Adkins Arboretum, Caroline County, MD

A stylized meadow garden

Phyto Studio’s Claudia West designed the entry garden for Adkins Arboretum, a public garden in Maryland focusing on the native plants of Del-Mar-Va peninsula. The planting is particularly challenging, as it requires no irrigation, minimal maintenance, and only natives from the Maryland coastal plain. Claudia designed a simple matrix using low native grasses with five or six iconic wildflowers that emerge through this mix. Alliums come up in the spring, followed by orange Butterflyweeds, pink Purple Love Grass, and finally a wave of Aromatic Asters in the fall. This kind of stylized meadow celebrates the spirit of the place while being low, tidy, and colorful in various seasons—a model for a new kind of ecological horticulture for public spaces.