Small Wonders

Spring bloomers wow Chicago’s residents and visitors

by Nina A. Koziol

The City of Big Shoulders now boasts one of the most desirable destinations in the country — Millennium Park. The number of visitors from around the globe has grown to more than 20 million annually. It’s no surprise. The 24.5acre site melds exquisite architecture, landscape design and horticulture into an incredible four-season performance.

This spring, the main actors are flowering bulbs—several hundred thousand, from snowdrops and crocus to tulips, daffodils, squill, fritillaries and wild hyacinths (Camassia). The show began in 2006 when garden designer Jacqueline van der Kloet, a colleague of Piet Oudolf, added a spring bulb scheme with 60,000 bulbs to Lurie Garden. In 2018, Austin Eischeid of Austin Eischeid Garden Design in Chicago added 170,000 more bulbs. Eischeid is known for his work at Millennium Park and Midwest Groundcovers, but his projects range from residential to large-scale public spaces across the country.

“The sheer numbers of bulbs — that’s what gives the effect — it’s stunning,” Eischeid said. “Every year we do a new project around the park and I add bulbs. In total we’ve put in about 230,000.” That incredible display kicks off in February with snowdrops and runs through May.

Grape hyacinth (Muscari) and gloryof-the-snow (Chionodoxa forbseii ‘Blue Giant’) create an eye-popping combination against yellow daffodils “They bloom early and people love the color blue. I love using species tulips like ‘Bright Gem’— perennials that come back year after year. I choose subtle colors and I try to make it look as natural as possible.”

Compelling Combos

In the park’s Boeing Galleries, Eischeid used a soothing palette. “I did simple bulbs like snowdrops, pheasant eye daffodils and chionodoxa—a sheet of white, blue, and then white. A simple combination — it’s very ethereal as you walk through — not loud color.”

Eischeid’s artistic eye shows in the combination of Penstemon ‘Pocahontas’ and orange-flowered tulips. “Pocahontas with the purple foliage with ‘Ballerina’ tulip—orange with a bit of red—picks up the penstemon foliage. I think about the combinations of the perennial foliage with the bulb flowers — drifts of Brunnera with daffodils popping up through that haze of blue flowers.”

One of Eischeid’s favorite daffodils is ‘Thalia’ a white-flowered heirloom from 1916. “And, I love ‘Bright Gem’ tulip — it just gets better and better.” He also likes Chionodoxa ‘Blue Giant’ paired with Scilla mischtschenkoana. “And, Fritillaria raddeana — I used that in the Park.” The latter produces large umbels of pendant, bell-shaped, greenish-yellow flowers that stop visitors in their tracks.

Eischeid bolsters four-season interest by leaving some of the dried grasses in place through spring. “The Hakonechloa grass is there for some volume and depth when the bulbs are still quite small. It really emphasizes the groundcover layer of Scilla and Chionodoxa. We come back and strip the Hakonechloa later but it’s worth the month or so of artistic vision to the foundation.”

Eischeid carefully considers which bulbs to pair with perennials so the declining bulb foliage will be hidden. “It’s important to pair the bulb foliage to hide the leaves and eliminate the maintenance of tying the foliage or cutting it back. When I’m designing, I lay a piece of paper over my perennial layer for the bulbs.”

Hellebores, barrenwort (Epimedium ‘Amber Queen’), coral bells (Heuchera ‘Carnival Watermelon’) and astilbes are some of Eischeid’s favorite perennials (at this moment). He also uses native spring ephemerals like Trillium, shooting stars (Dodecatheon) and jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum). Despite the sheer number of visitors, he said there is no apparent damage. “The gardens are elevated so I think that’s helped people from getting into the beds so you can’t just cut through them.”

Maintenance

With several hundred thousand perennials and spring- and summerblooming bulbs, you’d expect heavyduty maintenance to keep it looking good, especially during the summer. “There’s not much maintenance really,” Eischeid explains. “In gardens with plants that come in later, I like to put bulbs around so the foliage suppresses the weeds. Those areas don’t awaken until June when the warm season grasses come in like Panicum. We don’t dead head [the bulbs] or anything. We just leave the leaf litter from the previous year for fertilizer.

Despite the usual squirrels (and occasional rats!), there has been little damage to the bulbs. “If they took a few of the 20,000 planted, we’d probably not notice.” The soil is a roof top mix. “It’s the original one that’s lighter weight loam. Not every bulb loves heavy clay soil — except alliums and daffodils. Most spring-blooming bulbs need freedraining, sharp drainage,” he explains.

Inspiring Homeowners

Eischeid notes that his clients often request a swash of color. “I always put a bulb layer in — grape hyacinths and daffodils, while some people want the whole shebang—layering of bulbs from early to late spring. It’s part of my design process.” In an ideal world Eischeid would like an area devoted to bulbs. “It’s best to do bulbs in the full first season [of installation]. The costs are always hard at first because I charge a separate design fee and they’ll think about the bulbs. But once they see Millennium Park and (continued on page 28)