CURRENT ISSUE | SUBSCRIBE | ADVERTISE | WRITE TO US | CORNELL AUTHORS | PAST ISSUES
| MAR./APR. 2004 VOLUME 106 NUMBER 5 | Cornelliana |
Winter Wonderland | MULLESTEIN GARDEN BRINGS SEASON TO LIFE
IT'S LATE JANUARY, AND GARDENS across Upstate New York languish under layers of ice and snow. But at the center of the Plantations, one plot blazes with color. The cinnamon-hued bark of a hybrid gingerbread maple contrasts with the yellows and oranges of midwinter fire, a dogwood, and salix flame, a shrubby willow. Through early April, cardinals, chickadees—and the occasional robin—will snack on the berries of deciduous holly and hawthorn, while witch hazel, horizontal juniper, and lenten rose peek through the snow. "Winter is a way of having 'autumn join hands with spring,' " says landscape designer Irene Lekstutis '81, MS Ag '85,MLA '00, quoting the late English writer and designer Rosemary Verey. "Think of it as a continuum."
The Plantations launched its seasonal matchmaking effort in spring 2000, after ecology professor Peter Marks toured the British Isles and became inspired to bring English winter gardening techniques to campus. The resulting Mullestein Winter Garden—a half-acre collection of slowgrowing deciduous shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and early-blooming bulbs east of the Plantations headquarters—shines in November, when the adjacent Robison York State Herb Garden and Ruth Howell Young Cutting Garden go dormant. "There's always something wonderful to see," says Lekstutis of the textured bark, persistent fruit and foliage, and complicated branching patterns of the plants that fill the collection. "But in late fall, the colors really intensify."
The Mullestein garden will peak in another five years, when the hawthorns, maples, and birches at its perimeter take on their mature stature. At about the same time, a 6,000-square-foot tropical conservatory will open west of the plot, and landscapers will begin tying together all four gardens. Says Lekstutis: "This is a way of concentrating botanical focus and bringing visitors into the Plantations in winter."