GardenDesignOnline

Happenings Dec 09

Selected Events Around the Country:

Dec 1, Wetland Loss in Coastal Louisiana, Brooklyn, NY
6PM Lecture by David White, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 718-623-7200
Dec 4  3rd Annual Turning a New Leaf Conference Washington DC
8AM-5PM, George Washington University Conference Center, Conference on Sustainable Landscaping, sponsored by the Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council, (CEU's available) 410-634-2847
Dec 4  Ken Smith book launch NYC
6PM, Horticultural Society of NY Library, 212-757-0915
(book: Ken Smith Landscape Architect)

Dec 8  Lesser-Known Native Plants for Shade, Towson, MD
7:30 PM, Lecture by Gregg Tepper of the Mt. Cuba Center, sponsor: Hort Society of MD< 410-821-5561
Dec 29, Tour of Wallace Desert Gardens, Scottsdale, AZ
9AM-noon, sponsor: Desert Botanical Garden 480-941-1225

LOOKAHEAD:

Jan 10, Indiana Home & Garden Show, Indianapolis, IN
Indianapolis Convention Center
Jan 15-17 Oklahoma Home & Garden Show, Oklahoma City, OK
State Fairgrounds
Jan 15-17 Maricopa County Home & Garden Show, Phoenix, AZ
Arizona State Fairgrounds
Jan 22-24  30th annual Southbay Home & Garden Show, Santa Clara, CA
Santa Clara Convention Center, 408-236-2000
Jan 24  14th Annual PLANT Seminar, Columbus, OH
8:15AM-5PM "Plants & Design for the Suburban Landscape," Greater Columbus Convention Center, sponsor: Perennial Plant Association 614-771-8431
Jan 29-31 24th Annual Southern Gardening Symposium, Pine Mountain, GA
Callaway Gardens, Lectures, Plants Sales & much more. 1-800-225-5292

Feb 11-13, Antiques & Garden Show, Nashville, TN
20th annual show, Nashville Convention Center, 615-352-1282
Feb 27, 2010 Workshop with Dan Hinkley, Baltimore, MD (50% full, already)
9AM-4PM, Conference Ctr at Sheppard Pratt, sponsor: Hort Socy of MD 410-821-55
Join plantsman & collector Hinkley for seminar on design & new plants

New 2010 Roses - Jackson & Perkins

*Click on photos to enlarge*

Monkey Business

Shown left, this new rose from Jackson & Perkins won the company's Floribunda of the year award.  A deep banana-yellow color, it has a strong licorice or anise scent that can fill an entire room.

The blooms appear on stems about 12 inches long, with a petal count of 25-30 and a flower size about four inches in diameter.

The foliage is glossy dark green on a plant that'll reach about four feet in height.  Plant a few of these together to brighten up a corner of the garden.

Cinnamon Girl

If you're looking for an unusual color as a focal point, you might want to try this smoky red cinnamon rose with accents of cream.  It's only about two feet high, and with little fragrance, but it would certainly be standout almost anywhere in the border. 

Stems about 12 inches and bloom size about two inches across, making them perfect for a small bouquet.

Holiday Garden Shows

Nov 3- Jan 3, Holiday Train Show, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Botanical Garden, 404-876-5859
Nov 20-Dec 30,Fantasy in Lights, Pine Mounain, GA
Callaway Gardens, 706-663-2281
Nov 21-Jan 10, Holiday Train Show, Bronx, NY
NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Nov 21-Jan 3, Winter Show, Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Botanical Garden, 216-721-1600
Nov 25-Jan 3 Gardenland Express, St. Louis, MO
Missouri Botanical Garden, 1-800-642-8842
Nov 25 - Jan 3, Holidays at the Conservatory, Columbus, OH
Franklin Park Conservatory, 614-645-8733
Nov 26-Jan 10 A Longwood Gardens Christmas, Kennett Square, PA
Longwood Gardens, 1-800-737-5500
Nov 26-Jan 10, Holiday Magic, Washington DC
US Botanic Garden, 202-225-8333
Nov 27-Jan 3 Holiday Garden Railway, Philadelphia, PA
Morris Arboretum 215-247-5777
Nov 27-Jan 3 Garden of Lights, Wheaton, MD
5:30PM-9PM, Brookside Gardens, 301-962-1400
Nov 27-Jan 3Wonderland Express, Glencoe, IL
Chicago Botanic Garden, 847-835-5440
Nov 27-Jan 11 GardenFest of Lights, Richmond, VA
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, 804-262-9887
Nov 28-Dec 30 River of Lights, Albuquerque, NM
Rio Grande Botanical Garden, 505-768-2000
Dec 3-Dec 30, Las Noches de las Luminarias, Phoenix, AZ
Desert Botanical Garden, 480-941-1225
Dec 5-24 Holiday Show & Sale, Portland, OR
Portland Japanese Garden, 503-542-0280
Dec 10-23 & Dec 26-30, Garden of Lights, Encinitas, CA
San Diego Botanic Garden, 760-436-3036

Books: Low Maintenance Gardening

In my years as a landscape designer, I’ve only had a couple of clients who were interested in high-maintenance gardens, and they’re just alike:  They love to spend time working outdoors in the garden, favor unusual and hard-to-find plants, and are passionate about the way their garden looks.

 But the vast majority of my clients don’t know a lot about plants and design, and they tend to want just one thing: low-maintenance.  Now, there’s a beautiful guidebook to tell them exactly how to get what they want.

 In her latest book,The New Low-Maintenance Garden: How to Have a Beautiful, Productive Garden and the Time to Enjoy It (Timber Press, 2009) author Valerie Easton reveals the secrets to modern and stylish gardens that won’t require all of your weekend down time.  And even if you’re a high-maintenance plant freak, you’ll learn many tricks and techniques from Easton that will give you more time to enjoy your creation.

Easton profiles gardens around the country that perfectly illustrate her low-maintenance concepts.  Virginia landscape designer Tom Mannion lists several tips for easy-care gardening: eliminate lawns and plants that need staking or spraying; forgo hedges that require tight trimming; repeat plantings; and use hardscape structure for winter interest.

 In San Francisco, designer Shirley Watts mixes new and old materials; re-purposes items like old metal letters to create unusual paving designs; fills an urn with recycled glass to create a striking water feature. On Vashon Island, southwest of Seattle, landscape architect David Pfeiffer grows edibles: chives under peach trees; raised beds with fruit trees under-planted with lettuces; colorful perennials planted under a currant hedge.

 Scattered throughout the book are valuable insights: the top 10 gardening tips to save the planet; how to get rid of and stay rid of weeds; modest yet reliable self-seeders that won’t overtake the entire landscape; designing and maintaining a sustainable garden; plus lists of  books, blogs, and organizations that will give you additional information you might need.

 As Easton puts it in her low-maintenance “manifesto”:  “A simplified garden, thoughtfully planned, can be just as rewarding as a more complicated, labor-intensive one …. Careful, considered choices and editing ensure that every inch of ground and hour of work is as rewarding as possible.  Most of all, they [low maintenance gardens] don’t awaken dread in their owners at the thought of caring for them.”

 The book contains scores of lovely photographs by Jacqueline M. Koch that highlight all of Easton’s main ideas.  This book is an invaluable addition to the garden library – destined to be a classic for many years to come.

And one disclaimer: I and this blog are mentioned in the book on pages 40 and 83.

In the Magazines Nov-Dec 09

Garden  Design Nov Dec 09

Climatic Challenge in Patagonia, AZ by designer Margaret Joplin.
A Private Tropical Garden on Kauai by designer Andrea Lecusay.
New England: Lengthening the short garden season with winter plantings.
Conifers for year-round interest

The American Gardener Nov Dec 09

Native Hollies: Part Two - Evergreens
Healing Gardens: Five Primary Design Guidelines
Profile: Plantsman Allan Bush
English Ivy: Problem or Not?
Christmas gifts for gardeners

Horticulture Dec 09 - Jan 10

• Profile: Boxwood Grower Paul Saunders
• Firepits in the Garden: Safety & More
• Plants for a Dry Shade Garden
• Great plants from every state
• Top new plants for 2010

Michael Pollan's Edible Front Yard

You'd expect nothing less in the garden of Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto; The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals; and The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World.  Pollan and his wife hired local landscape designer Bernardo Lopez to turn his 600 square foot front yard into a true edible landscape: raised beds (made of Ipe) with tomatoes, peppers, herbs, all kinds of greens and much more.  Read about it and see pictures in the San Francisco Chronicle article  here.

New Botanical Garden: Naples, FL

The first significant tropical botanical garden in the United States opens this weekend in Naples, Florida, designed by some of the country's leading landscape architects.  Brian Holley, executive director of the new Naples Botanical Garden described it as "a world-class tropical paradise that is not only a sensory delight but also a place for recreation, reflection and education for today and generations to come."

The garden officially opens to the public at 11AM EST on November 14th, a year ahead of schedule. The opening includes the Brazilian Garden, pictured above, a tribute to Brazilian artist and landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx and to the great tropical diversity of Brazil. The garden was designed by landscape architect Raymond Jungles of Miami, who also contributed the garden's main centerpiece, a huge ceramic mural created by Marx.

 The Caribbean Garden features a Pre-Columbian garden with plants native to the region, but also three others: an Explorer's Garden, the Plantation Garden and the Citrus Garden, with plants brought to the region by European explorers and others. 

The garden was designed by Laguna Beach, CA landscape architect Robert Truskowski, an expert in Caribbean landscapes.

Books: Meadow Gardens

There's a big move afoot among many gardeners to get rid of lawns, and here's the book that will tell you just how to do that.

In his new book, The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn (Timber Press, 2009), nurseryman, designer and author John Greenlee summarizes the main argument against the lawn:  they are environmentally unsustainable.

In the introduction, Greenlee explains that meadows, like lawns, can be "a calming place for the eye to rest, yet with the richness and complexity of a border."  Moreover, meadows provide habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators, and they attract a diversity of life itself.

Greenlee's epiphany about using large sweeps of meadow grasses in urban and suburban landscapes came in 1984 while on a visit to Kurt Bluemel's nursery in Maryland. "That day in Kurt's nursery," he writes, "my love affair with meadows was sealed."

In the succeeding chapters, Greenlee tells you about the lure of the meadow; how and where grasses grow; design principles for meadows; and how to make, establish, and maintain a meadow garden.  Throughout the book,  there are terrific takeout boxes like "Grasses for fall and winter color," "Grasses for tropical effects," as well as daisies, poppies, and ferns for meadows, and many more.

Greenlee's portfolio of meadow gardens shows you exactly and in stunning detail just how lovely a meadow garden can be. And there's a very comprehensive catalogue of grasses, with a brief description of each one, including its native range, size and color, and growing conditions.

Images by well-known garden photographer Saxon Holt accompany the text, and they beautifully illustrate the appeal of a meadow garden.  After you read this book, you'll wonder why you ever entertained the idea of a lawn.

Home Gardens Going Green

Just think ... how nice it would be to have an entire suburban street with landscapes like this one ... entire streets without lawns! It's just one of the new ideas that could become a reality ... thanks to the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SSI), a collaborative effort to persuade homeowners, builders, designers and others to install landscapes that actually improve the environment.

SSI released its first rating system for sustainable landscapes, a four-star system for all kinds of landscapes, from single family homes to public parks, transportation corridors and corporate or university campuses. At a Washington DC news conference, Holly Shimizu, Executive Director of the US Botanic Garden, said sustainable gardens can "provide cleaner air and water, use less energy, and combat global warming."

Three years ago, the US Botanic Garden joined the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX, in an effort to develop landscape guidelines to conserve resources, regenerate damaged ecosystems, and promote designs that protect the surrounding environment. 

Cornell's Trees

The campus of Cornell University has more than 7000 trees, and they're storing millions of pounds of carbon, worth more than half a million dollars to the university. A comprehensive tree inventory was recently conducted by two graduate students, as the university considers how to implement its pledge to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

The survey found that Cornell has 300 species of trees, and the most common one is the red oak, comprising more than 10 percent of the total.  The trees on the main campus store 15 millions pounds of carbon, sequester 740,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, and provide yearly ecosystem benefits totaling more than $570,000.  And Cornell needs to take care of what it has, as the survey concluded that it would cost about $19 million to replace all the trees.

Fred Cowett of the horticulture department, one of survey researchers, said the survey results will be used as part of the campus climate plan.  Cowett and a colleague used a software program called STRATUM, which estimates energy savings, carbon sequestration, water mitigation and the replacement value of trees.

The oldest tree at Cornell is a 350 year old white oak; the biggest one is a pignut hickory with a diameter of 79 inches.

(image: Cornell University)