October is a good month to talk about entrances. Here are the first flower beds that you see when you enter the Kauffman Memorial Garden. This summer was really tough on our annuals so we put the bulk of our nine hundred fall mums out here. Since we run in cooperation with Powell Gardens, they grow all of our mums in their greenhouses for us. Interplanted amongst those we seeded radish, spinach, leaf lettuce and beets. Cool season vegetables are a great and delicious way to add texture to late summer and fall plantings.
Below is a close up of some of those radishes.
The next garden entrance that people see is our Allee, which is flanked with Lilac trees, Endless Summer Hydrangea, Crape Myrtle, Lamb’s Ear, Foxglove and two hundred orange mums.
Next to the Allee is an entrance of a different kind. We are the home to many spiders that spin a funnel-web. They hang out at the edge of their web and wait for unsuspecting insects to fall into their trap. This pretty much looks like someone sitting on their porch waiting for takeout food. If you approach the funnel-web the spider quickly pops deep down into the safe center of the funnel.
As you get about halfway down the Allee you can see the entrance of the next area that we call the “Green” Garden. It gets its name from being the only area within the walls that has turf grass. We always try to make these beds a bit of a surprise when you first get around the corner.
This year we included Dahlia ‘Mystic Illusion’ in the Green Garden entrance beds. It is a new seed dahlia that is meant for landscaping and bedding purposes. It withstood high heat as long as we kept it watered and I hope to save some tubers for next year. We received many questions about it and I understand the attraction as it has very dark foliage and very bright yellow flowers.
After the Green Garden is the entrance to the Canal Garden. Speaking of dahlias; you can see some of them in the back of the garden from this viewpoint.
We will enjoy the last of the summer plants, tropicals and annuals while we can because pretty soon it will be time to plant the tulip bulbs and violas for next spring. Until then, we are thankful for the last flush of color that comes with fall in Kansas City.
in the kauffman garden 