GardenDesignOnline

Garden Book Awards

The American Horticultural Society (AHS) has released its list of top garden books published in 2012.  Here they are:

The California Wildlife Habitat Garden: How to Attract Bees, Butterflies, Birds, and Other Animals by Nancy Bauer (University of California Press).

How to transform your yard into an attractive habitat for you, your family, and the wildlife around you.

"A Rich Spot of Earth": Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden at Monticello by Peter J. Hatch (Yale University Publishing and Thomas Jefferson Foundation).  Hatch directed the restoration of Jefferson's vegetable garden, and here he tells the story.

World's Fair Gardens: Shaping American Landscapes by Cathy Jean Maloney (University of Virginia Press).

Maloney tells the story of the great World's Fair landscapes of the 18th and 19th centuries and how they shaped some of great urban parks and landscapes we know so well.

And, for plant lovers:

The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food by Janisse Ray (Chelsea Green Publishing)

A Guide to Bearded Irises: Cultivating the Rainbow for Beginners and Enthusiasts by Kelly D. Norris (Timber Press)

The Organic Seed Grower: A Farmer's Guide to Vegetable Seed Production by John Navazio (Chelsea Green Publishing)

PHS Gold Medal Plants 2013

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has released its list of gold medal plants for 2013.

Topping the list this year is the dwarf Hinoki Cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Nana Gracilis') -- not a new plant, by any means, but chosen because "it is sorely under-used compared to dwarf Alberta spruce", which is planted in so many housing developments.

I heartily agree, and have encouraged many clients to plant Nana Gracilis.  It grows slowly, and eventually it'll be around 6 feet high and 3-4 feet wide.  The dark green foliage is leafy and sort of fern-like, and for true beauty it cannot be beat.  A GREAT specimen plant.

 

photo: Doreen Wynja

Dwarf Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum 'Sunshine Blue')

This blueberry, from Monrovia, is a compact shrub, 304 feet high and wide, with lovely blue-green foliage, showy pink flowers in late spring and abundant berries. It's self pollinating, too, but does best when planted with another variety. Ideal for containers, so you can grow it on your deck or patio. Zones 5-10.

 

photo: Spring Meadow nursery

Blue Velvet St. John's Wort
(Hypericum kalmianum 'Blue Velvet')

This fine-textured small shrub, 2-3 feet high and 3-4 feet wide, out-does the straight-species plant because of its noticeable blue foliage and an extended period of bloom.

Also, deer-resistant, great for mass plantings, as a groundcover or in containers.  Red berries from late summer to fall, as well. Developed by Paul Cappiello of Yew Dell Gardens.

photo: Wayside Gardens.com

Wildfire Black Tupelo
(Nyssa sylvatica 'Wildfire')

 One of my favoite trees, to be sure -- there's just not another fall color like it. This one, from J. Frank Schmidt, has red-tipped new growth into summer, and then the spendor of its fall color. A native US tree, its small black fruits also are attractive to wildlife. 40 feet high and just 25 feet wide, a perfect tree for many suburban plots.  To Zone 5.

 

Urban Tree of the Year 2013

photo: georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu -- click to enlarge

The Society of Municipal Arborists has named the Live Oak -- Quercus virginiana -- as the 2013 Urban Tree of the Year.

The official state tree of Georgia, the live oak was selected this year because it's an "excellent specimen," suitable as a street tree, "strongly reminiscent of the Old South," and because it is extremely tolerant of hurricane force winds.  Usually accompanied by Spanish moss hanging from its branches, it's also an unusually beautiful tree, and maybe with global warming, we'll one day be able to grow it up here on Cape Cod!

It's current range is zones 8-10, but it does best in warmer locations in those areas.  The usual height is about 40-80 feet, with a spread of 60 to 100 feet.  It's a fast grower when young -- two to three feet per year -- but its growth rate slows with age.  The tree has excellent pest and disease resistance, and it's resistant as well to salt.  The current champion live oak is near Louisburg, LA, with a crown spread of 139 feet and a height of 68 feet.  Wow!

The Unknown, Important Garden Designer

Well, I have to admit it ... I'd never heard of Madison Cox until I read about him in the Wall Street Journal.  This image is from his website, but it's the only photo there is.

He's apparently been creating gardens for high-end clients for about 25 years, but he shuns publicity.  According to the WSJ, he's often compared to the late British designer Russell Page.

You can read the entire article here, which was published November 29th in the Wall Street Journal.  Happy reading ... and very interesting.

Green Roof Awards 2012

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities has announced the winners of this year's design awards.  Some of the winners are profiled briefly here.

Royal York Condominium, NY, NY
Town and Gardens Ltd of New York City created a 14 thousand square foot green roof in a narrow space between residential buildings.  Town and Country was brought in after major leaks occurred into parking garages below the garden space. The design concept is the establishment of navigation routes, as on the ocean, through a series of textured areas and paths, with planters, benches, and lattice panels representing ships moving through the spaces.  The extensive green roof has a four-to-five inch growing depth which supports groundcovers like pachysandra, as well as some perennials like heuchera and liriope.

Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL
Oehme van Sweden and Associates of Washington DC designed a 16 thousand square foot intensive green roof for the Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center at the botanic garden. It includes both display and evaluation gardens, which will help horiticulturists expand the plant palette for Chicago area green roofs. A north roof includes alpine and rock garden plants and bulbs from around the world while the south roof is planted with native species.  Growing depths vary from four to eight inches.  Runoff from the roof goes into a rainwater glen that surrounds the building, and the roof also has handicapped access and the garden conducts daily tours of it.

The Ledge, Dorchester, MA
Recover Green Roofs LLC, Somerville, MA
This 4500 square foot green is atop The Ledge Kitchen and Drinks, and food for the restaurant, including tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, kale, pappers and more is grown there.  Recover Green Roofs brought in a local farming company, Green City Growers, to maintain the gardens and coordinate with restaurant staff. The planter boxes are edged in black locust wood obtained from a sustainable logging/mill operator in the state.

There are more award winners .. you can see all of them here, plus more info on the projects above.

(photos: Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and the individual design firms listed above)

 

 

Design Awards - APLD 2012 - I

More APLD 2012 Gold Award Winners:

Charles River Garden
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design, Needham, MA

To restore the landscape and improve drainage on this property that includes 600 feet of gorgeous riverfront, Cunningham removed 3700 sq feet of impervious concrete, reduced the size of the swimming pool, and designed memorable outdoor spaces that capture the spirit of the river.

He modified an existing deck, and new stairs now connect interior spaces to an elevated dining terrace.  New retaining walls extend from the house and form an elevated landform that overlooks the river.  New perennial gardens were added for multi-season display and native plants were installed to stabilize the riverbank.

Stormwater is now diverted from the house and porous materials replaced about 50 percent of the hardscape.

Saguaro Vista
Paul Connolly, APLD
Sundrea Design Studio, Tucson, AZ

 The site for this new Arizona home was chosen for its expansive desert views, and the design intent was to extend the modern architecture out into the landscape and echo the shapes, textures, and colors of the desert.

Most of the plants are low shrubs and groundcovers that will not obstruct desert views; native saguaros and ocotillos were strategically placed for vertical interest.  Three cisterns collect rainwater which is then used to irrigate the landscape year-round, and an irrigation controller automatically adjusts the watering schedule, depending on rainfall.

Lake House, UK
Wilson McWilliam Studio
Chiswick, London

A new landscape was designed by Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam to complement a modernized residence.

The main concept -- Flow -- suggests the garden flowing down to the lake in the distance. Planting sweeps down to a swimming pool, and hedges flow out across the slopes into wilder meadows and a woodland edge.

The planting palette is mainly perennials and ornamental grasses, punctuated by woody specimens and clipped hedges. A central lawn provides a clear view down to the lake, and a new pathway meanders down through the garden to the water's edge.

At the lakeside, the design team constructed a party deck backed by textured plantings.

 

APLD Top Designer 2012

The Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) has named Brandon Jones of the Glen Gate Company in Wilton, CT, as its international designer of the year. 

Glen Gate - click image to enlarge

Jones won two gold design awards, both in the "small gardens" category. He renovated an old pool area in this  Greenwich, CT, garden, adding a shade structure and pergola that echo architectural details found on the main residence and carriage house.

The old concrete pool deck was replaced with gray granite in a mosaic pattern, and plantings were kept simple:  a boxwood hedge, pink hydrangeas, roses, and rhododendrons along a woodland border.

Jones' second gold was for this garden in Armonk, NY, which features a re-located pool, sited to comply with an existing septic system; and the use of columns on an existing pergola to define one edge of the pool.  

 In the cutting garden, Jones has placed a statue of Buddha -- centered on the pool -- and a gravel path lined with cobblestone guides visitors from the front of the residence back to the pool area.  Around the pool itself, Jones replaced the pool decking with granite and resurfaced the pool walls -- changing the color from bright aqua to a darker hue.

Jones receives his award this week at the APLD conference in California ... and more on the other winners a bit later.

 

Design: High on the High Line

 

click on images to enlarge

 I've read so much about the High Line in New York City -- the park built atop the old west side elevated rail line -- I still can hardly believe that I first visited just a couple of weeks ago, although I'm in NYC several times every year.

We went early on a weekday, at 7:30 AM, just half an hour after the park opened.  We almost had the place to ourselves, so early is a great time to visit.  The horticulturists were out, weeding and watering and doing other chores, most likely to beat the mid-day heat.

Most of the photos I'd seen beforehand focused on the billowy plantings by Piet Oudolf or the crowds that congregate at overlooks, performance spaces, and other places where the path widens out a bit.  So I didn't expect the old rail lines to be so prominent ... but they obviously play a big part in the design by James Corner, whose firm, by the way, gives periodic design tours of the site. (Well worth it, I'm sure).

New Plants for 2012: II

The following -- just a short selection -- of new plants from Spring Meadow Nursery in Grand Haven, MI.

Pinky Bells™ Abelia
(Abelia 'Lynn')

I've always been a great fan of abelia, particularly because it blooms away well into fall.  The problem has always been the smallish flowers -- maybe until now.  Pinky Bells is said to have the largest flowers of any abelia, and new growth on the leaves and the stems takes on a reddish hue in spring and again in fall. Easy maintenance, to Zone 6, 2-3' tall by 3-4' wide.  Sounds like a very promising groundcover, and it's deer resistant to boot. Available in retail centers in spring 2013.

Calycanthus 'Aphrodite'

Don't know why more people don't plant sweetshrub, and now they have no excuse. Aphrodite has large flowers reminiscent of magnolia blooms, it is extremely fragrant, and it's a re-bloomer. Five to six feet tall and wide, to zone 5. Developed by Dr. Tom Ranney of NC State. Available spring 2013.

Bobo™ Hydrangea
(Hydrangea paniculata 'ILVOBO')

This dwarf panicle hydrangea is just 3 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide, but it has huge white flowers that lengthen as they bloom, and they're supported on strong stems. In fall, the flowers take on a pinkish color.  To zone 3, seems like a terrific showy plant for small gardens. Available spring 2013.

Green Roof Design Awards 2011

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities presented its annual design awards for 2011 recently at its annual conference last month.  This post describes a selection of winners, but you can see all of them and read about them in more detail at the Green Roofs website here.

click to enlargeThe Extensive Residential award went to Hadj Design for a 3200 square foot roof on a coastal residence in Quilcene, Washington. Plants and soil were selected carefully with the objective of supporting local birds that live on the water nearby and in the surrounding forest. According to the designers, the residence has already become home to a variety of local insects and birds.

 
click to enlarge Intensive Residential award: Durante Kreuk Ltd, for Milennium Village in Vancouver. Covering eight city blocks, the project is the first LEED gold certified neighborhood in North America. The green roofs are actually a series of courtyards that allow residents to relax, featuring a variety of elements from fountains and waterfalls to ponds and fragrance gardens.  The design also incorporates many edible plants, many native varieties with a high tolerance for drought, and others that attract wildlife.