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Philly Flower Show Preview 2016

images: PHS - click to enlarge

You might not know that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the US National Park System (NPS) --  one of our greatest national treasures -- and so it's entirely appropriate that the theme of this year's Philadelphia Flower Show is "Explore America" in honor of the NPS.

Yellowstone, Yosemite, Acadia National Park, the Cape Cod National Seashore, Valley Forge -- these are just some of the parks that will be represented in this year's flower show.  Cynthia McLeod, Superintendent of Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park said that the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the NPS "share a commitment to introduce new generations to the beauty of nature, to be good stewards of the environment, to honor the contributions of individuals to our history, and to build vibrant communities."

Visitors to this year's show will see a wide range of horticultural specimens, from wildflowers to desert blooms, coastal flora, meadows, pinelands and ancient redwoods as well.  The entrance to the show, shown above, is through "Big Timber Lodge," which represents classic park architecture of wood and stone, along with Native American-inspired art and a natural waterfall. There will also be a "Find Your Park Pavilion," where visitors can meet park rangers in person and by webcast and explore parks throughout the country.

Guests will also be able to climb a mountain, hike trails throughout the exhibition, ford a stream and pitch camp.

The Philadelphia Flower SHow is the nation's largest and oldest horticultural event, dating back to 1829 ... older than the NPS!

 

 

Happenings March 2016

SELECTED EVENTS AROUND THE COUNTRY:

thru May 1: The Landscape Architecture of Oehme van Sweden, Washington DC
Exhibition, National Building Museum, 202-272-2448
thru March 6, Orchid Mania, Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Botanical Garden, 216-721-1600
thru March 27, Orchid Extravaganza, Kennett Square, PA
Longwood Gardens, 610-388-1000
thru April 26, Interlocking Science & Beauty, Washington DC
20th Smithsonian Orchid Show, US Museum of Natural History 202-225-8333

thru May 9, "The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920," San Marino, CA
Exhibition, The Huntington, 626-405-2100
thru March 27, Orchid Show, St. Louis, MO
Missouri Botanical Garden, 314-577-5100
thru March 13, Orchid Show, Glencoe, IL
Chicago Botanic Garden, 847-835-5440
thru April 10, Orchid Daze, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Botanical Garden, 404-876-5859
thru April 10, Dallas Blooms, Dallas, TX
500,000+ blooms, Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Garden, 214-515-6615
thru March 12, The Highgrove Florilegium Exhibition, Wellesley, MA
Botanical Watercolors of Plants from the Prince of Wales' garden at Highgrove, MA Hort Society, 617-933-4900
thru April 17, The Orchid Show, Orchidelirium, Bronx, NY
NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700

March 1. Plants in the Everyday Life of Japan, San Marino, CA
7:30PM, Lecture, The Huntington, 626-405-2100
March 2, Perennial Plant Combinations, Bronx, NY
10:30AM-3PM Workshop, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
March 2, "Restoring Nature's Relationships at Home," Cambridge, MA
7PM, Lecture, author Douglas Tallamy, Cambridge Public Library, 781-790-8921
March 3, Color in the Garden, Bronx, NY
10AM-2:30PM, Workshop, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
March 3-6 Nashville Lawn & Garden Show, Nashville, TN
"Small Spaces, Grand Gardens," TN State Fairgrounds, 615-876-7680
March 4-5 Ithaca Native Landscape Symposium, Ithaca, NY
8AM-3:30PM, Cinemapolis, 8th annual symposium, 607-533-7193
March 4-6 Maricopa County Home & Garden Show, Phoenix, AZ
Univ of Phoenix Stadium, 602-485-1691
March 4-6 Blue Grass Trust Antiques & Garden Show, Lexington, KY
Alltech Arena, 859-253-0362
March 5, Tour, US Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington DC
10AM-noon Landscape design by Andropogon, Natl Building Museum, 202-272-2448
March 5-13 Philadelphia Flower Show, Philadelphia, PA
"Explore America," featuring US National Parks, PA Convention Center, 215-988-8800

March 6  Lessons from Arlington Garden, San Marino, CA
2PM. Lecture on a Sustainable Urban Garden, The Huntington 626-405-2100
March 9-10 Sustaining the Living Landscape, Amherst, MA
22nd Ecological Landscape Alliance Conference, 617-436-5838
March 10 The New American Garden, San Marino, CA
2:30PM, Lecture, British horticulturist Nicholas Staddon, The Huntington, 626-405-2100
March 10, 16th Land Ethics Symposium, Doylestown, PA
"Creative Approaches for Ecological Landscaping," Delaware Valley University, sponsor:Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, 215-862-2924
March 12, Landscaping with Perennials, Bronx, NY
9AM-4PM Workshop, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
March 12, US Botanic Garden Production Facility Open House, Washington DC
Open house only once a year - various times of the day - Don't Miss It! 202-225-8333
March 12, Design & Build a New American Garden, Washington DC
Noon-3PM, Design Workshop, National Building Museum, 202-272-2448
March 12-20, Chicago Flower & Garden Show, Chicago, IL
Navy Pier, "Chicago Is," 847-970-9160
March 12-20 Indiana Flower & Patio Show, Indianapolis, IN
IN State Fairgrounds, 58th annual show, 317-576-9933

March 15, City Roof Design, New York, NY
6:15PM, Lecture,  NYBG Midtown Center, 718-817-8700
March 16-20, Boston Flower & Garden Show, Boston, MA
Seaport World Trade Center, 781-237-5533
March 16-20 San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, San Mateo, CA
San Mateo Event Center, 415-684-7278
March 19, Northwest Hort Society Spring Symposium, Kenmore, WA
8:30am-4pm, "Sustainable Design for Beauty, Biodiversity & Habitat," 206-780-8172
March 19, Water-Wise Landscape Design Seminars, Dallas TX
9AM-5PM, Texas A&M, 214-670-3155

March 21, Landscape architects  Kim Mathews & Signe Nielson, Philadelphia, PA
6PM, Lecture, Penn Design, 215-898-6591
March 22, Designing for a Sense of Place, Bronx, NY
1PM, Lecture, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
March 24, "The Art of Making Gardens," Bronx, NY
10AM, Lecture, Italian designer Luciano Giubbilei, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
March 30, Landscape Architect Peter Walker, Philadelphia, PA
6PM, Lecture, Penn Design (Annual Ian McHarg Lecture) 215-898-6591

LOOKAHEAD:

April 13, Northern Gardening Symposium, Randolph Center, VT
9AM-2PM, New England Wildflower Society, 508-877-7630

May 24-28, Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK

Orchid Intoxication

New York Botanical Garden Orchid Show 2016:  Orchideliriium
Feb 27-April 17

So gorgeous they almost make you crazy. The NYBG calls it "orchidelirium," a reference to the 19th century craze when wealthy collectors sent explorers off to all parts of the world in a quest to bring back the best and most unusual orchids.

images: NYBG click to enlarge

This is the 14th annual NYBG orchid show, and it will feature thousands of blooms that highlight the adventures of explorers who risked life and limb to collect prized specimens from tropical forests around the world.  The exhibition will display orchids as they grow in natural, wild landscapes, cascading from trees and nestled in rocky crevices.  Visitors then move on to the greenhouse era, when England's Duke of Devonshire began collecting orchids and, along with his gardener, revolutionized the way the plants were cultivated in large glass houses.

The show will also highlight famous collectors and horticulturists and some of the rare orchids they brought back to England and the United States.  

 Orchids belong to the largest family of flowering plants, with more than 30 thousand species. Exploration today is tied to conservation in order to protect the plants in the wild. The NYBG is a designated Plant Rescue Center and part of its mission is to nurture orchids that have been illegally collected in the wild and seized at international borders through the Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Species. 

The exhibition was designed by Christian Primeau, who oversees the garden's tropical and sub-tropical plant collections.

Check out the exhibition website for many special events, including orchid evenings, lectures, demonstrations and much more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Incredible Epimediums

Photos courtesy Phill King

There's a lot going on in the world of epimediums, and new varieties are in the making, thanks to French nurseryman and breeder Thierry Delabroye. As you can see in the photo, these epimediums -- 20 inches high or more --  have large flowers and flower stalks that rise above the foliage. At the moment, according to Phill King of Greenwood Propagation in Hebron, Illinois, there are not many of these plants available the United States, but King expects more in the coming years.

LOVE this one ... Cyrion.

King says that the flowers on some of them are so large they could be used for cut flowers or in bridal bouquets ... imagine that.  He also says the new plants have tons of flowers per stem and they bloom for a long period of time. King has the first 3000 out of 65,000 plants, but it will take a year or so to get them ready for sale.  LIke other epimediums, the new plants are drought tolerant and extremely hardy.

At the moment, US grower Darryl Probst of Garden Vision Epimediums in Templeton, Massachusetts, has already produced some amazing new cultivars, most from plants he collected in China, Japan, and Korea.

One of his most popular cultivars, according to Phill King, is this one ... 'Pink Champage,'  Who wouldn't like to have a stand or two of this epimedium as a groundcover anywhere in the garden?... I think a lot of gardeners will be ripping up their old beds in coming years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Convert-A-Bench

Pretty cool idea, especially for small-space gardens.  The five-foot long bench, seen here, folds out -- and if you slide two of the benches together, voila! ...you have a full-sized picnic table that will seat six.  No tools required

And if you don't need a full-sized picnic table, one bench will fold out to a tabletop for three.

The manufacturer, Norton Holdings LLC of Provo, Utah, says the bench is lightweight, making it easy to move, yet a single bench will support up to 1,000 pounds.  Cushions are also available.

To see exactly how it works, watch the video here.

I sort of wish the benches were made of wood, but perhaps that would make them too unwieldy.

 

Books: Five-Plant Containers

Your garden may look great, but every garden needs containers, urns, window boxes, whatever.  And this new book, Container Theme Gardens: 42 Combinations, Each Using 5 Perfectly Matched Plants (Storey Publishing, 2015), by author Nancy Ondra, will make things easy for you.

Each entry - for example, "Back to Black," -- includes the size of the container, cultural requirements, a photo of it, planted -- a description and photo of each of the five plants, and substitutions that you may like to make.

There are "themes" for every occasion: All Summer Color, Asian-Inspired Beauty, Elegant Whites, A Mini Meadow, Hummingbird Haven, Salad on Deck, and many more.

My usual solution was always to take the container to the nursery and fill it with pots of plants until I got more or less what I desired.  Nancy Ondra's book is a much better idea.  It's the perfect book, of course, for any designer or dedicated gardener with a balcony, a terrace, a front stoop or a deck.

More in the Magazines - FEB

Sunset February
*Water-wise plants in an urban setting at the Flora Grubb Garden
*Idea garden of water-wise plants in Marin County by transplanted Chicagoan Tom Hansen: curb appeal with Mediterranean plants; focal point to anchor views; bold boulders & plants; an entrance statement of formal and potted shrubs.

The American Gardener Jan-Feb

*New plants for 2016
*Broadleaved evergreens for mixed borders
*Profile of Alabaman Weesie Smith, plantswoman and advocate of native plants.
* Plant spotlight: Sensitive Fern

 

Landscape Architecture February

*Profile of Sweetwater -- a housing complex in Sonoma, CA for adults with autism living on their own.  Landscape architecture by Roche + Roche LA.
* Dry Design installs a green roof pavilion and patio for a residence in Sherman Oaks that hangs off a hillside.
*Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge transforms an historic airfield in Canton, MA into a park for biodiversity.
*Sundance Square Plaza - a minimalist design in Fort Worth by Michael Vergason LA.

New Crape Myrtle

Lagerstroemia speciosa 'Big Pink'

This crape myrtle was discovered by chance at the USDA-ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami. Geneticist Alan Meerow reports that it may have the "largest, brightest, and most striking flowers" among dozens of commercially available trees. Native to India and Southeast Asia, it's commonly known as Pride-of-India or queen's crape myrtle, and it's been grown in tropical areas worldwide. Unfortunately, that means that this new crape myrtle will -- at least for the time being -- be available only in South Florida nurseries and garden centers.

According to Meerow, 'Big Pink' will attain a height of 19 feet in five years and bloom from March into autumn.  'Big Pink' was discovered in Puerto Rico; scientists collected seed, grew the trees outdoors in Miami  and ultimately selected just six seedlings. Of those, two stood out for large flowers and bright hues. Cuttings have been grown for more than 10 years with no problems of pests or disease.  Sounds like a winner, and maybe global warming will slowly allow it to do well farther North.

 

 

Perennial Plant of the Year

photo: Perennial Plant Association

Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'

The Perennial Plant Association has chosen the hybrid  Japanese anemone 'Honorine Jobert' as the perennial plant of 2016.  I'd like to see them select a plant that's a little more unusual, but there's no denying that this plant is popular and, for most people, easy to grow.

Gardeners and designers like it for its late summer bloom -- into fall -- and its masses of pure white flowers.  It can spread annoyingly at times, but it's relatively easy to pull up and keep under control.  As the late garden writer Allen Lacy noted, "No plant of autumn brings more joy than Japanese anemones.  They look wonderful if give a spot all to themselves in front of shrubbery, but they also associate very well with ferns growing at their feet."

Plant these perennials in rich, moist to damp soil --  part sun to shade.  They'll reach a height of about two to four feet with a spread of two feet.

I might note that I planted this perennial numerous times in my own garden in different places, and it failed every time.  I just cannot understand what I was doing wrong. Guess it just didn't like the site.

Books: Stylish Plants

Plantsman and breeder Kelly Norris is a man with a mission, and his new book, Plants with Style: A Plantsman's Choices for a Vibrant, 21st-Century Garden (Timber Press, 2016), is what he calls "a manifesto for modern gardening." As he notes in the introduction, "Some plants solve the challenges inherent in making beautiful gardens.  Others define the spirit of the garden through an untethered passion for the beauty of the planet.  Gardens should be lived in and edited often."

The plants that Norris celebrates are divided into chapters with specific themes: plants that define the local environment; those that provide structure for the garden's "bones," plants for all four seasons; plants for color and contrast; and horticultural "odds and ends."

Garden designers will be familiar with many of these plants, but you'll come across many species that you'll simply have to try.

How about Eastern leatherwood (Dirca palustris), an early flowering shrub with dangling yellow blooms that look like fireflies? Many of us have planted Thalictrum robhebrunianum 'Lavender Mist', but we might consider Thalictrum dasycarpum, an American native that Norris says is found on two-thirds of the continent! "Sad to say," he says, "it's missing from too many gardens.

You'll find almost everything in this book -- hellebores and daffodils, peonies and lilies, goldenrods, yuccas, grasses, and much, much more. I must admit I love the Cercis canadensis 'The Rising Sun' that graces the garden of a good friend.  And as Norris says, "When I finally had a chance to witness the cultivar in production .... I thought I'd discovered the Holy Grail.

If  you're into standout plants that make a statement, this is definitely the book for you.