Plant Your Own Amen Corner

April 6, 2021

The Amen Corner – the three most intimidating holes in golf, are also three of the most beautiful.

Finally back on schedule, the 2021 tournament will take place April 8-11. And unlike last year’s improvised fall edition of the tournament that saw Dustin Johnson claim the Green Jacket, this year’s edition will once again take place with a backdrop of spring blooms.

Whether it’s the spectacular azaleas, the ever-present dogwood, or another part of Augusta National’s famous landscaping that catches your eye, we’ve compiled some of our favorite plants from the course’s most iconic section to help you create your own amen corner right at home – if you see a plant on the golf course this spring that you can’t find on Great Garden Plants, contact us and let us know! Our customer service team is ready and willing to make sure your garden can be exactly as you envision it.

And as far as your golf game goes? We’ll leave that to Tiger.

Hole 11 - White Dogwood

The Amen corner begins with the White Dogwood hole. A native tree that holds interest throughout the year thanks to its changing colors and spectacular foliage, the White Dogwood hole is one that might be more visually appealing when the tournament tees off this fall.

While the landscaping team at Augusta National is somewhat secretive about the specific cultivars of each species they use, our Red Rover® Dogwood is a dogwood just as special as those at Augusta, with a compact enough habit to fit in your garden with ease. If your yard is the same size as the real Amen Corner it might make sense to look for a bigger dogwood, but Red Rover makes a terrific substitute for the rest of us.

Care Info:

Now that you have the right plant, you need to grow it with the expertise of the full-time landscaping staff of the world’s greatest golf course. If you don’t have that expertise, our care guide below should work just fine.

Soil: Red Rover can handle just about anything, acidic soil, clay soil, even some standing water.
Light: Does well with Sun, although a few hours of shade a day won’t hurt
Water: Just provide regular watering in periods of low rain.
Fertilize: A generous application in early spring helps promote growth
Pruning: Pruning can be done right after flowering, or not at all

And that’s it. A few simple tips and your yard will be well on its way to looking just like the Amen Corner.

Close up of the white blooms on a Red Rover Dogwood

Hole 12 - Golden Bell (Forsythia)

The 12^th hole of the course is perhaps the most daunting from a golfer’s perspective. From a gardening perspective, it’s home to some of the most unique spring flowers you can find anywhere in the world. The golden bell hole, better known to the world as forsythia, hosts a number of these unique flowering shrubs and its stunning yellow flowers.

Another incredibly durable plant, forsythia is easy to grow in your landscape, and we would be remiss to not suggest our favorite forsythia, Flying Machine®. While this is a slightly different cultivar than what is likely used at Augusta, the extra durability and oversized flowers on this Proven Winners selection, combined with its resistance to deer and rabbits, as well as its ability to grow in just about any conditions make it a great equivalent for the Amen Corner at home.

Care Info:

An incredible upside of using Flying Machine for the forsythia section of your Amen Corner garden is its tremendous durability, which should help you spend more time enjoying its views, and less time landscaping them.

Soil: Grows pretty much anywhere. Can handle very dry soil once established
Light: Can grow anywhere from sun to shade, but more sun leads to more flowers
Water: Water regularly, avoid drowning
Fertilizing: Not needed, but some rose fertilizer can spur growth
Pruning: Not needed, although it can be done after blooming in late spring if desired

Another incredibly easy to care for plant leaves us with a fantastic start to the Amen Corner, with perhaps the most iconic of the Masters flowers left to plant.

Close up of the bright yellow blooms of the Flying Machine Forsythia

Hole 13 - Azalea

The end of the Amen Corner is home to the most iconic of the flowers on the course, the Azalea. After missing the iconic Azalea blooms thanks to a fall tournament last year, the excitement for the 2021 blooms is at an all time high. A planting of your own azaleas can provide that same awe-inspiring view from your own window.

There are over 30 varieties of Azalea across the course and are over 1600 individual azalea plants on the 13^th hole alone. We’re going to start with the assumption here that you’re not looking to plant 30+ azaleas in this section of your garden (Although if you can – we highly recommend it and would love to see), we’re going to recommend one of our favorite Azaleas to help round out your very own Amen Corner.

Perfecto Mundo® Double Pink is a new Azalea cultivar that will give your home azaleas a unique advantage over many of the azaleas on the course at Augusta. While the typical azalea blooms for a month or two throughout March and April, Perfecto Mundo blooms for over 5 months, giving you that in bloom golf season feel throughout the entire year. While the Azalea hole was the most difficult hole on the course in 2019, growing these fantastic flowers will be easy.

Care Info:

Soil: Does best in well-drained acidic soil
Light: Partial sun works well, as does filtered sun, hence many of the tall trees that tower over the azaleas at Augusta
Water: Azaleas have shallow roots, which means they need frequent watering during heat waves
Fertilizing: Fertilization after the spring bloom can help promote growth, just don’t fertilize any time after late July
Pruning: A light trim after the spring bloom may help encourage a second round of blooms

The bright pink blooms and vibrant green foliage on Perfecto Mundo Azalea

An additional word of caution – while there is a theory as to how Augusta National manages to have spectacular blooms year after year, which states an application of ice can delay bloom time, cheating out blooms just isn’t possible. Don’t just take our word for it, here’s what expert horticulturist and Great Garden Plants Content Manager Stacey Hirvela said on the matter when we asked her:

“Flower buds get their cues to swell and open based on accumulated heat – that’s why spring-blooming things like lilacs, forsythia can vary so much in their bloom time. In cool springs, they open late, and in warm springs, they open earlier. So while cool conditions will delay or “hold” the bloom, putting ice on the plant won’t actually help – in fact, if the buds were quite close to opening, the ice would damage the flower bud tissue and they’d be all brown and raggedy when they bloomed. Putting ice on the roots won’t cut it.”

It’s that simple. No additional nonsense needed. Three easy-to-grow plants, one incredible replica of the most iconic golf course in the world.

Written by: Miranda Niemic, click here to read bio.

Questions, comments, or concerns? Let us know! We have an experienced, knowledgeable staff ready to make sure your garden turns out perfect. Or check out our other blogs, here.