Last week, I was fortunate enough to visit a 5 acre garden on the shore of Lake Michigan with the Garden Writers Association Region III members. It is called Lake Cliff Garden and was amazing! I, of course, was on the look out for houseplants and tropicals and I found plenty. Check them out!

As we walked up the driveway, we were greeted with this planting. Wow! Those succulents out in California haven’t got anything on these here in Michigan!

As we continued up the driveway, (yes, I said driveway) this collection of succulents appeared.

This mother fern (Asplenium bulbiferum)planted in a bonsai tray was phenomenal! I’m not going to tell you how many of these I’ve killed…..

And what about this wall hanging?

Around the guest house were a lot of houseplants being used for the summer in an outdoor living room.

What a great windowbox!

 

The enclosed “yew walled” garden was filled with tropical plants.

As we walked through the rest of the garden I found houseplants randomly used in the landscape.

How do these plants get so large? What do they do with them in the winter in this Zone 6a garden? They are all moved into a greenhouse where they are taken care of all winter by the gardener. This garden was completely designed by the homeowner and is taken care of by the husband, wife,  and one full time gardener. The tropicals are kept 7 months in the greenhouse and for 5 months they reside in the garden. Around October 1st, they dig them all up and put them away for the winter.

I love that houseplants are used in the garden to enhance the landscape. The homeowner who designed this garden is incredibly talented and the gardener obviously takes good care of these plants over the winter.