GardenDesignOnline

Christmas Books II 2006

The windy city may be losing its nickname, all thanks to Mayor Richard Daley.  The mayor is big on trees  -- the city has planted nearly half a million since he took office. He's also one of the leading proponents in the United States of the green roof, which saves on energy costs, improves air quality and can even promote cooler temperatures. With more than 200 green roofs totaling  2.5 million square feet, Chicago now ranks number one in green roofs in the United States.  Milennium Park is just one of the city's great "green" success stories, and now there's a fascinating book by Timothy J. Gilfoyle, (University of Chicago Press 2006), professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, that tells the enthralling story of how it all came about.

Every six months, when Mayor Daley visited his dentist, whose office overlooked the city's lakefront Grant Park, he noticed the dilapidated railroad yard below that spoiled the landscape between the park and Michigan Avenue.  In 1997, at a breakfast for the Mayor of Mexico City, Daley approached civic leader and Sara Lee CEO John Bryan and pulled him over to the window.  Directly below was the squalid train yard, and Daley simply said "We should build a park there."   Bryan got on board immediately, but he believed that, with private donations, the city could raise the money for more than just a park.  In the words of Marshall Field V, the donors decided that "gee, if we're going to do this, we've got to shoot for the moon." And indeed they did.

(click on image to purchase book)

FT Design Series

A new must for designers and anyone else who'd really like an "in" on the design process:  head down to your local newstand and pick up the weekend edition of the Financial Times of London.  Starting with the Nov 18/19 edition, the newspaper is running a series of profiles of international garden designers.  The first is on the very modern, minimalist gardens of London-based designer Christopher Bradley-Hole. Trained as an architect, Bradley-Hole told the newspaper that "the quality of the space underpins everything that I do."  His designs are known for their emphasis on spatial relationships, proportion, and a very minimal palette of plants.

Bradley-Hole is also the author of "The Minimalist Garden," (The Monacelli Press) published in 1999. The selected projects from international designers around the world are breath-takingly contemporary but also rooted in classical landscape design.  Bradley-Hole's award-winning Chelsea Flower Show garden in 1997, inspired by the poet Virgil, is among the gardens featured in the book.  His spare roof deck garden for a London fashion retailer is well worth a look.  It's defined by simple, low slung terracotta walls and simple terracotta pots, cedar decking and raised planters, and just a few plantings -- English boxwood and plants that have silver and gray foliage to complement the hardscape.

A number of contemporary American projects are also featured, including gardens by Martha Schwartz, Topher Delaney, Oehme-Van Sweden, Janis Hall and others. It's hard to get a fix on contemporary gardens, but this book explains their place in today's modern lifestyle and their links to the traditions of the past.  If you're seeking inspiration for something different, this is one place to get it.

(click on image to purchase book)

 

Xmas 2006 Gifts I

I never wear garden aprons, but I always like the idea of them, and this one is pretty elegant -- canvas, not too fussy, and the pockets look roomy enough to hold lots of tools, a phone, a can of mosquito repellent (the primary indispensable item).  Nicely priced, too, at $29.  www.spiritelements.com

If your daughter is helping, why not an apron for her, too?  With the handy kid-sized tools, you can get an early start on teaching her how to plant some pint-sized seedlings and learn to recognize the weeds that have to come out. $15.95  www.hearthsong.com

For the real pro in the crowd, go to the site where a lot of pros shop -- www.amleonard.com.  Leonard has everything you'd possibly be looking for -- pruners, loppers, scissors, shovels and weeders and every other tool in every shape & size, for every task; gloves galore, and things you simply won't find elsewhere, like this rose de-thorner at $12.49.  I've never seen one in person, but it sure looks like something every gardener ought to have.

Click on images for larger view.
(images: spiritelements, hearthsong, amleonard)

 

Happenings Dec 2006

Through Dec 30  Holly Days, Boylston, MA
Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Workshops, Demos and More (508) 869-6111
Through Dec 30, Holiday Light Show, Green Bay, WI
Green Bay Botanical Garden (920) 490-9457
Through Dec 30, River of Lights , Albuquerque, NM
Rio Grande Botanical Garden (505) 764-6200
Through Jan 1 Chihuly's Glass in the Garden, St. Louis, MO
Art Exhibit by Dale Chihuly, MO Botanical Garden 9-5PM daily;"Chihuly Nights" 6-10PM Mon & Thurs, and Dec 26-30 (314) 577-5100
Through Jan 1 Holiday Flower & Train Show, St. Louis, MO
Missouri Botanic Garden (314) 577-9400
Through Jan 7 Poinsettia Show, Omaha, NE
Omaha Botanical Gardens, (402) 346-4002
Through Jan 7 Holiday Train Show, Bronx NY
NY Botanical Garden (718) 817-8700
Through Jan 7 Garden of Lights, Wheaton, MD
Brookside Garden's 10th annual light show. (301) 962-1453
 

Dec 2-Jan 7 Garden Holiday Exhibit, Washington DC
US Botanic Garden: Trains, Tours, Music & much more. (202) 225-8333

Dec 2-Jan 7 Wonderland Express, Chicago, IL
Chicago Botanic Garden, Lights, Trains, Etc (847) 835-5440

Dec 5-6 Historic Landscape Preservation, Santa Fe, NM
Seminar sponsored by The National Preservation Institute, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, The National Park Service & Others (703) 765-0100
Dec 7, 11, 13 Green Roof Design: Los Angeles; Charlotte, NC; Portland OR
8:30-5PM Workshop, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. (416) 971-4494 ext 228
Dec 12, Using Evergreens in the Landscape, Bronx, NY
Lecture, 1-3PM, NY Botanical Garden (718) 817-8747

Dec 13 Mayors Institute on City Design, Washington DC
5:30-7PM, Roundtable, National Building Museum, Mayors discuss design & their cities, moderated by New Yorker magazine architecture critic Paul Goldberger.

Lookahead:
Jan 18-20, Tropical Plant Industry Expo, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Jan 27-Feb 3, Garden Design Symposium, CA, OR, CO, IL, VA
sponsored by Horticulture Magazine, all day symposium, various locations
Feb 15 Land Ethics Symposium, New Hope, PA
All-day symposium geared for landscape architects & designers, contractors and others in the professional landscape industry (215) 862-2924
March 4-11 Philadelphia Flower Show  
May 22-26 Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK
May 24-28 Flower Show, Cleveland Botanical Garden

National Arboretum II - Fall

Finally, I took off a day for one of my all-time favorite pursuits: a fall walk through the National Arboretum in Washington DC.  Things change, of course, according to season and year, and I just missed the great fall show of the huge Camellia oleifera 'Lu Shan Snow' by about a week or so. According to the Arboretum, this plant may be the largest specimen of Camellia oleifera outside of Asia. This one is 23 feet tall and 20 feet wide with cinnamon colored bark and in late October & early November, it's covered with fragrant blooms.  It was acquired from the Lu Shan Botanical Garden in China, and a seedling was planted at the Arboretum in 1949.  This camellia survived the brutal winters of the late 1970's which killed a huge portion of the Arboretum's collection.  However, the Arboretum's Dr. William Ackerman used this camellia and one of its siblings in a breeding program, and voila! -- the series of cold hardy, winter-blooming camellias known as Ackerman hybrids.  Check your local nursery for Winter's Charm, Winter's Hope, Winter's Rose, Winter's Waterlily, Snow Flurry & many others bred by Dr. Ackerman.

(photo: USDA/USNA)

Items: VA Trees/Naples Botanical

Virginia Trees Project

The authors of a book to be published in 2008 about exceptional trees in the state of Virginia are asking the public to help them with more tree nominations and stories about special trees.  The book, by Virginia Tech forestry professor Jeffrey Kirwan and lecturer Nancy Ross Hugo will commemorate the state's first Arbor Day in 1908. So far, the two have collected nearly 500 tree nominations, representing 93 of state's 108 cities and counties.  Nominations are due by December 31, 2006.  (more info: [email protected]).

According to Hugo, they are seeking "more nominations for hickory trees and trees with special stories."  Kirwan added that they're seeking trees that are noted for "age, size, beauty, uniqueness, connection to the community, or historical and cultural significance."   

So far, white oaks are at the top of nomination list, followed by willow oak, American elms and sycamores, Southern magnolias, sugar maples, live and red oaks, dogwoods, beech, and Eastern redcedar. The project is an offshoot of American Forests'  2006 National Register of Big Trees. According to that list, Virginia ranks fifth in the nation for having the most big trees by species.

Christmas Books I 2006

How can anyone resist?  The new AHS (American Horticultural Society) Encyclopedia of Perennials (DK Publishing, Inc 2006) has it all: 5000 plants, 1400 color pictures, all arranged in an A to Z directory of botanical names, with an index to common names as well.

Edited by British author Graham Rice and first published in the UK, this US edition contains plenty of advice from US experts, including contributing editor Kurt Bluemel, C. Colston Burrell, Tovah Martin, David Ellis, Daniel Hinkley, Dr. Steven Still and many others.

What distinguishes this volume from other plant encyclopedias is its careful attention to detail.  There's a short description of each genus, along with notes on cultivation, propagation, and special problems -- the diseases and pests that afflict each one.

(click on image to purchase book)

Cool Springs Move

Cool Springs Press, publisher of many gardening titles, has been sold back to its original founder by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  The move came less than four months after Nelson was acquired by a private equity firm, InterMedia Partners.  Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt said that Cool Springs books are sold in outlets where the firm can't sell its other products (such as home improvement stores) and that the content can't be exploited by the company's other product divisions.

Cool Springs now returns to its original owner, Roger Waynick, who sold the imprint to Nelson in 2001 and has worked as a consultant for them in the past several years. Waynick, president of Waynick Books, said that Cool Springs has "the finest library of garden books available in the country" and he believes those assets will allow the company to grow internally and also through other strategic acquisitions. Waynick bought the entire 200 title Cool Springs backlist, but he told Publishers Weekly that gardening books will become a smaller part of Waynick's sales. "We are looking at growing the business by publishing books where the consumer can be identified, be they cooks, sports fans, or anyone else we can reach," he said. 

2007 PLants (IV)

I'm not big on annuals, but when I look out and see my own lantanas blooming away in November non-stop, I begin to understand why I bother with them every spring.  My usual palette is the same every year, but perhaps I should have learned the lesson of annuals when I lived in Britain, where they use many, many different ones to great effect.

I recently saw some very attractive new annuals which should be in garden centers this coming spring.  Rudbeckia 'Corona' (above) is from Benary, which was founded in Germany in 1843 and is still going strong with branches in Portugal, Austria, and the United States.  'Corona,' 18" high with golden petals and a showy black center, does well in heat and full sun, and its vase life as a cut flower is said to be 8-12 days -- hard to beat that.

Celosia 'Fresh Look Gold' is the newest in this series -- which includes Fresh Look red, orange, yellow, and more.  Red and yellow were All America Selections winners in 2004, cited for their tolerance to heat, humidity, drought or wet weather.  They get about 12-18" tall and can be cut or dried for arrangements.  I don't really like celosias and can't imagine them in my own garden, but as I've said many times before, plants preferences are subjective. Right gardener and right garden, they'd probably look just fine.

It's Your Park - Get Involved

The National Park Service has announced plans for a major update to the National Mall in Washington, DC, home to the White House and Capitol grounds, Smithsonian Museums, and national monuments from the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial to the Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR Memorials, and many more. The public is now invited to participate in the plans for the future.  Congress has already authorized several new Mall additions, including memorials to George Mason, Martin Luther King Jr. and Black Patriots of the Revolutionary War.  National Park Service Director Mary Bomar said the mall "symbolizes our nation and our freedoms," and she added that the Park Service "wants to give the American public the chance to help determine how future generations will continue to honor, commemorate, and celebrate and enjoy this national treasure."

Exactly what that's going to mean is as yet unclear.

(photo: NPS)