A summer oasis of serenity and delight

Now that summer is officially here, Wave Hill’s lush gardens are bursting with color and aroma. 

The long dry winter was troubling, but the heavens woke up in spring to drench the area with record rainfalls, depositing drops as valuable to a variety of flowering plants as donations are to Wave Hill’s annual appeal. 

On a recent afternoon, a man stood in the sun watering a freshly planted paisley bed and more than two dozen lavender plants showed off every conceivable shade of purple, attracting flocks of white butterflies to Lavender Lane.

The public estate overflowed with life, as young children sought nooks and crannies for games of hide and seek, a woman took a solitary moment looking out over the river and a couple lounged on the verdant lawn. 

The wild garden, inspiration for the art in Wave Hill’s Glyndor Gallery and what Wave Hill Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications Martha Gellens calls the “harbinger of spring,” is bursting with blooms. The slope where it’s planted has more than the necessary paths, rocky and winding so that visitors might be forced to slow down and take in the crocuses, snowdrops, daffodils, the shades of orange, magenta, purple, yellow and green. 

Beyond the wildness is the peace that comes with water. A school of goldfish swim in the Aquatic Garden, where perched on one lily is a single pink flower and on another, yellow triplets.

New additions don’t make a splash here. They blend in until they catch your eye. A woven ball of willow with deep red bromeliads jutting out is but one of the new attractions this summer. 

Still, a small child sums up the magic best, as she frolics with her friends:  “A bug! A flower! Fishies!” 

Sunset Wednesdays

Sunset Wednesdays, which begin Wednesday, July 11 and continue through Aug. 29, keep the Glyndor Gallery, Perkins Visitor Center, and The Shop at Wave Hill open until 8 p.m. 

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