Docent Tours of Elizabethan Garden at the Folger

Docent tours of the Elizabethan Garden at the Folger Shakespeare Library began April 19 and continue on the 3d Saturdays of each month through October at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. The Folger is on East Capitol Street between 2d and 3d streets.

The central feature is a knot garden that takes its design from the railing on the balcony that overlooks it. Docent Frances Owens, explaining the maintenance required for knot gardens, said this one had been at his peak only occasionally.

Elizabethan gardens were outdoor rooms enclosed by hedges or walls and with plants with practical uses--often medicinal but rarely culinary! The Folger garden contains plants, like these hellebores, with connections to Shakespeare or Elizabethan England

The garden also displays 8 Shakespearean works by American sculptor Greg Wyatt: