THE LORETTA CHIARENZA MEMORIAL GARDEN
The
Loretta Chiarenza Memorial Garden is a naturalistic sunken garden where
rock outcrops simulate a mountain environment.
At its entry, off the bluestone patio, white and mauve-flowered Lenten roses (Helleborus orientalis) nod their welcome in late winter and early spring. Stroll down the serpentine gravel pathway, alongside the low stone wall (constructed by Ornamental Horticulture students) and pass by mountain laurel and rhododendron, maidenhair ferns and woodland wildflowers.
At
its end two silver-barked serviceberry trees (Amelanchier laevis)
will signal your descent down the "mountainside". Here
mossy rock outcrops, filled with ferns, form cool seats in a quiet
and reverent
outdoor room.
When you are ready to leave the Loretta Chiarenza Memorial Garden,"hike" up the "rocky, mountain steps", through a tunnel of splendid specimens of Enkianthus campanulatus and Clethra barbinervis onto the Peters Garden lawn, another naturalistic space. Note the quiet pond surrounded by the moisture-loving ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris).
