GardenDesignOnline

Happenings January 2022

SELECTED EVENTS AROUND THE COUNTRY:

Exhibitions:

thru Jan 9, Rich Soil: Sculptures by Kristine Mays
Hillwood Museum & Gardens, Washington DC 202-686-58
thru May 16, A Garden of Words,
The Huntington, San Marino, CA
thru June 19, Chihuly in the Desert, Phoenix, AZ
Desert Botanical Garden, 480-941-1225

Holiday Shows:

thru Jan 1, Gardens Aglow, Boothbay, ME
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, 207-633-8000
thru Jan 2, Lightscape, Glencoe, IL
Chicago Botanic Garden 847-835-5440
thru Jan 8, Garden Glow, St. Louis, MO
Missouri Botanical Garden 314-577-5100
thru Jan 9,  A Longwood Christmas, Kennett Square, PA
Longwood Gardens 610-388-1000
thru Jan 9, Lightscape, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 718-623-7200
thru Jan 9, Gardenfest of Lights, Richmond, VA
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden 804-262-9887

thru Jan 15, Garden Lights, Holiday Nights, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Botanical Garden 404-876-5859
thru Jan 23, Holiday Train Show, Bronx, NY
NY Botanical Garden 718-817-8700

Events:

Jan 5-7 MANTS, Mid-Atlantic Trade Show, Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Convention Center
Jan 7-9 Maricopa County Home Show, Phoenix, AZ
Arizona State Fairgrounds

Jan 18, The Modern Cottage Garden, ONLINE
1pm, EDT, Lecture, UK Author Greg Loades, NY Botanical Garden
Jan 20-21, 27-28, NDAL 33rd Annual Landscape Symposium, ONLINE
1pm-4:30pm EST, New Directions in the American Landscape
Jan 21-13, Oklahoma City Home & Garden Show, Oklahoma City, OK
OKC Fairgrounds, Bennett Event Center
Jan 22, Wildflowers in Winter. New Hope, PA
10am-1pm Eastern, Workshop, Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve

Jan 24-25, Plant-O-Rama, Zoom & Brooklyn, NY
24 6-8pm, Eastern, Zoom Lectures;
25: 9am-4pm, Brooklyn Botanic Gdn: Speakers, Trade Show, More
Jan 25, The Olmsted Legacy, ONLINE
11am-noon central, Lecture, MO Botanical Garden
Jan 27, Mending the Landscape, Bronx, NY
10:30-11:30am EDT, Lecture, LA Kate Orff, NY Botanical Garden
(Part of "Adapting to a New Climate" Lecture Series
NY Botanical Garden, Jan-March)

LOOKAHEAD:

April 28-May 1, 75th Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium
Williamsburg, VA
May 24-28, Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK
June 11-19, Philadelphia Flower Show, Philadelphia, PA

Books: 2021 Favorites

This book is a classic -- at the top of every designer's "want" list for at least the next several years.  In New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden (Cool Springs Press, 2021), author and plantsman Kelly D. Norris says the book is "a primer for a better way, hewn from considerable study of plants and their ecology.  Above all, I just want more people to plant on the wild side, to embrace the nature of gardens as they are and can be." 

 

This book is an amazing treasure.  The botanical illustrations of 85 of our native wildflowers are among the most stunning I've ever seen.  In A Naturalist's Book of Wildflowers: Celebrating 85 Native Plants in North America (Countryman Press, 2021), author and naturalist Laura G. Martin devotes a full page to each plant which has a color drawing with all of the plant's main attributes. It's a reference you definitely want on your bookshelf.

 

Under Western Skies: Visionary Gardens from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. (Timber Press, 2021), by Jennifer Jewell with photos by Caitlin Atkinson. Jewell profiles 36 gardens, some of them & their designers familiar: landscape architects Christy Ten Eyck, Mia Lehrer, Bernard Trainor; gardens, including the Desert and Idaho Botanical Gardens, Heronswood, Land's End Lookout at Golden Gate Park.  I was particularly struck by the biographies of the designers and how they came to their profession.  Some were enchanted by plants as children; others studied biology, soil science, cultural history and others came from many other disciplines.  But all of them ended up as terrific designers.

 

There's a new book from Brian Coleman that perfectly captures the the art and natural beauty of this part of the country:  Private Gardens of the Pacific Northwest (Gibbs Smith, 2021).  Coleman profiles 20 private gardens from Puget Sound to Portland to Eastern Washington and everywhere in between.  And as the author says in the introduction, "Whether it's a Portland garden filled with hummingbirds and butterflies or a garden of ponds in rural Redmond, Washington, a good garden should be a nurturing oasis and a retreat, something to enjoy and share."  You'll be inspired by the beauty and the striking designs, and you'll be tempted to try the gorgeous plant combinations in your own garden at home.  It's a book that belongs on every designer's bookshelf.

#Commissions earned

Gift Suggestions

From the NYBG Store:

Tiffany fold-up expandable vase
At $9.00, you can't go wrong.
And other styles available.

 

Print from the NYBG Collection

This one is 8 x 10, $28.

Many other flowers and sizes available.

 

Floral paper dinner plate $7.00
Also, matching side plates, dinner napkins, and other designs available.  Something a little different and fun for that luncheon outside next summer.

And be sure to check out all the other offerings from the NYBG shop: many things you won't find elsewhere.

 

AM Leonard for tools/gloves, etc.

The one tool I cannot live without: serrated soil knife.
It also comes with a leather sheath.  $23 for the knife alone, $34 with sheath.  I use it for absolutely everything: dividing plants, installing small plants, and much more.  An essential tool for any gardener.

Also check out their gloves ... very reasonable and last for many seasons.

 

Beautiful gifts at The Huntington Shop as well:

And for last minute gifts,  give the gift that lasts all year:  a membership at your favorite local garden.

 

 

Christmas Books II

 You have to hope that Sleepy Cat Farm in southwestern Connecticut will remain on the Open Days list of the Garden Conservancy from time to time, as it's a must-see garden created over 20 some years by owner Fred Landman and landscape architect Charles J. Stick of Charlottesville, VA. 

But if you can't visit the garden in person, you can certainly enjoy its beauty and special characteristics in this lovely new book, Sleepy Cat Farm: A Gardener's Journey (Monacelli Press, 2021). 

Landman, a former businessman, acquired the property in 1994 and set about to create a garden "of which the house could be proud," he said.  He worked with landscape architect Charles Stick to bring his vision of a European-style garden to fruition, a garden that would echo some of the historic gardens he had visited in Asia and Europe.  Now, the 13-acre property includes a pool and flower garden, a boxwood parterre, an elegant brick Celestial Pavilion, statuary throughout, a woodland garden, follies, and much, much more.  There's even a working organic farm that supplies the local community -- a project of Landman's wife, Seen Lippert, who worked with chef Alice Waters in California before moving East. 

And of course the site is named after a number of cats who moved in over the years (and whose portraits appear in the book).

As Landman says in an afterword, "Sleepy Cat Farm represents more than two decades of travel and observation, many trials and a few errors, the creative efforts of a talented team and my personal expression of a truly unique garden ... There is no more gratifying experience than to build, in cooperation with others, a place of beauty that will last for generations to come."

Do not miss this garden if you ever find it open for visitors. And the book makes a perfect gift for anyone with a love of gardens and horticulture.