GardenDesignOnline

Happenings March 2011

Selected Events Around the Country:

thru March 27, Orchid Show, St. Louis, MO
Missouri Botanical Garden, 314-577-5100
thru March 27, Orchid Mania, Cleveland, OH
"Purple Reign," Cleveland Botanical Garden, 216-721-1600
thru March 27, Orchid Extravaganza, Kennett Square, PA
Longwood Gardens, 610-338-1000 
thru April 24:  Orchids: A View from the East, Washington DC
Annual Orchid Exhibition, National Museum of Natural History.  

 

March 1, Davidson Horticultural Symposium, Davidson, NC
"Rediscovering Home," Davidson College, 704-604-6618
March 2-4 Power to the Plants Symposium, Phoenix, AZ
Desert Botanical Garden, Symposium on designing with plants in public gardens. Sponsor: American Public Gardens Assn 610-708-3010
March 2-6 Wichita Garden Show, Wichita, KS
Century II Civic Center, 316-946-0883
March 2-6 Southern Spring Home & Garden Show, Charlotte, NC
Park Expo & Conference Center, 704-376-4085
March 3, 17th Annual Ecological Landscaping Assn Conference, Springfield, MA
8AM-8:30PM, "Staying Ahead of the Curve," 617-436-5838
March 4-6 Maricopa County Home Show, Phoenix, AZ
Univ of Phoenix Stadium, 602-485-1691
March 4-6 Dallas Home & Garden Show, Dallas, TX
Dallas Market Hall, 214-655-6100
March 4, 18 Outdoor Living Extravaganza, Atlanta, GA & Seattle, WA
3/4: Atlanta History Center; 3/18: Golf Club at Newcastle 877-865-5818
March 6-15 Philadelphia Flower Show, Philadelphia, PA
"Springtime in Paris," PA Convention Center, 215-988-8899
March 5-April 25, 9th Annual Orchid Exhibition, Bronx, NY
"On Broadway"  NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
March 5-April 10 Dallas Blooms, Dallas, TX
Dallas Arboretum 214-515-6500
March 5-13 Chicago Flower & Garden Show, Chicago, IL
Navy Pier, 773-868-3010
March 5-6 and 11-13 Maryland Home & Garden Show, Timonium, MD
"Symphony of Spring," MD State Fairgrounds 410-863-1180

March 6, Complete Rose Care, Brooklyn, NY
10AM-3PM, Workshop, Brooklyn Botanic Garden Workshop 718-623-7200
March 11-13 Washington Home & Garden Show, Washington DC
DC Convention Center, 703-823-7960

March 12, Big Ideas for Small Spaces, New York NY
All-day seminar, NY Botanical Garden Midtown Center, 718-817-8700
March 12, Sanctuary: The Promised Land, San Francisco, CA
9AM-4:30 PM SF Botanical Garden, Lecture & Tour with landscape architect Topher Delaney, 415-661-1316
March 12, US Production Facility Open House, Washington DC
US Botanic Garden 202-225-1116.  See my post on this here.

March 14 Outdoor Kitchen Design Webinar
noon-1:15PM Eastern; by Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, 800-868-1699 CEU's avail.
March 16-20 Boston Flower & Garden Show, Boston, MA
Seaport World Trade Center, sponsor:  MA Hort Society, 617-933-4900
March 17, Rooftop Farming, Bronx, NY
10AM-noon, Lecture, Annie Novak of Eagle St. Rooftop Farm, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
March 17-April 16 Festival of Houses & Gardens, Charleston, SC
64th Annual Festival, 843-723-1623
March 19 Water-Wise Landscape Design, Dallas, TX
9AM-12:30PM, Brookhaven College, Farmers Branch, TX 214-670-3155
and 1:30-5PM, Plants for North Texas

March 20, Endangered Plants around the World, Washington DC
2PM, Lecture, US Botanic Garden, 202-225-1116
March 22, Favorite Gardens and Why, Santa Monica, CA
6:30 PM, Lecture, author & designer Page Dickey, Nancy Goslee Power's Barn Studio, sponsor: The Garden Conservancy, 845-265-2029
March 23-27 San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, San Mateo, CA
San Mateo Event Center, 415-684-7278
March 24-27 Savannah Homes & Gardens Tour, Savannah, GA
76th annual tour, 912-234-8054
March 24, Horticultural Therapy Workshop, Washington DC
10AM-noon, US Botanic Garden, 202-225-1116

March 26, Spring Gardening Symposium, Seattle, WA
NW Hort Society, "Inspired Gardening within the Environment," 206-780-8172
March 26, 25th Annual Lahr Native Plant Symposium, Washington DC
8:30AM-4PM, Beltsville Area Research Center. Speakers include Dr. Allan Armitage, C. Colston Burrell, Scott LeFleur & others. sponsor: US National Arboretum 202-245-5898.
March 26, Native Plants Saturday, Bronx, NY
all-day seminar, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
March 26-27 Mosaic Workshop, Washington DC
10AM-4PM, Workshop with UK mosaic artist Emma Biggs; to enroll email [email protected]
March 28, "A Designer's Harmony...", Washington DC
6:30PM Lecture by Lady Xa Tollemache, US Botanic Garden, 202-225-1116
March 30, "Sustainable Foodscapes", Washington DC
6:30 PM, Lecture by Shepherd Ogden, US Botanic Garden, 202-225-1116

LOOKAHEAD:

April 2, Magnolia Study Day, Washington DC
April 10-11 65th Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium, Williamsburg, VA
April 11-12 Living Architecture Symposium, Washington DC
Green Roof and Wall Design, sponsor: Green Roofs for Healthy Cities 416-971-9844
April 15-17 Antiques & Garden Fair, Chicago Botanic Garden, 847-835-6944
April 16-23 Historic Garden Week in Virginia
May 24-28 Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK

Books: Kitchen Garden Design

There's no shortage of books these days on growing vegetables, but not many of them focus on how to design a kitchen garden and make growing herbs and vegetables an easy thing to do.

In her new book,The Complete Kitchen Garden: An Inspired Collection of Garden Designs and 100 Seasonal Recipes (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2011) author Ellen Ecker Ogden offers 14 unique kitchen garden designs that can easily be modified by any good landscape designer to fit a specific space or climate zone.

Ogden is co-founder of the Cook's Garden seed catalog and obviously hasn't overlooked anything in her lastest literary effort.  In the introduction, Ogden explains that you can tap your inner artist, as she did, when you grow your own food:  "I built a collage of lettuces splashed with dabs of red orache, fronds of chervil, and rosettes of claytonia.  Seeds and plants were my paintbrush, as I combined waves of bronze-tipped lettuce with swirls of magenta radicchio and spikes of blue-green kale."

Growing herbs and vegetables is a mystery to many gardeners, but Ogden gives you easy clues -- in less than 10 pages -- on how to get started, keep the area weed free and going successfully in coming years. That's followed by separate chapters on specific kinds of gardens, from one for salad lovers to one for children to others for artists, families, and chefs.  I particulary liked the Heirloom Maze Garden (who doesn't love a maze?), a labyrinth winding through tomatoes, beans, carrots, peas, fennel and melons.  The Cooks' Garden has an exterior border of boxwood, arborvitae, peonies, and the interior beds are filled with everything you'd want for any kind of dish.

Each chapter contains an illustated "plan" of the garden, a complete plant list, along with a brief essay, photos of many plants, and mouth-watering, healthy recipes. Anyone who includes a recipe for using sorrel has my heart and mind ... can't wait to try the Crispy Sorrel and Spinach Tartlets.

Even if you're only thinking about growing vegetables, this is the book for you. 

 

 

 

Nabbing Terrorists with Plants

Imagine a terrorist walking through an airport terminal ... and suddenly, the leaves on a potted plant near the check-in area turn white and the guy is nabbed almost immediately.  That scenario might not be too far off, according to Colorado State University biologist Dr. June Medford.

Dr. Medford and her team of researchers have shown that plants can be extremely sensitive to environmental pollutants and explosives.  Their scientific inquiries are funded in part by the Dept of Homeland Security, as well as the Office of Naval Research and DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, among others. 

According to Medford, some plants are as good as, or even better than a dog's nose at detecting certain substances.  "The idea comes directly from nature," says Medford. "Plants can't run or hide from threats, so they've developed sophisticated systems to detect and respond to their environment."  Medford and her team have "taught" some plants to detect certain materials by modifying the way the plant's proteins process chlorophyll.  With improvements, she says, plants may be able to serve as a "simple and inexpensive means to monitor human surroundings for substances such as pollutants, explosives, or chemical agents."

In research so far, the team has modified a plant's receptors to recognize certain substances in the soil or in the air, and an internal plant signal then causes the leaves to turn white.  (see diagram above).  The next phase is to concentrate on speeding up the detection time so that the foliage will react and change color almost immediately after it comes in contact with a dangerous substance or a bad guy.  Could put some of those human sleuths out of business.

 

 

 

 

Design with Fire

(Click on photos to enlarge)

If  you're seeking something unusual in the way of fire in the garden (or on the patio), then look no further than these edgy firepits from the Italian company AK 47. 

Made of stone or steel, not only do they provide warmth for extending the seasons, but they also come with  "covers" for the open pit that lets you use the item for other things ... for sitting, for putting down trays,  for drawing, whatever... your imagination is the limit.

Zen, the model shown to the left, is configured of stone and steel, but the stones can be re-arranged and the central basin for the fire can be moved anywhere within the basin.  So you can have a "formally" arranged firepit or one that's off-center for a more modern landscape.

In the upright Thor firepit, there's a central core ... the wood is inserted at the top of the column, and the fire itself burns in the center.  Now where have you ever seen anything like that???

This particular item would fit into tiny gardens and create a spectacular scene at night-time.

 

There are several other styles available, and the company also makes innovative storage containers for wood.  You can check out all of them on the AK 47 Design website.

In the United States, AK 47 products are available from Space Lighting in Miami.

(photos: AK 47)

Green Roofs / Green Walls: Learn How

I can't think of a garden designer I know who isn't interested in knowing the basics about installing green roofs and green walls.  If you haven't yet designed one, (or even if you have) you might want to check out the new learning center at Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

At the organization's Living Architecture Academy, you can now download the proceedings of past annual conferences, along with slides and research papers that accompanied the presentations.

GRHC is also offering recordings of past webinars and other educational sessions -- for which you can earn CEU's if you're an accredited Green Roof Professional.  If you prefer, you can download audio files onto your iPOD if you want to listen wherever you like. 

There's also a monthly green infrastructure webinar series featuring subjects like wind guidelines for green roofs, principles of integrated design, and much more.

 

 

 

A Celery Rose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, you'd think that something would come through from the celery, but it doesn't look (or smell) like it.

This lovely red rose has a celery gene inside it, and researchers at North Carolina State University say it's intended to help fight petal blight and extend the "vase life" of the flower.

According to Dr. John Williamson, the gene is "naturally found in many plants, but it's uncertain whether the rose already has it."  If it does, says Williamson, it doesn't produce enough of a particular enzyme to help it fight off the disease.

The research is just part of NC State's efforts to produce a better rose. The goal is to find a rose that can last for three to four weeks after it's been harvested.  If they're successful, maybe the price of those Valentine's Day roses will begin to edge down a bit.

(photo: Becky Kirkland, NC State University)

Pink Ribbon Gardens

Hope in Bloom

If you haven't heard of Hope in Bloom (and a lot of my friends and acquaintances haven't), please do spread the news, because it should be a nation-wide movement.  All of us who are designers know that gardens give hope and a healing boost to many of those who are ill, no matter what the disease.

Hope in Bloom was started by Roberta Hershon after a close friend of hers died of breast cancer.  The program aims to improve the spirits and brighten the lives of women and men who suffer from the disease by giving them a garden, free of charge.  Landscape designers and landscape architects are recruited to design the gardens free of charge, and volunteers install them.  Hope in Bloom provides the hardscape materials and plants via tax deductible donations from individuals and corporations.

Since the program was started in 2007, Hope in Bloom has installed nearly 100 gardens around the state of Massachusetts, raising awareness about the positive effects that gardens can bring to those who are suffering from deadly diseases.  If you're interested in bringing the program to your state, contact Hope in Bloom directly.  Two close friends of mine have died from the disease, and one was a lifelong gardener whose amateur front-yard efforts in her tiny Capitol Hill garden in DC were enjoyed by neighbors from blocks around.  Wish I could've planted a special garden for her, or kept her garden going. 

(photo: Hope in Bloom)

Italy - The Grand Garden Tour

Join landscape architect Robert Mcdufffie for a 15-day tour of Italy's most famous gardens, from the grand Villa d'Este to Villa Gamberaia, Isola Bella and Isola Madre.  The tour, May 25-June 8, is two solid weeks of education about the craftsmanship and design creativity by Italian masters in Sorrento, Rome, Florence, Venice, Capri, and the Amalfi Coast, with many more stops along the way.  Closing date for the tour is February 25, so sign up soon.  Details about the trip here.

And while you're at it, check out his other grand 2011 trip to Scotland in July -- details here.

Roses: Better David Austins for US Gardens

 

Rosa 'Carding Mill'

(click on photos to enlarge)

As everyone who likes roses ought to know, you want to plant own-root roses whenever you can.  Roses grown on their own roots -- instead of grafted onto other rootstock -- are far liklier to survive severe winters; they are true to their own form; and they live much longer, some of them up to 100 years or more.  Although own-root roses may be smaller than budded roses when you first plant them, they grow very rapidly and soon catch up to their cousins, so they are perfect for long-lasting garden design.

For the first time, David Austin roses is offering a collection of own-root roses specifically for American gardens.  You'd have to covet Carding Mill, shown above, with blooms of peach and apricot and pink.  This shrub rose will grow to 4 feet wide and 3-1/2 feet tall, and it has a strong fragrance of myrrh.

Rosa 'Golden Celebration'

The advantage of Golden Celebration is that you can order it either as a climber (on the short side) or as a medium-size shrub.  It features huge, pure yellow blooms and it has a strong, fruity tea scent.  It reaches 8 to 10 feet as a climber or around 4x4' as a shrub.  It's also repeat flowering.  Several years ago, it won the Rose Awards Day prize for the best shrub and the most fragrant rose.

Rosa 'Darcy Bussell'

A small-ish shrub with pure crimson flowers, this rose is named after a famous British ballerina.  At 3 feet high and 2 feet wide, it would be very useful along the border of a small garden or even in a container.   It's said to have good continuous blooming and a pleasing fruity scent.

  Rosa 'Gentle Hermione'

A four by three foot shrub, this is a very hardy rose with a strong "old rose" fragrance, excellent repeat blooming, and pure pink flowers.  Named after a female character in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale."  Stems are slightly arching and the petals are quite resistant to rain.

There are six other own-root roses available this year, including 'Crocus Rose' (soft apricot); 'William Shakespeare 2000' (red); 'Teasing Georgia' (yellow); 'Lichfield Angel' (creamy white); 'Crown Princess Margareta' (apricot-orange); and 'Strawberry Hill' (pink).

All of these roses also come in grafted form, so when you order, make sure to specify that you want "own-root."  Initial quantities are limited, so order soon if you find these appealing.

(photos: David Austin Roses)

 

Books: Sustainable Garden Maintenance

OK, so you've designed that perfect garden, you've installed it, and the client is thrilled.  So how do maintain that garden design over the years in a responsible way?

You can find the answers in a new book by Ann Marie Vanderzandan, along with Thomas W. Cook, Sustainable Landscape Management: Design, Construction, and Maintenance (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011).

For designers, it's a goldmine:  I've never before seen a list of trees and shrubs with their relative tolerance to construction damage. Or a discussion of how to design a planting bed that is efficient for irrigation.

I particularly liked the chapter on "retro-fitting" existing landscapes for sustainability. It includes sections on plant selection appropriate for the site; how to streamline odd-shaped lawns and planting beds; replacement of plants that require excessive pruning and maintenance; and lists of plants that won't require hours of attention.

The authors also cover soils, grading, invasive plants, fertilizers and pesticides ... and how to design a garden that's actually a native, self-sustaining ecosystem. They also warn that global warming is affecting many types of plants ... and offer advice on how to design and plan for it in the future (along with helpful lists of plants).

Most designers today are certainly aware of the new movement toward sustainability, and most that I know are at least attempting to foster sustainable practices and trying to convince their clients that it's the way to go.  This book will give you the ammo you need to make the case, and it's an invaluable guide for anyone who claims to be a serious landscape designer.