Romantic Gardens: Nature, Art and Landscape Design

The Horticultural Society of New York

Elizabeth Barlow Rogers

Romantic Gardens * Nature, Art, and Landscape Design

George Pisegna, Director of Horticulture at The Horticultural Society of New York

  www.hsny.org introduced the featured speaker, Betsy Rogers Rogers. George said she was a leader early on in the public/private partnerships that took root in New York City in the last 20 years to much success, most notably in Central Park.    

Rogers is also the founder, president and instructor of the Foundation for Landscape Studies.  Not that long ago, the Foundation offered a graduate program in Landscape studies.  www.foundationforlandscapestudies.org  It remains an amazing resource for historic and contemporary landscapes and has an almost unsurpassed digital library through its affiliation with ARTstor.

After her talk, the two of us spoke about the closure of the school and lamented the loss of opportunity and exploration and discovery embodied in the curriculum.  I had long intended to attend the school.  I was happily envious of Nancy Seaton, horticulturist extraordinaire, who I know from working at botanical gardens, as she went through the program, graduating successfully before the school was shuttered

Betsy opened the lecture with the notion of romanticism and said we’d focus on some elements of the book that was the basis for last year’s Morgan Library exhibit that she co-curated.   The book is a piece of art unto itself and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in gardens, history, the arts and well, just beautiful things.

Rogers proceeded to demonstrate how landscape architecture gets played out internationally. “The Romantic concept occurred simultaneously in different western countries.”

She explained that we would look at literature, art – and I might add, politics – besides parks and gardens to understand the differences in the concept of mise en place – or a sense of place. 

The culinary world refers to mis en place as a cooking term meaning “everything in place” such as the ingredients and utensils: having everything ready to cook. 

However as it started in landscape design, it was meant to suggest the landscape design is natural to that particular place. So no palm trees in the Long Island landscape or native prairie grasses in the Netherlands. (hint, hint, Piet Ouldolf J) 

“Here we will talk about designed landscapes that are intended to mimic natural landscapes – in the English countryside for example.  New York’s Central Park is another example of 19^th Century scenery.

“The use of boulders in the Park recreates what people thought of as natural,” she added.

She illuminated the design concepts as seen through the prism of national heritage and culture.

She took us through the examples of romantic landscape designers in England, France and Germany before detailing the new world of North America, which is New York City.  (It was all a very euro-centric perspective)

Romanticism in England

She told us important elements of landscape design are: mise en place as well as the Genius of Place, first identified by the Englishman Alexander Pope, who wrote about the “spirit of the place” that must be “consulted” before making a design, in his poetic epistle counseling gardeners.

His advice left an enduring and important impact on gardeners and landscape designers and one that is a defining principle of garden and landscape design.

Pope admonished gardeners to design with nature as a partner.

This ushered in an era that effectively put an end to the prissy, French, Le Notre Versailles-style gardens.

Think of a lazing English country house where it was all the better to see nature as an artistic muse. The scenery of a Romantic landscape was inspirational especially for the free spirits who could indulge in creating such landscapes. 

Ruins played a particularly important role – their imagery was a prevailing feature in Romantic Gardens, Rogers noted.

She talked about the landscape architect Humphry Repton, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphry_Repton a much revered 18^th Century British landscape designer in the style of Capability Brown http://www.capability-brown.org.uk/ which was the natural, mise en place style.

Repton also coined the term “landscape gardener” to describe his work. 

Repton was the first to present his garden designs with watercolors, drawings, and text to show the “before” and “after” looks.  His work was eventually produced into bound Red Books, so named for their binding. 

Rogers said he showed for the first time how property could be developed and designed. 

Repton was born in Bury St. Edmunds, a garden-scape of a village that I have some historical connection to.  In 2004 I donated some of my lightweight flower pots I design and have made: The Garden Pendant Collection.  It seems the town, Bury in Bloom, was to have been eliminated from the national Anglia in Bloom contest because their pots were deemed too heavy and dangerous. You can only imagine the hand wringing that this caused! The Brits are just mad for their gardens and flowers…

I read of this situation and offered to donate some of my Garden Pendants.  I ended up doing some newspaper interviews and a BBC radio interview. Subsequently, I was invited to Bury St. Edmunds for the awards ceremony and spoke to the townspeople and garden aficionados.  It was an energizing experience to a delightful part of the world.  I made some great garden friends too.

Rogers next spoke about William Wadsworth the American poet and his influence on Romantic gardens.  Wadsworth believed in and advocated for a personal and experiential experience with gardens.

This was a Spiritual vs. an Aesthetic approach to gardens. 

Rogers read some of Wadsworth’s poetry to highlight his sublime effort to try and capture the beauty of nature – the sense of the garden as a soul and moral being.

This is all so dreamy – and heady stuff. 

She showed one landscape design that I couldn't help but think was the inspiration or blueprint for the Princess Diana memorial - an island in a very naturalistic setting.... striking similar, no?  hmmm. 

Romanticism in France

We moved on to the introduction of Romantic gardens in France.

One might argue that is redundant J 

Romantic French landscape design, Rogers told us, came from philosophy. Jean-Jacques Rousseau who as a “leader in the French revolution and the Romantic period. He believed man was “essentially good and equal in the state of nature.” His most celebrated theory was the “natural man.” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/510932/Jean-Jacques-Rousseau

He too promoted experiencing nature through the senses but with a reverence. It is part of his philosophy to see reform as complete immersion in nature.  A garden experience would immunize children against vices of words. 

This could sound far-fetched and fancy, but if you think about it, exposing children to gardens early has proven to prevent a phenomenon we refer to as “Plant Blindness” where people are unaware of the plants in their surroundings. http://www.aibs.org/eye-on-education/eye_on_education_2003_10.html

Children also will eat more vegetables if they can grow and harvest them.  Not to mention the quality of air they breath and the calming effect of green plants in one’s surroundings.  All scientifically proven.  So Rousseau was on the mark.

Rogers treated us to Maria Antoinette’s take on gardens.  “Just think about this young girl, forced to move to France and marry an older man.”  (Umm, that would be the King, Louis XVI…) 

“It was through her garden that she could create a new place – a ‘paradise’ as a way to overcome bad.”  The Queen could carry on a torrid affair in the otherworldly garden.  (I knew the French-ness would kick in eventually!)  And not to disappoint, here Rogers reads from some letters where her lover says he “can grow passion.  Eden is easy because nature is his partner.”  What a guy…

Parks that were being designed then were, for the first time, not just for the monarchy.  The Romantics infused the landscape design with a moral, spiritual quality.

Romanticism in Germany

Rogers then moved the talk to Germany. She showed the purity of a glowing peasant life, saying they revered those who worked close to the land. 

The Germans were characteristically introspective and all encompassing about nature.  Think, the Fatherland… The Homeland… and both are synonymous with nature.

They believed their countryside set them apart – “There is a soul and a spirit that elevates them from France and England. There is a sense of the Divine for them,” she says not altogether persuasively.

There is the underlying presence of the Nordic myth: primordial woods.

“We don’t have time to go into music here, but we can’t not mention Bach,” Rogers notes by way of explaining this Germanic feeling for the land.  Their philosopher Goethe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe  often called genius was a Romantic who was also a naturalist, a botanist and a scientist.

Rogers showed paintings of German landscape design of parks and castles that were located near industrial plants. They were proud of the science and technology and wanted industry to be showcased in the background. It wasn’t a negative thing but rather industry and its smokestacks evoked a sense of pride.  The paintings of the time – and quite a few from the show at the Morgan Library, depicted the duality of scenic landscape views.

Romanticism in America

Concluding with America, Rogers reminded us that the United States was founded on the principles of democracy and liberty – a belief in the principles of the Romantics.

There was a new attitude toward the individual.

Jeffersonian Enlightenment ascribes to this “God’s mastery.”  The view of Monticello alone is pure Romanticism.

The art and writing of the time underscores this sense of American transcendence: the spirit of Jefferson and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works, as were AJ Downing and the Hudson River School of painting, whose aesthetic was influenced by the Romanticism that reflected the American themes of “discovery, exploration and settlement.”  The search for arcadia in our cities and in the exploration of the continent…

When I view these works, I most often think of God and the sense of Manifest Destiny.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_River_School

She said some of the first public landscape areas in the New World of the Romantic period were the cemeteries.  As America’s population grew rapidly, there was no longer room to bury its citizens in town next to the church, so cemeteries were built in the more rural areas that would soon be suburbia.  She cited the beauty of Green-Wood cemetery, Shady Grove and showed images of the Queens Cemetery. 

This was the second time in the same amount of months that the speaker cited the beauty of America’s cemeteries. (See earlier post from NYBG with Double Feature -- http://gardenglamour-duchessdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/12/double-feature-in-garden.html) 

I think we’re on to something here.

Rogers segued to the making of Central Park   and Prospect Park with Calvert Veaux and Frederick Law Olmstead and their Greensward Plan. http://www.fredericklawolmsted.com/

The two were influenced by Romanticism and its expression of hearkening back: expressions of literature, music, fine art and the value placed on the senses, as is the nurturing spirit of the place.    The ruins of Belvedere castle are iconic. 

“The hope was that both Central Park and Prospect Park – (Olmstead and Veaux always referred to Prospect Park as their masterpiece), would help achieve peace, socialization, personal restoration, joy and rapture as nature and the two landscape designers – intended. Further, they believed the parks should provide spiritual nourishment.” She said.

Rogers concluded the talk with a Q&A, coming right into the audience to answer the questions.  

When asked about Chinese gardens, she did point out that they are in the book, but we just didn’t have time for all of it this day, she remarked. 

It was a fascinating talk – a class really.  And it made me wish the school was still up and running for all to learn from.  Here’s hoping they bring it back.

In the meantime, be sure to get Rogers’s book.  It’s a wonderful read and superlative resource.  I got Betsy to autograph my book.

 You can get yours here: 

And you can learn more about her work at:  www.foundationforlandscapestudies.com

     

Snow to Seeds

Maybe I’m the ever-happy garden sprite, but when everyone else seems to be complaining and kvetching about the winter and its snowstorms (hello: it’s the season) I view it all as almost a perfect mash up. 

The winter weather forces us gardeners inside where we more or less do our winter gardening.

What’s that?  Attending lectures about gardens; reading about gardens; dreaming and drawing up new garden designs; taking care of the garden tools: cleaning, sharpening, oiling, all in preparation for the spring.

And as any dedicated, hard driving gardener will tell you – or perhaps sheepishly admit, nothing short of a blizzard will keep us out of the garden. 

So look at it like this:  we NEED the snowstorms and winter crazies to force us to sit down and take the time to choose the seeds, fruit tree varieties that will fulfill the next season’s garden desires.

So relax, enjoy the winter seasonal respite to flip through the print catalogs or the online ones – complete with colorful thumbnail images of the plants we dream will be part of our gardens.

It’s not unlike online dating.

Perhaps seduced by the too handsome or pretty image, we find our love.  Once there, we peruse the bio or stats and only then feel the chemistry. “This one’s for me!” the bubble in your head can be heard to exclaim.  Or maybe you shout out loud.

Better than Vogue’s fall issue, we love the cover shots of the boutique offerings from the smaller breeders and organic artisans.

For part of my Christmas wish list, I couldn’t resist the cherry trees from One Green World  - 1-877-353-4028 / www.onegreenworld.com

I am designing a home orchard: a double row cherry allee of compact trees near the kitchen garden or potager, located on the “back forty” as we say. That would be the backyard garden…

Last season, it was sad and curious when I asked one of the many nurseries I work with about securing fruit trees for my garden design clients; I was told they haven’t stocked them in forever. What? Why?  “Because no one grows fruit anymore.”

Pardon me, but isn’t this crazy?  Why do we have to buy imported fruit?  Most of suburban America can grow edible fruits. Most of urban residents can too.

Sigh. This is just the most recent example of lost food opportunities.

Not to be deterred. I moved on.  I would appeal to a higher resource: Santa Claus.

I needed dwarf varieties that would provide sweet, delicious, edible cherries.  My husband loves cherries – we buy Red Jacket Cherry Stomp from the Greenmarket in Union Square and my mother always makes him cherry pie for family holidays.

I wanted trees that are relatively carefree, with various blooming time that would yield fruit within the first year or so.  Some trees can take several years for cherries to bear fruit, so be mindful. 

   

I asked Santa for the Prunus cerasus  Montmorency.  This tree promises pie cherries.  They will rarely exceed 12 feet and are hardy to Zone 3.  The catalog says it produces abundant crops of firm, bright red, richly tart fruit with clear juice (yeah!)  Montmorency makes the best cherry pies!  (can’t wait to test this out!) A self-fertile and naturally dwarf tree.

I also hoped Santa would see clear to bring a sweet cherry, Prunus avium. That fat red man doesn’t wear red for nothing!  He’ll be sending two Compact Stella.  Stella – (which means ‘star’ in Italian. I know because the name of one of my most favorite garden client’s mother is Stella!)  I am hoping my sweet Stella cherry is indeed a star of our soon-to-be cherry orchard. 

The catalog describes Stella as “unique, self-fertile, dwarf cherry that will grow to only about 8-10 feet ad begins bearing fruit within a year or two and bears large, tasty, almost black fruit.” Good to zone 5

My mother remembers she and her sisters were picking their cherry fruit form the trees for what seemed forever – but that did not deter us from

We will add more trees to the mini orchard, but not before test-driving this year’s babies.

Santa was great.  He did it.

Seeds.

We order seeds from the Kitazawa Seed Co.,  www.kitazawaseed.com

 (LOVE, love, love their seed packet design!); 

Maine Potato Lady www.mainepotatolady.com;

Burpee’s www.burpee.com;

John Scheepers, kitchen garden: www.kitchengardenseeds.com

Seed Savers Exchange: www.seedsavers.org

and Comstock native Seeds www.comstockseed.com/ (and what about those cover-boy melons?) 

Just recently, I received the Renee’s Garden spring seed offerings and am very to say they have some very exciting new Gourmet Vegetables and Flowers.  I am very excited to try their new introductions, including, Sugar Pearl White Corm, Zinger Hibiscus herbal tea, ‘Beauty Heart” Heirloom Radish Watermelon, Wine Country Mesclun and Tricolor carrots.   I’ll keep you posted on the growing of the Renee’s Garden seed growing.

Today, Garden Design Magazine featured their secret and heirloom seed picks from England, Italy and Vermont. 

http://tiny.cc/yeqoq               

Take the time to indulge the season’s “snow to seed” research and selection.

Acanthus - Bear's Breeches

Next in the Kate Greenway "Language of Flowers," listing is: Acanthus.  Ancanthus suggests "the fine arts. Artifice."

The common name for Acanthus is Bear's Breeches.  I use this plant quite often in perennial garden borders.  I love the connection to the fine arts too! Acanthus has beautiful color, erect, tall structure for back of the border composition and balance.

If you want to grow Acanthus, plant in the autumn or after the last frost of spring.  I know, I know, with all the snow here on the east coast, you think that will never come, but it will soon enough.
Bear's Breeches does best in full sunlight as well as part shade.
Don't plant Acanthus too deep. Crown is not to be below ground.
I love pairing Bear's Breeches with yellow plants including Lady's Mantle, another perennial, and marigolds, an annual for us in zone 7.

(Photo is from The Copper Leaf)

According to Garden Guides: Acanthus plants are striking in the garden with their tall stalks, dark green spiky leaves and beautiful purple and white flowers. They make a wonderful back border or walkway plant. You may know the Acanthus as Bear's breeches, which is their common name. They are easy to grow in gardening zones 6 to 10 and they will spread by themselves. These beautiful flowers will go dormant in the heat of the summer and come back in the fall, so you should plan for this and plant a summer flower to take it's place.

Read more: How to Grow Acanthus | Garden Guides http://www.gardenguides.com/75995-grow-acanthus.html#ixzz1CIoqg9TG

For more information on planting and tending a perennial garden, you must read and refer to Tracy DiSabato Aust: The Well-Tended Perennial Garden.  I have attended her garden lectures and often refer to her books. Tracy is a rock star of garden design. And the real deal.

Garden Graphemes: The Language of Flowers

I am a writer. I love words. I love art and garden art. I am a gardener and a garden designer.  I love flowers.

So when one of my favorite garden design clients gave me a 1978 copy of the 1885 Kate Greenway's "Language of Flowers," I swooned.

I adore the book.

With two garden maidens -- garden baskets dripping with roses -- and draped hypnotically across the title "fence" on the book's cover jacket where it says Kate's artwork "in illustrated books, greeting cards, and paintings" are charming. A "fantasy of simpler times" and it noted her drawing of flowers have been compared to Botticelli."

Rather than keep it to myself, I thought gardeners love to share.
The "'Language of Flowers' recreates for the modern reader a Victorian tradition when the use of flowers and plants was used to express feelings in a ... subtle manner. "
"Each flower represents a specific mood or emotion."

Victorians had their nuanced Twitter code of communicating... They called it Floriographies - or the language of flowers.
Wouldn't you love to be a linguist or translator of this special language?

So I will attempt to share some of the Flower meanings here - gulp- every day!  Hopefully, the flower's messages will bring joy and peace -- and more than a little romance...
How about the flirty Lemon Geranium that means Unexpected Meeting?
Or the White Dittany of Crete that says Passion?!
Or the Heliotrope that conveys Devotion and Faithfulness.
ahhh, I love this language... I have great curiosity and love of learning so I thought this will be fun and enriching...

The more than 500 entries are served up in alphabetical order.
Kate got off to a rather bad start I'm afraid.  Abecedary is the first listing and it means Volubility.

However, when I researched the abecedary flower because I never heard of it.  The web site Library ad Infinitum said the "non-floral use of the word abecedary in connection with alphabets written out or printed and illustrated for children, a usage which dates back to the Middle Ages.  The floral meaning of abecedary isn't documented by the Oxford English dictionary... and Kate Greenway didn't illustrate the flower."
They speculate, and I think accurately, that the fullest explanation "appears in the The Language of Flowers (1835): Volubility, Abecedary. This plant is a native of the island of Fernalus; when you chew its head, or roots, the tongue feels a stimulating sensastion, that gives it a singular fluency. This plant is employed in looseing children's tongues, (WHY oh Why would anyone need to do that?!) "whence comes its name abecedary, or children's grass."

Yet, I think the publisher may have started the book as an abecedary and the printer thought it was the first flower.  Ah, the mysteries of circumstance make for fascinating pursuits.

Technically, the First Garden Grapheme is Abecedary.
But the controversy about that entry compels me to skip to the second entry: Abatina and its message of Fickleness.
As it turns out, research indicates Abatina may or not be a flower either!

(I wish my editor and publisher were so forgiving....)

Next up is Acacia. At this rate we'll be through to the C's in no time!
I KNOW this flower, Acacia.  And it means Friendship. And that's as good a place as any to start.

The image is from World Wide Wattle.  And I learned from them that the acacia pycnantha was officially proclaimed as Australia's National Floral Emblem in 1988.
Good choice, Mates!  We can enjoy our Aussie Friends all the more.

And here is the inspiring, delightful Kate Greenway book:

He likes Plants He Can Play With

Metro Hort First Meeting of the New Year Featured Plantsman, Michael Ruggiero

Plants and Gardens from the Sublime to the Lubricious

Metro Hort, “An association of Horticultural Professionals in the New York City and Tri-State Region” held its first general meeting of 2011 at the Arsenal, which is perched on the cusp of Central Park at 64^th St. Every time I approach the fanciful building nestled among the trees, the architecture conjures a fairy-tale where I half expect fairies and dragons to be peeking from a window.

This time of year it is glowing with holiday lights animating the sense that a Merlin will be swooshing to greet you. 

A 2007 New York Times article described the holiday lighting:

Beginning in 2005, the department began an unusual program of holiday lighting, designed by James Conti. Instead of the usual horizontal strings, Mr. Conti draped the building in roof-to-ground strands of closely spaced lights, generally blue and purple. Viewed through the screen of trees, it is a moody, evocative sight, like the bass line of a slow jazz tune.

Very sexy, no?

I researched the history of the Arsenal and found it not only housed 19^th Century ammunition, but at one time it was the American Museum of Natural History and a zoo.  Now it is the headquarters for New York City’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Holding the door open for me as I made my way up the steep stairs was not a Merlin or a gremlin, but a courteous Parks staffer.

Upstairs it was all horticulture humming as the audience was settling down. Greetings were underway by Metro Hort Secretary, Charles Yurgalevitch, who introduced the speaker, Mike Ruggiero.  Charles is also Director, School of Professional Horticulture, NYBG.

Mike is a stuffed-animal, cuddly walrus of a garden giant and an excellent horticulturist.  

He was one of my instructors at NYBG when I took classes for my Landscape Design certificate. 

The Metro Hort bio for Mike formally notes:

In his inimitable and engaging manner, Mike shares stories and comments about the many wonderful, unusual, or just plain strange plants and gardens he's come across over the course of the past fifty years in horticulture. 

Michael A. Ruggiero has had a stellar career in horticulture, most recently as horticulturist and all-around plant and garden expert at Matterhorn Nursery in Spring Valley, New York. He came to Matterhorn after nearly forty years as Senior Curator for Horticulture at The New York Botanical Garden where he was responsible for the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden and many of the other collections. A renowned expert in roses and all perennials, Mike continues to teach and lecture on a variety of horticulture topics. He also serves as an instructor at New York Botanical Garden's School of Horticulture.

Like a kid hitting the roll of toy gun caps, Mike presented a rapid-fire series of garden photos while sharing funny stories about the garden and plants. Gardeners like nothing better than to look at garden images… Truth be told, it’s almost as good as working in the garden. And this time of year?  Nothing is better. We could see all those stacked slide carousels and were as giddy as kids hearing it’s a snow day!

Mike says he likes plants he can play with and his mirthful, down to earth (can’t resist the pun) demeanor underscores his commitment.

There is the cedrus pendula he used at NYBG to keep the kids off the rocks.

The Himalayan Pine that looks like zebra grass. I have used these Suessical-like conifers in my clients’ gardens and we love them too.

There is the blue spruce used as a hanging fence wall.  

A guy who painted his glorious coral bark tree a sharper shade of red – and another one purple! 

Here is a Leaning Tower of Taxus he saw in the Pacific Northwest:    

He had everyone laughing too hard with his whimsically “favorite:” the “communicatos verizonis”  (It's a cellular telephone pole!)

Not all was goofy, though. He pointed out that Japanese Maples do best in rock gardens and shade – but notes that many people do put them in sun.   They will do well there but are best in low light.  

He loves cornus Kousa and had one that flowered in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden right through August.  

He joked that there were two questions he was invariably asked when he was the curator there:  “Where is the restroom, “ and “WHAT is that flowering tree??”  (Never mind there were in one of the world’s premiere rose gardens!)

He’s not sure about glass in the garden. He swears this Chihuly glass creation is following him! 

He made us all laugh with the garden "bed." 

I got a gift not too long ago that was a framed card that reads, "Gardeners get to stay in their beds all day."  Cute. It has a nice spot in my garden room.

The Good Gardens segment started with his all-time favorite:  Lynden Miller’s.  

He showed a number of seasonal photos of the perennial bed. 

And why not?  It's heart-stoppingly beautiful.  "I love that bed," he sighed as he reluctantly changed the slide. 

He also remarked he loves her Perennial Gardens and design at NYBG.  Naturally.  Who doesn't it? 

He also loves Sissinghurst.  He showed a unique perspective – from on top of the roof. From this perch one can see and appreciate all the different garden “rooms.” Mike noted that just walking from garden room to garden room, you can’t a real sense of the design.  Good point. 

In turn, the White Garden at Sissinghurst was his inspiration for a Macy’s Flower Show design.   

Crayola-like primary colors had been the norm for the retail legend but with Matterhorn Nurseries, Mike does the garden work for the annual flower show, and together convinced Macys to try white.  Here is their white unicorn in a white garden display.  

He also likes tropicals.  For these tender perennials and true annuals, he recommends lots of fertilizer.  “Feed them like crazy,” he said.  He starts with Flowertone in May, then Osmocote (14-14-14) in June when that begins to work. Overall, he feeds the plants every two weeks.   He likes the beds and window boxes to look like they are on steroids! 

He likes topiaries and standards too, and showed a number of plants including New Guinea Impatiens 

He notes New Guinea impatiens was developed by Longwood Gardens! 

How could we ever have thought the plant was from the country of New Guinea.  Silly.

He loves unique planting vehicles: golf shoes seemed to star and he showed a few 

It was an amusing and fun night to learn about plants. 

Here is Mike with garden artist Lynn Torgerson.  Xx She is adorable – well so are you , Mike, but in a different way…  J

Lynn told me she is working on a new rooftop garden design. I can’t wait to write about it.  Last year, I wrote about her sexy garden on top of Gramercy Hotel.

Next Metro Hort meeting, February 16^th, will feature Stephen Morrell who will talk about Zen and the Japanese Garden Aesthetic.  He is the expert.  He is the director of the John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden in Mill Neck, New York.  It is a jewel of a garden.

For a complete listing of Metro Hort meetings:

http://metrohort.org/?/meetings/

SOS For The Garden: Save Our Shrubs (From The Snow)

What Panty Hose Can Do To Keep Your Evergreens Shapely – And Glamorous!

Those of us hit with the craziest snowstorm in memory have shoveled out the driveways and walkways by now.  But what about the plants?  Particularly the shrubs and conifers that have been whipped by the winds.  In some of my “garden rooms” the wind acted more like cotton candy – spinning floss round and round and mounding snow piles in opposite corners like prize fighters facing off across the ring.

In almost all circumstances, the snow will act like a warm blanket for the plants. 

Leave the snow in the garden. It is a good thing.

If the heavy snow looks like it damaged conifers or shrubs you may need to take action.

I needed to get the snow off the lower limbs of a row of arborvitae before it cracked the limbs.

I also have a very large Steeds Japanese Holly, Ilex crenata, that came with the house so it must be at least 30 some years old.  Truth be told, it took a header last year with the sustained sequence of heavy snowstorms.  We knocked the snow off at that time, and hog-tied it up and it was just lovely throughout the summer. 

I thought it was on the road to recovery.

This past storm it suffered yet again.

I had my eye on it but must have looked away. Or maybe it happened during the night…

Essentially, the snow acts like a bomblet, cratering through the middle of the shrub, causing the Steed’s branches to open up like a British gentleman’s umbrella.

I had to try and nurse this good soldier back to health.

With a broom and a shovel and my hands as weapons
I went to war on the snow.

Intuitively, I shoveled out the inside bomblets of snow from Steed. 

   

A lot of that shoveling was more like a Medieval Crusader tossing molten lead over the “Murder Holes” or parapets of the castle turrets...

And a Murder it was. Murder by Snow

By hand, I shook off and pried off the snow that was packed into, onto and in between the branches, to prompt the snow to fall into the void I had created by shoveling out the bomblet snow. 

I had mentally divided the Steed into quadrants, working through two the first day.

It is very tedious work and the snow is heavy. 

I just kept repeating the shaking and prying. 

It was kinda' of a help – if you can even think of the snow as any kind of help here – but I am small and can almost “stand” on the snow berms so that I was even-steven with this seven-foot Steed -- allowing me to reach the top…

Ho, Ho Hoe! 

I also used a hoe a lot like a shovel, scooping the snow off the branches all the while trying not to cut or strafe the limbs. 

All too often, the Steed – and the nearby shrubs – seemed to be reaching out and quite literally clinging to me!  I could hear their cries of Help!! Help me!  I tenderly pried their needy stems from my pockets or zippers and reassured them I’d be there for them….

I got two quadrants up today, propped by the shovel and a mop… I should have been out there all day…

It’s great that it’s warmer. But the down side is ice forming on the top of the snow, making it all the more difficult to lift the snow and the branches.  

I could barely see over the snow berm to the promised land, er, snow-free zone just on the other side, not five feet away.  I did say that is was a crazy snowstorm, right?! The cotton candy whirls of wind whipped some areas lawn-dry while others were waist-high!

Gottta get all the white stuff off tomorrow.

I know I’m not the only one who may be working Plant Rescue this year so I did some research and asked the experts. 

Besides my own hands-on advice and a few tips, below are the results of my research.

There are two categories of Care:  Prevention and Repair. Hope this counsel helps you. 

I suggest that you prepare for winter before the weather prevents you from doing hands-on help. 

We all mulch, prune, and spray an anti desiccant on the shrubs, conifers, and trees. 

You may also need to do a survey and determine if some of the conifers and shrubs could use a screen – made out of burlap, for example.  Some can be wrapped. Or you may need to tie the branches together.

If the damage has been done, take pictures for documentation. Follow my repair recipe and/or follow my advice:

1.  You should also call a certified arborist tree expert for help. 

I asked my local certified tree expert, Michael Hufnagel, Hufnagel Tree Repair, for advice www.hufnageltree.com

Michael has worked on my yard and the slope down to the marina where it’s important to remove just the invasive plants and trees and preserve the good ones. He did such a good job, I asked him to work for my clients. I trust him and his generational experience.

According to Michael, president of Hufnagel Tree Repair, and ISA Certified Arborist, there are three key tips for Prevention and Repair of shrubs and trees when it comes to snow exposure:

• During or right after a heavy snowfall, if it’s possible, use a pole or broom handle to knock off the wet snow from the smaller conifers and expensive or costly ornamental trees.  This action will help reduce the bending of branch stems due to extra weight on branch tips.
• If going out in the snowstorm or right after is not possible, go the next day to clear snow from smaller conifers and ornamental trees as soon as possible to reduce the chance of bent limbs.  If the structural integrity has been compromised, the limbs will never stand straight again.
• Prevent winter snow and ice damage on your valuable specimen trees, as well as the majestic trees on your property by having them storm-proofed and inspected by a Certified Arborist.

More Tips:

I Googled Web Research for what to do about snow damaged shrubs.  Most of the advice is Preventive – which was not what I needed, but I want to share because it is solid counsel.

1. Caring for Winter Damaged Shrubs and Trees by John Schach, ISA Certified Arborist, Good’s Tree Care Inc.

http://tiny.cc/4uqrz

2.  How to Protect Shrubs from Heavy Snow from Garden Guides.com

http://www.gardenguides.com/102630-protect-shrubs-heavy-snow.html

3.  How to Care for Snow Damaged Shrubs by Helen Yemm, The Telegraph

http://tiny.cc/n961f

4.  Snow and the Garden: Will it Damage Plants and Shrubs? By Joanne Taylor, Philadelphia Examinor.com

http://tiny.cc/uyk6m

5. Bachmans.com (as part of a bigger plant story):

What about ice and snow?  Evergreens can be damaged by heavy snows or ice buildup. On trees such as spruce, the branches will usually bend and recover. Plants with upright branching such as arborvitae and junipers can split and break.

Can I prevent ice and snow damage?  Sometimes it’s possible to reach inside evergreens and tie branches up with something soft. (Panty hose are great for ties, since they are strong, flexible, soft and don’t degrade readily.)  On smaller landscape plants, you can wrap the outside loosely, like lacing a shoe.

Here’s to Glamorous Shrubs and Evergreens! 

 (Oh, and we needed some rosemary for the potatoes for dinner, so I was able to pick a stem straight from the garden.  The tip of the bush was peaking out from under a snow mound!) 

And the Coral Bark arbor couldn't have looked more sporting - it's flame red bark in stark relief to the cool white (heavy!) snow.  

A Double Feature -- In The Garden

The New York Botanical Garden’s Landscape Design Alumni enjoyed a very enriching and pleasant day recently, marked by two lectures.

It was a double feature! 

The morning’s talk was provided by photographer Betsy Pinover Schiff  http://www.betsysphotos.com/index.html talking about her newest book, “New York City Gardens“  

And with that as the gold standard, she offered her tips and techniques about how best to photograph gardens- particularly our own garden designs. 

I brought my “Homegrown Long Island” book photographer, Jennifer Calais Smith, to the talk.  While Jennifer is a professional photographer – not like the rest of us who are garden designers first, I thought she’d enjoy the photography discussion and maybe even learn something J especially because Betsy is so good with such a body of garden work to share, having produced a library shelf’s worth of breathtaking garden books.

Instructor and author, Magda Salvesen, whose latest book is “Exploring Gardens and Green Spaces From Connecticut to the Delaware Valley,” hosted the afternoon garden talk. 

Betsy Pinover Schiff is a soft-spoken, dedicated and confident artist. 

She and I know each other from the year-long botanic garden project to produce the annual photographic wall calendar.  Every month featured an iconic seasonal image that helped tell the story of the garden. 

Her many visits to the garden to capture just the right mood and photo attest to the disciplined approach to her art that helps make it so special – and personal.

Betsy had copies of her books on display for the group to peruse. 

Accompanied by the PowerPoint presentation that was naturally chock a block with garden photos,

Betsy launched her talk with a bit of her background, saying photography is in fact, her third career. 

Previously, she worked as head of a school’s foreign language department and doing the public relations at Sotheby’s and the New York Public Library – which is where she first met Gregory Long, president of NYBG, where he then worked as the Director of Development

She explained it was at Sotheby’s where she learned invaluable and enduring art lessons, including composition and light.

“Looking, looking, looking” is how she remembers learning the art of good garden photography.

“Composition is a question of one’s eye. What to include or not.” 

She suggested we do a lot of looking and training of the eye by going to the library or bookstore to view fine art and photographs. “Ask why you like the photo.” She said.

The combination of her French language skills and art history, along with the chance to discover the art all around her, provided a trajectory art lesson that was not lost on her for a second. She told how she’d make certain to take advantage of Sotheby’s lunchtime talks with the experts about how to buy and sell at auction. She recounted how lucky she was to see what was on exhibit to be auctioned.  The next day, with the catalog firmly in hand, she could study the art.  It was her way of learning.  “There were art opportunities everywhere,” she recalled.

The latest NYC Garden book is a follow up of sorts, to her 1999 book "Garden in the City: New York in Bloom" which was the first book about public and private New York gardens, according to Betsy.  Text by Mary Jane Pool and Foreword by David Rockefeller it featured 120 gardens. She worked with Paul Gottleib, former editor with House & Gardens for 25 years and he excitedly provided entrée to gardeners for the Gardens in the City: NY in Bloom book.   “I knew gardens were hot and I could had total confidence I could market the book.  I had less confidence then about my emerging photography!” she confided.

Success was hers in the end. In fact, Hirmer Verlag, the German publishers of her new book, were captivated by her first foray and approached her for the NYC Gardens book.  The publisher even secured the Austrian-based text author, Veronika Hofer.

Was she interested? 

You bet. 

She explained how she “did it all” for this book – from identifying the gardeners and their gardens to securing permission and schedule access to photograph the gardens. No small feat.

Needing spring and summer images in the gardens, she had a mere three months to go from ‘what gardens?” to finished photos. 

Click, Click, Click. 

Time was of the essence.

Define Your Goal

Advice like this could be applied to most anything worth having. 

Here, Betsy repeated how critical it is in photography to confront the question constantly: “What’s your goal?”

She went on to describe her three key goals for this book.

She knew she had to set her guidelines for this book, particularly as the publisher wasn’t local. And the audience was primarily European.  “I wanted the book to scream, New York!”

The book had to have a “sense of place” so that even if a reader has never been to Gotham, the photo narrative will tell him where he is.  That means composing photos that would showcase the gardens with New York landmarks. The trick was to do it ever so artfully so that it didn’t end up as NY City postcards ‘cut and pasted’ next to the garden and parks! 

She said there is not a shot in the entire book that didn’t have purpose.  So there.

For example, one homeowner (The Lauders) love roses.  Their 4,000 square foot terrace includes several garden “rooms” but the artist in Betsy was compelled to showcase a photo narrative that spoke to the homeowner’s passion.  She wanted to evoke that personal, unique characteristic – to share the homeowner’s sensibility and the thing they cared about. Betsy showed us images of the roses reflected in the window of the “rose garden.” 

In much the same way, she made a great effort to capture the magic that characterizes Lynden Miller’s public garden perennial borders. Lynden is my idol, by the way J

Those who’ve had the pleasure and privilege to bask in the glory of Lynden’s sensual garden designs, you know the challenges Betsy faced in attempting to capture the these gardens.  Lynden was originally a painter.  Not surprisingly, she possesses an otherworldly ability to weave color, hue, shadow, texture – and yes – utility and art – into a garden tapestry that’s always astonishing – just like any fine art rendering.

Visit Lynden’s garden designs – NYBG, Battery Park City, Red Hook, Central Park – in any season – and you will experience a seminal connection to nature and art.  Later Magda cited Lynden’s “codes of seclusion” (sense of mystery walking through the garden designs) and strong palette in every season.”  

Is it obvious we LOVE Lynden?!

To better capture the essence of this garden design pallet, Betsy said she took “close-ups” to show depth and plant variety highlighted in the “Magic Miller” beds. 

There were plenty of oohs and ahhs and also lots of questions about these familiar-to-the-members garden.

When asked how she got the angle for the photo, Betsy revealed she usually has a stepladder with her to get the perfect perspective.

“Planting designs convey a lot,” said Betsy.  “That’s why I take shots from above to show what it’s like for homeowners.”  She takes high and low shots to show Bluestone paving, for instance, or statues – to show how they inform the garden paths and the garden beds.

She said she spends time walking the gardens to best determine if she should do more close ups or longer shots to best capture the angle or perspective in order to fulfill her stated goal or objective.

It all about Light, Perspective, Composition. (It’s that pesky, pertinent “goal thing.”)

“So much of composition has to do with ‘exclusion’ she explained.

And further, “Light and quality of light is so much of what photography is all about…”

Light is what allows for garden “mood.”

Saturation of color says one thing. Shadow says another that can communicate other garden “ideas.” 

Sometimes it’s best to combine light and lack of light.

Clouds can create “ceilings.”

And night says something else entirely. (Not as part of this talk but another author/photographer I worked with in the garden was Linda Rutenberg, “The Garden at Night: Private Views of Public Edens” produces the rare experience of a night in the botanical or public garden.  

Light variances were perhaps shown best by a Topher Delaney garden design to appreciative gasps. http://www.tdelaney.com/

It is indeed very special. There is a wall of mirrors with vines growing up on the lattice fronting the mirrors. Betsy had the challenge to photograph this “hall of mirrors” and not seeing herself reflected 20x! 

She also pointed out the inspiring Braille circles of poems imbedded in the sparse, clean patio garden.  (She also offered a funny aside about photographing them.)

Be sure to check out the Metropolitan Museum of Art roof garden photos – made all the more astonishing when you learn she had the “luxury of moments” to shoot the seven images that reflect the dynamic energy of Jeff Koons’ art and Central Park.  “I wanted to take the shot at an angle to show the art and the context of the Park as background.”

The Rockefeller Center and the Ken Smith-designed MoMA roof garden photos are worth the price of the book alone.  No one is allowed on the gardens and Betsy used her plucky New York artistic charm to capture a peak and a view of these inspiring gardens.  The gardens may be located in the heavens but you and me can’t beg the key from St. Peter – or the gardener.  Betsy did it for us. 

Betsy added a few of her tips:

She never “crops” photos. 

She uses film.

She uses digital for some landscape architecture for web sites or marketing work.

After Lunch

Magda Salvesen is too perfect in so many ways.  The online chatter among the alumni is that she is hands-down one of the most favorite and influential instructors at NYBG. 

She was a stimulating speaker with great content and advice. And that is always welcome after a longish morning – and lunch.

And her British accent is so charming and her sense of humor so acute, you don’t want to miss a nuance.

Magda skibbled through existing public parks and spent good time talking about the possibility of new parks. 

“There is much contaminated land in New York,” she said, and given the present administration’s (Bloomberg) advocacy of green space of all kinds – from median spaces to pocket parks, and community gardens -- she believes we could see a renaissance in producing new parks. Maybe not as sexy as the High Line Park.  But much-needed, new parks, nestling nicely in heretofore blighted urban areas.

“The Parks Department needs to encourage landscape designers to part of the process.” Magda said.  “Parks is not about just picking up litter.” The Parks staff should and needs to be about the Horticulture.”

Too many botanic and public gardens are too much about the public program (i.e. entertainment) according to Magda.  “Ornamentation becomes the lesser of priorities.”

She likes the public/private scenario as bested by New York’s Central Park success. 

She also recommends the Parks Departments work more closely, embracing landscape designers as part of the process.

Magda cited the city of Newark, New Jersey’s Branchburg Park Foundation example of how horticulture is a priority. http://www.branchbrookpark.org/about1.htm

The mayor of Newark recognized the longstanding and inherent value of the city’s Cherry Blossom Festival in Branchburg Park. 

The Park was originally designed by the firm of John Bogart and Nathan F. Barrett in a romantic style.  Barrett is my favorite.  I have written about him frequently and will post a blog dedicated to him, I think.  He designed so many of the train stations in New Jersey, by and large due to not only his talent, but his relationship to George Pullman, inventor of the railroad sleeping car: The Pullman.  Pullman’s favorite estate, Castle Rest, was located in Elberon, NJ.  He also designed many residential gardens. I was elated to learn of one his extant gardens in Rumson, in the Garden State, while on a recent garden tour in the Two Rivers area. I was further gobsmacked to learn one of my most favorite garden design clients once lived there, and helped bring the garden back to its full grandeur, not surprisingly, as she loves all things beautiful and artful…

I shared my researched Barrett content and photo material with Arthur Melville Pearson who in turn, was helping the Barrett chapter contributors.  The request went out for information to be used as part of the first book to document the biographies and work of American landscape designers and architects: “Pioneers of American Landscape Design.”  

The Pioneer book chapter on Barrett documents his work for the planned town of Pullman, Ohio.

Interestingly, remember too, that research done at that time was pre-internet and pre-Google! Somehow, through passion and networking, contacts and links were made.  I was honored to send my painstaking research work to Mr. Pearson. 

The Pioneers project has been expanded – http://tclf.org/pioneer/about. 

By the way, the work of Charles A. Birnbaum is nothing short of extraordinary.  Check out the fascinating initiative driven by the Cultural Landscape Foundation.

The Branchburg park design was completed five years after Barrett’s design, by the Olmstead design firm.

The post-industrial Ruhr Valley garden and park design has infused the High Line Park landscape design, as well as other European and American parks, Magda explained. 

When describing the contaminated landscapes, “It used to be ‘Take it away’” said Magda.  But increasingly, she is hearing, “Splendid sites.  And “what have we done to nature?”

Regardless, she says it is our responsibility to clearly use and refurbish precious open spaces.  She showcased a number of very successful and artfully designed public spaces – particularly waterfronts.

The Hudson River Waterfront 18-miles of public walks run from Newport, NJ, Hoboken,  - and provide unparalled views of the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty. 

There is a continuous, thematic line connecting the parks, yet each has their own style using industrial artifacts and local style.

She joked that she sees use of rocks and berms here, there and everywhere!  However, she noted that berms do block urban noise, as they have successfully demonstrated in Chelsea as part of the Hudson River Park in NYC.

Magda concluded the garden talk with her list of top trends, followed by a lively Q&A.

Trends:

Public/Private Alliances - cooperatives to build and maintain parks and public spaces

Sensible Tree Management

Car Parking – Magda cited Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morris Township and their brilliant parking solution that serves as a green introduction to the arboretum. 

Memorial Gardens – Discussed the annual outpouring of these special gardens… “Every era has its wars, disasters and we must have a public display and place to mourn,” Magda said.  Citing Princeton’s September 11^th tastefully designed garden memorial, British Memorial Garden in Manhattan, Union City Memorial for victims of September 11^th.  “These gardens tranquility leads to rumination and thoughts.“ 

Pier or Waterfront Gardens

Healing Gardens

Lighting of public parks – “We have extended ideas about hours of access and lights are an extremely urban concept that allows us to enjoy our parks anytime – for sports, walking and enjoyment. Even if it’s night – lighting makes it possible.”

Green Roofs – everywhere from Chicago leadership to Queens, NY to Lincoln Center

Native plants – showed Mt. Cuba garden as a “most spectacular” example use of native plants 

Interest in Cemetery Landscapes (landscapes of remembrances) Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, Connecticut (1864) http://www.cedarhillcemetery.org/

and Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia (1836) http://tiny.cc/era4a

were shown as models.  Cedar Hill was designed by Joseph Weidenmann who turned the wet areas at the Cemetery’s entrance into a park, leading visitors through its more than 250 acres. I would add the 400 acres of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx (1863) http://www.thewoodlawncemetery.org/

and Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY (1838) as other amazing examples of a cultural destination and horticultural wonder place to visit. http://www.green-wood.com/ According to Green-Wood’s website, by 1860 it rivaled Niagara Falls as America’s premiere tourist attraction!

Magda pointed out the older, 19^th Century Cemeteries most often have very good trees for us to admire.  These special places have sculpture, artwork, lawns, wildlife and rural landscape designs – one of the first to utilize the graveyard design that today rivals arboretums. Here families loved ones and garden lovers can enjoy picnics, moonlight walks, bird watching.  Many cemeteries offer guided tours as the two models do, offering history, art, culture and horticultural natural beauty.  Laurel Hill’s nearly 80 acres is one of the few cemetery’s to have been designated a National Historic Landmark.  Magda suggests that as a society we will come to appreciate and use graveyards even more due to lack of space issues.  I can add that in my travels – to Paris and Cuba, in particular, the cemeteries are indeed a place to meet family and friends. In Havana, we had a memorable bicycle tour throughout the cemetery.  We were amazed at the spectacular statuary, use of plants, and the sense of loving care of this place as a garden destination to be enjoyed.  I couldn’t help but think there was such a sense of life that permeated what many Americans only think of as a final resting place, only visited after the funeral.

Garden History and Historic Gardens interest

Environmental Education

New Lawn Technologies

Food and the Garden – organic, food is more a part of gardening. Food safety.

Plant Introductions

Artists in the Designed Landscape

Children and Gardens

Broader interpretations of House and Garden and Estates

Vertical gardens – she doesn’t think they work. “Too much maintenance. The ones outside of buildings ‘don’t work’ according to Magda.