WHEATON – In redesigning and replanting the gardens at Cantigny Park, park officials wanted the gardens to continue to reflect the vision of Franz Lipp, the renowned landscape architect who first designed and planted them in the 1960s and '70s.
"Since his original design, we really haven't done much to the display gardens," said Scott Witte, director of horticulture at Cantigny Park. "Landscape design firm Sasaki Associates really honored some components to the original Franz Lipp design, with geometric shapes and things like that. And we reincorporated that into the newly renovated area."
The redesigned and replanted gardens are part of a $25 million renovation project at Cantigny Park called Project New Leaf, a five-year renovation project started in late 2016 that is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. The gardens, which have been closed to the public since fall 2017, will reopen July 14.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. that day, and guests can then explore the gardens with Cantigny horticulture experts, who will explain the plantings and answer questions. More information is available at Cantigny's website, cantigny.org.
The gardens are one of the most popular attractions at Cantigny Park.
"The gardens and the First Division Museum run neck and neck," said Jeff Reiter, senior manager of communications for Cantigny Park. "I think the gardens have just slightly higher visitation. We're known for the gardens. The gardens are known throughout the region, and they're always changing with the seasons, so people have reasons to come back more than once a year."
Witte said he knows the impact the gardens have on people.
"It's impossible not to walk in and feel inspired and feel like you are a part of nature," he said. "The gardens help connect people to nature in so may ways, whether it's visually or audibly with the birds and the wind through the trees. It just makes it a special place, all in all."
One of the first things longtime Cantigny Park visitors might notice is that the rose garden has been relocated to be near the Visitors Center. The space includes a trellis gazebo for wedding ceremonies, a small lawn and a surrounding 7-foot privacy hedge of Japanese yew.
"The trellis will provide a wedding venue, which will be a very popular spot for wedding receptions and wedding ceremonies," Witte said. "It's a little more convenient and close to the Visitors Center."
Another area is fittingly called the white garden. The garden features a myriad of white flowering plants in a formal setting with boxwood and taxus hedges.
"As many plants are seasonal bloomers, as one fades, another one will rise, but all with the white theme coming through," Witte said.
A pollinator garden dedicated to sustaining pollinator health and the work of bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and flies also is featured in the new gardens. The gardens include more seating options as well, including a circular bench around a large bur oak tree.
"This is a bur oak that was here inside the original Franz Lipp design and protected feverishly throughout the entire process," Witte said.
In addition, the new gardens also feature improved pathways and access to a nearby pond via steps and a boardwalk.
"You can go right up to the water's edge, which was never possible before," Reiter said. Other completed aspects of Project New Leaf include the renovation of the First Division Museum and the installation of Red Oaks Farm playground in the park's picnic area.