The Sunny Garden is located at Bon Air Park, Wilson Blvd. at North Lexington Street between Ballston and Seven Corners. The Garden is at the north end of the parking lot.
Created in 1990, the Sunny Garden displays a great number of perennials, most for sunny locations and, under the canopy of the white oak, shade-tolerant plants and late winter to early spring bloomers. The Garden offers four season interest with its variety of flowering plants and grasses. Over the years, it has developed and expanded to meet changing conditions and its beds now incorporate more native plants.
To learn more about the creation and evolution of the Garden and to see pictures of Master Gardeners at work on some of the multi-year (2013–2017) renovation projects, read Sunny Demonstration Garden at Bon Air Park, Sunny Garden Renovations 2014, New Focal Point for the Sunny Garden, and Sunny Garden Leaves No Stones Unturned. In 2020, a new large compost system was installed to show how garden waste can be ecologically repurposed. Most recently, the Garden was expanded to include an area featuring native shrubs.
Sunny Garden throughout the Seasons
Violet-blue racemes of native Wisteria frutescens covering the arbor greet visitors mid-May 2021. Powdery blue flowers of Arkansas native Amsonia hubrichtii bloom on the periphery of Bed 8 (right). Indigo racemes of native Baptisia rise above the foliage (left, behind the fence). Photo © Mary Free 
Sun-loving perennials thrive in Bed 1 in June 2015 before the arbor was erected. Photo © Elaine Mills 
The newly planted native shrub bed on the west end of the Garden borders the path to the Quarry Shade Garden in June 2021. Photo © Joe Kelly 
Oxydendrum arboreum blooms behind the bench, which is seen from Bed 3, featuring tall plants like Salvia, (front right). Photo © Joe Kelly 
Spring through fall, Master Gardeners tend the plants during their bi-weekly work parties–this one in June 2021. Photo © Joe Kelly 
The herb bed (front) thrives in July 2021. Beyond the arbor (center) lies the Memorial Rose Garden. Photo © Leslie Fillmore 
Globular, blue flower heads of Echinops appear in front with purple coneflowers of Echinacea purpurea behind in July 2021. Photo © Leslie Fillmore 
Blooms, like native Liatris spicata (front), abound in July 2021. Photo © Leslie Fillmore 
Eastern tiger swallowtail perches on Verbena bonariensis in summer 2010. Photo © Mary Free 
Natives Oenothera, Asclepias tuberosa, Coreopsis, and Rudbeckia in Sunny Garden Bed 7 in June 2015. Photo © Elaine Mills 
The purple smoke bush (left) anchors Bed 7 in June 2014. Photo © Mary Free 
Natives Rudbeckia fulgida, Eupatorium spp. and Liatris in Sunny Garden’s Bed 7 “hellstrip” in July 2014. Photo © Mary Free 
American goldfinch eats Echinacea purpurea seeds in Bed 7 in August 2019. Photo © Mary Free 
Eupatorium hyssopifolium in Bed 7 “hellstrip” provides late season nectar to myriad pollinators in September 2014. Photo © Mary Free 
Solidago ‘Fireworks,’ asters, and grasses make a statement in Bed 8 in September 2014. Photo © Elaine Mills 
A Hobomok skipper butterfly perches on a zinnia with glimpses of Oxydendrum arboreum’s red autumn foliage in the background in October 2021. Photo © Leslie Fillmore 
The flaxen to amber hues of seed heads and feathery foliage, like that of Amsonia hubrichtii and other perennials and grasses, provide winter interest, food for birds, and cover for wildlife in the Sunny Garden on December 25, 2021. Photo © Mary Free