GardenDesignOnline

Books: Plant Titles

One thing about Essential Perennials is that it's essential -- maybe even mandatory -- for every designer to have a copy.

Written by Ruth Rogers Clausen and Thomas Christopher, Essential Perennials: The Complete Reference to 2700 Perennials for the Home Garden (Timber Press, 2015) is a long-awaited update to a classic book.

An A to Z guide, the book contains entries on 2700+ plants, and although there are not photos of every single one, you can easily look up images online of the ones you don't know.  What I particularly like about it is the essay at the beginning of each genus entry that tells you, for instance, whether the plant is susceptible to disease or insects, whether it might be invasive, how it's best used, and how best to plant and maintain it.

If the plant nomenclature has changed (such a maddening factor for designers and avid gardeners that occurs all too often), you'll find it here.  The authors include the current botanical name as well as past ones.  At the end of each entry, they list notable cultivars and hybrids, although obviously they cannot list everything, like hundreds of daylilys or hellebores.

At the beginning of the book, there's a section on perennial basics -- planting, selection, irrigation and the like -- and in the back of the book, there's a list of mail-order nurseries and an index of common names.  You will not be disappointed in this book.

If you live in the Northeast, you might want to pick up a copy of Growing the Northeast Garden (Timber Press, 2015) by garden writer Andrew Keys.  You'll find out the best plants for the region year-round, and which ones you want for a show in early to midsummer, late summer to fall, and winter.  Toward the back of the book, there are case studies of seven gorgeous northeast gardens that will give you inspiration to get going on that garden plan.  

And finally, a new book on plant basics,  How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do (Science for Gardeners) (Timber Press, 2015) by horticulturist Linda Chalker-Scott.  Loads of tips on planting, watering, fertilizers, weeds, what causes plant problems and much more.  Yes, it will help you change the way you garden.  

Design Trends - Landscape Architecture

ASLA - Scott Lewis LA - photo: Matthew Millman

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has released its latest survey of landscape design trends -- with sustainability and low-maintenance leading the way for 2015.

According to the survey, landscape architects say they are getting the greatest demand for ecologically sensitive projects that preserve the environment, conserve water and reduce landscape maintenance.

The highest consumer demand is for the following top 10: native plants; drought-tolerant plants; edible gardens; fire pits or fireplaces; low-maintenance landscapes; permeable paving; water-efficient irrigation; rain gardens; lighting; and rainwater/graywater harvesting.

ASLA CEO Nancy Somerville says the survey shows that homeowners increasingly see opportunities to improve the environment in the their own backyards. "Consumers care about designed landscapes that are attractive, easy to take care of and eco-friendly," she said.

The most popular outdoor design elements are firepits, lighting, and grills, and the top outdoor structures are pergolas, decks, and fencing.

Forty percent of the survey respondents said the most popular outdoor recreation amenities include hot tubs, Jacuzzis, whirlpools, indoor/outdoor saunas and swimming pools.

In short, consumers want everything.

 

 

Happenings April 2015

Selected Events Around the Country:

thru April 12, Orchid Daze: Pop!, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Botanical Garden, 404-876-5859
thru April 26, Orchid Show, Washington DC
US National Museum of Natural History, US Botanic Garden, 202-225-8333

March 28, Garden Dialogues, FL Gulf Coast
Special tours with landscape architects, TCLF, 202=483-0553

April 1, "Native Meadows: Let's Get Real", Cambridge, MA
7PM, Lecture, LA Larry Weaner, Cambridge Public Library, 781-790-8921
April 1, Green Roofs & Living Walls, Framingham, MA
6:30PM, Lecture, Garden in the Woods, 617-436-5838
April 1, Sustainable Landscapes for Life, Wellesley, MA
7PM, Lecture, Holly Shimizu, MA Hort Society, 617-933-4900

April 9, Landscape Architect Claude Cormier, Boston, MA
7PM, Lecture, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 617-278-5156
April 10-12, Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium, Williamsburg, VA
"Layers of the Living Landscape," 800-603-0948
April 11, Northern Gardening Symposium, Randolph Center, VT
9AM-3PM, New England Wildflower Society 508-877-7630
April 11, Garden Conservancy Open Days Garden Tours,  FL, NY
Jacksonville, FL; Tompkins Cty, NY
April 11-12, Garden Dialogues, Dallas & Fort Worth, TX
Special tours with landscape architects, TCLF, 202-483-0553
April 11-19, California Native Plant Week, CA
Lectures, garden tours, workshops, more 916-447-2677

April 13, Lecture, LA Pierre Belanger, Philadelphia, PA
6PM, Penn Design, "1:1 Billion on Landscape, Infrastructure, Power" 215-898-6591
April 17-19, Antiques, Garden & Design Show, Glencoe, IL
10AM-5PM, Chicago Botanic Garden, 847-835-5440
April 18, Garden Conservancy Open Days Garden Tours, TX
Houston, TX
April 18-25 Historic Virginia Garden Week, VA
Garden tours & events state-wide, 804-644-7776

April 24-26 Antique Garden Furniture Fair, Bronx, NY
NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
April 25-26, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours, CA, NJ, NY
CA: SF East Bay, Mendocino Cty, Pasadena; NJ: Somerset & Hunterdon Cty; NY: Putnam & Westchester Cty.

LOOKAHEAD:
May 19-23, Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK
June 11, Landscape Architect Ken Smith in Conversation, Boston, MA
7PM, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 617-278-5156
July 14-16, International Hydrangea Conference, Sandwich, MA
Heritage Museum & Gardens, Sandwich, MA 508-888-3300

New Gardens at The Huntington

photos: The Huntington - click to enlarge

The Huntington's new education and visitor center opens to the public on April 4th, including six and a half acres of new gardens. The landscape, designed by Cheryl Barton, FASLA, of San Francisco, features a U-shaped covered loggia, a Garden Court and a Celebration Garden.

Visitors enter the visitor center complex with a view of the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop, and proceed through groves of orange trees and California pepper trees that are typical of early California ranches.

An allee of olive trees forms the axis of the entire complex, and in the central part of the gardens, there are ever-changing palettes of native and adaptive plants, as well as intimate areas for seating one or two people, rooms formed by hedges for small groups, and spacious plazas for larger groups.  The allee terminates in the Celebration Garden, where the new gardens evoke the formal historic landscapes of the original estate, with colorful seasonal blooms (marigolds, cosmos, zinnias) surrounding a stone-lined water runnel. 

Well worth a visit.                           

 

Books: Hummelo - Piet's Evolution

If you've been to the High Line or Battery Park in NYC, or the Lurie Garden in Chicago, or if you're a landscape designer, then you know all about Dutch landscape designer and plantsman Piet Oudolf.  But there's a lot -- and I mean a lot --  you don't know about his life, his methodology, and his work.

Teaming up again with the well-known British garden writer Noel Kingsbury, Oudolf, in this new book, Hummelo: A Journey Through a Plantsman's Life (Monacelli Press, 2015) takes you through his development as a designer, from his first interest in gardens and plants at around age 25 to his renown today as one of the world's top designers.

As Kingsbury notes in the introduction, Oudolf is part of new movement in planting design that focuses on ecological considerations.   It might be called "Dutch Wave," the "New Perennial Style," or the "New German Style" (or in the United States, the "New American Garden" style) -- but whatever you call it, Kingsbury says, it has three main tenets:  "a strong desire for a naturalistic aesthetic, sustainability, and a focus on creating a home for biodiversity." 

As you'll learn in this book, Piet was greatly influenced by Dutch landscape architect Mien Ruys, by German plantsman Karl Foerster, philosopher-gardener Rob Leopold, and many others in the Netherlands, Germany, and Britain. 

Hummelo, of course, is his own garden (and former nursery), where he carried on experiments with planting styles and began his career in design.  As his nursery flourished, so did his design business, and it really took off after he was featured in the British magazine Gardens Illustrated in 1994. The book has lovely profiles of the people who were and are his friends and collaborators, and it will take you through his garden techniques, from clipping to the perennial plant palette to blending, scatter plants, block and matrix plantings.  These terms, of course, are familiar to most who have read his previous books.  In this book, you'll learn how his ideas have changed over the years with beautiful photographs of his own garden and many projects around the the world. 

Most fascinating of all, you'll learn that Piet is always changing his mind and moving forward with new ideas.  As Kingsbury notes, "...essentially each project becomes a chapter in a story, a unique composition that reflects everything he has learned to date about plants and planting -- and is therefore necessarily different from anything he has done before."

 

 

March Happenings Update

March 26 Climate Change & the Future of Plant Life, Cambridge, MA
9AM-4:30PM, Symposium, New England Wildflower Society, 508-877-7630

March 27-29 Texas Home & Garden Show, Houston, TX
George Brown Convention Center, 713-874-2231

APLD Gold Awards III

photos: APLD-Gunn LA - click to enlarge

If you've ever dreamed of living in Tribeca, this is what you'd want.  And it's no wonder that Gunn Landscape Architecture of NYC won a gold award from APLD for the roof garden project.

The roof garden is actually a 2600 sq. ft. terrace that wraps around the residence, which has floor to ceiling windows. There's a spa off the master bedroom, with plantings to screen the area from neighbors.

Pale stone pavers echo the colors inside the glass walls of the residence, and the bright colors of the furnishings draw the eye outside.  Plantings tolerate the hot roof conditions in summer months, particularly, and containers are filled with herbs, creeping juniper and perennials.  Crape myrtles add bloom in summer and a bit of fragrance.

 

Plants: Perennial Plant of the Year 2015

 

photo: Perennial Plant Assn click to enlarge

The Perennial Plant Association has selected Geranium xcantabrigiense 'Biokovo' as this year's winning perennial.

Biokovo has delicately scented light pink flowers in spring, followed by gorgeous scarlet and orange fall color.

It's a naturally occurring hybrid of Geranium dalmaticum and Geranium macrorrhizum that was found by Dr. Hans Simon of Germany in the Biokovo mountains of Croatia.

At six to 10 inches high, it makes a terrific groundcover, as it's semi-evergreen in most climates.  Biokovo does well in average well-drained soil in full sun to part shade, and it spreads by rhizomes.  However, the plant is not deeply rooted, so it can be easily pulled out if it strays too far. Zones 4-8.

Winning Roses 2015

image: Star Roses

The American Garden Rose Selections has announced its winning roses for 2016.  These awards replace the old AARS rose selections, and three roses were selected in various categories.

Dee-Lish® (Rosa 'Meiclusif' by Star Roses) was chosen for fragrance -- a strong verbena and citrus scent. It's a hybrid tea, with large, deep pink blooms that are excellent as cut flowers.  Hybridized by Meilland International, it gets about six feet tall with a spread of three feet and won multiple European awards for disease resistance.  Zones 5-9. 

image: Star Roses

Star's Look-A-Likes® Phloxy Baby (Rosa 'Radcleome') won a regional award -- it does well in the US Northwest, Southwest, North Central and Southeast.  The light pink bloom looks like phlox, and it's a polyantha rose with a bushy habit, good disease resistance and it's more upright than most polyanthas.  Hybridized by Bill Radler, it gets about 5.5 feet high with a spread of four to five feet, and it's hardy in zones 5-9.  It also attracts bees, and it could be used as a hedge.  It was also selected as one of the top 10 roses at the Univ. of Georgia Trial Gardens in 2012.

image: Antique Rose Emporium

And finally, the Antique Rose Emporium won a regional award (Northwest, Northeast, South Central) for its Texas Pioneer Rose (Rosa 'Thomas Affleck'). It's a tall, bushy, thornless shrub rose with deep pink flowers that have a mild fragrance and it's a repeat bloomer throughout the season if the spent flowers are removed.  It's size is three to four feet high and wide and it's hardy in zones 6a to 9b.  Bred by George Michael Shoup and named after an 18th century Texas nurseryman.  Use it as a bold specimen in the garden or in a large container.

Books: Secret British Gardens

Almost everyone who visits Britain goes to the Cotswolds, renowned for its charming villages, antique shops, and magnificent gardens. Now, author Victoria Summerley provides an inside tour of some of the area's spectacular estate gardens, most of which are rarely open to the public. In Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds: A Personal Tour of 20 Private Gardens (Frances Lincoln Ltd, 2015), Summerly explores the historical significance of some of the properties and introduces readers to their owners and designers. Summerly says in the introduction to the book that she wished to record these gardens because it's "a world that's slowly disappearing."  

You'll be introduced to Burford Priory, a former monastery (until very recently), now owned by a daughter of media magnate Rupert Murdoch.  On the main lawn, a circular labyrinth was cut into the grass by monks, who went there to meditate.  There's also a glasshouse, an enormous vegetable garden, and a beautiful front terrace filled with perennials.  It's worth reading, because this garden is closed to the public. 

Eyeford House, on the other hand, is open to the public two days a year, and legend has it that John Milton was inspired to write part of Paradise Lost while on the grounds. The formal gardens around the house -- classic English style -- were redesigned in the 1970's by the late Graham Stuart Thomas.

All of the gardens profiled here are classicly British ... and with beautiful photos by Hugo Rittson-Thomas, you'll find inspiration for formal design, planting combinations, and yes, for another trip to Britain, carefully planned to catch some of these during the few days annually when most are open.