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Week of 4/12/04

As promised in last week’s article, here is an update on one of the area’s newer “demonstration” gardens. This garden provides the public with an unusual opportunity to stroll, enjoy and learn.

The garden is the Monet Garden at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Garden located one half mile west of US 69 on 179th Street. Since its dedication almost two years ago, the one-acre Monet Garden has become increasingly popular.

The Garden was professionally designed by Nancy Branum, owner of Flora Scapes, Inc. Branum is a resident of Gardner, Kansas and a long time member of the Johnson County K-State Extension Master Gardeners. Once the Garden was designed, under contract from the Friends of the Arboretum, site preparation, planting and maintenance of the Garden became the responsibility of the EMGs as one of their volunteer outreach activities.

The inspiration for the Monet Garden came from several sources, among them the management of the Arboretum, and the Friends of the Arboretum, a non-profit support organization. This group has coordinated funding for the project from the City of Overland Park, the family and friends of the late Jody Cromwell, a devotee of the works of Claude Monet, and other donors. The goal was to create a garden reminiscent of the garden of the famous Impressionist painter at his home in Giverny in the south of France.

Monet’s own garden is a “natural” garden landscape combining colors and plant materials artistically as a painter would with his palette when creating a painting. An arched bridge over a pond of lilies and water plants and arches and trellises along the trail supporting roses and Clematis vines, are the structural highlights incorporated into the design.

The Garden has been carefully planned to present a garden for all seasons with color and interest from early spring through fall. The crocuses and other early spring bulbs are now giving way to plants and flowers that will be in bloom through April and May to be joined by others in late spring, summer and fall. The plantings include numerous varieties of irises and roses, two special Monet favorites that often appear in his paintings.

The Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Garden is open seven days a week from 7am until 5pm, and the Monet Garden is accessible when the Arboretum is open.

For a refreshing and instructive outing, you are cordially invited to visit.

Articles submitted by Bill Latimer, Johnson County Extension Horticulture Assistant and Dennis Patton, Johnson County Extension Horticulture Agent.

Previous Weeks' Hotline Tips

* The "Hotline" is an information service of the Kansas State Johnson County Research and Extension Master Gardeners.  Research-based responses are provided by Extension Master Gardener volunteers weekdays from March 1 through October 31, from 9:00 am to 4:30pm .  To telephone, call (913) 764-6306 or visit the Extension Office at 13480 South Arapaho Drive, Olathe, Kansas.  Visit their website at www.oznet.ksu.edu/Johnson 

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