I worked at Cheekwood for almost five years in the 1990s. I thought I'd explored most of its 55 acres during my tenure. True, I was curator of the museum and had nothing professionally to do with the botanical side of things at the former estate of Leslie and Mabel Wood Cheek. But I'd often spent lunch breaks admiring Cheekwod's flora. Yet I could recall little about the Howe Wildflower Garden when asked to write about its renovation.

The "before" pictures supplied the reason: The Howe Garden had become more woodland than garden by my time there. That's what happens in nature: things grow, mature and die despite the best human efforts at preservation of the status quo. Just ask any gardener who's planted a shrub to complement its neighbors and watched it become the neighborhood bully.

In the case of the Howe Garden, the trees had grown so thickly that they shaded into oblivion much of the understory vegetation. It was time for a makeover, courtesy of the Garden Club of Nashville and Page Duke Landscape Architects.

This is not the first time that the Garden Club has come to the rescue of the garden Cora Howe first planted on Greenwood Avenue in East Nashville in the 1920s. Called "Wildings," this was for 40 years a fabled space, its eight acres of dogwoods and redbuds, azaleas and wildflowers under a high canopy of oaks, beeches, maples and hickories featured in books and magazines-and opened to the public in spring and fall.

"It was as good as it gets in Nashville," recalls landscape architect Ben Page. He should know because Page was a regular visitor as a young boy in the 1950s. His family attended the same church as the Howes and was invited for personalized tours of the garden. "It was spectacularly beautiful, with magnificent trees," he recalls. "The garden was all about layers of light and radiant color-blue phlox and scilla and these incredible pink hyacinths. Mrs. Howe was really a colorist. And her garden deeply influenced my love of landscape architecture."

In the 1960s the Howes, who had no children, died and left house and garden to his secretary and her companion. The pair could not afford to maintain the place-Cora Howe had employed three fulltime gardeners-and laid plans to sell. The garden seemed doomed. But the Garden Club of Nashville stepped in, convinced the Cheekwood board to allow "Wildings" to be moved there and raised funds for the relocation. In 1968 the Howe Garden, plant by plant, stone by stone, came to its new half-acre home. And the Garden Club "has taken financial care of the Howe ever since," says current club president Lisa Campbell.

Three years ago the Garden Club decided that rejuvenation was in order. The club raised almost $1 million for the project and, recognizing Ben Page's historic connection to the original "Wildings," hired the firm of Page Duke for the design. Ben Page served as principal landscape architect, with Wade Rick as project manager.

The result is a Howe Garden that honors the stylistic spirit of Cora Howe but also looks to the future of gardening in an urban setting. In order to evoke the original Howe Garden "we had to bring sunlight into the heart of the space to reestablish the ability to grow flowers," Page explains. And what flowers there will be. Ten thousand crocus corms have been planted, which "in five years will be a river of purple, just like Mrs. Howe had," Page says. Azaleas "from the palest lemon, through butterscotch and pinks, to an explosive color I can only call Hermes orange" flow across the upper slope, under laid by Howe's favorite blue phlox. Cora Howe's collection of native boulders, including a natural birdbath, has been reinstalled. And her stone potting shed-a future site for interpretive programs-received its first thatched roof since its 60s transplantation.

The garden's central spine is a path newly configured to enable access by the disabled. Entrances to the path are through the Wemyss' bronze wildflower gates designed by Philip Kerrigan, the metalsmith whose first commission was the ornamental ironwork for Cheekwood. Along one side at the center of the path, rock ledges serve as informal seating for teaching moments. Some of those moments will include facts about the Torreya Preserve of ancient and extremely rare conifers. Silhouettes of the garden's flora and fauna grace stainless steel panels on the new bridge over the stream, providing objects for the "scavenger hunt" in the garden's planned Activity Book.

Below path and bridge lies gardening's future. The pond that had become a dank haven for snapping turtles has been transformed into a rain garden, where native grasses retain and filter water runoff from the steep slope to replenish the aquifer.

"It was important to the Club that the Howe Garden show good ecological stewardship that can be applied to a variety of settings," says Campbell.

The renovation of the Howe Garden is what Cheekwood president Jane Offenbach describes as "the beginning of the renaissance at Cheekwood. We did a research study in early 2011 and found that the number one reason people visit Cheekwood is to see the gardens. So in our new five-year strategic plan we make the gardens a focus." Offenbach points to the under-construction "Sigourney Cheek Literary Garden"-a bold in color, intimate in feel setting for poetry and book readings-as another example of the renewed emphasis on the landscape. "We're definitely not walking away from art. But we want to incorporate more art into the gardens," Offenbach says. "It's all part of our quest to make Cheekwood a nationally renowned destination."

-Christine Kreyling, photo courtesy of Garden Club of Nashville Archives Howe Wild! Celebration

Garden Preview, Plant Auction & Cocktail Supper

Wednesday, April 18 - 6:00 pm

Sponsored by the Garden Club of Nashville

Join us for a remarkable evening as we celebrate the opening of the Howe Garden at Cheekwood. This event will honor Mrs. Elizabeth Proctor who was instrumental in moving the Howe Garden to Cheekwood in 1968 and who gave the lead gift to restore the garden today. This beautiful evening will begin with cocktails in the garden followed by dinner and a plant auction in Botanic Hall. For more information, call Sarah Lowe at 353-2159 or visit cheekwood.org.

Wine and Wildflowers

Thursday, April 19 - 6:00 pm

Sponsored by the Garden Club of Nashville

If you can't make it to the Howe Wild! Celebration, join us the next night for an evening of gardens, friends and wine as we celebrate the Howe Garden at Cheekwood in Botanic Hall. For more information, call Sarah Lowe at 353-2159 or visit cheekwood.org.

Howe Garden Opening

Saturday, April 21 from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

10:00am - opening of the "gates" with brief remarks Studio Drop-In Activity: ÔÇÿPlant'able Art!, Refreshments - Mrs. Howe's signature lemonade and gingersnaps, Live Music in the Garden, Guided Tours on the Hour