Sensory Garden
The six raised beds and ergonomic tool display illustrate ways to garden for those with limited strength, energy, and physical ability. Scented, colorful, textured plants are featured in the raised beds, some of which offer sitting ledges.
One of our most popular gardens in our Discovery Garden with special features to help people with mobility or visual difficulties:
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Paved ground
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6 Raised beds at different heights
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Sitting ledges
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Low espalier apple trees
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Square foot gardening
The six raised beds and ergonomic tool display illustrate ways to garden for those with limited strength, energy and physical ability. Scented, colorful, textured plants are featured in the raised beds, some of which offer sitting ledges.
Dwarf Asiatic Lilies in raised bed with adapted tool display
Sitting ledge for resting in the Enabling Garden
Tripartite garden plants; wheelchair accessible.
The Sensory Garden has a special garden for the visually impaired: The stones are to assist people who don’t see well to locate the plants –all of which have a different feel.
White stones separate textured plant groups to enable visually impaired gardeners to feel their way and find the different plants.
Square foot garden can accommodate 24 different plants and is easy for seasonal changes in veggies. The espalier apple trees are in the background.
The Sensory Garden hosts the Carnivorous Plant Display
Yellow trumpet plant: attracts bees to pollinate the flowers. After flowers drop off, the pitcher grows tall and opens up. Insects are attracted to the nectar, drink it and get drunk, and slip down to the bottom where they get dissolved- pitfall!
Purple Pitcher plant: shorter, top is wide open. Insects are attracted to the nectar. They can go down but not up because of downward pointing hairs. They slip down and drown!
Cobra plant: snake like head with a tongue. Fake windows along the neck draw the insects down to the light and they can’t go back up because of the downward pointing hairs. They drown at the bottom!
Sundew: glistening balls attract insects but the balls are sticky and they get stuck! There is acid in the balls that dissolve the insects.
Venus flytrap: nectar inside attracts insects. If an insect touches the hairs inside, the two leaves snap shut and trap it!
Various carnivorous plants in rescued sink
Yellow Pitcher plants (Sarracenia) seen in full bloom before becoming carnivorous when the pitcher opens and starts trapping insects.
The same Yellow Pitcher (Sarracenia) plant mid summer with the pitchers open.
Sensory Garden Plant List
| # | Botanical Name | Cultivar | Common Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Astilbe spp. | astilbe (white) | |
| 2 | Camellia japonica | 'Debutante' | camellia |
| 3 | Darlingtonia californica | cobra plant | |
| 4 | Dionaea muscipula | venus flytrap | |
| 5 | Drosera sp. | sundew | |
| 6 | Helleborus orientalis | 'Heritage Cherrywood' | lenten rose |
| 7 | Hydrangea anomala | climbing hydrangea | |
| 8 | Kerria japonica | 'Pleniflora' | Japanese rose |
| 9 | Salvia microphylla | 'Hot Lips' | salvia |
| 10 | Saracenia flava | yellow trumpet | |
| 11 | Saracenia purpurea | purple trumpet | |
| 12 | Cercis canadensis | 'Ruby Falls' | weeping eastern redbud |
| 13 | Chamaemelum nobile | 'Treneague' | non-flowering chamomile |
| 14 | Erica carnea | 'Springwood White' | winter heath |
| 15 | Erica erigena | 'Superba' | pink heath |
| 16 | Euonymus fortunei | 'Emerald 'n Gold' | winter creeper |
| 17 | Malus | 'Evereste' | crabapple |
| 18 | Ophiopogon planiscapus | 'Nigrescens' | black mondo grass |
| 19 | Cersis canadensis | weeping eastern redbud | |
| 20 | Hylotelephium spectabile | 'Autumn Joy' | sedum |
| 21 | Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus | lemon daylily | |
| 22 | Paeonia | peony | |
| 23 | Pieris japonica | 'Little Heath' | Japanese pieris, Andromeda |
| 24 | Rosa rugosa | 'William Lobb' | shrub rose |
| 25 | Spiraea x vanhouttei | 'Vanhoutte Spirea' | spirea |
| 26 | Adiantum vennstum | Himalayan maidenhair fern | |
| 27 | Armeria maritima | sea thrift | |
| 28 | Asplenium trichomanses | maidenhair spleenwort | |
| 29 | Blechrum penna-marina | alpine water fern | |
| 30 | Blechrum spicent | deer fern | |
| 31 | Hosta hybrid | 'Bue Mouse Ears' | plaintain lily |
| 32 | Hypoestes phyllostachya | polka dot plant | |
| 33 | Nemesia x hybrida | 'Sunglow Yellow' (bicolor) | nemesia |
| 34 | Saturega* douglasii | 'Yerba Buena' | yerba buena |
| 35 | Saxifraga cotyledon | mountain lady | |
| 36 | Soleirolia soleirolii | angel's tears,baby's tears | |
| 37 | Torenia hybrida | 'Summer Wave Bouquet' (gold) | wishbone flower |
| 38 | Viola carnuta | ' 'Johnny Jump-up' and 'Viola Sorbet®' | tufted pansy |
| 39 | Clematis | 'Vanso' Blue Light ® | clematis |
| 40 | Geum coccineum | 'Mango Lassi Geum' | avens |
| 41 | Geum coccineum | 'Pumpkin Orange Geum' | geum |
| 42 | Nemesia x hybrida | 'Sunglow Yellow' (bicolor) | nemesia |
| 43 | Petunia hybrida | 'Headliner Night Sky' | petunia |
| 44 | Viola hybrida | 'Swiss Giant' | pansy |
| 45 | Agastache | 'Pink Pearl' | hummingbird mint |
| 46 | Allium schoenoprasum | common chives, onion chives | |
| 47 | Allium tuberosum | common chives, onion chives | |
| 48 | Cymbopogon citratus | lemon grass, citronella grass | |
| 49 | Ocimum basilicum | 'Everleaf Thai Towers' | columnar Thai basil |
| 50 | Origanum vulgare | 'Gold Tip' | marjoram |
| 51 | Rosemary officinalis | 'Blue Spire' | rosemary |
| 52 | Salvia elegans | 'Honey Melon' | sage |
| 53 | Salvia officinalis | 'Icterina' | golden variegated sage, purple sage, common sage |
| 54 | Satureja hortensis | summer savory | |
| 55 | Satureja montana | winter savory | |
| 56 | Thymus citriodorus | 'Archer's Gold' | thyme |
| 57 | Thymus pulegioides | 'Foxley' | thyme |
| 58 | Thymus vulgaris | 'Compactum' | compact thyme |
| 59 | Heuchera sp. | coral bells | |
| 60 | Lewisia x cotyledon | 'Rainbow mix' | bitterroot, lewisia |
| 61 | Lilium × asiaticum | dwarf Asiatic lily | |
| 62 | Nemesia x hybrida | 'Sunglow Yellow' (bicolor) | nemesia |
| 63 | Ocimum basilicum | Italian basil | |
| 64 | Ocimum basilicum var. minimum | Greek basil | |
| 65 | Rosemary officianalis | 'Huntington Carpet' | creeping rosemary |
| 66 | Viola cornuta | 'Penny Primrose Picotee' | viola |
| 67 | Malus | apple tree |