Explore the Landscape

Spring

With over 66,000 bulbs that start blooming in late-March, making for a vibrant show of daffodils, tulips, crocuses, and more, Spring is a lively season in the park for landscaping. The park’s spring blooming trees are not to be missed, including the vibrant purple flowers of the Eastern redbud, the drooping white plumes of the Chinese fringe tree, and the white and pink blossoms of the Akebono cherry tree. As plants and flowers “spring” back to growth, the garden is fresh and green with a light, emergent feel.

Seasonal Care:

Throughout the season, Little Island’s team continues the spring cutback that started in late winter, meaning the grasses and dried seed heads are trimmed to make room for spring bulbs, rejuvenating them for the new spring growth. To welcome in the new bulbs, gardeners add fresh mulch, reducing weeds and stabilizing soil moisture and temperature. Spring is the time for pruning shrubs and vines to control their proportions, as well as planting perennial plugs, this allows the gardeners to plant in volume without disturbing tree roots and drip irrigation. Early lawn renovation takes place this season as well, as the team seeds and prepares the lawns for the upcoming season of performances and recreation. Little’s Island’s lawns open for the season on Mother’s Day, a perfect spring day to spend outside with your loved ones, after early spring’s busy season of preparing the land through aerating, overseeding, and fertilizing.

Summer

In the hottest months of the year, large ornamental grasses sprout up throughout the park as we say farewell to the spring bulbs. Warm season grasses like silver grass, little bluestem, and pink muhly grass thrive in hot temperatures and are dramatic additions to the landscape this season. Throughout the park, a processional bloom ensures that you’ll notice new blossoms every week, with the pale pastels of spring transitioning to brighter, more intense colors as the summer progresses.

Seasonal Care:

To ensure the landscape survives the heat, gardeners supplementally water the perennials, trees, and shrubs. Summer is also high season, meaning a significant increase in foot traffic on the grassy slopes so additional lawn renovation begins mid-season to help maintain the longevity of the grass. Like everything else in the park’s landscape, the lawns are living things that need to be taken care of.

Fall

Come get your fall foliage fix with the autumnal browns, rusts, and gold textures on the branches, and the still-blooming sweeps of asters and goldenrods throughout the park. Be on the lookout for straw-colored ornamental grasses that grace the gardens while maples, dogwoods, and honey locust trees boast their vibrant red, yellow and burgundy colors. Though in this time of year, many of the flowers from this past year may have faded, their seed heads, berries, and stems will persist throughout the Fall and into Winter.

Autumn is the season of change, so, you’ll notice a lot of change during Autumn on Little Island, as plants and trees change colors before going dormant—nature’s way of going to sleep until the Spring. During this key phase in the plant life cycle, you’ll be able to appreciate the textures and structure of the perennial plantings.

Seasonal Care:

Little Island’s Director of Horticulture Orrin Sheehan loves fall most of all, with its colorful changes and slowdown of growth. Orrin and his team have many tasks to accomplish this time of year, such as planting bulbs and transplanting species that need more sun, or shade, as the canopy grows in. This is also the time for renovating any areas of the landscape that need a brush up. At the end-of-season, lawn renovation occurs, an essential task for repairing and allowing the lawn to recuperate after a busy season.

Winter

Embrace the chilly serenity of Little Island during the winter months. As you stroll through the park’s winding hills and paths, see how the snow and ice play with the leftover structural branches and forms from the fall. The Evergreen branches retain their green color as the berries and bright-colored bark catch your eye among the snow. The juniper and pine trees are semi-dormant, dropping some of their older needles to make room for new ones. In the Southwest Overlook, the stately Shumard Oaks hold their leaves all season long, turning a brown shade and blending with the park’s surrounding sheet pile walls and boulders. Our earliest Hellabore starts blooming in early February.

Seasonal Care:

Little Island’s gardening team spends this season going through a photo inventory of plants, as part of an overall assessment to determine the bloom list for the following spring. Throughout this period, Little Island’s landscaping team makes seasonal adjustments depending on weather, sun, and shade levels. In February, plants left over from the fall and winter are cut back to refresh the landscape. Removing old growth allows the soil to warm faster and makes room for over 66,000 bulbs.