Van Bourgondien

February 2006 Winner

Lilia C. Huguley of Pittsburgh, PA is our February 2006 Winner!

When I look at the garden, I marvel at how much I learned from my grandmother, Amy Holt. She taught me to love the tiniest little green shoots, the grubbiest looking corm, and the most fragile white roots because of what they would become. It made me hungry to learn more and try new plants. Our garden is three-tiered with “rooms” ranging from deep shade to bright sun.

My husband and I use flowering shrubs--mostly varieties of hydrangea--and grasses that help to provide the bones of the garden. We have outlined the key entrance gardens and the beds with hellebores, sweet woodruff and bulbs to hurry spring along and make it feel welcome. Perennials further add to the garden's evolving personality--hosta, daylilies, peonies, poppies, irises, asiatic and oriental lilies, rudbeckia, asters, mums, and clematis.

We also enjoy creating a new garden color and plant theme each year with a mixture of annuals and perennials that bloom in succession. Generously planted containers present the theme around the garden from hanging baskets in the oak tree to window boxes to homemade flower fountains and pots that surround the dining pavilion, archways and arbors. I hope my grandmother can see my garden from her eternal resting place, because she is the reason it exists.