Innisfree Garden blends beauty and art

The Innisfree Garden boasts an international heritage and a global reputation. Petronella Collins, president of the Innisfree Foundation, welcomes visitors of all ages to see and study the 200-acre garden.

Known primarily for its beauty, the gardens also offer practical examples of how to create an enduring, economical home garden, Collins said.

The widow of Lester Collins, the landscape architect who principally designed and worked for 40 years on Innisfree, Petronella Collins said funding pressures require "intelligent planning to control maintenance costs.''

Inspired by Yeats lyric, Innisfree was established in 1930 as the private garden of Walter Beck and his wife, Marion, heiress to a Minnesota mining fortune.

The Becks took the name for the garden from the William Butler Yeats poem beginning, "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree.''

In 1960, Innnisfree was opened to the public, as provided for by the Beck's will.

In keeping with the Chinese ideal, it looks natural, but it is a "created look,'' manipulated by the hand of man.

"Our strong suit is flexibility of design and economy,'' Collins said. "If a big old tree dies, we don't necessarily replace it with the same thing. Instead, we might move some stones, or plant a new tree or shrub, or divert a stream.''

An example of easy maintenance is a bank where thousands of daffodils bloom in spring, followed by laurels, then crowds of sweet peas in July and August. Nearby, a steep hillside is covered by day lilies which flower for five weeks starting in early July.

Lotus blossoms, which bloom in late July and August, are inexpensive because they keep growing and spreading, "provided the muskrats don't get them,'' Collins observes.

Innisfree's evolving design is nourished by underground pipes that recirculate bubbling fountain water to streams and ponds ... streams diverted from their natural course through man-made channels. And trees pruned to halt vertical growth and encourage horizontal shapes.

The garden is a textbook of tips for the home gardener, Collins said.

Use rocks to direct water flow, especially along banks which otherwise may crumble into the water. Choose plants that are appropriate for the setting and which have a better chance to prosper.

For more information, visit www.innisfreegarden.com.