Bayou Bend Collection and
Gardens
Houston, Texas
March 2008
When I’m
looking for gardens to visit, I usually start with the website of
the American Public Gardens Association (www.publicgardens.org). The site is really designed for people working
at public gardens, but most public gardens are members and can be
found through the search function on the site. Bayou Bend is not a
member but has been written up in several “gardens to visit”
guides, so seemed worth a visit.
Being a northerner, I had to look up the definition of “bayou”. Of
course I knew the word from popular culture but was unsure what it
really meant. According to my dictionary, a bayou is a small,
slow-moving stream. Well, true to the name, Bayou Bend is located
at a bend in Buffalo Bayou. To get to the garden from the parking
lot you have to cross the water on a suspension footbridge which
gives you a great view of the bayou.
It’s not a crystal, clear mountain stream by any means. Looks more
like a long, muddy pond. In March, the weather was beautiful and
there were no mosquitoes. I’ll bet in summer it’s a different
story.
The garden is an interesting combination of formal and informal.
The entry is through a formal, circular garden built around a
statue of Clio, the muse of history. The plantings include roses
and annuals around miniature hedges of tightly clipped
boxwood.
You exit the Clio Garden onto a great lawn in front of the
mansion.
A grassy slope leads up to a terrace from which
you can look down on the Diana Garden. A statue of Diana, goddess
of the hunt, is visible beyond a pool with arching fountains. The
garden is separated from the native woods by hedges of Yaupon Holly
(Ilex
vomitoria).
The
other side of the great lawn is the Euterpe Garden, highlighted by
a statue of Euterpe, the muse of music. A beautiful old American
Sycamore towers over this garden.
The
last very formal area of Bayou Bend is the East Garden, with beds
of tightly clipped Japanese Boxwood forming a scroll design. The
garden is surrounded by azaleas and camellias.
In
March, the gardens are dominated by blooming azaleas. I liked that
there were identifying labels on most of the plants. Other spring
flowers are evident, with beautiful examples of magnolias, dogwoods
and tulips, but the azaleas steal the show. The camellias are
almost past but some flowers remain. They must have been something
to see earlier in the year.
There
are nice, winding trails through what feel like natural woods with
lots of blooming shrubs and perennials. The entire property is
crisscrossed with shallow ravines and there are a number of lovely
footbridges across them.
Visitors are given a very nice map and guide, as well as a
self-guided audio tour. I guess these are meant to replace
interpretation on the grounds because there are no interpretive
signs. The guide and audio are good, but I don’t care for audio
tours in a garden. So much of the ambience of a garden is in the
sounds. The visitor guide was also a distraction, valuable as a map
but a pain to try to pull out and read to figure out what you’re
looking at. I’d much prefer well-designed interpretive panels to
explain what I’m looking at.
An interesting point about the garden is that it advertises itself
as the only formal public garden in Texas that practices organic
gardening. I'd say that is a feather in their cap and it sets a
great example for other gardens to follow.
The Bayou Bend brochure suggests you allow 45 minutes to tour the
gardens. We spent 2 hours, and we didn’t tour the house. There is a
lot to see.
Click here to see more photos of Bayou
Bend.
To visit the official website of Bayou Bend, click
here.