At the height of summer, when most of the Osborne Garden is blanketed in green, Fawcett Terrace is bursting with color and texture.
The large circular concrete planter that greets you at the Eastern Parkway entrance provides a sampling of what’s to be revealed as you make your way along Fawcett Terrace, which runs above the western border of the Osborne Garden.
Mixed borders of woody plants and herbaceous perennials provide sprays of color that peek over stone retaining walls and soften the edges of the path.
Gardener Nancy Nieland, who curates the Osborne Garden, is experimenting with lilies this year. Their large and showy flowers carry your gaze along the border, blooming next to subtler perennials like yarrow, with umbels of tiny pale-pink flowers.
Get a glimpse of bright red behind the trees, where a sea of coppertips (crocosmia) are growing.
This part of the garden is abuzz with movement, too. Insect-attracting native perennials like butterfly weed, purple coneflower, and brown-eyed Susan gently spill into the path.
You might be taken by the scale and grandness of the Osborne Garden upon your first encounter. but it’s worth taking the time to appreciate the casual, whimsical gestures of the summer-blooming plants, and the beauty of each individual bloom. Just let the color, or scent, lead you. “It’s really a four-season garden,” Nieland notes. “You always find something blooming or fragrant.”
