Flourishing Partnerships in the Park's Meadows

"The beauty of colorful wildflowers and their flying companions rewards us for our efforts, brightening our world with a sense of purpose, balance and hope."

It’s late summer at Josephine Sculpture Park, and meadows are thriving with plants at their peak, flowering, fruiting and feeding more life. This abundant life depends on multiple levels of masterful partnerships.


You can’t miss the most obvious partnership, it’s buzzing and humming all around us. Plants and their pollinators have developed incredible beneficial relationships that delight us as observers. Butterflies, bees, beetles, flies, ants, wasps and hummingbirds drink nectar from flowers that have co-evolved with their specialized friends. Being rooted in place limits a plant’s capacity to mingle with their mates. They rely on winged transportation to deliver powdery packages of genetic material to receptive members of their species.




Flowers have various and mysterious ways of attracting their allies. Notice natural flower arrangements in wild landscapes and you’ll often find complementary colors like yellow and purple, or green and red. Next to their opposite, they visually pop and grab the attention of color-seeking pollinators.




Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is teaming up with the wind to scatter its feather-light seeds. Spreading out the species’ chances for survival over the broader landscape will in turn support other forms of life.


Orange butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) provides this male monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) the fuel he needs to migrate and mate. Waystations like this are critical to the monarch's multi-generational migration to wintering grounds in Mexico. (Read more about the milkweed-monarch dance here.)


Although less obvious, the Park’s meadows wouldn’t exist today without human helpers working behind the scenes. They have fought off competition so that native grasses and flowers can thrive. Staff, volunteers and landscape crews have suppressed invasive species and woody plants in order to open up access to sunlight and prepare the soil. Landscape designers have mimicked wild arrangements, considering height, bloom time and color. Native plant nurseries have cultivated seeds. Funders have supported the Park’s conservation efforts. In a sense, our meadows are partnering with other meadows and their stewards far beyond the park’s boundaries.


The beauty of colorful wildflowers and their flying companions rewards us for our efforts, brightening our world with a sense of purpose, balance and hope. Artists share their interpretations by pairing their artworks with the landscape in a dance of shapes and light.



Around the central meadow in the Walnut Grove section, sculptures accentuate nature’s design. 

Titles provides clues to the artist’s inspiration from nature, including human nature, like:

  • A Flowering of Time by Dave Caudill
  • The Conversationalist by Chakaia Booker
  • 3 Roosters by Minnie Adkins
  • Rii’joo’vah’nay’shi­n (Rejuvenation) by Riley Fichter



Symphonic Stroll, the Park’s partnership event with Lexington Philharmonic, is a perfect example of the synergy of collaborators, an artistic flowering of harmonious art forms. You can enjoy Symphonic Stroll this year on Saturday, September 9th from 4 to 8 PM. It's an immersive evening of music, art, and nature for all ages, plus delicious food trucks, drink vendors and ice cream. Learn more and purchase your tickets here!



About the Author

Karen Lanier is a teaching artist, environmental educator and nature writer who also serves as Josephine Sculpture Park’s Administrative Assistant.


Blog published August 11, 2023

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