Roy Diblik designed and planted the 5000 plant community at the main entrance to the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa. The grounds are viewed by hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, and the garden has been designed to withstand cold Wisconsin winters. Planted using native and regionally durable perennials helps keep maintenance costs low and beauty at an all-time high year round.

Creating durable, all season planting environments on a waterfront can be challenging, but with a team of experts, this project was executed with lasting results.

LOUIS SULLIVAN ARCH | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS |2009

For the opening of the Modern Wing, Tom Wolfe, Horticulturalist at The Art Institute for 31 years, asked Roy to design a planting. Wolfe asked that the garden carry the emotions of the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park just across Monroe Ave. Inspired by a painting by Pierre Bonnard called ‘Earthly Paradise’, Roy developed a plant palette using tones from the painting. There was a dynamic between the percentage of color as it mixed with shades of green. This provided a starting point for the garden design. Roy used short, textural mixed grasses as the matrix, blended in repeating plant patterns and brief structural plant groups that added focal points to the flow of the planting.

This Garden won the Mayor’s award in 2010.