GardenDesignOnline

Happenings January 2015

Selected Events From Around the Country:

Jan 4-5, Western Trade Show, Kansas City, MO
Sheraton Crown Center, New plants, exhibits, lectures, more 888-233-1876
Jan 8-9 Strategies for Evolving Landscapes Conference, Blue Bell, PA
26th Annual Conference, sponsor: New Directions in the American Landscape, 215-886-9740

Jan 14-16, Mid-Atlantic Trade Show (MANTS), Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Convention Center, 800-431-0066
Jan 15, "Serenity in Stone, Japanese Karesansui Gardens," Washington DC
6:45-8:45PM, Lecture, Smithsonian's S. Dillon Ripley Center, 202-633-3030
Jan 15-16, Strategies for Evolving Landscapes Conference, New London, CT
26th Annual Conference, sponsor: New Directions in the American Landscape, 215-886-9740
Jan 16-18, Oklahoma City Home & Garden Show, Oklahoma City, OK
State Fair Park of Oklahoma, 405-948-6704
Jan 16-18 Maricopa County Home & Garden Show, Phoenix, AZ
Arizona State Fairgrounds, 602-485-1691

Jan 21, Building the Ecological Landscape, Stoneham, MA
8AM-5PM, Symposium, Ecological Landscape Alliance, 617-436-5838
Jan 21, Xeriscape: Planning & Installation WEBINAR
1PM-2PM, Ecological Landscape Alliance, 617-436-5838
Jan 23-25, Southern Gardening Symposium, Pine Mountain, GA
29th Symposium, Callaway Gardens, 706-663-5153
Jan 24-25, Virginia Home & Garden Show, Doswell, VA
Meadow Event Park, 804-425-6556
Jan 24-Feb 22, "Wild Medicine in the Tropics," Bronx, NY
Exhibition, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700

Jan 27, Plant-O-Rama, Brooklyn, NY
8AM-4PM, Hort Trade Show, Lectures, More. Brooklyn Botanic Garden 212-757-0915
Jan 27, The Self-Proliferating Landscape, Bronx, NY
1PM-3PM Workshop, Landscape Arch. Larry Weaner, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Jan 29, 15th Annual Winter Lectures, "The Graceful Garden," Bronx, NY
10AM-11:30AM, Landscape Designer Louis Benech, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Jan 30-Feb 1, VA Flower & Garden Expo, Virginia Beach, VA
VA Beach Convention Center, 757-284-6139
Jan 31, The Blue Garden in Newport, Boylston, MA
2PM-3PM, Lecture on garden by Frederick Law Olmsted, Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 508-869-6111

LOOKAHEAD:

Feb 6, Today's Horticulture Symposium, Kennett Square, PA or ONLINE
8AM-4PM, Longwood Gardens, 610-388-1000

Feb 12, Landscape Lecture: Landscape Architect Kathryn Gustafson, Boston, MA
7PM, Lecture, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 617-278-5156
Feb 28-March 8, Philadelphia Flower Show, Philadelphia, PA
"Celebrate the Movies," PA Convention Center, 215-988-8899
March 12, 15th Land Ethics Symposium, Doylestown, PA
8AM-4PM, "Creative Approaches for Ecological Landscaping," Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, 215-862-2924
March 21, Northwest Hort Society Spring Symposium, Kenmore, WA
April 9, Landscape Architect Claude Cormier, Boston, MA
7PM, Lecture, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 617-278-5156
May 19-23, Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK

Christmas Gifts VI

The best gift of all for your gardening and design friends ... a gift certificate membership to the garden of  your choice.  And some gardens -- like the Huntington in California and the Pennsylvania Hort in Philadelphia -- will combine the membership with tickets to flower shows, teas ... check out the offerings.

Also:
From The Huntington Gift Shop:

Japanese Garden Magnet Set
To remind you, year-round, that this garden is one of the country's oldest and most treasured Japanese gardens.  And to remind you to plan a trip, if you haven't seen it already.  Four magnets, 2x3" each.

iPhone 5 Cover
For the true garden aficionado, inspired by Golden Lily, a design by British artiest John Henry Dearle.  Clear plastic ase about 2.5 x 5 inches, with the printed image on a thick paper insert.

 

From the Garden Shop at the Chicago Botanic:

Orchid Mugs
Gorgeous mugs inspired by a book in garden's library, Les Orchidees et les Plantes de Serre: Etudes by Henri Lambert. Also available: orchid trays, notebooks, aprons, totes & tea towels.

 

 

 

Christmas Books V - Best of the Year

Here are my top selections for Christmas gifts, in no particular order: just books I'd be happy to have under the tree in my house.

 

Flora Illustrata - Yale University Press

Highlights from the New York Botanical Garden's collection of manuscripts, texts, illustrations, seed catalogues, documents -- everything horticulture, garden design, exploration, you name it.  A most impressive book.

Full review is here.

 

Landscaping Ideas That Work - Taunton Press
Almost everything you need to know about how to design a garden from designer Julie Moir Messervy.  One of her best.

Full review is here.

The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden - Timber Press

From plantsman and designer Roy Diblik, plans and plants that will work anywhere - sustainably. 

Full review is here.

 

  Gardens in Detail: 100 Contemporary Designs - Monacelli Press
This is a reference book you'll turn to again and again and again -- all the elements that ever make a garden come together -- explained in easy terms by British author & designer Emma Reuss. 

Full review is here.

Sissinghurst - St. Martin's Press
Every designer, every serious gardener, probably needs to have a book on Sissinghurst - gardens designed by Vita Sackville West & Harold Nicolson.  Author Sarah Raven is married to the couple's grandson, her family has lived there -- and this is the book on the garden that you want - a thoroughly delightful read.

Full review is here.

 

In the Magazines Dec 2014

Landscape Architecture December 2014
If you don't subscribe, make sure to check out the free digital issue available on the ASLA website here.  

There's a profile of meadow expert Larry Weaner; lovely piece on a garden restoration in upstate New York by Nancy Owens studio; some great new chair designs; and of course, much more.

Sunset December 2014
* If there's any upside to the California drought, it makes the perfect conditions for the production of the other-worldly proteas -- flowers you simply have to have once you've seen them.
* Reimagined wreaths -- with the above-profiled proteas, eucalyptus, Pieris japonica, pomegranites. Different and lovely.  

The American Gardener Nov-Dec 2014
*Exceptional new hellebores
* The best in mid-sized crape myrtles
*Plants that foster the native bee population

Christmas Gifts V - tools

I've recommended some of these items in years past, but garden favorites are garden favorites.

From AM Leonard:

Not very classy looking, but these gloves do the job, you can wash them -- and they're cheaper than most.  The more you buy, the less you pay.  I order them every couple of years in lots of one dozen.  Of knit cotton and latex, they're also cooler in hot weather.

Soil Knife - Weeder

I love this versatile tool ... since I bought mine several years ago, I've never used anything else to plant bulbs or 4-inch potted plants, or to weed.  You simply can't be without one.  Stainless steel blade with depth markings at one inch intervals.  And the orange handle makes it visible in the garden.

From Gardener's Edge:

Hoe Rake
There's a seven by nine inch head at the end of this 54 inch rake -- you can use it for grading, raking, grubbing -- and much more.  Handle of northern ash, the head is carbon steel.  And it also comes in a shorter version.

From Gardener's Supply:

Floating Row Covers
I've been using these for years to protect tender plants out in the garden -- and the tarragon growing in a window-box type planter on my deck.  I've never lost anything when I've used them in very cold weather.  And the old cat loved to hide under them, fondly spying birds, though he was far too large to ever move fast enough to get one. 

Christmas Gifts IV - Luxe

From Boxhill, the Solfire Outdoor Firepit is kind of like a circular firescreen.  It comes in many colors, including red, blue, white, charcoal and more, and is fueled either by propane or natural gas.

It's 24 inches deep, 17.5 inches high, and the fire screen itself is 10 inches high. You can also add smooth stones or fireglass around the outer rim.  If you want something different, this is it. Trellis Tray - NY Botanical Garden Gift Shop.

Trellis Tray - NY Botanical Garden Gift Shop

Designed by Oscar de la Renta, better known, of course, for his celebrity fashions, this "trellis" tray was inspired by images from the garden's Rare Book Collection from the garden's main library. It's hand-painted wood with brass handles, with a laquered finish for easy cleaning.  It comes in two colors and sizes, blue 20 x 28" and green  is 14 x 21".

Planter VII
From Trellis & Trugs, this is a bronze planter hand-cast in Italy, and it comes in two sizes, 24" high x 18.5 diameter, or 39.5 high x 25.5 Diam.

Also many other planters available in hand-thrown terracotta, lead & more.

 

Wabi Birdbath

 From Stone Forest, this birdbath is hand carved from two natural granite boulders.  It's 20 inches high, wide and deep and would look great with a couple of red cardinals in it.

Christmas Books IV - 2014

There are plenty of books out there about shady gardens, but this one actually tells you how to create a woodland if you want one and don't have one.  In Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden: Plants and Combinations that Thrive in the Shade (Timber Press, 2014), British author Keith Wiley guides you through the process of planting an existing woodland site, or creating one from scratch. 

What I liked about this part of the book is that he shows you how to design a small woodland side yard or corner if you don't already have one.  Beyond that, there are detailed chapters on woodland plants - trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs and corms, ferns and grasses.  There's something in this book for everyone, and a nice find under any gardener's Christmas tree. 

 

Scent always seems to be an essential part of any garden, but there never seems to be enough of it around.  This new book is more or less an encyclopedia by British garden designer and writer Stephen Lacey.  In  Royal Horticultural Society Companion to Scented Plants (Frances Lincoln Ltd, 2014), Lacey profiles more than 1000 garden plants that can be grown for fragrance -- in hedges, on walls, in borders, in vertical gardens, in herb gardens and under glass.  Moreover, he offers chapters on planting with scented trees and shrubs that give the garden its basic structure.  There's a very useful calendar section in the back of the book that lists the plants that are in scent by the time of year, making planning quite easy.  There are also several "plans" of scented gardens in the beginning of the book to get the design juices flowing.

And ... for the person you know who's into garden club doings and flower arranging ...  they would certainly like Sarah Raven's Cutting Garden Journal: A Year of Beautiful Cut Flowers (Frances Lincoln, Ltd, 2014).  Raven, a writer and broadcaster who is married to Adam Nicolson (Vita Sackville West's grandson) ... and who has lived at Sissinghurst with her family, offers a beautiful format, with entries for each month (along with a blank page for notes) ... with tips on what flowers to grow, how to grow them, and how to use them in cut flower displays. Great tips as well on cutting garden "plans" and flower arranging.  Also, see Sarah's book on Sissignhurst in my Christmas Books II post on November 16th.

For an all-American experience, you'd certainly want a copy of  "A Rich Spot of Earth": Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden at Monticello (Yale University Press, 2012) by Peter J. Hatch, director emeritus of the gardens and grounds at Monticello.  Originally published two years ago, it's now out in a paperback version, identical to the hardback.  With gorgeous photos, illustrations, and plans, Hatch tells the story of Jefferson's one thousand square foot terraced vegetable garden that has now been restored to its state in 1812.  Jefferson himself planned the garden and planted it, experimented with different kinds of plants and introduced many species that we now eat every day:  eggplant and okra, lima beans and tomatoes among them. It's a great book for anyone interested in history or veg gardens -- and sustainable gardening today.

Christmas Gifts III - 2014

The following are from the New York Botanical Garden Online Gift Shop:

Footed Forcing Bowl

Nice design for forcing bulbs in early spring, when nothing outside is yet beginning to pop up.  Height with feet is five inches.  Eight inch diameter, mid section diameter slightly larger.

 

Morning Glory Gloves

Personally, I'm not a fan of gloves with printed botanical designs, but a friend gave me some for a gift last year, and I do have to admit that you can easily find them when you set them down somewhere amidst the debris.  These are green leather and cotton, one size fits all.

Fir Diffuser

When your Christmas tree is long gone, this nice little Frasier fir diffuser will keep the scent going a little longer. Just flip the reeds to renew the fragrance.

 

Banquet Stone

Crafted from granite, each "banquet" or "table" stone is unique in shape and color.  They are hand sawn and polished, and they come in two sizes -- approximately 12 inches diameter and six inches diameter, the smaller size great for appetizers.