GardenDesignOnline

You Could Be In Brooklyn

 A typical Brooklyn brownstone, with typical Brooklyn brownstone plantings ... overlooking the US Capitol building. It's part of a major exhibit at the US Botanic Garden in Washington DC, "Celebrating America's Public Gardens," running through October 8th.

This exhibit by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is planted with trees and shrubs that can be seen at the garden and in neighborhoods around the borough -- Magnolia grandiflora 'Elizabeth,' Malus 'Red Jade,' River Birches, Switch Grass, and many more.  BBG's Vice-President of Horticulture, Patrick Cullina, said Brooklyn developed many kinds of special gardens that are often found in public gardens across the country.

Click on the link below to listen to Cullina:

Moving along on the outdoor terrace, you can visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan; a carniverous plant display by the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill; rare tropical plants from the Key West Botanical Garden in Florida; and a desert plant display from the Huntington in San Marino, CA.

One particularly striking display is a Japanese garden by the Japanese Garden in Portland, OR.  The garden's executive director, Stephen Bloom, explained that the exhibit conveys a sense of peace and harmony represented by careful placement of garden elements.

Typical Japanese plantings include Japanese maples, azaleas, acorus, hostas, blechnum spicant ferns; and you'll also see a gravel rake, a Kasuga Toro lantern, and a Lotus-style bachi-basin.

(click on images for larger view)

Berkshires Garden Antiques Show

If you're heading to the Berkshires this summer, plan a visit to the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, MA for an all summer long exhibition on garden ornament.  From June 9 through August 31st, the garden is featuring a major exhibition "Garden Ornament: Completing the Picture."

Garden ornaments -- urns, fountains, statuary, and the like -- will be placed throughout the garden's perennial beds, walkways, parterres, specialty gardens and borders to illustrate creative ways to enhance any outdoor space.  The show is curated by Tracey Young, owner of The Elemental Garden in Woodbury, CT.  Pieces to be put on display range from the classical and formal to the whimsical and rustic.

Berkshire's executive director John Parker said the theme was selected "because of the popularity of the garden ornament trend and also to show how each of us can creatively enhance our gardens."

The Berkshire Botanical Garden displays over 3000 species on its 15-acre site.

(photo: courtesy Berkshire Botanical Garden)

Green Roof Awards 2007

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities has announced its award-winning green roof designs for 2007, as the construction of these kinds of projects nationwide continues to grow at a very rapid pace.

The Feldman Residence in Carmel, California, pictured here, won the top residential award for an "extensive" green roof, i.e., a low-maintenance roof planted with drought-tolerant plants that survive on rainwater.  The residence is located in the 20,000-acre Santa Lucia Preserve. It was designed by Feldman Architecture of San Francisco as an example of sustainable Mediterranean Modernism.

Landscape architect Loretta Gargan, working with Blasen Landscape Architecture of Sausalito, CA, designed the outdoor areas, and the green roofs (there are three) were designed by Rana Creek, an ecological design firm in Carmel Valley, CA.

Three small buildings are built into a hillside, and the hill is integrated into the green roof of each one.  It's hard to tell where the hill stops and the green roofs begin. Gargan chose native plants for use throughout the landscape, including Iris douglasiana, Symphocarpus albus (Common Snowberry), Calamagrostis foliosa (Leafy Reed Grass), Mimulus (Monkey Flower) 'Jelly Bean White,' and Ceanothus (California Lilac).   Beyond the patio, a native meadow connects the new landscape to its existing surroundings.  Hillsides were planted with oaks to screen the road, seeded with wildflowers for seasonal interest, and clumps of Muhlenbergia rigens (Deer Grass) define the pathways.  In addition, Gargan surrounded the spa area with Festuca californica (California Fescue) to evoke cascading water, and just off the kitchen, she added a small potted garden with herbs, edible flowers, and citrus. 

If that were not enough, the insulation provided by the green roofs reduces the Feldmans' energy consumption by up to 30 percent in the summer, and sound is reduced by 43 decibels.

(photos: top: Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and Rana Creek; bottom: Loretta Gargan)

Happenings June 2007

Through July 29: Linnaeus in the Garden, San Marino, CA
The Huntington, Exhibit marking 300th anniversary of Linneus' birth in Stenbrohult, Sweden. Linnaeus created the system still used today for naming and identifying plants.

Includes the first edition of Species Planarum, the foundation for modern plant nomenclature and the 1740 edition of Systema Naturae, which set the standard for two-part scientific names:  genus and species.

June 2-3 Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: CT, NJ, W.VA.
June 2:  Fairfield Cty, CT (left); Hunterdon, Someset Cty NJ; Kanawha Cty, W.VA.
June 3: Hartford Cty, CT; Essex, Monmouth, Hunterdon Cty NJ
June 3, June 10 Garden Tour, Santa Fe, NM
9 private gardens, 505-988-1234
June 7-9 Native Plants Conference , Millersville, PA
17th Annual Symposium, speakers: author Rick Darke, Landscape architect Marcus de la Fleur, sustainable architecture pioneer Pliny Fisk III, botanist Jim McCormac & others. (717) 872-3030
June 8-9 Garden Tour, Concord, MA
9AM-4PM 18th annual tour of 8 private gardens, proceeds to Concord Museum 978-369-9763.
June 9-10 Centennial Garden Tour, Muskogee, OK
Sat 10-2, Sun 1-5, 8 gardens in two historic districts (918) 687-6124
June 9-10 Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: CT, NH, NY, VT, DE, PA
June 9: CT: New Haven Cty; NH: Merrimack, Sullivan Cty; NY: Tompkins, Ulster Cty; VT: Windsor Cty
June 10: DE: New Castle Cty; NY: Putnam, Suffolk, Westchester Cty; PA: Chester, Delaware Cty
June 9-Aug 31 Garden Ornament Show Stockbridge, MA
"Garden Ornament: Completing the Picture"
June 11 "Brazilian Gardens of Burle Marx," New York, NY
and "South Africa's Lengau Lodge"
6:30 PM, Lectures by Landscape architect Raymond Jungles
and Landscape architect Sasha Tarnopolsky
Columbia University, Havemeyer Hall Room 309
June 12 Water in the Landscape, Bronx, NY
10AM-2:30PM  Lecture, Larry Weaner, NY Botanical Garden (718) 817-8747
June 13 Making the Modern Garden, Seattle, WA - CANCELLED
6:45PM, Lecture, author & plantsman Christopher Bradley-Hole, NW Hort Society, Center for Urban Horticulture (206) 527-1794
June 15-16 Garden Tour, Plant Sale, Kansas City, MO
9AM-4:30PM, 9 private gardens, two rain gardens & more 816-252-5051
June 16 "Styles of Chinese Gardens ," San Marino, CA
9AM-4PM The Huntington, Symposium on gardens during China's Ming and Qing dynasties 626-405-3569
June 16 Garden Tour, Wilmington, DE
9AM-4PM 25th Anniversary Tour, 20 gardens 302-658-6262 ext 105
June 16 Garden Tour, Boston, MA
10AM-4PM South End Garden Tour, 617-437-0999
June 16 Garden Tour, Grand Junction, CO
9AM-3PM, 16th annual tour, 6 gardens (970) 245-3288
June 16 Garden Tour, Sag Harbor, NY
11AM-5PM Old Whalers Church Hidden Gardens Tour, 5 gardens (631) 725-5949
June 16 Garden Tour, Brewster, NY
10AM-4PM, 20 private gardens (845) 278-PARC ext. 287
June 16 Garden Tour, Centralia, IL
9AM-4PM 6th annual private garden tour (618) 545-0657
June 16 Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: NJ, OR, NY
NJ: Bergen Cty; NY: Columbia, Dutchess Cty; OR: Clackamas Cty
June 22-24 Flower Show, Newport, RI
12th annual show, Rosecliff,   "Sea Fever: A Salute to Tall Ships," 401-847-1000
June 23-24 Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: CT, MA, ME, NJ, NY, IL
June 23: CT: Litchfield Cty; MA: Berkshire Cty; ME: York Cty; NJ: Monmouth Cty; NY: Bronx, Suffolk Cty;
June 24: CT: Hartford, Litchfield, New London Cty; IL: Cook, Lake Cty
June 23 Garden Tour, Salisbury & Amesbury MA
9AM-5PM Seaspray Garden Club, 13 private gardens (978) 948-8181
June 23 Garden Tour, Big Sur, CA
9AM-4PM 9th Annual Hidden Gardens Tour 831-667-1530
June 28 Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours, MA
Nantucket, MA (pictured)

June 28-July 2 Rose Show & Convention, St. Paul, MN
American Rose Society, Spring Convention. Lectures, Garden Tours & More 952-432-4313

June 30 Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours, CO
Denver County

Lookahead:

July 12-15 Maine Gardens: Nature & Design, Rockland, ME
4-day symposium featuring garden design, history, exhibitions, theater, photography & much more. 207-230-0142
July 19-21 Children & Youth Garden Symposium, Alexandria, VA
American Horticultural Society, 15th annual symposium

Colony Collapse Cure?

An entomologist at the University of West Virginia's Davis College of Agriculture believes the so-called "Colony Collapse Disorder," which has mystified beekeepers across the country, may be caused by mites. Professor James Amrine, one of top mite specialists in the United States, has been conducting research on bees since 1996.  Amrine says he is now certain that 70 percent of Colony Collapse Disorder is caused by tiny mites, which are about the size of a sesame seed, and by the pathogens they carry. 

Amrine and beekeeper Bob Noel of western Maryland have developed a three-part treatment that kills or deters mites, but it has no adverse impact on the bee colony.  The results of their research will be published June 1st in the International Journal of Acarology. The three-part remedy, using all-natural products, includes, first, treating the hives with essential oils of lemon grass and spearmint.  Amrine said that Africans have used lemon grass for thousands of years to manage honeybees. "We mix it with spearmint and it helps the bees resist the pathogens the mites carry by possibly boosting the bees' immune systems," he said.

In the second part of the treatment, a wintergreen formula is mixed with grease and placed in the hives.  According to Amrine, "it also combats pathogens and gives the honeybees an edge in improving their health. Also, the grease gets on the bees and makes it harder for the mites to try to hitch a ride."

In the third part of the treatment, pads soaked with formic acid are placed in the hive.  The pads trap heat and cause the acid to evaporate, killing over 90 percent of any mites that are present.

Colony Collapse Disorder is the latest problem to afflict American honeybees.  A recent congressional study estimated that honeybees are necessary for the pollination of $15 billion worth US agricultural products every year, including apples, nuts, soybeans, berries, alfalfa and many other crops.

For more details on Professor Amrine's honeybee research, click on the link. 

Gardens: A New Way of Thinking

I've never particularly thought about "patterns" in garden design, but I've now been convinced that they are a fundamental part of the design process.  In her new book, A Pattern Garden: The Essential Elements of Garden Making (Timber Press, 2007), author and garden columnist Valerie Easton identifies 14 patterns that can turn any garden into a gratifying sanctuary that's a true pleasure to visit.

According to Easton, the book is loosely based on the work of architect Christopher Alexander, who identified hundreds of essential elements in urban design and urged people to design their own living spaces.  Easton brings that theory into the garden and combines it with the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which celebrates mystery, simplicity, restraint, impermanence.

Listen to Easton:

Easton lists 14 important patterns -- including scale, garden "rooms," patios, bridges, water, materials, borders, focal points and six others that are essential in any garden design. Only when these are in place, she says, should you then begin thinking about plants.

I particularly liked Easton's chapter on scale, which explains the relationship of the garden to the house and how to get the major components right. "A broad patio makes the garden feel roomier," she says, "by visually expanding the groundscape."  Similarly, "By using unexpectedly large objects or especially tiny pieces of garden furniture, you can startle people into paying attention to the garden and taking a closer look around them."

Easton's own favorite pattern is gates, which can be used in any kind of garden: large, small, modern, or traditional.

Last but not least, Easton says that plants should be used to emphasize the major patterns and make the journey through the garden exactly what you want it to be.

There's a final chapter on iconic plants -- and Easton recommends certain favorites that will give you the most satisfaction and pleasure per square inch.  They include plants for each season, plants for fragrance, for long bloom, for winter interest, for structure, for wildlife, and much more.

This is a book that every designer should have as a reference -- it's a wonderful and surprising new take on design concepts that will make every garden a splendid new experience.

(click on image to purchase book)

The Japanese Maple Solution

I'm currently out of love with Japanese maples. My neighbor, Ted, has a stately, tall red one that produced a bumper crop of seedlings this year, and so far, I've pulled hundreds (and counting) from my garden beds.  My mood will change come fall, when I simply have to make an annual journey to see the many different Japanese maples at the US National Arboretum.

Designers have favorites among the Japanese maples, including Waterfall, Butterfly, and of course the standout Sango Kaku, with its coral red bark.  But why stop there?

Now, there's a new book that you'll find invaluable the next time you're at that specialty nursery that carries a lot of maple cultivars. The Timber Press Pocket Guide to Japanese Maples by J.D. Vertrees with Peter Gregory is based on the original encyclopedia by Vertrees, but it includes 50 newer cultivars.  It contains descriptions of 300 of the most widely available Japanese maples, most of which -- believe me -- you've never heard of and have never seen.  So -- now you have no excuse to plant a red-leafed Japanese maple in front of a red brick house.  Opt instead for 'Japanese Sunrise,' with emerging chartreuse leaves that turn light green in summer and fade to yellow and gold in the fall. 

Try a dwarf 'Matthew' in a patio container.  It tops out at one and a half feet tall and wide, with very pale green leaves that turn deep and red in autumn.  Or plant 'Arakawa' for it's corky, fissured bark, it's bright green leaves with red stems, and its yellow-gold color in fall.
There's a perfect Japanese maple for houses of every color and size, from tiny urban townhouse sites to large estates in the country.

Each cultivar is discussed in a short, descriptive paragraph, there are handy lists of the maples that are appropriate for specific purposes and locations, and there's also a section that tells you how to plant and take care of the trees.

This book will be an invaluable asset to any landscape designer -- or to any gardener who's a fan of Japanese maples.

This is the latest in Timber's series of Pocket Guides -- including ground covers, bulbs, ornamental grasses and several others.  All worth having.

(click on image or text link to purchase book)

Collins Retrospective

Man with a Mission

The next time you're in Philadelphia, walk down St. Peter's Way in Society Hill; stop to sit in Chestnut Street Park, or bike along the river through Schuylkill River Park, and thank John F. Collins for your experience.  During a long career in landscape architecture, Collins, now 70, has dedicated much of his time to public landscapes. His parks and green spaces are everywhere in central and suburban Philadelphia.

To understand the true importance of his work and art, mosey over to Temple University's Ambler Campus, where there's a marvelous retrospective of Collins's work through June 15th (10AM - 10PM daily, Learning Center, 580 Meetinghouse Road, 267-468-8000).  The show includes original drawings, plans and photographs from Collins's many projects around the city, as well as works from other locations around the United States.

Collins and colleagues founded The Delta Group, a regional landscape architecture firm with offices in Philadelphia and Baltimore.  In an article for Ambler's  website, Collins said the firm created public landscapes with a clear goal: "to place them where the people were and place them well ... I thought, what a marvelous opportunity to be able to provide the public with places they otherwise can't afford or wouldn't have the opportunity to to participate in."

Collins began work on the Schuylkill River project in the 1960's, but the city just recently got around to building it, and it was finally dedicated in 2004.  In the 1980's, he began a program to train inmates at the city's House of Corrections in urban horticulture, and in 1988 he was the founding chair of Temple's Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture, and the Ambler campus has now been formally accredited as an arboretum.

Collins's imprint on Philadelphia has been so extensive that the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society  gave him a Distinguished Service Award in 1995, citing his work to revitalize neighborhoods "with green spaces and livable landscapes in scale with the people they serve."

Don't miss this important exhibition. And let's hope it inspires an entire new generation of landscape architects to serve their own communities.
 

Grasses, Landscapes & Living

There's a new love song to grasses, and its notes range up and down the entire scale, from the highs of a grass's simple, natural beauty, to the lows of the cultural requirements to grow each one successfully.

In The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes (Timber Press, 2007), Darke completely supercedes his previous book, The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses: Sedges, Rushes, Restios, Cat-Tails and Selected Bamboos (Timber, 1999). He takes a global view, from small Japanese villages to New Zealand and Europe, to the midwest prairies and coastal California.

The book includes hundreds of new species, including many regional, native grasses that inhabit such inhospitable places as brackish edges, saltwater marshes, and coastlines that run through large industrial tracts in places like Delaware and New Jersey.  The book is illustrated with more than 1000 of Darke's own notable photographs of grasses in every imaginable location.

According to  Darke, grasses are a perfect fit for what he calls livable landscapes: landscapes that link the issues of sustainability, preservation, and regional ecology, whether in small private gardens, large public venues, or in the wild.

CLICK TO HEAR AUDIO

Darke says the recent popularity of grasses is likely due to a growing awareness of our own cultural heritage, as well as a changing eye and a changing aesthetic.

 

Darke doesn't skirt the issue of invasive grasses, but he explained that part of the problem is man's own destruction of native habitats.  For example, he acknowledges that phragmites are an enormous problem throughout much of the northeast, but he says unless we can find a non-toxic method to control them, we may just have to live with them.

 

When asked about design, Darke says that grasses are often used in an architectural manner to define garden spaces.  But he also says that people should think about their gardens on an emotional level:  "Think about what it does for you to be in it," he said.

One of his very own favorites is switch grass -- Panicum virgatum. "Yesterday I took the train," he said, "and I saw it along the coast ...you can make a green wall with it, or a cloud-like mass in summer and fall."  It's a versatile grass.  It grows in very dry situations, and also right along the water's edge. "Look at the landscapes you've seen," said Darke. "and see how you can make grasses part of a wondrous mix in that livable landscape you're trying to create for you."

Azaleas with a Difference

CLOUD PRUNING

Dateline: Washington DC, Spring

It can truly be a sickening sight:  in front of every house, all over the city and throughout the suburbs, you see the same thing:  big blobs of garish azaleas, the colors usually clashing wildly with brick facades.

So, what a pleasure it was to come across this house in my own neighborhood, where yes, there are azaleas, but wow -- these have been artfully pruned by someone who really knows what they're doing.  Click on the image for a larger view, and you'll see a great example of what's called cloud pruning. 

This is an oriental type of pruning that accentuates the plant's branching structure and gives the foliage (or in this case the flower clusters) the appearance of little clouds.  It's usually done on evergreens, such as boxwoods, pines, and yews, but it clearly can be done on azaleas as well.  This is only the second time I've ever seen azaleas that had been cloud-pruned, and it surely makes them a standout in the landscape.  They're a lot more interesting than those ugly globes of neon color that scar the landscape in spring and are truly dull for the rest of the year.