INCREDIBLE CHILDREN’S GARDEN TOUR

Well, boy, do we have a special garden tour for you today. We are down at the Myriad Gardens in downtown Oklahoma City, specifically in the Children's area, the Children's Garden. I am here with my new best friend, Caitlin Bacon. What's your official title, Caitlin? Children's Garden Manager. Okay, Stewart, I'm going to ask you to just do a pan. We're going to definitely get into the gardens, but if you have not been here, it is absolutely marvelous. There's a carousel over here. And Caitlin, you said that opens at 11? And then there is a water park here. And all of this, by the way, all of this is free. And it is just off of Reno in downtown Oklahoma City, just in the shadow of the Devon Tower. And can I just say that I feel like a kid again. You feel like it when you're in here. Oh my gosh. And there is no shortage of enthusiasm when it comes to Caitlin. So we're going to try to move kind of fast here. We're going to go through a double arbor. You can see this premier one. And then there's a secondary one. And what is this climbing on here? This is our cross vine. It's a native here, really popular with pollinators. And we love it in the spring when it starts blooming. And sometimes in the fall, it smells like pancakes. We have kids running through here telling us that it smells like waffles. The pancake plant. And you say, I did not realize cross vine was a native. And does it die back and then come back again? Or is it an annual? I can't remember. So it stays pretty green. I cut it back when we had that ice storm come through. And it got really, really cold. I went ahead and cut it back all the way. And it came back and it's flushed out in just a year and a half. Oh, my gosh. To completely cover it. Stewart, if you don't mind showing how it is supported. Because you've got lots of climbers here in the children's garden. And they need good support. Yep. Yes, definitely. And the flowers on cross vine are red? Yeah, like a rusty red. A rusty red. And then talk about grand entrance and framing the view, Stewart. Isn't this just really, really wonderful to, what would if you were a kid would just be so titillating to just see a piece of play equipment in the future. When you, yeah, in your future. And this is, it is just, I'm almost speechless because it is just so fun. Stewart, we need to come up here, just the two of us and play. So on this surround, first of all, there is a wonderful play area over here. And I guess you can, can you go in that tinted area? So in our tower, our tower is currently down. Okay. We've got it completely wrapped just for repairs. We've got some structural things we're working on in there. But usually, yes, they can go up in that. But the rest of this is still, is still open. I look at this. This would be a darling idea in a school garden or something. The sun is not yellow. It's orange. Don't listen to orange. The sun is clearly yellow. It's just clever. Yeah. All of these things. So we just recently finished up our children's garden festival, which was a 10 day festival. It's one of our two fundraisers of the year. This year was A is for art. And one of the books we featured was The Day the Crayons Quit, when they all tell their little human why they're going on strike. And we compliment Dex the entire gardens out in this art thing. Well, it is adorable. It is. And black. I'm tired of drawing outlines. We have a bunch of them. Our play equipment is ADA accessible. We got a grant in 2017, I believe. Wow. Where these you can, it's wheelchair accessible. So they're multi accessible. And you told me, obviously, this is all organic. Everything here is organic. And almost everything here is probably intended to attract pollinators. This canopy of shade. I'm so glad it's still here and didn't suffer a lot of damage. It took a beating. It really did. Back when we had that ice storm in October of 2020. But we worked really hard at trying to very selectively prune what we could to save what we couldn't. And all in all, we only lost two trees in the children's garden completely from that. And what variety of oak are these? So we've got our sumart oaks here. Are any of them? Yeah, we've got our sawtooth oak over in the corner. And I think this is a sumart is what I've got 100 year old sumart in my front yard. And it really took a beating. Stewart, would you mind showing that tunnel from this perspective? So you can see that there's openings through it, which gives lots of air circulation and a really wonderful breeze. Now, Caitlin, could you talk about this area in here? Sure. So this area we've got, this is just kind of our color area. We've got our boxwoods here that kind of, we want it to look like it's a circular entry. We call this the four corners. Our big goal here is to make it just as colorful as possible to really draw the kids in, see the plants. We've kind of experimented a little bit where we had two trees that we lost. And so the shade to sun ratios have been varying as the canopy has been refilling. But it's one that we've just really enjoyed putting color in and really focusing on the shape and the bright colors. Yeah, the shape. So your circle is still complete and you have good symmetry here. Yeah. Which is nice to point out that after you have a disaster in the garden, you can still recover it from it. I see a large hydrangea over here. Do you know what variety? So we have our limelight panicle hydrangeas out here. It's a huge amount of the ones we have. A lot of panicle hydrangeas. We have a couple oak leaf as well. That blue Monday wood. Now, please show us this. This is one of our, so this is a hardy hibiscus. This is one of our, I believe, I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure this is called the peppermint schnapps. So a hardy hibiscus. They're really cool. They are hardy. They die back to the ground as a perennial each year and come right back up. So unlike your tropical hibiscus, you don't have to take them inside to survive in winter. And how beautiful is this? So you've got a backdrop of, are those laurels? Are they Carolina laurels? So these are the cherry laurels. Cherry laurels, okay. And you can see through here and look at how beautiful that bald cypress I get. Is that a bald cypress? What is this tree right here? Yeah. I love the way it captures the light. So obviously for the kiddos, you've really thought about giving them a protected shady area to play. Yeah, we really want it to be, we try a lot of, our playground area is a whole lot of shade and we do that intentionally so that they've got that protected area. When you move out into the garden, you'll see more variety in sun versus shade for exploration, but it definitely comes back to this little haven. I love this sweet little peach tree you have here. And I love the way you've got it kind of pruned up. And what's growing on the fence? We've got a grape. So it's a seedless grape. We've got a lot of grapes on it right now. So it grows. We've got three canes on the ground and the rest of this is just the straw. And does it produce or is that too shady over there? It actually produces really pretty well. We've got a whole bunch of clusters of grapes on it right now. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it gets... You probably would want to see that. Let's go look. Okay. I was just... I can hear everybody go, go over there and look at the grapes. Do you know what variety this grape is? So it's a seedless grape. Okay. Yeah. Let me stay close to you so people can hear you. Okay. Yeah. And over this, a lot of these are fruit trees and everything. We call this our fruits and roots area. Fruits and roots. Cute. Oh my gosh. What a fun surprise for a child to see that. They taste really good when they... And everything is so, is just so beautifully maintained. Now, just as a point of reference, we're... It's still a little bit early here. So the kiddos are probably just starting to arrive. Okay, Stuart, I'm sorry. I just have to show the vistas here. Beyond the carousel, look at all of the blooming perennials. The purple and yellow over there. It is an incredible downtown space. And I think we're all so proud of our downtown. Oh yeah. Because it is just amazing. If you are an out-of-town visitor or a tourist, you definitely need to come. You definitely need to come downtown. Stuart, wouldn't you like to take a spin on that? Yeah. It's fun. Yeah, it really, it looks fun. I want to do all of this. Okay. And what is this tiny, sweet little house over here? Right over here, this is our music maze. We, it's, we put in, it used to be ink berries. And we transitioned it to... Inkberry hollies? I'm sorry? Inkberry hollies? Yes. Okay. And we transitioned it to Rose of Sharon. We've got two different kinds. We've got the larger Ladies Danielate on the outside to create that border, that boundary. So it's secluded. And then we put the Little Kim lining it. So that when you walk into the maze, you kind of have to walk your way through to your path. Yeah. Yeah, stay close, stay close to me, Caitlin. This is adorable. And these are so tough. And boy, that's a tip. Look at these tough, tough plants. And they have so many buds on them. So if you want something, I can't imagine what this looks like when it's all in bloom. It's amazing. And in September, I, it was really, last September, back in this corner, especially, it was just protected enough with a little bit of shade. Hundreds of monarchs. All over these, between the abelia on the other side of this, and all of this Rose of Sharon, they were going nuts. Wow. Stuart, we definitely need to come back here and get a peek at this when everything is in bloom. And it's not, because I just, I want to be a kid again. You can be. Hop right in. We've got in here. So the floor, it's kind of hard to tell from here, but it's the chromatic scale there, where they can pop music and make noise and music in there, as well as a storyboard that complemented in our festival. Yeah. I used to know Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by memory, and I don't think I can do it anymore. I've always said I can play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on anything, including three glasses. Because, Stuart, you're a musician. And so, yeah, and this was our storyboard that we had. We did Aaron Slater. Illustrator was another book we did featuring Aaron Slater's dyslexic, and he has a hard time. So he tells his story largely through gardens. He loves gardening and plant life and everything, but instead of, he can't write or speak or write or read very well because of the dyslexia. Yeah. He tells it through imagery in the garden and illustrating. Look, there's just little surprises every, just little surprises everywhere. And again, I cannot say in as enough times, this is all free. Yes. This is all free. Well, let's get, let's get out of this maze. Well, I had a thought too. There's probably enough stuff on the other side to kind of, this in one video and a video. In a whole nother video? Okay. Well, we're trying, this is, I haven't been here for a while, and we're trying to really capture the scope of it and all there is to do and spread it and spread it out because it's just, it is just incredibly amazing. And the other thing is, is it's so, so beautifully maintained. We, I have a lot of fun out here. It's kind of hard to say that sometimes you've managed to land your dream job, but I kind of feel like that's where I am with this. I think we feel the same. I think, yeah, we feel the same way. And this is just so wonderful. Tell me this variety again. This is the Lil' Kim. Lil' Kim. It does really well. It tops out at about five feet. It stays pretty well maintained. I hedged it for the first time this year. Otherwise, I've just been letting it grow. So it does really well. Boy, if you need a wonderful hedge plant that blooms, now it's not evergreen. No, it does drop its leaves in the winter. But, but you said this whole area is just filled with monarchs. So as a pollinator, boy, tip, great, great plant. I, if I had more space, I would be introducing lots of those. Yeah, they work really well in narrow beds. You can see how narrow this bed is and they haven't been a problem with. If you were starting a new garden, definitely I would visit gardens like this. Because if you kind of know, oh, I want to hedge someplace or I want this certain color palette or here, you know, in one place or another, then community gardens like this are wonderful because they show plants that are really, really tough and typically are organically grown and, and relatively easy to maintain. We have plant tours every second Friday and last Saturday of the month to feature different, you know, one month might be xeriscaping, another might be shade specific, things like that. And we, our horticulturists do that so that we're on site to provide information. Definitely a lens through which to look at all of these garden spaces is a, you know, from a design standpoint, but also if you want some ideas for, okay, what works really well in the shade? Yeah. What works really well in the sun? Obviously, this is a very sunny area and this reminds me of Marie Antoinette's little garden at Versailles where she had a, she had her own little play garden. We kind of joke that we, we buy plants, try them out and if they fail, we've tried it so you don't have to. So come on out. That is, yeah, and it just goes to show that even professional gardeners and things can, you know, it's trial and error. Oh, absolutely. What do we have here? So we've got our monkey grass here and these were actually three crape myrtle trees that these were, this one was one of our victims of the 2020. Of the Arctic blast. Yeah. And then these ones were in steady decline. We are currently kind of bushing them out. This is an experiment in works right now, seeing what they're going to do before we make our final decision on what we want to do. They were white crape myrtle. Yeah, Natchez, maybe? Natchez crape myrtle. And that was a real tragedy, not only in Oklahoma, but all through the South that experienced that Arctic blast. At least they didn't die, but they're no longer small trees. Look, it's just little things like this that are so delightful and the clever little signs. So are you the one that comes up with the ideas for these? Yeah, so I've been working on making these signs. It's, these are one of my little pet projects here. I've been learning from my boss who, he is amazing at interpretation and everything. And so I've been learning from him and kind of spreading my wings on that. You should definitely rub the leaves and smell them. Tell me if it smells like flowers. Oh, I can smell it. And not only, sir, you've got to smell this. I'll give it a whirl. Here, here, wait. Yeah, popcorn. And not only popcorn, it's buttered popcorn. Buttered popcorn, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Boy, I mean exactly like popcorn. And what is it again? This is a popcorn plant. It's literally called a popcorn plant. Popcorn plant. It's in the Senna family. It's a Senna plant. Okay, cool. In the pea family. Yeah. We try really hard to, I, one of my big goals in the children's garden is to have a multi-century experience because I feel like kids remember plants better when they experience them from mold. Multiple senses. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely so experiential. And is that an annual or a perennial? It is a tropical. It's a tropical. It acts as an annual here, so I have to take that in. Yeah. And all of this? This is my painter's palette, knotweed. It's been amazing. I love the colors on it. It comes back really faithfully each year and just keeps doing better and better. And I continue to be astonished. I don't see holes in the leaves or anything and you're doing all of this organically. That is just incredible. Tell us about this. So this is one of our comfrees. I love, our comfrees are doing really well here. I love it for again that multi-century how fuzzy the leaves are and the flowers are really pretty and springy. And every, all the plants are marked. And I love the fact that it tells you its area of origin. And this is doing well in shade. It does really well. I have another planting over on the other side that I put in. This one's several years old, this planting. I have one on the other side that's just about two years old and it's blown me away by how fast it's grown. And this comes back? This comes back every year, yeah. And this? So this is our arrowwood viburnum here. It's a really pretty, it does really well. Gorgeous shape. Boy, am I getting ideas for my next garden, Stuart. Oh my gosh. I am, I have become a real new, well I've always loved viburnums. But the family is so extensive and there are so, look at the berries on these. Will these turn that beautiful? The blue. Very popular in wedding bouquets. Yes. Right now. And this is one of those perfect kind of trees, you guys, that you could prune up and then you're able to plant underneath them and it gives this wonderful form. And this is growing in some shade. Yeah, it's really enjoyed. I think it's done the best in where it's got just that dappled sun coming through to it. Don't we all want that dappled shade? High dappled shade. A little bit of sun. We all want it. And you've used this on the entire surround. So you've got one, two, three, four. So just planting large spaces planted in moss. Really, really beautiful. And we've got some Acuba japonica over here. And our Acuba is bouncing back slowly from it when we had that huge cold front that came in a couple years ago. It knocked it back really hard. It used to be really flush. It's getting back to there. Yeah, mine did this. Mine did the same thing. Is this a weeping redbud? Uh-huh. We've got, yeah, this is like our little redbud corner over here that we've got. He is very fountain-y. Almost like a weeping mulberry. Now, are the kids allowed to get back in there and get underneath there? They can. For the most part, the boundaries, we try to encourage... Like, so we always have... Kids will get back there in any place that we want. Yeah. And in certain ways, we want that. We try to be mindful of what we plant so that they're hardy for... Their top. Yeah, yeah. Kids coming in. So we've got... They can go back in this area. You can kind of see an area where they have. Because it would be so tempting to get right up underneath it. Is this cast iron plant? It is, yeah. It's been coming back every year. When we have really cold fronts come through, it kind of knocks... You can see kind of where some of that old leaves are. And this is a beautiful native grass. What is this? This is chasmanthium. It's our sea oats or our northern sea oats, as you can see. And so you can kind of see here's like one of our corner where we get a little bit of wear and tear from kids running through. And you can also see this is a pretty rampant spreader. Yes. And it's one of those things I would probably grow in a pot if I were growing it because... But it's so beautiful. And in the fall, it makes great cut... It is. It's gorgeous. It's one of my... Cutting material. We do floral arrangement classes here, and chasmanthium is one of the top ones. But it is very much... You have to get on it really early. It does spread around the garden. And if you don't get to it early, it puts down roots that are kind of hard to get up. And this ground cover here... We've got our acorus, however you wish to pronounce it. Acorus is another one I've heard. Is this a hydrangea? Uh-huh. This is one of our limelight panicle hydrangeas here. Boy, the way everything is pruned so beautifully that it doesn't flop or... And limelight's better about that than some other ones. Let's end right here. And Stuart, can we go back with the scope so you can kind of see where we came in and what other treasures there are to plan? I love the layering here, and I also love the fact that the outside layer is the same. It's all of these wonderful bald cypress, which are really tough, make great street trees, and are beautiful. And then the oaks, which do so well here. Yeah, we've got our oaks, our three trees mainly. We've got our oaks, we've got our plain trees, and we've got our bald cypress. Well, this is pretty incredible. So, Stuart, let's just end on this note and titillate people to see what is left to come. Well, what's cool is they can't see it at all. You can't see... Yeah, you kind of can't see it at all. It's really the gardener's side. Stuart, if we were... It's just the two of us. We were here. Stuart would be running up and down these little hills and everything, wouldn't you, Stuart? I could so see... He'd never go out. Go running. Yeah, go running. Go see him. We do not just get kids in this garden. We have adults who come in without kids very regularly. Well, and it feels so calm and such a lovely breeze. And on a day where it's really, really hot, boy, if you were a jogger, I'd be jogging right... Yeah. I'd be jogging right through here. Guys, again, if you have not been here, you definitely need to come. Caitlin, thank you so much. Can we now do another video in the other area? Okay, that's wonderful. Let's do it.