Horticulturist Rylee Werden plays with perspective in the first half of the Fall Flower Show
No matter what time of year you visit the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s Sunken Garden, the elevated view from the entryway is always stunning. But after designing several seasonal flower shows for Minnesota’s most beautiful room, Como horticulturist Rylee Werden began to wonder what it would be like to play a little more with perspective as visitors move through the room.
Inspired by the geometric patterns and intersecting lines of Art Deco, Werden decided to design the first half of the Fall Flower Show, on display now through October 19, with a sense of movement in mind. The view from the top reveals hundreds of chrysanthemums arranged in a chevron, Werden explains, “a big zig-zag across the center of the room, that features stripes of three different colors of mum—–orange, dark pink, and plum.” As visitors descend to the garden path, they’ll begin to pick up on a parallax view, she says, a perceptual phenomenon where an object’s apparent position shifts when viewed from different angles.
“I always try to think about the different perspectives of someone walking through the garden,” she says. “As you get down to the garden path, the perspective changes and you’ll see some nice grass between the mums to rest your eye, and you’ll see through those angles a bit differently.”
Como’s fall chrysanthemum show has been a tradition since 1915, the same year that Como’s historic Como Conservatory first opened to the public. Around the world, the chrysanthemum is seen as a symbol of longevity and happiness, but in the Midwest, the fall flower’s rich coloring and spicy scent also remind us that winter’s not far away. “That’s why it’s a great time to slow down, and enjoy the changing colors, which I think visitors will see reflected in the room,” Werden says.
Mums also signal the important role that fall’s flowering plants play in fostering healthy ecosystems. “In outdoor gardens, especially those with native plants, fall flowers are so important to feeding those pollinators before their big migrations,” she says. “Flowers like aster and goldenrod give our insects and our wildlife that last bit of juice or food they need to get them through the winter.” To see those connections, Werden suggests that visitors also stop by the Minnesota Garden, a collection of native and adaptive plants in front of Como’s Visitor Center, where horticulturists over-winter native plants to benefit birds and other wildlife. “It’s a more natural lens on what we do in the display garden to signal fall, with seed heads and plants that look ready for harvesting, like chard, broom corn, and celosia flowers.”
Cultivars of some of these native plants will be featured in the second half of the Fall Flower Show, which will be on display from October 24 through November 30. Thanks to your support for Como Friends, the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s five seasonal flower shows are always free to visitors.
Your support for Como Friends helps ensure the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s seasonal flower shows are always free to every visitor. Thank you!