Outdoor Gardens

Crape myrtles are chiefly known for their colorful and long-lasting flowers, which occur in summer. Most species of Lagerstroemia have sinewy, fluted stems and branches with a mottled appearance that arises from having bark that sheds throughout the year.

The leaves are opposite and simple, with entire margins, and vary from 5–20 cm (2–8 in). While all species are woody in nature, they can range in height from over 30 m (100 ft) to under 30 cm (1 ft); most, however, are small to medium, multiple-trunked trees and shrubs. 

The ‘Marie Pavie’ is a nearly thornless, graceful rose bush, low growing (approximately 2 ½ feet), with dark healthy foliage; the perfect setting for its small/medium soft pink buds that open to beautiful, fragrant, and prolific flowers. This rose is a polyantha, which is a Greek term meaning many flowers. 

Established in 1888, the same year as the Conservatory. Cultivated in France. 

Also known as swamp rose mallow, hibiscus is a vigorous, sturdy, rounded, somewhat shrubby, hairy-stemmed, woody-based perennial of the mallow family.

It is native to wet spots (marshes, swamps, floodplains, river banks, moist meadows, and moist woods) from Ontario and Massachusetts south to Ohio, Indiana, Alabama, and Florida. Showy, dinner plate-sized, hollyhock-like flowers (each to 4-6” diameter) have five overlapping white, creamy white, or pink petals with reddish-purple to dark crimson bases that form a sharply contrasting central eye. At the peak of bloom, a large plant can produce 20 or more flowers per day.