The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook Book Signing at Plant-O-Rama

The 18^th Annual Plant-O-Rama Horticultural Trade Show & Symposium is produced by the Metro Hort Group – an Association of Horticultural Professionals in the New York City Tri-State Region. 

Plant-O-Rama has long been considered the crown jewel of horticultural events – bringing together horticultural and gardening professionals, garden designers, plant enthusiasts, urban farmers and agriculturists - to learn from the Horticulture leaders who speak and lecture at the all-day symposium.

Plus there are the authors’ talks and book signings – which is where I come in! 

I am thrilled and honored to be invited to participate in this year’s Plant-O-Rama Authors book talks and book signings with my book, The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook.

goo.gl/0Moqvo  

I am eager to see my former Brooklyn Botanic Garden family – I was privileged to work at the Garden as Director of Communications for many glorious years.

I also can’t wait to spend time with my Metro Hort and plant friends, especially – (and in no particular order…)

Bob Hyland – a dedicated and respected plantsman, garden designer and former vice president of horticulture at BBG.

Bob was the genius who created the dreamy Bluebell Wood at the Garden. Today, the more than 45,000 Hyacinthoides hispanics 'Excelsior' bloom under the oak, birch, and beech trees, there. It is a favorite site of many romantic, heart-clutching visitors and lovers, not to mention a favorite site for filming glamorous, otherworldly TV shows, movies, and videos. 

I remember one memorable shoot when musician Dave Matthews shot his “Dream Girl” video with - who else? Julia Roberts as his Dream Girl.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4bFX1ZEKyA  

(As an aside, at that time, Julia lived upstairs from us in our Manhattan apartment building -- she moved on. The day of the video shoot she brought the twins with her - so it seemed a truly serendipitous "moment” given all that beauty and good karma...)

The morning of the shoot was all misty and mysterious making it all that much more magical…

Bob moved to Portland, Oregon and is now the owner of Hyland Garden Design & Contained Exuberance http://www.hylandgardendesign.com

Ken Druse, panel moderator, is a garden communicator extraordinaire, garden photographer, writer and author – with – what is it -- more than 16 books in his portfolio now?? 

For a full listing and link to buy Ken’s books:

goo.gl/K5BnBT

His iTunes radio podcast, Real Dirt covers the world of gardens, featuring interviews with intriguing and visionary garden luminaries, notables and artists -- including, ahem, me! http://www.kendruse.typepad.com (scroll down a few)

Ken is a horticulturist, a sustainable garden lover and a BIG promoter and mentor to young professionals in the green industry. 

At the same time, Ken is a generous networker and has been ever so good to me this way too – looking to make the garden and plant connections that will benefit the entire horticulture community. 

I am proud to say I've been a card-carrying member of the Ken Druse fan club since forever! 

https://www.facebook.com/ken.druse

Ken is a nice garden sprite... and a true Hort Hero.  

Speaking of Hort Heroes, there is the inimitable Charles Yurgalevitch, Director School of Professional Horticulture, The New York Botanical Garden. 

And as part of Metro Hort’s Board of Directors, Charles serves as Secretary.  

Charles is tireless in his devotion to the hort students  -- always looking to educate and showcase the next-generation of green industry environmentalists and professionals. 

Plus Charles is a foodie!

And I am keen to reconnect with fellow author, Marta McDowell, who I met on the Metro Hort’s tour of Greenwood Gardens early last fall. 

There was the group of us “training” it from NYC to the nearby train station in Short Hills, in the Garden State – not far from Marta’s home and she was kind enough to give some of us a lift in her “garden express!” 

At that time she told me about her upcoming book and I warmed to the charming subject immediately. 

Now her book is out and is a big success: Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children’s Tale

My garden writer friend, Anne Raver wrote about Marta’s book in a recent NY Times article too. 

Here is a whimsical video about the book:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCldbhsl8w&feature=youtu.be

I don’t yet know the other authors but I am very much looking forward to meeting them and learning about their plant and garden books.

The schedule for the Authors Talks is:

Author Talks and Book Signings

Lily-Pool Room 10am to noon and again from 1-3pm

Leeann Lavin, Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook

Bill Logan, Air: The Restless Shaper of the World

Susanne Lucas, Bamboo

Marta McDowell, Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children’s Tale

Vincent Simeone, Grow More With Less: Sustainable Garden Methods

Here is the full listing of the day’s schedule and a link to purchase tickets:

January 28^th, 2014

9:00am to 4:00pm

Link to tickets:  brownpapertickets.com/event/515529

Full listing for the symposium and trade show: http://metrohort.org/index.php/archive/18th_annual_plant-o-rama/

Overview of Plant-O-Rama 2014

8:45 am: Welcome & Sponsor Acknowledgment

9:00 am NEW DIRECTIONS IN HORTICULTURE:


A layered look at plant and garden trends
David L. Culp, VP, Marketing & Sales, Sunny Border Nurseries, Kensington, CT Mr. Culp has his finger on the pulse of the nursery and horticulture industry, particularly perennial plants. Hear Dave interpret “where we’ve been & where we’re going.” What’s up with layered planting styles, container gardening, demand for multi-season garden shrubs, “green” and other trending garden colors, native plants, naturalistic planting methods, and more. Dave is author of the 2012 award- winning book The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty from Brandywine Cottage. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

10:15 am WHAT WILL THE FUTURE OF HORTICULTURE LOOK LIKE?
Panel discussion moderated by Ken Druse, award-winning garden communicator, author and photographer
A group of young professionals give us a look into the future of horticulture in
a challenging, fast-changing world. Topics include soil consciousness, water, public gardens, education, growing food, climate change, technology, social media, and making a living in our profession. We hope the audience will participate with questions and comments.

Morning speakers focus on public horticulture, garden design & urban agriculture. Katherine Aul (partner, Staghorn Design Studio), Kristen DeSouza (superintendent, Allen C. Haskell Park), Rebecca McMackin (director of horticulture, Brooklyn Bridge Park), Kelly Norris (horticulture manager, Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, and co-owner of Rainbow Iris Farm), Gwen Schantz (chief operating officer, Brooklyn Grange)

AFTERNOON SYMPOSIUM SESSION (repeat of morning)

12:45 pm 2 pm
NEW DIRECTIONS IN HORTICULTURE: A layered look at plant and garden trends
DISCUSSION: What will the future of horticulture look like?
Afternoon speakers focus on nursery production and management, plants and
conservation & youth education. Jason Austin (nurseryman, RareFind Nursery), David Daley (Children’s Garden educator, Brooklyn Botanic Garden), Nate McCullin (horticulturalist and facilities coordinator, New England Wildflower Society/ Garden in the Woods), Rebecca McMackin (director of horticulture, Brooklyn Bridge Park), Kelly Norris (horticulture manager, Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, and co-owner of Rainbow Iris Farm)

3:30 pm

CLOSING RECEPTION & SILENT AUCTION RESULTS —BBG Palm House

Exhibits – Free Admission All Day!

8:30 a.m.–3 p.m.	Plant Catalog Display Members’ Room FREE! Take home 2014 plant and seed catalogs while supplies last.
9 a.m.–4 p.m.	Palm House Trade Show A Trade show with 50 exhibitors representing the NYC metro region’s premier specialty nurseries and wholesale growers, pottery distributors, horticultural suppliers, soil and compost companies, public gardens, and greening organizations. Exhibitor list in formation—check metrohort.org for updates.
10 a.m.–noon 1–3 p.m.	Author Talks and Book Signings Lily-Pool Room Leeann Lavin, Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook Bill Logan, Air: The Restless Shaper of the World Susanne Lucas, Bamboo Marta McDowell, Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children’s Tale Vincent Simeone, Grow More With Less: Sustainable Garden Methods
11 a.m.–3:15 p.m.	Silent Auction Classroom 236 Bid on plants and horticultural items donated by Plant-O-Rama exhibitors and sponsors. Proceeds benefit Metro Hort Group programs.
3:30 p.m.	Closing Reception and Silent Auction Results Palm House
10 a.m.–4:30 p.m.	BBG Garden Shop The Garden Shop at BBG’s Visitor Center carries books, seeds, plants, tools, and gifts for gardeners and the home.
10 a.m.–3 p.m.	Terrace Café The Terrace Café offers a delicious winter menu of soups, sandwiches, desserts, and beverages in the lower level of the Steinhardt Conservatory.

SYMPOSIUM REGISTRATION
   REGISTER ONLINE to reserve seats:
      brownpapertickets.com/event/515529

Metro Hort hosts Boxwood Diva Andrea Filippone

Metro Hort hosts Boxwood Diva Andrea Filippone

New York’s professional horticulturists meet in the “off season” at the Central Park Armory, nestled onto the rim of the Park, just nosing the children’s attractions that hold court outside, behind the imposing, rather Gothic-looking building, somewhat like a movie set for Alice in Wonderland.

Indoors at the Armory, at the winter meetings, Metrohort members look forward to gardening camaraderie, networking and learning about our passion: plants and landscapes.

Recently, all roads led to F2 Environmental Design’s Andrea Filippone, the horticulture world’s leading expert on boxwoods, whose talk “Inside and Outside the Box” explored the world of boxwoods.

What Alice Waters is to homegrown food, Andrea Filippone is to box—that staple of virtually every designed garden.  

Filippone demonstrated her confident knowledge of all things box, provided a cautionary “heads up” on the rolling thunder of virus, pathogens and pruning that is increasingly afflicting these ubiquitous work-horses of the garden.  She was common-sense, country doctor in dispensing plant RX advice, and provided a hand-out that is a gold mine of ready information about box, listing: Cultivar, Hardiness, Exposure, Size, Best Features, Other Feature (such as Form and color), Pruning and Substitutes. 

This was a Very informative lecture from start to finish.

Filippone quickly earned the audience’s interest and respect. 

She was billed as a landscape designer who “brings together the finest elements of design with ecologically sound scientific practice… She grows boxwood using organic methods. In the past ten years, she has started a boxwood nursery of more than 50 cultivars and now spends most of her time defining structure and space in the outdoor environment. She uses no toxic chemical pesticides or synthetic high nitrogen fertilizers in dealing with pest and disease issues such as cylindrodladium pseodonaviculatum, aka Boxwood Blight. She is a Watson Fellow.”

I think she could be the queen of boxwoods.  Her oeuvre is an inspiring, over-the-top palette of all kinds of boxwoods that extend waayy beyond the usual English and Winter Gem.

Just in time, too.

The MetroHort professionals who attended the lecture were transfixed as Filiippon, informed us about the virulent fungus, boxwood blight, now ravishing the staple of virtually every garden: the boxwood border or defining wall of many a “garden room.”

As an aside -- and not mentioned at the lecture is a very interesting piece of garden history as it relates to boxwoods:  in conducting the interviews for my soon to be published book, “The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook” that explores the nexus of culinary and garden art – how master chefs are inspired by their homegrown farmers and fishermen – I learned that the owner/steward (13^th generation to do so) of Shelter Island’s Sylvester Manor, Bennett Konesni family brought boxwood to these shores. Here is the excerpt from the book:  “farmer and executive director Bennett Konesni’s ancestors owned the entire Island – which for centuries was virtually dedicated to farming and that early on, Bennett’s family not only brought many heirloom vegetables, especially tomatoes and potatoes to America, he claims the family also introduced the now ubiquitous boxwood to the American shores, for which landscapers and gardeners from Long Island to Charleston to San Francisco pay homage to the family! Then as now, the secret of the family’s longstanding garden success is the soil.” “

To pre-order my book "The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook" at B&N, Amazon:

http://tiny.cc/4zjhbw

or

http://tiny.cc/pijhbw

Just like Sylvester Manor’s farmers, Filippone too stressed the importance of planting in good soil.

If boxwood is planted in clay soil, the box is under stress and can turn orange in color. 

Discoloration is due to lack of nutrients. She advises to do a soil sample -- both a textural and chemical test.

Also a problem for boxwood is common pests. 

English boxwood is very susceptible to fungus, in particular the defoliating leaf minor, which can cause a blistering, at the end of leaf effect, peeling the leaf apart.  

In images on the screen (she also brought along healthy plant samples), she pointed out the larvae feeding inside the leaves. “They lay their eggs in spring, stay through the seasons and then emerge out of the back of leaf” she said to much “nervous” laughter as the hort pros wistfully recognized this look.

How to deal with this and the fungus that causes the cupping effect:

            * Don’t plant with too much density or too tightly planted –

               English boxwood need air circulation

* No wet feet.

            * Plant other box cultivars.  “Don’t plant only English

               boxwoods!”

* Use organic solutions – spray with insecticidal soap

She recommends that this year – due to extraordinary warm weather because of climate change – to check earlier than normal in April to see if flies are present, swarming the box – in order to confirm leaf minor.  If so, spray so they can’t lay more eggs and then cut the branch off and burn it.

Filippone also humorously – but emphatically - pointed out the importance of curbing dogs!  “The heat of the urine turns the box brown even after just one time. It can ruin the box plant,” she claimed. 

Three or four diseases hit boxwoods don’t get but she explained English boxwood phytophthora (plant damaging water molds) and suggests examining roots – if black, replace the box plant.  

Macrophoma is a fungus that makes leaves drop and look black on the inside of foliage due to dense planting, too much rain or high humidity. 

Solution:

* Prune as much as possible  (The boxwood queen is funny, too.  Maintenance?  “I prune when I get to it,” she says.

*  Watch invest in drainage and irrigation

*  Plant different varieties

In general, she also admonished gardeners not to brush snow off boxwoods (not that we had any to worry about this year!) 

If you think you’re helping the box by brushing off the snow – you are not. The problem won’t manifest itself or be seen until summer.  You can break the internal plumbing. She explained historical gardens in particular, have this experience. 

Brushing or removing the snow can break the stem – and the break allows a door for the fungus to set up house, creating a canker. (What do fungi know of decorating?!)

 

Solution:

To remedy the problem once it has occurred, and after all threat of a snowstorm, cut past the canker.  She says the plant will eventually grow back.

Let the snow melt – the plant will slowly upright itself and come back, according to Filippone.  Note: during a discussion after the Wave Hill lecture last night with the fabulous & dreamy Thomas L. Woltz, Nelson Byrd Woltz – a post coming soon about his work! – there was talk that may have understated the case for brushing snow off the boxwoods.  All the hort pros agreed that if the snow is too wet and heavy, it will break the stems.  Consensus seemed to be to allow nature to orchestrate her snow dance for a dusting or light snow…

With regard to boxwood blight, Filippone advised: “Don’t panic.”  Rather she suggested employing all the solutions noted above to prevent from the blight from spreading.  Further, the blight won’t affect other plants.  Whew!

However, the black spot and defoliation can wreak havoc on the box within a week.  

The blight is vascular –  and has already devastated plants rapidly in Australia and the UK.   It was discovered in October of 2011 in Oregon, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Virginia.

No one is sure of its origins.

Experts believe it’s traveling with or through water – even if the rain causes leaves to touch its neighboring box it will help spread the fungus. It’s a sticky substance that can cling to clippers and clothes, so she recommends sanitizing. 

Also:

*Fungicides are unsuccessful

*Don’t fertilize boxwoods

*Drip irrigation is a solution, especially when used in the nurseries where plants are packed especially tight

Filippone went on to amplify the great variety of boxwood – this was the biggest take away – to learn the astonishing variety of available boxwood to gardeners.  There is a color and shape and sculpture to add variety and excitement to garden designs. And think winter wardrobe too:  

She and her team collected boxwood in Macedonia, partnering with Longwood Gardens.  Their goal was to recreate the Edgar Anderson hort exploration in 1934.  Filippone’s team brought 33 cuttings for cultivation Macedonia is a rich area for a variety of box, she explained, thanks to lots of temperate variance and micro climates there.

She showed tall ones and forests of boxwood and weeping ones!

She will monitor her boxwood cultivar brood for six to seven years.  Her goal is to see what the varieties can do in terms of color, year-round interest, and if they acclimate best for windy or cold sites.  Stay tuned for market updates!  

She has over 50 cultivars at her nursery in the Garden State. (www.ajfdesign.com or www.f2environmentaldesign.com)

She uses lots of ‘Justin Brouwers’ buxus sinica var.insularis  (planted 18” apart) and Green Mountain, ‘Morris Dwarf’ buxus microphylla var. Japonica.

She is 100% organic and uses drip irrigation.

Andrea invited all to visit her bucolic, glamorous Garden State nursery and home at any time.  I, for one, will be motoring to this garden-growing oasis soon.  (Of course, please your manners and do call ahead to the Boxwood Queen and hostess….)

Cheers!

Metro Hort Lecture Shines a Light on Emerging Ecological Design

Billed as a talk about “Relationships of Ecological Design with Landscape Architecture” and featuring the landscape architect and urban ecologist Alexander Felson, the talk was full of anticipation on the subject of the love child of science and design that needs exploration and discussion.

Its moment had arrived.

Unfortunately, the compelling topic’s prime time in the spotlight fell short of expectations.

I can’t quit put my finger on it but as I looked around the PowerPoint-lit room in the Central Park (NYC) Amory where all the Metro Hort lectures are held, there seemed a discernible – and in some cases, audible – tsking or whispers of “where’s the plants?”

You see, horticulture fans want to see pictures of plants, wildlife. “Before” and “After” images are especially well received.

And Alex – while undeniably knowledgeable and informed – he used no notes and was animated in his delivery, conveying his downright passionate about the topic and the issues – couldn’t seem to connect with the attending audience. 

People started to leave at the appointed conclusion time, despite Alex’s getting the OK to continue for another half hour. 

I thought maybe it was me.  I want to be sophisticated about this most important subject and burgeoning field.  But no, the stony silence screamed, “This is not grabbing me. It’s kinda' boring…”

Further, the morning after was a New York Botanical Garden lecture and attendees there were making “Icky” faces when asked about the Metro Hort lecture.  The reviews were in.  It is undoubtedly a compelling, fascinating topic. But the lecture wasn’t interesting, sad to report.

Perhaps if it was more focused…

Or used more vivid images of plants rather than almost exclusively the flat, one-dimensional charts, diagrams, and graphs that were on the screen. (I only shot plant pictures for this news post.)

I’m sure there is a thespian or performer who was quoted as saying, “Know thy audience.”

In all fairness, there were those who said despite the academia-style presentation, we do all need to learn about the reconstructing landscapes and ecosystems using applied ecology.  There needs to be a proactive approach to embedding science into the system of landscape design.  Research needs to be included as part of the design process too. 

There was no argument from any quarter about that. It was just how it was delivered.

Nevertheless, the points are worth repeating here.

The opportunities for restoration and applied ecology will only increase. 

Alex showed more than a few examples of innovative restoration projects including the Presidio Trust in San Francisco, NY’s East River waterfront, the World’s Fair grounds in Queens, NY, and the 200 acres in Queens he’s working on as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Million Trees Program.

And a cutie pie one using the life cycle of oysters.

The Presidio project brought together a team of landscape architects and designers and ecologists to talk about their broken communications and to determine how to reach consensus. 

This part of the process in creating adaptable landscapes, while a key dynamic, doesn’t make for lecture fodder… Isn’t it true in any business or working dynamic that it’s hard to get things done but discussion and goal setting and compromise work get to the desired outcome? The answer is yes.

So to me, not a huge surprise that one part of the Presidio’s concessions was a winning result.

No one could take issue with how those traditionalist who clung to keeping things the way they were - however ill-informed those decisions may have been - came round to making some changes so that they could replace 40 trees with local genotypes at Inspiration Point, thus insuring a great view.

Alex advised that in these situations no one can have its cake and eat it too.

Compromise is the only solution. 

The Adaptive Management Approach incorporates a few key elements he says will prove valuable in getting to those solutions. They are:

·      What is the value of species richness?

·      What is the value of soil amendments as they will also promote invasives?

·      Determine whether to remove or leave invasive species?

The Cost & Benefits part of the add-on lecture was kind of a non-starter -- a bridge to nowhere… 

In terms of management, costs must be managed. Again, that’s true for any work discipline.

And it’s important, of course, to measure things like the biomass and carbon sequestering.  

He cited the development of the system to measure that an urban tree will take anywhere from 11 to 41 years to pay back its carbon survival.

And yet, he noted there are yet no ways to measure the human cost of interaction. Why not?  How can we overlook this most important element of watching children in nature, developing a relationship with nature?

However, Alex is working very hard to “build a bridge”  – to become part of the landscape architect frontiers of ecology.

One goal he’s got his eyes set on is Parking Lots – those blights on the suburban landscape where once there was probably a farm or meadow, and are now locked into unsustainable asphalt…

He cited the overabundance of “human modification of land that influences the aesthetic.  We need to create water absorption, nearby wetlands, perhaps recirculating water and increase permeable surfaces in the parking lots – and in urban environments in general.

Another very important project is one he’s working on in Bridgeport and Old Saybrook, Connecticut.  Working with the Nature Conservancy they’ve created mapping that surveys the area that that will indicate which neighborhoods and homes will be under water given the expected storm surges as a result of climate change. 

There was already a lot of damage after the summer’s hurricane that left more than $300,000 worth of damage behind and more than a few townspeople feeling like those living on the coast are a tax burden for the rest of the citizens.

It’s so difficult to tell a third generation family there that their home will be under water or that they have to leave and move away, Alex commented.

Alex pointed out how work is being done to use Amtrak train tracks and from there through to the tide gates.

They tried to get the town to raise the utilities from the basement but that suggestion went nowhere.

He proposed they not think of their neighbor as random but rather as a sub basin watershed

And so it goes…

“Restoration ecologists work with designer and other practioners in the development of resilient and adapted landscapes. Traditionally focused on reconstructing ecosystems of historically documented landscapes, this approach is being reassessed in light of changes in site conditions and pressures on ecosystems from global environmental changes

Alex discussed his involvement and work in projects where novel ecosystems that use historical knowledge of restoration and recognize the value of creative environmentally sensitive solutions that are functional and aesthetic.”

Alexander Felson is a landscape architect and urban ecologist, is on the faculty of both the School of Architecture and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University.  His projects include a Harlem community garden, The East River Salt Marsh project with Ken Smith, and a real estate development in the Tuxedo Reserve where he brought a together a multidisciplinary team of academics and practioners to work the developer community planning boards, and regulators to define and encourage responsible management of urban eco