Wednesday, April 7, 2010

2010 Garden Lecture Reviews



From the Ground Up: Gardens Re-Imagined



The theme uniting this year’s lecture series at The New York Botanical Garden (www.nybg.org)
was sustainability.  
Sustainable garden designs. 
I can’t deny that all great garden designers have pretty much always practiced “sustainable, creative, practical garden designs” (as the NYBG brochure explained).



Nevertheless, the series was entertaining, informational and topical. 
The atmosphere surrounding the lecture is horticulturally collegial – we garden sprites get to mingle with fellow garden and plant lovers. 
Bookending my Lecture Series experiences was high drama and zen serenity. 

First Lecture:  Englishman Dan Pearson
Into The Wild

Spirit: Garden Inspiration


“You seem so calm… ”We’re so late,” I sidelined to Phyllis Odessey from Randall’s Island as we walked to the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) lecture from the train station. (Manhattanites must take the train from Grand Central a few stops north.)

Well, truth be told, I was scurrying and Phyllis was the picture of calm, garden peacefulness. 
“It doesn’t start till eleven. “ she said. 

“No, it started at ten.” I advised.    I wanted to explain, but was conflicted about slowing down to do so. 

“What?” Phyllis exclaimed.  If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have come…” 

While slaloming in around the parked cars, I shot back to her the drama of my commuting saga: missed the 9:25 morning train from Grand Central because my MetroCard came up “insufficient” funds from the swipe at Union Square that in turn made me have to reenter the subway station from the other side of the street.  

Finally, we were inside, ushered immediately through registration like VIPs. 
(Well, there wasn’t anyone else waiting at that point, either.)

As if on cue, we split up at the door to the lecture hall door to find any available seats. 
It’s packed.  SRO.

But what was bad news for the capacity audience, turned out to be great news for us:  NYBG’s vice president, Todd Forrest (in a “you can’t make this stuff up name game, he was the curator of the Garden’s Forest at one time!) kicked off the lecture – and talked a bit long, we were told later -- for about 30 minutes…
That overture, coupled with Dan Pearson’s preamble about his early childhood, put us in the perfect time zone for being seated just as the meat of the lecture got under way. 

Thanks for waiting for us.

Qu’elle chance, after all J

I could listen to Dan read the phone book (lovely British accent) and his dreamy, good-looking-Paul McCartney-Beatle countenance makes for added visual stage presence. 
Given his rock star status as an international landscape architect, the analogy is not too far off the mark. 


Dan visually displayed work from his portfolio while providing the back story of how he got the jobs – very amusing tales; his inspiration for the garden designs: employing a very strong sense of place, amplifying that with indigenous plants, along with manifesting the owner’s garden style.

You had to be there to appreciate Dan’s demeanor. 
In part, it helps explain his seemingly spiritual, ethereal commitment to natural gardening -- to creating gardens found in your dreams. 

Dan is the kind of artist who always knew his calling. 
Early on, he recalled, he was told to “Follow your heart.”  
After seeing Wisely and Sissinghurst gardens and the Valley of The Flowers, it’s no wonder he claims to have known then he wanted to emulate nature– not control garden spaces. 

Dan took the opportunity to speak about his devotion to using a collection of plants. 
He prefers to employ a very large palette of plants in his designs. 
He plants to encourage wildlife in the garden and to maximize an outdoor space to better experience every season. 
He reminded us of the sheer beauty of a garden’s ability to constantly change. 
It’s never boring.  (Don’t over manage a garden.  It’s silly)

He regaled the audience with the story of how he was hired to redesign a family estate garden in Torrecchia, Italy. 
The wife saw his work at the Chelsea Flower Show while in attendance; phones him the next day to confirm he’ll take the commission; June 1st he is flown to Rome and she picks him up in her small red convertible sports car.
Drives very, very, very fast to the “medieval hill village of her family – while chain smoking!

In describing a Los Angeles garden design – especially the hardscape - he demonstrated how good gardens reflect that ‘sense of place’  -- a contextual classicism that is never out of style -- that unique “only-here” feeling that mimics Mother Nature’s local “look.” 

He also said “A garden is like a good clothes horse.”
In other words, the plants will make the structure - - or the “bones” of the garden sparkle in every season, while always connecting with the owner’s style.

Did I say I loved Dan’s use of fashion-as-style metaphors and artsy references?!

His work went on to embrace large land forms – architectural gems he creates that are vast, rugged. 



One of his earlier designs like this is the Yorkshire Broughton Hall, located not far from Leeds in England. 

I was charmed by his research for the dry stone walls – part of the local vernacular of course.  English estate landscapes employed a series of similar walls – they were called a Ha Ha and used to keep the livestock from getting too close to the “house.” 
(Can you guess why they were called Ha Ha?  You have to love that English sense of “humor.” ^:^)

Here Dan worked in a limited style, using sweeps of perennials, and was mindful of the garden’s maintenance for this 2-acre site (there are one to two gardeners a week to do all the work.)

But what must be his favorite project – certainly it seemed his most dramatic—is the Millennium Forest, (http://www.tmf.jp/index_en.html)
Curiously, or ironically, or logically, the project to maintain and, in some areas, reproduce the area’s pristine forest that is being encroached by farmland, is funded by a successful newspaper magnate… (trees=paper—I know you get it, but just in case…)

Dan’s description of how he got involved in the Millennium project sounded somewhat like a friendly fraternity hazing. 

About 10 years ago, Dan was contacted by Mr.Takano, the landscape architect for a prominent newspaper magnate.  
In the Japanese tradition, there were a series of meetings before any formal agreement was considered.  Mr. Takano was gauging how he and Dan and their client might work together – spiritually, philosophically and physically. 
Finally, lured to the Forest by Mr. Takano’s invitation, the two experienced the forest in a -35 degree Fahrenheit winter evening final “test” including hot springs and – what else – a shared beer.

It wasn’t long after that when Mr. Takano asked Dan to prepare a master plan to create a sustainable environment there – that would last for 1,000 years and at the same time, become an ecological park where people would be prompted to ask, “What does it mean?”

Acknowledging there is a national Japanese reverence for nature, Dan suggests it can more often than not, be one step removed.  Not unlike most of the rest of the world’s increasingly urbanized populace, most Japanese lived in an environment with little connection to nature. 

So while Dan and Mr. Tanaka and the team may have changed the topography, created mystical pools and paths and siting areas for visitors. 





Dan also created the land forms that seem to touch the sky. 
One of his favorite recollections about dealing with his on-site Japanese team from his remote English location – was after the first snowfall, was getting a call from saying his natural, land form mounds were said to look like  “a series of meringues.”
Come on, does it get any frothier than that?   Sigh…



Dan employed 19 different planting combinations – each has 5 or 6 different plants sizes and blooming times (depending on vigor or “like DNA”
He used 35,000 perennials (hakone to hosta to cimifuga)
He used natural trees and a palette of perennials – many North American -- and mixed them with Japanese natives to combine native and exotic has general, global values so that visitors will note than their own natives.

Moving on to the Q&A, Lyndon Miller asked, “How does the Japan project sustain itself?”  Dan said, “ Good question.” Then elaborated.  “Education – they’ll develop programs and classes to attract a paying audience in addition to generating visitors.” 
The benefactor/magnate will continue to fun the project for 10 years.

Dan signed books for the attendees.  


Here I am with Dan:






























Phyllisodessey.com






Saturday, April 3, 2010

A Glamorous and Exuberant Book on Gardens and Floral Design



“Garden Bouquets and Beyond”
Creating Wreaths, Garlands, And More In Every Garden Season

 

Garden Bouquets and Beyond: Creating Wreaths, Garlands, and More in Every Garden Season

Suzy Bales’ latest book is exhibit A in the case to be made why coffee table books need to be renamed. 


True, the book’s gorgeous, jaw-dropping color images hypnotically capture your imagination and render you motionless. 
You are under its charmed spell. 
So there you sit – presumably with that cup of coffee at your “coffee table” -- not wanting to turn the page, but like a good dream, you are led to the next unexpected adventure.

On the other hand, “Garden Bouquets and Beyond” is a How -To book – a veritable pocket book of seasonal design tips and ideas and care instructions you can use every day. 
You’ll look at your garden in a whole new way, too. 

Suzy introduces you to the idea to view the garden as a treasure-trove of unlimited cutting garden gathering opportunities. 

“Why stop at the blooms when there is foliage?” She posits.  Or bird baths to fill with spring blossoms or a “posy topping a gift-wrapped package.” (Source: afloral.com)

The creations are all the more exciting because Suzy helps us, the reader, discover plants and blooms commonly found in most gardens, including honeysuckle, blueberry, witch hazel, sage, allium, yarrow, hosta (as a table cloth ^:^), ivy, nandina, seedpods, ornamental grasses. swamp maple, dogwood, viburnum, and azalea blossoms.  Betcha’ never thought of these candidates for glamorous floral arrangements!
 
What Suzy designs with floral foam confirms her reign as Eden’s sorceress. 
Her creativity sparkles with suggestions that range from wet and dry wreaths to candelabra confections and joyful runners and Anais Nin headbands, eye candy garlands, and mock topiaries – she literally “paints with nature’s palette” to borrow a heading from the book.

There are tips on color, texture, proportion, balance. 
Then she throws it all to the wind and claims “there are no rules.” And in the same breath, admonishes us to have fun! 



Then there are the words – the text!  This is a book, after all J

Who couldn’t love chapter titles such as “Naked Ladies,”  “Belting Out The Blues,” “Dahlia Daze” “Berry Madness” and “Get the Joint A-Jumpin?”
So much of the book reads like a best girlfriend’s diary she lets you peek at. 
She refers to the morning glory’s flowers as a “perpetual wink.”  
Amassing flowers for a vase she says is akin to a “group hug.”  

These cute as a button, down-home sparklers reflect the conversational style and wit Suzy “gifts” to the reader.
You just know she’s a dame you want to share a cocktail with.  Over an irresistible and eye-catching arrangement that is…

But for all the charm, the book offers a very serious, well-researched series of conditioning flower guidelines, an entire section devoted to how long a cut flower’s Vase Life is, seasonal favorites “at a glance,” and tips on water quality and extending blooms.  There is a source page too. (www.michaels.com, www.save-on-crafts.com, www.potterybarn.com)

And it seems every other page has an easy to understand highlight box explaining things we were too self conscious about asking, including “bugs,” debunking myths or old wives tales. 

Buy this exuberant book for its fun and charm. 
Refer to it and use it for its garden and floral design inspiration and expertise. 

I love the book jacket blurbs from some of my favorite garden journalists.  They say it best.  Here’s what Valerie Easton wrote:  “We’ve learned that fresh, local organic food is best, so why are we still buying hothouse flowers, shipped halfway around the world for our home?” (Why indeed?)  … “Only Suzy could transform pachysandra into a showpiece of a wreath?”
Mario Bosquez, host of “Living Today” on Martha Stewart Living Radio, says “Suzy Bales always strikes the right note in making gardening and arranging accessible and educational, and, most of all, the ultimate in all things fabulous and floral.”


And be sure to check out how to dress up the ice “bucket” for a magnum of champagne. How glamorous!

















The Horticultural Society of New York (www.hsny.org) hosted author Suzy Bales’ launch of  “Garden Bouquets and Beyond” as part of their Important Books and Author’s Series.  Suzy’s has authored 14 books.

The evening was a fundraiser held at the swanky Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York City.
Friends and supporters mingled.









Cocktails and hors d’ouevres passed while Suzy autographed her book. 





Me and Suzy:








The lecture was the main event, with an introduction by the Hort Society’s executive director, Sara Hobel, who also noted that the evening’s fundraising would go to help support HSNY’s varied programs including the Rikers Island program.


With great humor and self-effacing wit, Suzy led us through the research, writing, and production of her delightful new book, accompanied by seductive images from the book.  The oohs and ahhs from the guests confirmed the designs' drama and appeal. 





The lecture was followed by a robust Q&A.


Check out author Suzy Bales’ web site for a calendar listing of her upcoming national lecture and book signing schedule, including the New York Botanical Garden (www.nybg.org), April 15th, Shepard Pratt Conference Center in Baltimore, The Hampton Garden Club, and The Cosmopolitan Club, NYC, November 15th.  (we love your namesake cocktail, the Cosmo!)

  

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Spring Fever

Spring Fever


Now it starts to get really good. 

It wasn’t that long ago that the spring catalogs arrived -- not Saks, silly -- rather the seed and garden catalogs with their seductive photo spreads and promises of color and style.










Up next in the spring fashion show were the newly arrived spring seed packets.  So classic and artistic looking:














 Got the soil test kit from Rutgers at the Garden State Flower Show.
                                                           












First we sowed the spring peas – right after St. Patrick’s Day, followed by the arugula seeds.

Indoors: started the Beefsteak & Heirloom tomatoes, along with the Thai peppers and basil and chile peppers, including Thai and Pequin.

Back outside, the shallots – Picasso Dutch and Yellow Moon Dutch bulbs were planted. 
For the second year, we ordered the shallots and potatoes from The Maine Potato Lady in Guilford ME.  (http://tinyurl.com/yf6dzb7)

The potatoes arrived via UPS and are “backstage” in the garage, acclimating, getting ready for their red carpet moment.

We ordered the superstars Kennebec (sold out), Chieftain and Cortland. 

In the meantime, tools were sharpened and prepped.

Ornamental grasses were cut.

The Back Forty Edible Garden was prepped



Laid in manure, peat and lots and lots of homemade Compost! We composted all winter. No problem.


And today is pure, unadulterated joy!  The warm sunshine and clear sky is “The promise of spring. “

Off to the nurseries to see those happy blooms nodding, “pick me, pick me.”
Those little “show offs” will dazzle the spring container compositions I’ll design today.

Enjoy!  





Friday, March 12, 2010

Sex on the Roof at Gramercy Park Hotel


From the moment you turn the corner and experience the undulating boxwood garden border fronting the entire block of the Gramercy Park Hotel (www.gramercyhotel.com) you are transported.



I was reminded of the opening scenes of “The English Patient” where the screen is filled with sensuous, undulating, curving landscapes.  Never mind that the movie focus was of sand dunes. 
To my mind’s eye, the elegant spare landscape of that cinemascope was the artistic twin to this Gramercy Park Hotel urban landscape.  (Planted in just 12 inches of soil I learned later.)

And this was just foreplay! The real piece de resistance is the roof top landscaped garden.

With heightened anticipation, I entered the lobby of the hotel not for the first time.
But with a different purpose. 
I was meeting Lynn Torgerson (www.lynntorgersongardens.com), the garden designer for the hotel’s front border garden and its roof top terrace garden. 

At a recent MetroHort event, Lynn invited me to visit the garden.  I love this hotel and had wanted to see the celebrated roof top garden for some time but the stars were never aligned. 

Gramercy Park is Ian Schrager’s luxury Hotel in New York City’s Union Square area. The art collection that adorns the colossal walls is sensuous and commanding. The room lobby and bar look like a castle, albeit a glamorous sexy one – with sparkling chandeliers, bold red carpets, sumptuous velvet furniture and heavy drapes, cavernous fireplaces and sweet, sultry scented candles seemingly everywhere.

I had graciously accepted Lynn’s kind offer, saying spring wasn’t toooo far away.
Not pausing, Lynn said, “Come anytime.”  Sensing a slight faux pas or egads, a missed trick on my part, I squinted a follow up.  “What do you mean, anytime?” 
She reiterated. “Anytime.”
Hmmm. Now I’ve got to ask.  “I thought it was a rooftop garden?”   With great patience she nods. “It is.”  Pause.  “But it’s all enclosed in the winter – so anytime you want to come, it’s good.” 
Winning the lottery can’t feel as good. J

I think seeing a garden like this in winter makes it even more special than if I experience it when everything around is green too. 
So now this all gets even better than I had hoped. 
Come on – when all is cold and grey to others (I like the city in winter, thank you very much) but I am privy to a warm garden with iconic views of Gotham—be still my beating heart!

We agree to a scheduled date. Follow up will happen. But we have a plan.

Carpe diem!

The day of the planned tour, I am inspired to email Roberta, the unparalleled floral designer for Danny Meyers’s restaurant empire.  Danny’s latest restaurant is the Tuscan inspired Maialino


which is seemingly part of the Gramercy Hotel and in fact, occupies the space next door and yet is still attached. (Don’t ask – just go!)

More serendipity as Roberta has agreed that -- with relatively no notice – she can do it!

I met Roberta when we were photographing Chef Michael Anthony at Gramercy Tavern restaurant – another shining star in Danny Meyers’ restaurant portfolio. 
I was there because of a photo shoot for my book about master chefs and their gardens.
My photographer, Jennifer Calais Smith (www.jennifercalais.com) and food stylist, Patty White (www.pattywhitefoodstylist.com) were working with me to photograph Chef Michael’s amazing culinary art. 
At the same time, I couldn’t help be drawn to the floral design compositions that Roberta was divining and arranging. 
I had to include her in the book!  Chef Michael agreed as did my editor, Kari. 

When you visit any of Danny Meyers’s restaurants, please let me know how much you love Roberta’s amazing interior garden designs.
She is an artist.

So the evening of the first rooftop garden tour, I was looking forward to great interior garden design AND great exterior garden design.

And to seeing and having networked two amazing plant women.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was meeting a former colleague and friend, Joanne Trout, who was treating me to a birthday dinner at Maialino restaurant.  Maialino is Myers’ latest culinary tour de force. Maria, my garden design client and Italian language linguist told me maialino means “little pig.”  How cute!

It just doesn’t get any better  :) 

Maialino is located just to the downtown side of the hotel. As a guest, you’d think they are part of the same establishment. 
Roberta took us on a quick tour of the restaurant. We could better appreciate its simple, elegant yet casual environment – punctuated by Roberta’s floral designs.










Private dining room and Roberta's floral creations

Cuccina:










Well, we were drinking our Prosecco and Roberta and Lynn were having such a good time getting to know one another  --- and I was enjoying it all. 


Yet, as a garden sprite, I knew we had to get to that roof.  There wasn’t much winter daylight left…
A tad late, we hop in the special elevator transporting us up 16 floors to the Hotel Rooftop Bar – a Private Club and Garden.  Only members are admitted to this level so I’m feeling very VIP.



Like a Broadway stage whose curtains rise to reveal a carefully crafted other world of make-believe, the elevator doors opened to reveal a magical garden in the sky.
The anticipation matches the reality. 





This garden is a fantasy. A dream. 





It was dusk.  The sky was pink. The nearby skyscrapers loomed as architectural sentinels.  All this drama was mere backdrop for the garden at Gramercy Park Hotel. 


There, the entire length of the garden sparkled with tiny white lights on the ceiling, peeking through the green overhead and on the shrubs and trees in containers bordering the garden walls.




As we walked, I was awestruck.  My head was like a scope – turning upwards – left and right – all the while listening to Lynn describe the design work and maintenance that is integral to this unique garden. 

I defy anyone, of any age, to not be rendered speechless by this garden. 
It has the magic of Disney, of countless movies of Manhattan, and is a gardener’s dream world.  We gardeners can appreciate the design and work that goes into a living room such as this.  

For everyone else, the garden embraces you in a very intimate way and stimulates the senses.  This is especially so on a winter day simply because it’s a paradox.  But Lynn has made this impossibility just so natural.

The garden wraps around three sides of the building. In the warmer weather, the hotel has the option to open up part of the glass roof, or all or provide an awning to cover part of the garden in the sky to block the sun with the use of the retractable roof. 



When I was the Director of Communications at a major NYC botanic garden, I had recommended Lynn to New York Magazine as the ideal candidate to redesign NYC’s marriage bureau.  She nailed it: http://tinyurl.com/yjsdh9s

Sexy too, no?

Here at the Gramercy Park Hotel, Lynn’s brilliant work is not only on display in the design, but in the ongoing maintenance.  As you can image, it’s not in the least bit easy to keep up a good garden considering the inhospitable conditions.  There is the weather to consider of course and on a roof top terrace, weather can be extreme.  In addition, because it’s club, guests often “see” the plants as backdrop and don’t always treat them with great care, resulting in glasses in the pots or broken branches…

Her team is there two times a week – at a minimum.
“I want perfection,” Lynn said, not surprisingly.  They over-service their clients here – as elsewhere  -- because they love their work and have a passion for the plants.



The garden was launched in 2006.  Lynn and her team designed the container garden to adhere to owner Ian Schrager’s fondness for Italian gardens. The miracle on the roof is that with a series of containers, fruit trees, fragrant vines, including jasmine, ficus plants, palms, dracenas, ferns of all kinds and overhead silk leaves, Lynn captured the look and feel of the beauty of Rome or Tuscany.  “I wanted a lot of citrus plants to really get the feel of an Italian garden,” Lynn explained.



She was also able to use a lot of red color - prized by owner Schrager – even down to a red furniture composition.



Keen gardeners will want to know how all this green beauty is achieved and maintained – on a budget. 
Lynn chose containers that are lightweight; some of the seemingly hundreds of planters are fiberglass and zinc.  

The quality is terrific – the pots look like terracotta or the real deal, there is no doubt.
Lynn noted she sourced most of the containers from Evan Peters & Co., direct importers of garden pottery and are located in Long Island City http://tinyurl.com/ykym96o




Lynn had to establish a formal watering system and so installed a drip design for the containers.  In addition, the team supplements the irrigation systems and does hand watering too.

In terms of pest control, they employ an integrated pest management (IPM) approach because it’s the smart way to do it and also, this is a dining area.

Even though there can be lots of wind in the summer, Lynn has positioned pots of plants all along the windowsills – in fact, she changes them out with the seasons—usually every six months.  She loves the kalanchoes for their red color (a nod to the client) and for their water-wise needs.

Under extraordinary conditions, Lynn has employed a variety of plants, containers, and elegant garden design to create a sustainable, intoxicating garden. 





This is a seductive, mysterious world that Lynn has created – from traditional ladybugs and green plants, to the urbane, sophisticated “Lady Bugs" ^:^ and their escorts = quintessential New Yorkers and urbane tourists enjoying nature, seen poised throughout the garden terrace’s stylized conversation compositions – or as Schrager describes it, “lobby socializing.”

This chandelier is the size of the room it adorns and is breathtaking. 
                                                  Roberta (left) and I are dazzled by the light!

Because our first garden tour was abbreviated due to diminishing daylight, I asked Lynn if we could come back.  I also wanted to share the garden tour with EunYoung Sebazco, Duchess Designs’ lead horticulturist and extraordinary garden designer and Randall’s Island park manager. Lynn agreed. 
The garden is just as exhilarating in the daylight.  



The perfect finish on the second garden tour a week or so later was to enjoy the glamorous garden – with an herbal cocktail. 






I had the Ginger Fig:  vodka with muddled ginger root, fig jam and fresh orange juice.  Lynn & EunYoung enjoyed the Rose & Lychee Martini: Hendricks gin (which if you don’t know is made with roses – member of the cucumber family), rose syrup, fresh muddles blackberries and a touch of coconut.



Aren’t plants the best?  We can sit among them enjoying their beauty and fragrance and drink a plant-filled ambrosia.

A heavenly experience. Especially being that much closer to the clouds…

Oh, and when I wanted to add Lynn’s web site to this blog post, I Googled her business and guess what? 
The Google pin indicated Lynn Torgerson’s garden design business – and curiously, made it appear for the entire world like it is located directly at the Museum of Sex!  Coincidence?  With all the sensual garden design I saw at Gramercy Park Hotel, I don’t think so.


 Lynn - oh so elegant with fabulous garden footwear!



Gramercy Park Hotel
2 Lexington Avenue, NYC 10010
212-920-3300

Check out the visual images slide show – next best thing to being there.

Maialino, a Roman Trattoria at Gramercy Park
2 Lexington Avenue, NYC 10010
212-777-2410