Mackinac Island’s Secret Garden is gorgeous this year

The Secret Garden outside Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel. It's not hard to find - once you know where to look. Photo by Lori Chapman|MLive.

MACKINAC ISLAND, MI - The Secret Garden area outside Mackinac Island's famous Grand Hotel has been Instagram-worthy for years. With its vibrant colors and a design that changes each summer, it has become one of the must-see spots for photographers, flower-lovers and anyone who appreciates beauty with a splash of whimsy.

But the "secret" part? That can stump some would-be visitors. You see, there are no specific signs leading to the resort's favorite garden. From the photos of the garden with the hotel in the background, you can tell pretty much where it's located. But once you’re in the general area, dense tree growth means you can be within a few feet of its entrance and still not see even a glimpse of color.

On a recent day, island visitors were chuckling over this garden treasure hunt. Small groups of them made it down an easy-to-see flight of steps off the Cadotte Avenue hill sidewalk that leads up to Grand Hotel. They correctly angled toward the new Woodlands Activity Center. But then missed the half-hidden path and overshot the Secret Garden's entrance. Stymied, they retraced their steps and found the path. "Oh wow, look!" you could hear them exclaim as they stepped into a kaleidoscope of colors.

The Secret Garden was meant to amaze. And this year's eye-catching display has been getting heavy shares on social media. Its most distinctive feature is the curving woodland "river" of small, deep purple flowers that nips under a wooden bridge - a perfect backdrop for photos. This purple pathway is edged by jewel-colored tulips which, because of the island's climate, tend to last into early summer.

This year, the flower river area is made up of more than 42,000 grape hyacinths, 12,000 tulips and several kinds of alliums, according to the resort. As the early summer flowers fade away, fresh summer colors take their place.

"You can expect our flower beds to be exploding with color from May through October, to mirror the beautiful, bright palettes you will find as you walk through Grand Hotel," resort staff said in their spring newsletter.

True to form, planting the Secret Garden is done in late fall, away from prying eyes and after Grand Hotel's last guests have left for the season. Last fall, an early snow made for some icy planting conditions.

"The entirety of The Secret Garden was planted by only three people after Grand Hotel closed for the season, with the last section of 5,000 bulbs requiring a bit of snow shoveling prior to planting," resort staff said.

Tulips bloom later in the season on Mackinac Island than they do on the mainland. These blooms are a focal point in the late spring/early summer version of the Secret Garden outside Grand Hotel. Photo by MLive.

"Have you ever wondered what goes into this labor of love? To achieve the river's solid blanket of color, we first dig the river to a depth of 3 inches, then we individually place the grape hyacinths at 200 bulbs per square foot. Lastly, we backfill the river very carefully, as to not disturb the placement of bulbs."

How the Secret Garden Started

It was 2018 when Grand Hotel's Secret Garden made its debut. Drew Butterfield, the resort's director of grounds, knew he wanted to do something with an unused cedar grove area. For years it had been a brush pile, an area for garden debris ready to be composted and stumps that had been pulled from elsewhere on the property. Because of the compost layered there, Butterfield knew the soil underneath had become a rich mixture, just waiting to grow something special.

"I just saw that area and pictured what it could look like when it was cleaned out," Butterfield told MLive in an earlier interview. "It was just such a personal project that I kind of did it in my off-time."

At least 100 trailer loads of landscaping debris were cleared off the site before it was carefully planted for its 2018 debut. That year, "it was brand new and hard to find," he remembers. But all that changed in 2019. Word of mouth and widely-shared Facebook posts made it an overnight sensation.

"It's a huge area that's in the middle of everything, but still very much hidden," Butterfield said, adding that resort staff will direct you if it eludes your search. Check out our 2023 Secret Garden video below:

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