusting care as the garden matures.
Some of the most beautiful growth this time of year is behind my Tenant House and outside my gym building. In these areas I've planted Epimediums, trout lilies, mayapples, ferns, Syneilesis, Polygonatum, Cotinus, Stewartia trees, and other interesting plantings.
Enjoy these photos.
Behind my Tenant House I designed lovely perennial gardens that come alive this time every year. The burgundy trees are Japanese maples. With more than a thousand varieties and cultivars, the iconic Japanese maple is among the most versatile small trees for use in the landscape.
When plant shopping, I always look for the most interesting plants to add to my gardens. This is Syneilesis – a tough, drought-tolerant, easy-to-grow woodland garden perennial. Commonly called shredded umbrella, it has leaves that are narrow, dissected, and cascade downward like an umbrella. If grown in the proper environment, syneilesis will slowly spread to form an attractive colony.
And this is Solomon’s Seal – a hardy perennial native to the eastern United States and southern Canada. These plants produce dangling white flowers, which turn to dark-blue berries later in the summer.
Epimedium, also known as barrenwort, bishop’s hat, fairy wings, horny goat weed, or yin yang huo, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Berberidaceae. The leaves are made up of leaflets, which can range in number from three to 50 and in size from as tiny to six inches long. They are generally heart-shaped, but can range from round to arrow-shaped.
This is a trout lily. Its delicate blooms, which resemble turks cap lilies do best in dappled light.
Heuchera plants grow into mounds and are exceptionally heat tolerant. Heuchera is a genus of largely evergreen perennial plants in the family Saxifragaceae, all native to North America. Common names include alumroot and coral bells. This is a ‘Northern Exposure Silver’ Heuchera.
Podophyllum peltatum is commonly known as mayapple, American mandrake, wild mandrake, and ground lemon. Mayapples are woodland plants, typically growing in colonies from a single root. The leaves are deeply lobed and can grow up to one foot wide making them stand-out in the garden bed. This is a ‘Northern Exposure Silver’ Heuchera. The burgundy foliage becomes heavily frosted with silver, forming a dense mound. This plant also features sprays of small pink flowers on red stems that rise above the foliage from spring through summer.
All the hostas are also growing quickly. The lush green foliage varies in leaf shape, size and texture, and their easy care requirements make them ideal for many areas.
Some of the ferns in this area include the Japanese painted ferns – beautiful mounds of dramatic foliage with luminescent blue-green fronds and dark central ribs that fade to silver at the edges.
All around, I also have lots of ostrich ferns growing. Matteuccia struthiopteris is native to North America. Once established, these grow to a height of three to six feet. Ostrich fern grows in vase-shaped clumps called crowns. The showy, arching, sterile fronds are plume-like and reminiscent of the tail feathers of – you guessed it – ostriches.
Lungwort plants, Pulmonaria, are most often grown for their interesting leaves, which are green with random white spots. The leaves also have a rough, hairy fuzz covering them. The flowers, commonly known as lungwort, are bell- or funnel-shaped with five petals. They typically start out pinkish and mature to violet blue.
These are the dainty leaves of Thalictrum, or Meadow Rue – a robust, upright, clump-forming perennial featuring clouds of lavender mauve flowers later in the season.
Astilboides is an interesting plant with huge, bright green leaves that are round and flat and measure up to 24-inches across. The effect is dramatic, and beautiful among other hardy perennials.
Ipheion uniflorum, commonly called spring starflower, is native to Argentina and Uruguay and features grass-like foliage and solitary star-shaped flowers on six-inch tall stems. Flowers range in color from almost white to violet blue. Flowers have a mild spicy fragrance, and when bruised the foliage emits an oniony aroma.
Uvularia grandiflora, the large-flowered bellwort or merrybells, is a species of flowering plant in the family Colchicaceae. Blooming mid to late spring, the flowers are twisted both in bud and in flower giving it a slightly droopy appearance.
The Cotinus are leafing out too. Cotinus, the smoketree, or smoke bush, is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. Their smooth, rounded leaves come in exceptional shades of deep purple, clear pinkish-bronze, yellow, and green.
Anemonella thalictroides is an easy-to-grow, deer-resistant, durable, but dainty looking plant. The genus name Anemonella roughly translates as ‘little anemone’ because its flowers are miniature copies of the windflower. These are a light pale pink.
And we still have daffodils bordering the garden beds with bright colors! My daffodil blossoms come in many combinations of yellow, orange, and white.
The Snowflakes are growing beautifully this year. The Snowflake is much taller than the Snowdrop, that blooms earlier in the season, and has more than one flower per stem. Snowflake petals are even, each with a green spots on the end, whereas Snowdrops have helicopter-like propellers that are green only on the inner petals.
The hellebores continue to show beautifully at the farm. Hellebores are members of the Eurasian genus Helleborus – about 20 species of evergreen perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. They blossom during late winter and early spring for up to three months. Hellebores come in a variety of colors and have rose-like blossoms.
Every year, more and more plants grow in these beds, cover the space, and create a lush, green carpet of beautiful foliage.
I always encourage others to share photos from places they've visited. Not long ago our own Marquee Brands Home Brand Director, Dipali Patwa, found herself with some extra time after a flight back home to New York was delayed. Instead of sitting at the airport, she went out and toured an interesting garden to learn something new. Enjoy her story and her images.
During a recent business trip to West Palm Beach, I had the opportunity to visit the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens. I didn’t walk this garden with Martha, but I’ve walked others with her, and that experience fundamentally changes how you see a space like this. Walking gardens with Martha teaches you to notice what many may overlook - the discipline of proportion, the intention behind what is planted, the way pathways guide movement without announcing themselves, and how light, at different times of day, becomes as important a design element as any material. You begin to understand that great environments are not accidental- they are edited, refined, and deeply intentional. So when I stepped into the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, I found myself seeing through that lens. Slowing down. Observing transitions. Understanding restraint. And what revealed itself was not just a garden, but a living composition- one that quietly holds art, nature, and time in balance.
The Garden has a view directly over Lake Worth, which is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.
In 1942, Ann Norton became the first instructor of sculpture at the new Norton Gallery and School of Art. In 1948, she married the museum’s founder, Ralph Hubbard Norton (1875-1953). This is the entrance to the Norton House & Gallery.
Along with the artworks, the Gardens also keep more than 250 rare palm species of cycads and unusual tropicals – it is recognized as one of the largest public collections in Florida.
This is the back porch overlooking “Untitled Horizontal Sculpture,” 1979.
Here is a closer look at “Untitled Horizontal Sculpture, 1979.” It is one of nine of her monumental sculptures here. This was the last sculpture whose construction was overseen by Ann. Its silhouette was inspired by the Himalaya Mountains, which Ann loved to visit during her trips to India and Nepal. This installation is made of Mexican brick and has a total length of 48-feet.
Here is the entrance to the art gallery from the gardens.
A small fountain under the shade of one of the many palms.
And a single bloom calling out to the living nature of this sanctuary. The gardens themselves are not ornamental- they are foundational. Layered with palms, cycads, orchids, and dense tropical foliage, the landscape acts as a natural frame.
This art work is called “Seven Beings,” 1965, and is made of pink Norwegian granite. This installation was inspired by the sandstone formations Ann saw in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. It is 15 feet tall and 21 feet long.
Ann’s sculptures, which she built in the gardens over a period of 15 years, are meant to be discovered “by surprise”. This is called “Gateway 4” and stands 24 feet tall. This sculpture’s apertures seem similar to the characters of the Sanskrit alphabet, known as the “mother of all languages.”
“Gateway 5,” 1977 is also handmade from North Carolina Brick. This massive tower recalls 20th-century architectural masterpieces such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” (1936-1939), in southwestern Pennsylvania.
“Gateway to Knowledge,” 1983-84 is made from Boston brick and has a height of 30 feet. This is a posthumously built replica of a sculpture commissioned from Ann Norton in 1980 by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and the Cambridge Arts Council near Harvard Square.
The juxtaposition of the sculpture, the fauna and the water body creates a moment of pause and reflection. In the Florida sun, these structures transform throughout the day: shadows sharpen, edges soften, and what feels solid begins to breathe.
The Gardens, at the request of Ann Norton, were designed by world-renowned botanist Sir Peter Smithers as a rare palm garden, to represent her commitment to conservation and the preservation of a quiet retreat. It is a rare gift to experience the union of this powerful art and the naturalness of the landscape.
The Ann Norton Pollinator Garden is a haven that protects and supports a wide variety of birds, pollinators, beneficial insects and butterflies by providing food, water and shelter in a chemical-free space all year long.
Here I am after entering the Pollinator Garden. @dipalipatwa
There were many plants within the garden to attract pollinators – both in the ground and potted along the fence.
This very quiet courtyard allows guests to take a moment and just be.
Ann drew from the time she was five-years old and received her first sculpting tool at age eight. The studio contains many of Ann’s chisels, hammers, and other tools, including some of those given to her as a child by her Aunt Rose.
Ann Norton’s wooden sculptures are characterized by their monolithic, vertical forms and their deep connection to the natural world.
Created over four decades, Ann Norton’s works in bronze, stone and wood inhabit the studio like a forest alluring the visitor to explore and feel her artistic spirit. Guests are greeted by larger than life models, armatures, and studies that evolved into her monumental works in granite and brick found throughout the gardens. This striking white sculpture of a mother and child stands quietly, embodying both strength and tenderness.
This smaller grouping of stone sculptures is a plaster study for Ann Norton’s larger monumental work, “Seven Beings,” (1965).
Within the two-acre property, there are many places to meditate and enjoy the quiet scenery, such as this courtyard. Ann transformed her home into a working environment where art could evolve alongside nature. The Studio and Gardens are open to the public and have inspired thousands of visitors – nature lovers, art enthusiasts, environmentalists, families and students. Visit if you can.
Here at my farm, we’re expecting morning showers, cloudy skies, and temperatures in the low 50s, but the gardens continue to transform.
Despite the erratic weather, there's new spring growth every day. And, while many of the flowers are erupting with vibrant color, we've also been taking photos of the various trees and all the precious leaves, buds, and blooms just beginning to open on their branches.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
I tour the farm several times a day to see how all the trees and plants are doing. This time of year, there’s always something new to admire. Malus sargentii, occasionally called Sargent’s apple or Sargent crabapple, is a species of crabapple in the genus Malus. The plant is a shrub growing about six-feet tall. Here are two of four that flank the carriage road between my Tenant House and my studio.
They’re showing off many buds on their branches. This is the early stage of spring bloom. The buds are reddish-pink or pale pink and open to fragrant, white flower clusters.
Bordering one side of my playing field, a large stretch of lawn adjacent to my pergola, are these weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus ‘Pendula’ – the branches of these trees gracefully weep creating umbrellas of foliage that reach the ground.
Weeping hornbeam leaves are ovate with pointed tips and serrated edges.
In spring, the apple trees’ buds unfold, and newly formed leaves and pure white flowers begin to grow on the ends of the twigs.
My orchard surrounds three sides of my pool. These are the pink buds of one of my peach trees.
Fruiting pear trees bloom from April to May, with stunning white flowers.
This is my Pin Oak Allée. The trees are beginning to leaf out, but at this time it is easier to see its recognizable branch habit, where the lower branches hang down, the horizontal middle branches flare out and the upright upper branches point up.
These Cotinus leaves are small now, but they will grow large, broad, and oval to oblong in shape, with a smooth, glossy surface.
From a distance, it is easy to notice the golden-yellow weeping willows. This grove is at the edge of my pinetum. The golden hue looks so pretty against the early spring landscape.
When the tree blooms late winter to spring, yellow catkins such as these appear. The catkin flowers are one to two inches long, and each blossom consists of hundreds of hairlike protrusions. The flowers mature to yellow before they are disbursed by wind or rain.
This is a weeping larch, Larix decidua ‘Pendula’. It has bright lime green needles in spring, which turn gold before dropping in fall.
Here, one can see how the foliage grows on the tree giving it an elegant sculptural effect. This tree is planted at the intersection between my pin oaks and my Allée of Boxwood.
Look closely to see the tiny young leaves of the Ginkgo with their distinguishable fan-shape. When mature, they will be up to three-inches long, with a petiole that is also up to three-inches long. This shape and the elongated petiole cause the foliage to flutter in the slightest breeze.
I have several Cercis canadensis ‘Merlot’ trees, or eastern redbuds. They’re all just starting to show off their beautiful early season purple-pink flower buds.
Redbud flowers are among the most striking early spring sights. They are small, pea‑like blooms that appear in clusters along bare branches and sometimes on the trunk before the tree’s leaves emerge.
Nearby are two cherry trees. Cherry trees belong to the genus Prunus and are in the family Rosaceae. These trees are famous for their sweet or sour stone fruits called drupes and their eye-catching blossoms. Unfortunately, we all wait with anticipation for the fruits, but oftentimes squirrels beat us to them.
Here are the leaves of the horse-chestnut. Even at this early stage, the leaves and developing flowers are big. By mid-May to early June, these trees will be in full flower.
On my terrace parterre and on one side of my home are weeping katsura trees, one of my favorites. Cercidiphyllum japonicum f. pendulum has pendulous branches that fan out from the crown and sweep the ground. Caramel-scented foliage emerges bronze or purple-red, turns blue-green, then fades to gold or apricot in autumn.
The leaves are heart-shaped, typically two to three inches long, with a wavy or finely serrated edge and a pointed tip.
And here are the Japanese maples – so full of color. Spring has sprung with such energy and growth. I hope you appreciate something new in your garden every day.
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