Earthly Delights …"Cultivating the Gardener" Day One is Success. Don't Miss Today!

The Garden State day broke with seasonal misty grey following a night of needed rain that showered part of last night’s cocktail party launch (no worries, there is an abundance of indoor garden room space to elegantly host the better part of the Queen’s jubilee!) marking the start of this year’s Earthly Delights weekend event.

The sun smiled upon the garden tribute by mid day and it was an eager legion of garden enthusiasts that parked in the hay-filled field and,like kids waiting for the start of summer camp, were blissfully in the moment, eyeing the rows of garden vendors, and the magnificent, glamorous garden rooms beyond.

A celebration of gardens, garden design, garden art, plants and horticulture, Earthly Delights and their partnership with the Land Conservancy of New Jersey is dedicated to the mission “to create awareness of New Jersey’s beautiful public parks and garden.”  The event is a benefit for the “campaign and stewardship of New Jersey’s parks, natural areas, clean water, farmland, and historic treasures.”  You can feel good, doing good. Ten percent of all purchases and ticket sales goes to the the campaign.  www.njkeepitgreen.org

 Earthly Delights may be celebrating its terrible twos but it presents itself really more as a classic, sophisticated, superior showcase for all things garden art. 

I was thrilled to see my Gotham garden friends including Anne Raver, New York Times – who’s piercing blue eyes are not unlike the emerging amsonia blosssoms or blue hydrangea … Her lecture, “Milestones in the Organic Garden”  spoke with keen insight about the organic movement. 

My first contact walking the gauntlet of vendor tents at Earthly Delights venue was master potter, Virginia Newman Yocum, Pennoyer Newman www.pennoyernewman.com from whom I have done business with for my garden design clients.  Her pots are top quality, and their customer service is the best in the world.  Bar none.  Proud of their work and their iproduct, the relationship is a dedicated, enduring one.  I can’t recommend them enough. 

When I told her about my soon to be released at retail book, The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook,” Virginia bought one!  I was thrilled.  I brought her an autographed one I retrieved from the car on our way out.  Nice.

I picked up the beribboned note cards, bewitched by the cover art, thinking to myself, “Where have I seen this?” saying out loud to my husband, “This is the artist who works with Ken Druse on his new book,” to which a voice replied. “Yes, I am!”  And I turned around to find Ellen sitting like a rose among her easled art! I spent some time talking to Ellen Hoverkamp who did the stunning plant art scans for Ken Druse’s latest book, Natural Companions.  (her signature bears an uncanny likeness to Flowerkamp…)

On the way to the display gardens and lectures we reviewed the bespoke, artisanal and antique dealers under tents, flanking the main artery leading up to the first of several architectural structures.  Outstanding among the vendors and artisans, was the incomparable John Danzer, Munder-Skiles and his garden art furniture. 

We bought some plants, but not as many as Donna Dorian and Pat Jonas, my garden friends from Garden Design magazine and the botanical gardens.  

We also bought some almonds in honey from Back to Nature – they also build beehives and chicken coops that they will maintain for you!  www.backtonature.net.

We enjoyed some delicious roast beef sandwiches and pink lemonade, dining at the café tables set up on the terrace area.  I was lucky enough to run into Andrea, the hostess and garden goddess.

Me (L) & Andrea Filippone

Pictures are worth a thousand words and I think I took about that many!  The estate is eye candy for anyone interested in beauty. 

Enjoy the glamorous garden tour!

Earthly Delights is held on the estate of Andrea Filippone and her husband William Welch, garden guardians and design   sylvan space for the 2-day affair  held on their 35-acre idyll.  A fusion that is equal parts display garden, movie-set magic and inspiration.  

If you live in the tri-state, New York Metro area, Do NOT miss this event.  

What an axis!

Foreground is front-of-the-border apple espalier!

refurbished Rutgers greenhouse houses plants galore & object de art including an arbor

Potager: box-lined beds surround a fountain

Box-lined gazing pool

Tool caddy is vertical plant stand!

espaliered apple tree in potager

LECTURE SERIES - Click here for details on Lectures
Dick Lighty - Caring for the Garden: Is it a Delight … or a Chore?, June 2, 11-12pm 
Anne Raver - Milestones in the Organic Garden, June 2, 1-2pm 
Rick Darke - Emerging Ecologies: Gardening Sync'd to the Nature of Our Time, June 2, 2:30-3:30pm
Pete Johnson - Pete's Greens, Vermont's Four Season Organic Vegetable Farm, June 3, 9:30-10:30am 
Eric T Fleisher & Paul Wagner -Creating a Healthier Landscape Through Organic Practice, June 3, 11-12:30

Event Catering by Ross & Owren

WHERE
The home and garden of Andrea Filippone
129 Pickle Road, Pottersville, NJ 07979
*If using GPS enter the town as Califon, NJ

NYBG Kick-Off Lecture: From Larry Ellison to Hollywood, Ron Herman Landscape Designs Inspired by Japanese Gardens

The kick-off lecture in the annual New York Botanical Garden’s annual lecture landscape portfolio featured landscape architect Ron Herman

Ron is the son of a California nurseryman, California based, world-class landscape architect who has completed more than 400 private residences over the course of his career. 

He launched his work as understudy to California livin’ and is the next generation trustee to Garret Ekbo and Lawrence Halprin’s heritage whom he studied under at UC Berkeley.

According to the NYBG post: 

He opened his own landscape architecture office in Los Angeles at age 22, and then, with a thriving practice, decided to "take another route" and pursue graduate studies for three years in Japan. His landscape designs are deeply influenced by his knowledge and appreciation of that country's historic gardens. A longtime teacher and lecturer, he also co-authored the invaluable book for travelers, A Guide to the Gardens of Kyoto.

He says he is drawn to forces and loves things that have a “sense as architecture.”

It was certainly love at first sight when he saw the gardens in Kyoto. He was smitten by his glimpse of stands of old bamboo, inspiring and motivating him to study in Japan at Kyoto University.

“I envy the designer who goes to Japan for the first time,” said Herman. 

A key learning for him was the Japanese ability to design timelessness.  “The past is modernity.” Good design depends on how well it’s executed, he commented.

Herman showed images and detailed the design elements of reveal. He is interested in the ambiguity of what you see and what remains hidden, between the formal and informal: key in all great garden design.  It is the search for the unknown, seeing a garden “unfold” with subtle transitions. The Japanese use of screens or partitions is another aspect that adds an ethereal feeling to the garden.

Herman also showed how asymmetrical designed elements are part of the overall tableau of a balanced and enduring landscape design.  

Japanese design honors the seasons.  The garden designer thinks about the winter, for example, when the snow becomes part of the garden’s look.  No dead in winter feeling here!  Rather the snow becomes a design element. The color of the autumn is incorporated into the designed landscape – with purpose and respect for nature’s changing fashion show. 

In particular, Herman showed a cypress with snow that resembled a white peony.  He said when he first saw it; he had to ask, “Who are these people?!”

Herman then took the lecture to his work in California where he established his successful business. He said where better for him to create an East meets West practice?

Japan’s design had become too “museumfied” for him, he commented.

In California, he combined his California dreamin’ American sensibility with the Japanese spirit to create a love child that is both modern and natural: honoring nature in settings that are not contrived or overwrought designs.

He uses the concept of “borrowed scenery” in his landscapes.

Herman showed images of Bel Air and Hollywood gardens worthy of the big screen. 

The most dramatic of the landscapes had to be the work Herman has done for Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison.  Herman and his team worked on one of the gardens for more than 10 years. 

The Atherton garden was the first of his Ellison garden and it is a more traditional Japanese structure with elements of water and rock prominent.

The San Francisco garden is sophisticated: complex but simple with lots of abstract angles that redirect the eye.  Herman pointed out the big Japanese tea room bowl at the entrance is in a giant mechanical case, the stone floating above the bar – a swaying three-ton block. 

Why? He challenged us.  In case of earthquakes. Something east coasters don’t usually think about in design. Although after this summer and climate change, we many be adding to the checklist.

There is a grid water feature that bisects the house. He used bamboo and baby tear drops: only three plants in the design. 

The water is de-gassed so no bubbles.  

The latest and biggest of the Ellison gardens looks like a Japanese emperors mountain retreat.  

The boulders and created lake on the 20-acre landscape are stunning. 

Herman ended the lecture with views and a tour of his Hawaiian retreat. 

Herman's Book is a full garden tour: 

http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Gardens-Kyoto-Marc-Treib/dp/4770029535