GardenDesignOnline

Happenings Sept 2018

Selected Events Around the Country:

Exhibitions:

thru Oct 28: Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of Hawaii, Bronx, NY
NY Botanical Garden, 718-817-8700
Sept 12-Nov 17: Landscape Architecture of Lawrence Halprin, Boston, MA
TCLF, 202-483-0553

Events:

Garden Dialogues: Garden tours with landscape architects, TCLF, 202-483-0553
Sept 15, 8-10am, Denver, CO: Children's Museum of Denver, Marsico Campus

Sept 1, Succulent Plant Symposium, San Marino, CA
9am-5pm, The Huntington, 626-405-2100
Sept 6, Midwest Tree & Shrub Conference, Lisle, IL
8:30am-3:30pm, "resilient Plants for a Lasting Landscape,"  Morton Arboretum, 630-719-2468
Sept 7-9, Secret Garden Tours, Newport RI
10am-5pm, Tours of iconic Newport gardens.

Sept 8, Hollister House Garden Study Weekend VIII, Southbury, CT
9am, Heritage Hotel, "A Passion for Plants," Garden Conservancy, 845-424-6500
Sept 8-9, Garden Conservancy Open Days Tours: CT, NJ, NY
CT: Litchfield, New Haven, Fairfield; NJ: Hunterdon, Essex, Morris; NY:Putnam, WestchesterDutchess, Ulster
Special Programs: Lectures, Demos, More
Sept 13-17, APLD International Design Conference, Toronto, ON
Sept 13, Landscape Lecture by Douglas Reed, Boston, MA
7pm, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Douglas Reed of Reed Hilderbrand, 617-278-5156
Sept 15, Heronswood Open Day, KIngston, WA
10am-3pm, Garden Open, Plant Sale, Speakers Dan HInkley & Bob Zimmerman

Sept 24-28, Cities Alive Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference, Brooklyn, NY

LOOKAHEAD:

Oct 19-22, ASLA Annual Meeting & Expo, Philadelphia, PA

Nov 8, Landscape Lecture, Mikyoung Kim, Boston, MA
7pm, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Mikyoung Kim Design, 617-278-5156

 

Iconic Plants

There are certain plants that let you know just exactly where you are, and here on Cape Cod (Woods Hole, MA, to be precise), late summer means peegee hydrangeas, which look better here than anywhere else I've ever seen them.  They are ubiquitous in August, and when they're planted en masse, they are breath-taking. 

We're up here on vacation with some of the family, and my brother (from Michigan) remarked that he didn't think much of Washington's cherry trees.  For him, the DC plant that makes him swoon (and he's not a plant guy) ... is the azalea.  You don't see many in Michigan, and so I guess the iconic nature of plants just depends on where you're located and how many times you've been exposed to that plant.  I know many designers in DC who wouldn't think of planting azaleas ... just waaaay too boring and common.  But oh, those hydrangeas!

On Vacation

 

 

Please enjoy the archives, and see you all in a few weeks.

 

In the Magazines August 2018

Landscape Architecture August

* The Nature Conservancy gets a 24,000 acre property in Southern California -- the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve -- the largest single donation the organization has ever received. 

*  The Berger Partnership transforms a fruit company compound in Yakima, Washington in a landscape of native plantings. 

The American Gardener July/August

*Designing drought-tolerant gardens

*Profile: Debra Prinzing, founder of the Slow Flowers movement

*Native Groundcovers

*All About Goldenrods

Better Homes & Gardens August

*Coneflowers of many different hues

*Home-growing garlic in Des Moines

*A three-generation garden in Oakland by designer Patricia St. John, APLD

                               

Books: A Potpourri

This is a book about a private garden in Fairfield, Connecticut, that I believe any designer would like to visit.  Who knows if it will ever be open for tours, but perhaps this book will persuade the owners to at least permit professionals to see it on occasion.

In the meantime, the 18-acre garden has been documented in Birdsongby acclaimed photographer Philip Trager, his first foray into landscape design and horticulture.

The book itself is mostly all photographs, divided by seasons.  Trager says while he's often photographed city life, architecture and dance, he'd never taken photos of a garden. "So I was curious to see if I could bring my feelings and aesthetic to what was, for me, new territory.  I think, in the end, I succeeded in making this garden my own."

There are photos of the many "gardens" that comprise the property:  the bamboo forest, the herb garden, the conifer and wildflower gardens, the English garden, the water and rock gardens, and of course the statuary and the plants that occupy each one. 

An essay at the back of the book by owner Russell Fuchs explains how the garden came about and how it's grown over the years. While he and his wife designed large parts of the garden, he says a few "very fine landscape architects" helped him along the way, although he doesn't say who they were. He says the gardens "were and continue to be a futile effort in organizing, training, and controlling nature to do my bidding ... Each year, every shrub, tree, perennial, and grass is touched, cut, shaped, sculpted to the aesthetic pleasure of my eye; each year I find it unimaginable that we will be able to accomplish what needs doing, though the thought of an unfinished piece of the property is even more unimaginable.  What love will lead us to do."  

I only wish he'd included a "plan" of the garden and captions on the photos so that you'd know where in the gardens the images were taken.  Still, a garden that would one day be well worth a visit.

 

And, new from Timber Press, Hypertufa Containers: Creating and Planting an Alpine Trough Garden by Lori Chips, Alpine Manager at Oliver Nurseries, also in Fairfield CT. If you're into alpines and rock gardens, the perfect container for them is hypertufa, a mixture of cement, perlite, peat and water that you can make at home.  You can make them of almost any size and they blend right into the garden if placed correctly.  Lori also explains which plants are best for these rock-like containers, and how to care for them throughout the seasons.