GardenDesignOnline

Books: Gardening in Half an Hour

Beautiful gardens often take a lot of time and money, but they do not, according to British author Greg Loades.  In his latest book,  30 Minute Gardener (Timber Press, 2023), Loades explains that just 30 minutes a day in the garden can connect you to nature, enrich your life, and inspire you, as he says, to "never see life the same way again."

Loudes explains how to spend your half-hour wisely, in every season, to bring forth the trees, shrubs, perennials and edibles that will give you most pleasure, whether you're gardening in pots on a balcony, in a small garden or a larger one. The text is accompanied by beautiful photos that explain how to master almost any garden task, and lists of appropriate plants for appropriate seasons and places -- along with gardening tips -- are sprinkled throughout the book.

If you've ever thought you just don't have time to create a wondrous space filled with beautiful plants, this book will show you the way. 

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Happenings December 2023

Selected Events Around the Country:

EVENTS:

Dec 1, Ecological Plant Conference, Brooklyn, NY & ONLINE
8:30am-4:30pm EST, "Forest, Flower & Seed," Ecological Landscape Alliance
Dec 2, "A Catchy Garden," Los Angeles, CA
10am-noon & 1pm-3pm, Tour & Talk, Garden Conservancy

Dec 7, "Sissinghurst: Winter Episode," ONLINE
2pm Eastern, Garden Conservancy
Dec 12, "Beyond Bold: Inspiration, Collaboration, Evolution," Bronx, NY
1-2pm, Lecture, LA Eric Groft, NY Botanical Garden

 

HOLIDAY SHOWS:

thru Dec 23 Gardens Aglow, Sandwich, MA
Heritage Museum & Gardens Holiday Show
thru Dec 30 Las Noches de las Luminarias, Phoenix, AZ
Desert Botanical Garden Holiday Show
thru Dec 31, Frost, Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Botanical Garden Holiday Show
thru Dec 31, Gardens Aglow, Boothbay, ME
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Holiday Show
thru Dec 31, "Night Lights, Starry Skies," Boylston, MA
Tower Hill Botanical Garden

thru Jan 1, Lightscape, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Holiday Show
thru Jan 1, Season's Greenings, Washington DC
US Botanic Garden Holiday Show

thru Jan 6, Garden Glow, St.Louis, MO
Missouri Botanical Garden Holiday Show
thru Jan 7, Lightscape, Glencoe, IL
Chicago Botanic Garden Holiday Show
thru Jan 7, A Longwood Christmas, Kennett Square, PA
Longwood Gardens Holiday Show
thru Jan 7, Gardenfest of Lights, Richmond, VA
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Holiday Show

thru Jan 13 (various dates) NYBG Glow, Bronx, NY
NY Botanical Garden, Outdoor Holiday Light Show
thru Jan 14, Garden Lights, Holiday Nights, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Botanical Garden Holiday Show
thru Jan 15 Holiday Train Show, Bronx, NY
NY Botanical Garden, 32nd show, Indoor & Outdoor

LOOKAHEAD:

Jan 10-11, NDAL Annual Symposium, Bryn Mawr, PA
Jan 10-12, MANTS - Mid-Atlantic Trade Show, Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Convention Center
Jan 17-18, NDAL Annual Symposium, New London, CT & ONLINE

Feb 16, Greenscapes Symposium, ONLINE
9am-4pm, Brookside Gardens, "Innovative Designs"
Feb 21-22 Winter Conference & Marketplace, ONLINE
Ecological Landscape Alliance

March 2-10, Philadelphia Flower Show, Philadelphia, PA
"United by Flowers," Philadelphia Convention Center
March 5, 38th Davidson Horticultural Symposium, Davidson, NC
9am-4:30pm, Davidson College, "Gardening for a Greener Future"

April 25-27, 77th Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium, Williamsburg, VA
May 21-25, Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK

Happy Thanksgiving

The Pilgrim Rose

If you live in a zone with moderate enough temperatures into November, you might actually be able to bring in a bloom or two of 'The Pilgrim' for the Thanksgiving table.  So, if you haven't got one already, plant one for next year and you'll have the perfect bloom for the centerpiece.

A David Austin rose, 'The Pilgrim' has large, rosette-shaped blooms of a medium yellow color that are paler toward the edges.  The scent is a classic tea fragrance, mixed with a bit of myrrh.  As an upright shrub rose, it's height is about 4 feet high by 3 feet wide, but it can also be trained as a climber, in which case it'll reach about eight feet high.

(image: David Austin Roses)

Ginning Up the Paperwhites

My annual post on Paperwhites ... here it is again, for anyone who missed it in the past.   It takes four to six weeks or thereabouts for paperwhites to bloom, so get them started for Christmas.

image: K.vanBourgondien

Time to get out the Boodle's, Tanqueray, Beefeater or Bombay ... it's not exactly gin & tonic season, but it is the season for paperwhites.  And it's the gin that will make them a spectacular show.

Some years ago, researchers at Cornell University's Flowerbulb Research Program discovered that the addition of gin will stunt the growth of paperwhites and prevent them from that annoying habit of getting too top heavy and flopping over. According to Professor of Horticulture William B. Miller, here's the recipe:

Plant paperwhite bulbs in stones, gravel or whatever else as usual.  Add water, wait until the roots begin to grow, and when the green shoots above the bulb reach 1-2" in height, pour off the water and add an alcohol solution made from gin or almost any other hard liquor, including vodka, tequila, rum, or whiskey.  The solution should be one part hard liquor to 7 parts of water.

The result:  paperwhites that are one-third shorter, but just as fragrant and floriferous as usual.

Miller warns against using beer or wine because the sugars in them will cause a lot of problems.  The higher the alcohol concentration (within reason), he says, the shorter the plants, but don't use a concentration higher than 10 percent.   Rubbing alcohol can also be used to the same effect, but use one part alcohol to 10 or 11 parts water.

Miller says he and his researchers are not sure why the alcohol stunts growth, but he says "we feel it is simply 'water stress,' where the alcohol makes it more difficult for the plant to absorb water...enough to reduce leaf and stem growth, but not enough to affect flower size or flower longevity."

The Cornell website was passed on to me by my good friend Louise Crane, who saw an article about it in the New York Times.

And make sure to order your paperwhites early ... some of the cultivars sell out very fast.

 

Books: English Gardens through the Centuries

This new book is a celebration of more than 600 years of England's most spectacular gardens.  In "The English Gardener's Garden," (Phaidon, 2023) authors Tania Compton and Dr. Toby Musgrave profile more than 60 gardens from the 16th to the 21 century.  Readers will likely be familiar with Sissinghurst, Hidcote Manor, Blenheim Palace, Stourhead and others, but they may not know The Barn by Tom Stuart Smith, the restored South Wood Farm by Arne Maynard, or Levens Hall, dating back to the 16th century.

In the introduction to the book, author Tania Compton notes that in Britain, "gardens, gardeners and gardening are recognized as a vital contribution to national artistic expression...". She adds that the gardens featured in the book constitute "not just a dialogue between art and nature but an entire conversation between the spirits of the creators past and present."

Many of the older gardens were restored or reinterpreted by more modern landscape architects or designer.  Thus, Sir Charles Barry redesigned the garden in the 1830s for the Duke of Sutherland, but by the early 20th century, the gardens were in ruin. They were restored in this century by a trio of celebrated landscape designers: Tom Stuart-Smith, Piet Oudolf and Nigel Dunnett and now include a stunning array of perennials, naturalistic plantings, wildflower meadows and woodlands.

This is a book that any designer or passionate gardener will come to again and. again to study the evolution of these gardens and draw inspiration from the beautiful photos that illustrate the magic of each landscape.

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Books: Writing & Gardens

There's always been a strong connection between many writers and gardens, and perhaps it's nature, perhaps it's serenity -- simply a place where a writer can stop and think.

In "The Writer's Garden" (Frances Lincoln, 2023), British author Jackie Bennett profiles 30 gardens or landscapes that inspired literary giants from Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, and Thomas Hardy in Britain to  Louise May Alcott, Edith Wharton and Jack London in the United States, to Edward James in Mexico and Goethe in Germany.

As Bennett says in the introduction to the book, "Although working in widely different styles and genres (plays, novels, poetry and children's stories), the writers in this book wold probably all agree on one thing -- great things can happen in gardens.  It is inconceivable to think of a Jane Austen novel that did not use a shrubbery, a wilderness or a 'park' as the setting for accidental meetings and intrigue, while three of Agatha Christie's mysteries clearly use her own Devon garden as a setting."

While many of us have seen photos and/or visited Ernest Hemingway's home in Cuba, the house and gardens in Key West, where he lived for 10 years with his second wife, Pauline, are less familiar. The focus of the garden is a 60-foot long swimming pool surrounded by lush tropical plantings.  Bennett reports that a friend of Pauline, the poet Elizabeth Bishop, wrote about "swimming at night in a 'green fire' -- referring to the expensive underwater lighting."

You'll learn that Virginia Woolf and Roald Dahl both had writing sheds in their gardens, that Jack London and William Faulkner wrote on tables set out under trees, that Jean Cocteau wrote inside, where he could view the garden from an upstairs window.

Beautiful photos of the gardens, including many of favored plants and trees, accompany each of the 30 entries.  It's a book that would make a perfect present for any writer or anyone who's passionate about reading.

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