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Garden Trends 2017

image: Patricia St. John Landscapes

The Garden Media Group has released its annual Garden Trends report.  It says that in 2017, gardeners will be concentrating on health and wellness -- growing food and plants both indoors and out without the use of pesticides and chemicals.

One big surprise:  five million new gardeners this year were in the 18-34 age group, so what Millennials want they will likely get.

Gold-colored foliage is big, big, big. Examples include the 'Katsura' Japanese maple, 'Rising Sun' redbud, and 'Goldy' arborvitae.  Check out the caramel-colored heucheras and golden-tinged carex as well.

The report indicates that gardeners will turn to plants that attract birds as well as bird and bat houses to combat pests; and install hydroponic and aquaponic systems to grow food indoors.

Tidy gardens are also popular, which does not mean pruning shrubs into little globes, but rather defining boundaries and spaces with good design, downsizing the plant palette, getting rid of clutter and plants that are past their prime.

Forest bathing -- a Japanese fitness trend developed in the 1980's -- is spreading to other countries.  Spending time in the forest -- or simply outdoors in nature -- is believed to reduce stress, awaken the senses, and increase overall well-being.

Finally, imagine a garden subscription service similar to a food subscription service like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh -- plants and garden products ordered online and delivered to your door!

The image above shows a California garden designed by Patricia St. John Landscapes -- tidy, containers with vegetables, and a lovely design that won a silver award this year from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, APLD.

Happenings October 2016

SELECTED EVENTS AROUND THE COUNTRY:

Exhibitions:
Oct 8-30, KIKU: The Art of the Japanese Garden, NY Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 718-817-8700

 

Oct 7-8, 63rd Annual Fall Symposium, St. Louis, MO
Ecological Restoration in a Changing Biosphere, MO Botanical Garden, 314-577-5100
Oct 8, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: NJ, PA
Bucks County, PA; Hunterdon County, NJ
Oct 8, Designing with Trees, New Hope, PA
4pm, Workshop, Paxson Hill Farm, The Garden Conservancy

Oct 11, Invasive Plant Symposium, Storrs, CT
8am-4:30pm, University of Connecticut, 860-486-6448
Oct 14, Perennial Plant Conference, Swarthmore, PA
9am-4:30pm, Swarthmore College, 610-388-5238
Oct 14, "Stitching the Natural World Together," Washington DC
6:30pm, Lecture, Prof. & Author Doug Tallamy, US Botanic Garden, 202-225-1116
Oct 15-16 Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours, NY, DC
15: Dutchess County, NY;  16: Washington DC

Oct 17, "The Universe as Artist," Bronx, NY
6:30pm, Lecture, Designer & author Charles Jencks, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Oct 19, LA Shauna Gillies-Smith of Ground, Inc., Boston, MA
6pm Lecture, Boston Architectural College, 617-585-0100
Oct 19-20, Landscape Expo, Long Beach, CA
Long Beach Convention Center.  Lectures, Demos, Exhibits, More
Oct 21-24, ASLA Annual Meeting & Expo, New Orleans, LA

Oct 25, "The Good Garden: Thoughts on Residential Landscape Design," Bronx, NY
1pm-3pm, Lecture, LA Edmund Hollander, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
OCT 26,"An Intimate Look at Two Rothschild Gardens," NY, NY
6-9pm, Lecture, Lord Rothschild & Lady Mary Keen, Christies, 20 Rockefeller Plaza,  sponsor: NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Oct 29, All About Containers Saturday, NY, NY
10am-5pm, Three Separate Lectures, NY Botanical Garden Midtown Center, 718-817-8700
Oct 29, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours, NC
Durham, NC
Oct 29, "Designing with Nature," Durham, NC
3-4:30pm, Workshop,  Deer Chase Gardens, The Garden Conservancy

LOOKAHEAD:
Nov 1-4, Cities Alive Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference, Washington DC
Nov 7, "Integrity and Relevance," Bronx, NY
6:30pm, Lecture, LA Raymond Jungles, NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Nov 10, LA Julie Bargman of D.I.R.T. Studio, Boston, MA
7pm, Lecture, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 617-278-5156

ASLA Awards II - 2016

photos: ASLA - Marmol Radziner

This contemporary design for a historic modern house in Beverly Hills earned Marmol Radziner a 2016 ASLA honor award for residential design. The residence -- Kronish House -- was built in 1954, and it's the only house designed by Richard Neutra that's still around in Beverly Hills.

The entire landscape suffered the ravages of time and it was about to be razed and demolished until the public stepped in to save it. Finally bought by an owner who aimed to restore it, Marmol Radziner was hired for the project, and the property is now listed on the city's Local Register of HIstoric Properties.

 

The original design featured seamless extensions of the house out into the landscape through elements such as large sliding glass doors, patios, overhangs, built-in planters and more.  The firm did extensive research on the original plan and plantings, and there's now a remodeled pool house and a new guest house at the other end of the pool.

In addition, plantings in the glass courtyard were replaced, and new plantings were installed around the perimeter of the site for privacy from busy Sunset Boulevard.  Native plantings are mixed with a Mediterranean palette, along with species from temperate shade gardens, desert regions, subtropical climates and microclimates that exist in different parts of the garden.

According to Marmol Radziner, the property is now home to many nesting birds and insect pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and moths -- and there are special habitats as well to support bird and small mammals. 

The awards jury noted that "It's really a wonderful revitalization of an historic project.  Its funkiness, really whacky, stylizes a period in a very interesting way."

Books: NYC Gardens - Sidewalks & Public Spaces

It's spring, and you're out for a walk in NYC ... head on over to East 74th Street or West 81st and check out the stunning wisteria vines climbing up the facade of the townhouses.  Or walk up to Vanderbilt Gate -- 5th Ave and 101st Streets -- and take in the wisteria-covered pergola framed by allées of crabapple trees.

What I love about this book, Sidewalk Gardens of New York (Monacelli Press, 2016) by Alicia Whitaker is that she profiles scores of places you can go to see beautiful gardens without having to sign up for some kind of special garden tour.  One of my all-time favorites (for decades, it seems) -- Paley Park on East 53rd between 5th and Madison -- there's not a better place for lunch when the weather is right.

How about the two-sided water wall at 1221 Ave of the Americas (with a tunnel through them) or the staircase waterwall at 525 East 72nd Street? Stunning treeboxes and planters, hanging baskets, window boxes, plazas, pocket parks -- everything is included in this book.

The message is that New York City -- including all of its boroughs -- is a fabulous place to study garden and planting design, and it's all right at the tips of your walking shoes.  I can't imagine a better book for anyone who likes to walk the streets and enjoy myriad botanical delights awaiting you almost everywhere.

AND -- stunning photos throughout by Betsy Pinover Schiff.

ASLA Guide to Resilient Landscapes

image: ASLA

Difficult to realize that it's already come to this ... but ASLA has just released an online guide to resilient design, ie, designs that can help towns and cities threatened by climate change protect themselves with careful planning.

The photo of a mangrove forest is one solution to protect shorelines from damaging storms. 

The guide indeed covers all the bases:  floods, fires, extreme heat, drought and landslides.  Hundreds of case studies are included, from small scale projects to larger ones that involve entire communities.  The main objective is to work with nature instead of against it in order to reduce risk and to recover in the event of a natural disaster.  Well worth everyone's time to take a long look.

Landscape Architecture: The Future

A lot of you probably missed the "Summit on Landscape Architecture and the Future," held in Philadelphia last June and sponsored by the Landscape Architecture Foundation.

It featured declarations from leaders in the field -- ideas for meeting the challenges of our times, such as global warming, urbanization, natural disasters and the like -- and how best landscape architects can contribute to solutions.

The Landscape Architecture Foundation has put together a 20-minute documentary of some of the summit proceedings, including interviews with many leading principals.

The link to the documentary is here.

Well worth a look for all.

Books: Landscapes of Ruth Shellhorn

I have to admit ... I was not at all familiar with the hundreds of modern landscape designs by LA Ruth Shellhorn (1909-2006),  Maybe that's because she worked in California, but that's really no excuse.  Thanks to the important work of the Library of American Landscape History (LALH) in Amherst, MA, we now have a magnificent book by LA Kelly Comras that tells the story of Shellhorn's long career of nearly 60 years. 

In Ruth Shellhorn (Masters of Modern Landscape Design Ser.) (University of Georgia Press, 2016), author Comras focuses on 12 of Shellhorn's major projects out of more than 400.  According to Robin Karson, executive director of LALH, Shellhorn's most influential designs were landscapes she created for Bullock's Department Stores ..."colorful, exotic settings that redefined the suburban shopping experience as a sensuous adventure."  Shellhorn was inspired by her neighbor -- Florence Yoch -- who designed Hollywood movie sets, among them Gone With The Wind.

Karson also notes that Shellhorn's designs were "structured by Beaux-Arts principles and enlivened by a sense of modernist abstraction" ... and that her plantings of natives and exotic species "were planned with an awareness of the region's limited water supply and an eye to sustainability."

Projects included in the book range from large university and and commercial sites to private residential landscapes.  I loved Shellhorn's use of glass windscreens around the edges of patios to allow clear views of the far distant mountains and natural landscapes.

The book is filled with many illustrative photographs, as well as "plans" of many projects.  You'll want to devote some time to study this book, and it's one whose lessons you won't forget. 

PHS Gold Medal Plants 2017

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has announced its Gold Medal plant winners for 2017, exceptional plants for both the homeowner and the professional garden designer. This year's selections include trees, vines, and perennials.

Natchez Crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia 'Natchez')
This workhorse crapemyrtle has been around for quite awhile, but it never loses its charm.  At 20 to 30 feet tall, and with a similar spread,  it's one of the tallest crapemyrtles, prized for its pure white flowers in July and August, its red, yellow and orange leaf color in fall, and its exfoliating bark -- shades of tan and chocolate -- in late fall and winter.  One of the best known four-season plants, it was developed at the US National Arboretum by Dr. Donald Egolf. USDA zones 7-9, and I've seen it growing just fine as far north as Long Island and Cape Cod.

Gulftide Holly Tea Olive (Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Gulftide')
Definitely one of my favorite plants, particularly because of its fragrant fall flowers.  The tiny white blooms appear from September to November, and the plant will perfume the entire garden if planted en masse. It's an upright plant that looks like a holly, and it is extremely versatile:  deer resistant, tolerant of shade and drought, and hardy to USDA zone 6.  At about six feet tall and four feet wide, it can be used as a stand-alone specimen plant or as an attractive hedge.

Clematis viticella group

This clematis variety is perfect for almost any garden.  It blooms from June to September and comes in shades of dark pinks, reds and purples.  The large three-inch flowers bloom on new growth, so the vine is best pruned in late winter to early spring.  It's a vigorous climber and is resistant to clematis wilt.  To USDA zone 5a.

Perennial winners:

Agastache x 'Blue Fortune'
Allium x 'Summer Beauty'
Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna'
Sedum rupestre 'Angelina'

PHS President Matt Rader said the plants are selected for their "beauty, reliability and ease of care."  He added that their performance and hardiness in the mid-Atlantic growing region, from New York to Washington DC, has been proven.  I'd say they'd be quite reliable in many other parts of the country.

NYBG Anniversary Terracotta Pot

In celebration of the NY Botanical Garden's 125th anniversary this year, Seibert & Rice has fashioned a new terracotta pot to mark the notable event.

It's hand-made terracotta, frost proof, and it's only available in a limited edition -- so if you want one, better order one now.

It comes in three diameters, 14 inch, 18 inch, and 21 inch, available either from Seibert & Rice or from the NYBG Store.

 

 

ASLA Awards I - 2016

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has announced its 2016 design awards, and top honors in the residential design category went to Design Workshop Inc for a project in Pitkin County, Colorado.

Photos courtesy ASLA

The landscape architects, working in collaboration with architects and interior designers, transformed a 3.5 acre maintenance yard for a working ranch into a compound of structures and inter-connected gathering spaces.

A palette of stone, wood, and native plant communities link indoor and outdoor areas simply and seamlessly.  Major challenges included settlement issues on a former dumpsite and difficult construction on a fill site in a winter climate.

  Now, the homeowners enjoy a modern landscape that includes the primary residence and a garage along with a guest house and small detached barn.  Consideration was given to distant views, a granite cube at the center of the space, and a courtyard that's suitable for large gatherings of family and friends.  A large pond provides habitat for migrating birds and other wildlife, and previously disturbed landscape is now reforested with Ponderosa pine and a native meadow. 

The awards jury noted that "This project was not 'Hey, look at how much money I have.' Instead, there was a much more human scale. This setting is already beautiful, and they worked with this." 

For more info and photos of the project, visit the ASLA Awards website here.