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Books: Oudolf Update

Even if you already have the original of this book, you'll want to consider this new, expanded paperback version that includes 13 recent projects shown here for the first time, along with Piet Oudolf's new strategies for design and plant selection.

Among the new gardens featured in Hummelo: A Journey Through a Plantsman's Life  (Monacelli Press, 2021) are Phase three of the High Line in NYC, the Meadow Garden at the Delaware Botanical Garden, the Oudolf Garden on Belle Isle in Detroit, Maggie's Cancer Centre in London, The Singer Museum in the Netherlands, and other European projects.  Oudolf also re-designed his own garden, Hummelo, which is no longer open for touring, but you'll be able to see photos of the ways he's incorporated new ideas.

In the preface to the new book, author and designer Noel Kingsbury notes that most of Oudolf's new designs and installations are done working with other designers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.  "If his output has increased," writes Kingsbury, "it is due to his collaborations with other plant-focused designers.  This way of working, unconventional and outside the normal hierarchies of landscape firms, proofs [sic] to be highly effective."  Kingsbury continues, "That he now has enough colleagues he trusts to help implement plans for several major projects at once is in itself a sign of how far he, and the naturalistic planting movement of which he is a key part, has come."

With 350 photographs, the book is an encyclopedia of Oudolf's planting style and his philosophy of looking to the natural world for inspiration.

 

Books: Flower Power

I've never had a cutting garden -- my flowering shrubs and occasional roses always kept me plenty busy -- but after reading this new book, I might actually change my mind.

In Flower Color Theory (Phaidon, 2021), the noteworthy floral designers Darroch and Michael Putnam, show you the way to design stunning arrangements of singular or different hues.

Even if you're the kind of person who just wants to put blooms in a vase, you'll benefit mightily from studying this book and its 175 arrangements.  At the edge of each page, you'll find blocks of color, making it easy for you to figure out what to do with your larkspurs, marigolds, or pink tulips.

I particularly liked the white and green combo of rose, hellebore, tulip, ranuculus, fern, and Cavolo nero kale (page 130-131). Each arrangement lists the plants used, a brief description, and the type of color combination.  ie, the combo referenced here is an "Accent Color" arrangement (Butter yellow with dark green accent), described this way: "A backdrop of dark foliage contrasts with lighter-hued florals, showcasing the flowers and emphasizing their beauty."

In the back of the book, there are sections on basic color schemes, (analagous, complementary, monochromatic, etc); a glossary of floral terms; tips, essential tools, and recommendations for vessels; suggested color palettes for seasons or special occasions; tablescape approaches, and the type of mood various colors represent.

There's also an index of flowers, an index of colors and color schemes, and perforated pages that show each arrangement, with descriptions and color bars on the back, so you can easily take them apart and to your local florist when you want to recreate the same or create something original using the same hues, blooms, or foliage.

Whatever you grow in your own garden, you will not want to be without this book.

Christmas Books II

Some of my favorites from the past year:

In Garden Design Master Class: 100 Lessons from The World's Finest Designers on the Art of the Garden (Rizzoli International, 2020), author Carl Dellatore asked 100 designers for their thoughts on the elements that go into notable gardens. Top landscape architects, designers, horticulturists and garden stylists offer essays on everything from restoration and materials to symmetry, space, scale, water, estates, borders, hedges, romance, liberty --  you name it.

I have, and have read, more than one book on Sissinghurst, but this one is absolutely the one you want on your bookshelf.  In this new book, Sissinghurst: The Dream Garden (Frances Lincoln, 2020), author Tim Richardson offers a fresh perspective and new insights into one of the most famous gardens in the world.  

 

The inspiring story of Windcliff, the personal garden of renowned plant explorer and designer Dan Hinkley.  Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens (Timber Press, 2020). It includes plants you've never heard of, tons of design tips, and excellent writing from a master of horticulture.

 

Meet 75 dedicated, talented women working in the field of design and horticulture. The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants (Timber Press, 2020). Some you've heard of, some you haven't, but a "find" for anyone who wants to know some of the women who are at the forefront of gardening and landscape architecture.

 

 

Books: Gardens: Getting Personal

Of course when Dan Hinkley left Heronswood, we knew that he would have to design and plant another garden with wondrous plants. That's true, and his experience with the second garden is detailed in Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens (Timber Press, 2020).

A lot of Hinkley's many fans are plant aficionados, and although the book profiles many of his favorite botanical treasures, it's about much more than rare plants and his experience collecting them all over the world. 

As Hinkley says in the preface to the book, ..."I believe my garden at Windcliff is an attempt to evoke a multitude of moments in my life, my personal geography, my own interests of space and time. It is the recollection of these moments, the relationships and memories conjured forth from a simple walkabout, that I have found to be the most gladdening aspect of what I have created."

HInkley details many of the lessons learned at Heronswood -- the mistakes, the moments of joy -- but he also recounts in detail the process he and his partner followed in creating the gardens at Windcliff.  You may be surprised to learn that they spent three years or so studying the land and the elements (light, wind, existing trees and shrubs, the native plant palette) before they committed to anything. When designing, he says, keep in mind "texture and foliage, height and movement,  seasonality, fragrance, balance and repetition."  And of course don't be afraid to give away your under-performing plants.

He'll give you tips on framing views, garden maintenance, and planting for four-season interest. You'll learn about new plants he's collected on his journeys, and his thoughts about native vs. non-native plants.  "I believe," he says," that we can respectfully enjoy botanical marvels in our gardens while protecting the natural ecosystems that surround us."

Most of all, this is a book about ways to create a garden and make it a personal statement.  And in reading "Windcliff," you'll learn not only from one of world's great plant collectors and designers, but you'll also learn that Dan Hinkley is a marvelous writer, and it's a story you won't want to miss.

P.S. There are many photos of plants and gardens throughout, and a "plan" of the garden is inside the front and back covers.

 

This book is also about making a garden, but author Bill Noble, designer and former director of preservation for the Garden Conservancy, followed a different philosophy in creating his garden in central Vermont. his experience is recounted in Spirit of Place: The Making of a New England Garden (Timber Press, 2020).

As he says near the beginning of the book, "Much of what gardening is about is the feeling of being connected to a place, fostering a sense of belonging, and becoming familiar with the natural rhythms and cycles of a particular piece of eatth."  He also says that a lot of his own creative inspiration has come from visiting or working in many gardens, from studying garden photos and drawings, and what he's learned from other gardeners.

I particularly liked his "guiding principles" for establishing the garden. They include things like the best views, definite boundaries, privacy, screening, and making the garden "feel like a natural outgrowth of the place, harmonizing with its vernacular architecture and agricultural character."  There's more, but I will leave it to you to discover.

There are helpful lists in the book, -- Rock Garden Plants that Succeed, Favorite Plants for Wildlife, and beautiful photos throughout that illustrate his principles.  And you'll learn much about specific plants and how and where to use them.

It's an enchanting garden and an enchanting story for anyone who gardens, and for any designer looking for inspiration.

Books: Chicago North Shore Gardens

Chicago is known for its architecture, and the leafy suburbs north of the city along Lake Michigan are home to many amazing landscapes by some of the country's most distinguished landscape architects, past and present.

In Gardens of the North Shore of Chicago, (Monacelli Press, 2020), author Benjamin Lenhardt profiles 25 private gardens, both traditional and modern, that stretch along the coast. Lenhardt is former chairman of the Garden Conservancy, and has long been interested in historic preservation. 

The gardens are of four distinct themes: Classic, Contemporary, Country, and Naturalistic -- and each entry is accompanied by gorgeous photos by Scott Shigley.  Lenhardt provides historical notes about each property and detailed descriptions based on interviews with current property owners and the designers and landscape architects who worked on the various sites. 

Some of the highlights from the book"

"Beauty without Boundaries," an 18th Century style French manor house with gardens that are accessible to all.  Designer Deborah Nevins of NYC encouraged the owners to visit properties in Europe for ideas, and she then designed the garden with broad, non-slip paths, no steps, and seats and benches everywhere so that visitors can enjoy the flowering shrubs and trees, the perennials, and breathtaking views in every direction.

Bluhm Garden - Landscape architect Doug Hoerr  was brought in by clients Amy and Bluhm because they admired his "artistic blend of naturalistic and contemporary landscapes."  The three acre property includes a very modern house overlooking the lake, and terraces on different levels for dining, entertaining, and sports.  Plantings are architectural and geometric, with beds of single cultivars, along with sweeps of grasses, mature trees, and islands with small trees and shrubs, roses, and perennials. 

The Rumsey Estate's landscape was first designed by Jens Jensen in 1913, but after the property changed owners several times, a new couple that bought it in 2004 decided to restore at least some of Jensen's original concepts.  They consulted his original plans for the property and hired a Jensen scholar and his wife as landscape architects.  Now, you can stroll down winding paths through native trees and shrubs, and a clearing in Jensen's style has views of the house and garden parterres.  Jensen's Mayflower Ravine, 25 feet deep, had eroded and collapsed, but with great effort, it has been restored and stabilized with 275 trees, 3400 shrubs, and 39,000 perennials.

I'll let my readers discover the other spectacular gardens in the book ... and do check the Garden Conservancy's Open Days Schedule ... and you'll find the dates when some of these gardens may be open.  Proceeds from the book will also go to The Garden Conservancy.

 

 

Books: British Gardens (2)

If you thought for a moment that you would never need another book on Sissinghurst, well ... just think again.

In this new book, Sissinghurst: The Dream Garden (Frances Lincoln, 2020), author Tim Richardson offers a fresh perspective and new insights into one of the most famous gardens in the world. 

In a foreword to the book, landscape designer Dan Pearson says the relationship between Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, the garden's designers, manifested itself in the garden, which he describes as "a blend of experimentation and daring, and a means of personal expression and partnership," ... a garden that's changed over the years, but with "a strong enough blueprint to have stood the test of time."

In the introduction to the book, author Richardson explains that neither Vita nor Harold were trained in horticulture or landscape design.  The result was that Sissinghurst "was conceived in an intensely personal way -- with every planting decision by Vita, and every angle and vista designed by Harold, expressive of their innermost emotions, hopes, and desires." 

Following their deaths, the garden was passed on to the National Trust, and over a series of years and various head gardeners, the garden was tidied up.  "For some visitors," says Richardson, "the garden seemed to have lost something of the old Vita magic over the years." In the past several years, however, there's been a movement to bring back the garden's authenticity, and a more "relaxed and romantic" style. In the pages that follow, you'll discover the intellectual, historic, and literary elements that drove the creation of the garden.  The book includes scores of beautiful photographs as well as garden and planting plans.  If you want the definitive book about Sissinghurst, look no further than this.

 

As familiar as you may be with British gardens, you probably have not seen many of the ones featured in this new book, as some are only open one or perhaps a few days or months per year.  In Secret Gardens of Somerset: A Private Tour (Frances Lincoln, 2020), author Abigail Willis and photographer Clive Boursnell profile 20 gardens off the beaten track of most garden tours.  There are modern gardens designed by Piet Oudolf and the American landscape design firm Oehme van Sweden, but most were designed by dedicated homeowners.  Some of the gardens date back hundreds of years (including the Hobhouse garden), but of course these have now been renovated.  As the author says in the introduction, gardeners asked to define Somerset's appeal responded that "It's unpretentious," ... "it's a working county, not a museum," ... "It's not been tidied up."  Willis describes Midney Gardens in Somerton as "bracingly non-conformist," with a combination of "plantsmanship, flair for color and a quirky do-it-yourself ethos."  The Newt in Somerset, now a hotel, is the historic Hadspen estate owned by the Hobhouse family and designed in the 1960s by the famed garden designer Penelope Hobhouse.  The estate is now owned by a South African couple, who hired Italo-French architect Patrice Taravella to re-do the gardens.  The new gardens were inspired by garden history and they include geometric baroque gardens, prairie-style grass borders, a restored Lime Avenue, and vistas reminiscent of an 18th century landscape park.

Essays on each garden's history and lovely photos accompany each entry.  In the back of the book, there's contact information on each garden, and info on when they are open to the public.

Books: Starting Over

I can't imagine making a new garden that's six times larger than your old one and that's also less work.  But nothing deters author and designer Page Dickey from her determination to keep on designing and making a new garden just as fabulous as the old one.

In Uprooted: A Gardener Reflects on Beginning Again (Timber Press, 2020), Dickey tells a most engaging story of leaving her celebrated garden, Duck Hill, in Salem, New York after 34 years and heading north to Litchfield County, Connecticut -- a bid to both save money and make the gardening easier.

As she puts it in the introduction, "I felt stricken for a few weeks after we made the decision to move, periodically dissolving into tears as the enormity of leaving this world I created hit me.  But as I slowly accepted the necessity of the move, I felt stirrings of excitement at the thought of finding a new nest.  I began dreaming of the possibilities of a move -- less garden, more land, another quirky old farmhouse, maybe an apple orchard, a real meadow."

Dickey abandoned the concept of garden "rooms" in favor of open spaces that afford views to the landscape beyond.  Now, there are garden beds filled with perennials and flowering shrubs, gravel paths, a swimming pool garden, a cutting garden, and yes, some of her very favorite plants.  There are natural fields and woods, a small wetland fen, and lots of wildlife.  "When I can no longer garden for very long," says Dickey, "I will still have the fields and woods to walk in.  My new roots, my heart, are spreading deep in that wild land, and the life it affords that we are helping support."

I won't add more so that I won't spoil the story, but I encourage everyone to read this heart-lifting book.

ASLA Awards - II

2020 ASLA Professional Awards (continued)

photos: James Ogilvy

Award of Excellence, Residential Design
Marshcourt, Hampshire, England
LA: Reed Hilderbrand, Cambridge, MA

Not everyone has the pleasure of working on one of the most famous landscapes in Britain, a historic estate that dates back to 1901-04, with plantings by garden designer Gertrude Jekyll and architecture by Edwin Lutyens.

New owners of the estate asked Reed Hilderbrand to restore the landscape, which was in a state of decline, and also to adapt it for a modern family. The original estate was 1300 acres, but this project focused on 100 acres surrounding the residence.

The firm consulted historical records in order to understand what remained of the original plan and what had been lost.  As the firm noted, "Marshcourt is a quintessential expression of the Arts and Crafts Movement," ... and the project "required different landscape architecture approaches in different places:  preservation, renewal or reinterpretation, and, elsewhere, entirely new design..."

Hundreds of yews were replanted to recreate elaborate terraced gardens, ranging from enclosed rooms with intensive plantings to open platforms with views over the river valley beyond. A native chalk meadow was re-established, and an oak canopy was replanted with an understory consisting of holly, hawthorn, and hornbeam.

The jury said the landscape now "recalls the height of Britain's Arts and Crafts movement through a thoughtful restoration and reinvention of work by acclaimed architect Edwin Lutyens with landscape design by Gertrude Jekyll.... rigorous historical analysis guided the contemporary restoration process and informed floral choices in areas where historic elements had been eliminated, adhering to original stylistic intent while incorporating a more sustainable palette of plants." 

Landmark Award
Millennium Park, Chicago, IL
Millenium Park Foundation

Chicago's Millenium Park is now one of the most famous landscapes in the United States, drawing millions of annual visitors to the site for public programs and to enjoy the architecture, the modern art, and the exuberant plantings.

The park's basic design is classical Beaux-Arts in style, with grand walkways and allees of trees to create many rooms within the park.  It includes a Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor, a Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa, and the BP Bridge and Jay Pritzker Pavilion by Frank Genry.  The lush Lurie Garden is the work of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and Piet Oudolf.

As the jury put it, "There can be no denying that Millennium Park has changed both the literal and figurative landscape of Chicago, as an accessible, public park with a wide diversity of spaces within a democratized urban realm.  Transforming a rail yard into the city's cultural center has yielded 20 million annual visitors to the park, which has become a driver of $2.5 billion in tourism and business in Chicago.  .... Millennium Park becomes a valuable social and public venue that serves as an exemplar for other cities seeking an urban catalyst."

 

ASLA Awards - I

ASLA has announced its professional awards for 2020 (and I was honored to be on the jury that met virtually last March. This is the first installment of posts on the awards.

photo: Garry Belinsky - click to enlarge

General Design - Award of Excellence
Portland Japanese Garden
LA: Walker Macy, Portland, OR

Walker Macy worked with the garden curator, local and Japanese architects, garden staff and others to create a new 3.4 acre development for the arts and cultural programs.

The elevated site includes a new entry, pond, and a path that ascends to a central plaza with three new buildings, gardens and terraces.

photo: Stephen Tamiesie

The new design does not follow traditional Japanese design principles.  Rather, it blends sustainable techniques with modern Japanese design to create a place where visitors may learn about the arts and culture of Japan.  As the jurors noted, "an expansion blends together new and old seamlessly .... A freshly choreographed entry and arrival sequence gently ascends 90 feet of grade along an accessible wooded switchback pathway to arrive at a sublime set of pavilions designed by Kengo Kuma; these feature planted rooftops alongside stormwater retention and recirculation systems that promise to sustain the new gardens well into the future."

 

Urban Design - Award of Excellence
Dilworth Park,  Philadelphia, PA
LA: OLIN

Photos: OLIN/Sahar Coston-Hardy

The new Dilworth park in Center City Philadelphia fits perfectly with William Penn's vision long ago for a "Green Country Town."  Sitting at the foot of the ornate City Hall, the park now serves as a transit center for commuters, a quiet gathering place for office workers, and a public performance space for enjoyment by all. 

Olin transformed the dilapidated, sunken site with malnourished trees into a street-level, vibrant 2.5 acre park with a sizeable lawn, a cafe, an interactive fountain that becomes a skating rink in winter, and ample seating throughout surrounded by four-season native plantings.  And ... the entire site, just three feet deep, functions as a green roof for the transit center below.

As the jurors put it, the park now serves as the "democratic front porch of City Hall--that links three major transit networks into a single, multilayered node.  Spanning four acres, yet wrapped on three sides by busy thoroughfares, the park succeeds in offering workday respite for downtown commuters as well as a central gathering and recreation space for weekend visitors."

 

 

Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden in Danger

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has placed the garden, by landscape architect Lester Collins, on its list of at-risk landscapes.  The Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington DC wants to re-design the garden, and hired architect Hiroshi Sugimoto to come up with a new plan.

The New York Times has published an article about the controversy that you can read here.

It includes a rendering of Sugimoto's plan.