When Frederick Law Olmsted designed Biltmore’s gardens, he planned their beauty to last through all four seasons, so it’s little wonder the blooms of estate gardens continue well into fall.

The Walled Garden

In the formal gardens, the show continues with carefully planted flowers designed to blossom through cooler temperatures. The Walled Garden hosts an array of fall mums that provide color from late September through the end of October. This year’s color show includes brilliant blooms in red, purple, orange, and yellow.

The Rose Garden

Rose lovers can enjoy a sneak peek of the judging of the annual International Rose Trials September 22–23. Since 2011, Biltmore’s historic Rose Garden has served as the home for the trials. More than 90 varieties from growers and breeders worldwide have been planted and cared for by Biltmore’s horticulturalists.

The Azalea Garden

The glory of fall blooms continues through the estate’s informal gardens. The Azalea Garden, filled with 15 acres of native azaleas, enjoys a second bloom in the fall. Other gardens are also alive with late blooming annuals, perennials, and vibrant leaves on the estate’s native and exotic trees.

Estate Grounds

For those looking for fall color beyond the gardens, a scenic drive through the estate provides a wonderful opportunity to slow down and savor views of forests flush with color and panoramic vistas. The road by the Reception & Ticketing Sales Center is populated by vibrant orange and red sugar maple trees, while an afternoon drive by the Bass Pond offers views of bright fall foliage reflecting in the water.

The Lagoon

A trip to Antler Hill Village & Winery provides the chance to drive by the Lagoon and enjoy views of the house’s western façade framed by vibrant leaves. Between the estate’s gardens and grounds, the promise of fall color begins in early September and continues until late October, making any time a perfect time to experience autumn on the estate. Plan your visit today.

Summertime is when some of our tiniest, most delicate guests come for an estate visit. Drawn to the large colorful patches of zinnias and bee balm, hummingbirds and butterflies flutter and dart around garden beds brimming with flowers planted there months earlier just for them.

The gardens in Antler Hill Village are particularly abuzz with these pretty creatures. Dusty Hafer, a crew member on Biltmore’s horticulture team, plans the planting beds for the village area, and he deliberately includes plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies.

We asked Dusty for some tips on what plants the home gardener can plant to attract their own tiny visitors, and what’s working well in the village’s gardens.

“Variety is key to attracting butterflies and hummingbirds,” Dusty says. “Each has different preferences, so more garden variety yields more wildlife variety. Not only that, plant variety throughout the growing season is key. Layering your garden with overlapping bloom times will result in having the most options available throughout the year.”

According to Dusty, here’s what’s attracting butterflies and hummingbirds to Antler Hill Village right now.

• Bee balm (monarda didyma) – Its red tubular flowers are a hummingbird favorite, but butterflies love it as well. After the first flush of flowers fade, cut the plant back about halfway and to get additional flowering later in the summer.
• Butterfly Bush – This species has a long bloom time, from spring through frost in the fall. It’s also a great choice if your gardening space is small. Hummingbirds like it just as butterflies do. Dusty warns that some species of the plant can become invasive, so select a sterile cultivar.
• Salvia gauranitica ‘black and blue’ – Another Hummingbird favorite that has a fairly long bloom time.
• Verbena bonariensis – This one doubles as a nectar plant and host plant to a few species. It self-seeds, but will take over if you don’t pull its seedlings from places where you don’t want it. Goldfinches are also drawn to the seeds.
• Ironweed ‘Iron Butterfly’ (vernonia lettermannii ‘Iron Butterfly’) – Butterflies love this newer, very attractive, cultivar of native ironweed.
• Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’ – Another butterfly favorite with a very long bloom time. Trim spent blooms to encourage better re-blooming and a tidy look.
• Zinnias – A wide variety of zinnias is on the market in different sizes, colors, and flower types and most are very attractive to both butterflies and hummingbirds. Put them out after danger of frost has passed and they will bloom practically non-stop until the first frost in the fall.

Dusty suggested additional strategies to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

• Host plants – Include host plants for butterflies to lay their eggs and for their caterpillars to use as a food source. “Each species of butterfly has certain plants it will use as a host plant,” Dusty says. Monarch butterflies, for example, only use milkweeds, and they prefer certain milkweeds over others. Other good host plants for other types of butterflies are pansies, violets, fennel, hollyhock, switchgrasses, tall verbena, maypop, tulip poplar, black cherry, oaks, ash, and willows.
• Water sources – Though hummingbirds are too small to use the depth of water in a typical bird bath, they love moving, splashing water, so consider a bird bath with a falling water feature. Mist stations also attract hummingbirds.  A small pond with a waterfall is another good option. Butterflies land on wet patches of soil where they get water and minerals. Dusty says you can place a very shallow dish in the garden and fill it with sand and pebbles to create a puddling station. Water it often enough to keep it thoroughly moist and butterflies will love it.

Lisa Peek, one of Biltmore’s Field to Table gardeners, recently received a new title: Hydroponics Specialist.

So when it comes to growing plants without soil in our Production Garden, she is truly a pro.

“I’d have to say my favorite thing about working in the Production Garden is learning new techniques to better meet the needs of our estate restaurants,” says Lisa.

And the hydroponic process is doing just that.

Why Hydroponics?

“Because we have such high demand from our chefs for estate-grown produce—greens, in particular—we had to figure out a way to produce higher yields that are still top-notch quality,” Lisa explains.

Simply put, the hydroponic system allows our gardeners to provide a plant with exactly what it needs, when it needs it, and in the amount that it needs.

To consistently meet all of those requirements while growing a plant in soil is far more difficult.

Throw in the volume necessary to meet the demands of six full-service estate restaurants and the challenge becomes clear.

The benefits of hydroponics for our situation are undeniable. In addition to higher and more consistent yields, the system results in better taste and texture because the plants are not as vulnerable to variables like sunlight, wind, and temperature.

The hydroponic greenhouse protection also results in less waste as outer parts of the plants are not damaged by these elements.

Plus, all of our leafy greens are grown in deep water cultures, resulting in such high H₂O content that their shelf-life quadruples!

More Greens, More Greenhouses

To meet the increasing demand for estate-grown produce, we have also found the need to increase our Production Garden space.

The addition of two greenhouses will provide Lisa and her team with basically triple the square footage.

The new greenhouses are being built exclusively for our deep water cultures. One will house solely lettuce, while the other will house spinach, mustards, kale, collards, and other leafy greens.

Our existing space will be home to starter plants for the other two greenhouses as well as various types of hydroponic systems.

For edible flowers like snapdragons and herbs such as sage and thyme, we are implementing a Dutch bucket system, which essentially functions as a regulated reservoir. This technique allows us to use a variety of growing mediums while also producing less waste.

The Production Garden on the west side of the estate is the backbone of our hydroponics and Field to Table Program. And thanks to dedicated employees like Lisa, we are able to honor George Vanderbilt’s original vision of a self-sustaining estate as well as his unswerving passion for innovation.

The Italian Garden next to Biltmore House was created to offer a tranquil spot for enjoying magnificent reflections of America’s Largest Home^®. The design, which includes three large pools filled with aquatic plants, remains remarkably true to the intention of Frederick Law Olmsted, Biltmore’s landscape architect.

Chihuly At Biltmore Was On Display From May 17 To October 7, 2018.
Please Enjoy This Archived Content.

Chihuly at Biltmore

In 2018, the Italian Garden is just one of the estate’s settings showcasing Chihuly at Biltmore—an exhibition of large-scale glass sculptures by American artist Dale Chihuly now through October 7. The vibrant colors and organic shapes that distinguish Chihuly’s creations are captivating presented within Biltmore’s artfully designed landscapes.

Caring for the Italian Garden

For the past several years, Chuck Cissell’s primary responsibility as a member of Biltmore’s landscaping team has been the Italian Garden with a focus on the aquatic plants. It’s a job he enjoys year-round, especially he can be in the pools caring for the breathtaking blooms that reach their peak in the summer months.

Blooming water lily

Planning for the seasons

Beginning in the fall, Chuck creates a plan for the Italian Garden pools. He places plant orders in April and May, and completes plant installations in June. Most of the aquatic plants come from Tricker’s Water Gardens—a company that was one of the first commercial water lily growers in the United States. Amazingly, it’s the same supplier that Olmsted used.

“I order many of the same plants that Olmsted used from Tricker’s, but today there are new colors and hardier blooms because they’ve experimented with growing and hybridizing water lilies to improve the shape, colors, and hardiness,” said Chuck.

“We always order new tropical water lilies and Victoria water platters with their huge lily pads. In one pool we have about 50 different lilies, including night-blooming varieties.”

Summer beauty in the Italian Garden

Glorious blooms

In June, you’ll see 130 hardy and tropical water lilies begin blooming. The lotus bed display starts in early July, and the gigantic platter-shaped Victoria lilies are largest in late August.  For the center pool display, Chuck used plants including ‘Sweet Caroline Bronze’ sweet potato vine, ‘Mahogany Splendor’ Hibiscus, sun-tolerant Bromeliads, and dwarf Cannas. He picked muted colors like purple, silver, and bronze to highlight and compliment Chihuly’s Palazzo Ducale Tower glass sculpture in that location.

“I feed and fertilize the water lilies once a week; they are heavy feeders. And we groom three times a week from June to October. Grooming—that means removing the pollinated blooms—helps increase the number of blooms a lily produces,” said Chuck.

Colorful koi in the pools

Keeping the koi content

The filtration system in the pools is original 1895 technology, using constant water flowing into and out of the pools. The gravity-fed reservoir, which also used to provide water to Biltmore House, provides water for the pools.

Natural filtration is beneficial to the colorful koi that populate the Italian Garden pools. We know from archival records that Olmsted wanted to have fish in the pools, and while we don’t know exactly when the koi were introduced, at least one is about 50 years old.

Statuary around the Italian Garden pools

Preserving Olmsted’s Italian Garden designs

Because of the sheer volume of receipts, plans, and letters in Biltmore’s garden archives, Biltmore’s gardeners have only gone through a fraction of all the information available.

For Chuck, that’s one of the most important elements of his job. “I really like the historic aspect of gardening here,” he said. “I have the joy of knowing I’m recreating the same thing that the Vanderbilts saw in 1895, and continuing that tradition.”

Visit the Italian Garden now

Plan your summer visit to Biltmore today. It’s a great time to introduce your children to America’s Largest Home^® as ages 16 and under are admitted free from Memorial Day to Labor Day when accompanied by a ticketed adult.

Featured blog image: A reflection of Biltmore House in the Italian Garden pools