Daylillies cascade down the lower bank. Pavilion Garden IV Maxmilian Schele de Vere, professor of modern languages, lived in Pavilion IV from 1845 to 1897. His boxwood garden was initially restored by the Albemarle Garden Club in 1916. Part of this design was retained in the later restoration. Tree peonies and roses blossom in the perennial flower beds.
Southern magnolias shade the lawn.
The flat middle terrace reflects the geometric simplicity of utilitarian gardens while the lower garden is an informal flower garden. The shrub-like French marigolds were grown by Jefferson. As with this parent of today's marigolds, eighteenth-century plants were often larger plants with smaller flowers than our modern hybrids. The lower garden is one of the best known because of the presence of the Merton Spire in the center, carved for Oxford's Merton College Chapel in 1451. In 1928 it was given to the University to honor Jefferson's educational ideals.