Spring Photo Tour

Explore Visual Perspective

Download the GardenGuide App when you visit to use this tour on your phone

Distance: .5 miles  Time: 1 hour 20 mins - 1 hour 40 mins

Stop 1: Photo Tip: Spring-Crescent Garden

Fill your frame with tiers of tulips descending to the basin's edge. Aim from the lowest point upward.
 

Stop 2: Photo Tip: Spring-Esplanade

Notice light green seeds on the elm trees, creating a mystical glow. Combined in a frame with the darker, cooler greens of the nearby boxwoods, for stunning color.
 

Stop 3: Photo Tip: Spring-Landscape Garden

Keep your eye close to the ground to spot a variety of early bulbs poking through the stone. Capture their image against the unique background. In the rock garden area, look for a dwarf iris named Katherine Hodgkin; or the low, dusty-pink prairie smoke in the Native Garden, along with the purple hues of the pasque flower. Follow the calls of warblers to find and photograph these dynamic subjects.
 

Stop 4: Photo Tip: Spring-Bulb Garden

Start with the magnolia tree in a raised circle bed. Circle to your left to see early-season snowdrops or banks of shaded tulips later. Raised beds give photographers easy access to some rare fritillaria.
 

Stop 5: Photo Tip: Spring-Circle Garden

Evening light often brings an iridescent sheen to the flowers both here and in the adjacent garden rooms. Peek into the bell-shaped flower of the Dalmatian purple foxglove for the contrast of a visiting insect. From ground level, point your lens upward to capture the open blossoms, noting that the flower stalk appears to recede into the distant sky.
 

Stop 6: Photo Tip: Spring-Sensory Garden

Consider spring bulbs and annuals from lower perspectives, as they are in raised beds. Contrast form with pattern.
 

Stop 7: Photo Tip: Spring-Enabling Garden

Watch for ferns along the way, as they stretch up from the soil. When you reach the Guardian Statue, turn right to Evening Island, where you can view crabapple trees.