Garden Design - November,December 2010

NINE NEW KNOCKOUT POINSETTIAS

Palm Beach Paradise Explore the Ultimate Winter Getaway page 34

AT E R G IDAY HOLIFT G S IDEA 26 page

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contents november/december 2010

26 Features 34 italy inspired To create this Palm Beach landscape, the 44 JacK FrOst: Master gardener Frost is the beautiful bane of the late-fall garden. It stops plants in their tracks, turns the backyard into a sparkling wonderland, and gives gardeners a welcome respite from their labors. By Valerie eastOn

52 pOwer FlOwers The editors asked top-flight floral designers to craft arrangements especially for Garden Design. Here are the ravishing results. By williaM l. haMiltOn

departMents 6 8

editOr’s letter/cOntriButOrs Fresh A new park in Brooklyn; the James Rose Center rethinks suburban gardens; floral art by Bella Meyer.

16 plant palette The poinsettia is the quintessential holiday 22 26 64 70 76

plant. But these varieties—in pink, orange, white, and marbled— will make you think beyond traditional red. liVing green A lush low-maintenance meadow and a very sustainable house in Pennsylvania are proof that an energyconscious state representative knows how to walk the walk. style Our editors have picked a collection of holiday gift ideas that are perfect for any gardener. grOundBreaKer Author, gardener, artist Amy Goldman is the champion of heirloom edibles. sOurceBOOK A listing of products and services mentioned and shown in our pages.

One shOt Landscape architect Randy Thueme creates a stunning wall of copper in a small San Francisco garden.

on the cover Designed by Sanchez & Maddux, this Palm Beach land2 gardendesign.com n o v/d e c 2010

scape was inspired by Old-World gardens. phOtOgraphy By rOBin hill

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C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T: R O B I N H I L L ; T O D D C O L E M A N ; M I C H A E L K R A U S

34 52

design team of Sanchez & Maddux drew on their love for tropical plants and classic European gardens. By cara greenBerg

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editoriAL direCtor

James Oseland exeCutive editor Jenny Andrews MAnAging editor Leigh Ann Ledford

art group CreAtive direCtor Dave Weaver Art direCtor Jerry Pomales direCtor of photogrAphy Larry Nighswander photogrAphy editor Chelsea Stickel StAff photogrApherS

Zach Stovall, Jon Whittle

copy Copy editor Kathryn Kuchenbrod hortiCuLture fACt CheCker Dora Galitzki fACt CheCker Rebecca Geiger editor eMerituS Bill Marken editor-At-LArge Joanna Fortnam Contributing editorS

Charles Birnbaum, Damaris Colhoun, Davis Dalbok, Jason Dewees, Donna Dorian, Ken Druse, Flora Grubb, Lauren Grymes, Louisa Jones, Tovah Martin, Debra Prinzing, Emily Young

production & design group produCtion direCtor Jeff Cassell produCtion MAnAger Courtney Janka deSign ServiCeS direCtor Suzanne Oberholtzer

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grAphiC deSignerS

Julia Arana, Sommer Hatfield Coffin, Shelley Easter

customer service & subscriptions For subscription-related queries: gardendesign.com/cs 386-447-2491 For editorial correspondence: P.o. Box 8500, Winter Park, FL 32790 editor@gardendesign.com Fax: 407-628-7061 buSineSS & editoriAL offiCeS

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editor’s letter SEASON OF CHANGE Palm Beach–based firm Sanchez & Maddux, “Italy Inspired.” And that’s just a taste.

So, raise a glass of something fizzy and join me in toasting the season. Because it won’t be long before the year will have faded into history. And the season will be over, just in time for us to begin again, with even more wisdom and eagerness. We can’t wait to see you again in January. We’ll have some new beginnings of our own to celebrate at Garden Design, and there are plenty of surprises in store.

—James Oseland, Editorial Director

Arrangement by David Stark

contributors Valerie Easton, whose musings on frost (“Jack Frost: Master Gardener”) appear on pages 44–51, tends a beautiful home garden on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, about 25 miles from Seattle. In this part of the Pacific Northwest, frosts don’t typically herald the end of the gardening season, but she lets her garden slumber during winter regardless of the weather. “Even though we can garden year-round in the Northwest, we don’t have to,” she says. “In the winter I love to catch up on novels and go to yoga class.” Easton is a regular garden writer/columnist for Pacific Northwest Magazine of the Seattle Sun Times. Her latest project is her recently released book, The New Low-Maintenance Garden (Timber Press). valeaston.com

For quick ship info contact: GD@royalbotania.net 212.334 5045

Robin Hill, who photographed the Sanchez & Maddux–designed garden featured on pages 34–43 (“Italy Inspired”), welcomes the arrival of winter in Miami, where he has lived since 1992. “The winter season in South Florida brings clear blue skies and exceptional light,” says the British-born photographer.

“The cooler temperatures mean the air conditioner gets turned off, the windows are open, and we can enjoy longer bike rides, mosquito-free evenings, and comfortable walks.” Hill’s images have appeared in numerous publications, and from 2005 to 2008 he was the host for the Suncoast Regional Emmy-winning public television series Art 360˚. robinhillphotography.com

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C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P : M I C H A E L K R A U S ; C I N DY B O S C O H I L L ; K AT H E R I N E E A S T O N

M

ore than almost anything else in our lives, gardens teach us the great, reassuring value of change.

I’m always reminded of this as the holiday season approaches. With the arrival of the short, chilly days of winter, I take a lot of pleasure in looking back at the fleeting progression of our gardens: the promise of spring in a seed; the beauty of summer in the soft warmth of the air; the bounty of fall and its last fruits; the festivals of harvest and thanks; and, in December, the blackness of winter nights, which always gets me to pondering life on earth in all its cosmic variety.

Can winter be upon us already?

Well, it is. And, stealthy though its arrival may have been, I welcome this season with open arms. In fact, the joys of winter are what this issue of Garden Design is all about.

The haunting beauty of the year’s first frosts, those harbingers of harder weather to come, is the subject of Valerie Easton’s evocative essay on page 44, “Jack Frost.” In “Power Flowers” on page 52, William L. Hamilton describes the floral arrangement techniques that bring color and beauty indoors, sharing inspired holiday ideas from some of the best floral designers around. And on page 34, writer Cara Greenberg gives us a healthful wintertime dose of warm Mediterranean beauty, by way of South Florida, with her article on a remarkable garden designed by the

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A new pArk in brooklyn suburbAn gArdens trAnsformed

florAl Artist bellA meyer

Down by the Riverside

By CaRa GReenBeRG

For a city with 578 miles of coastline, New York in the post-steamship era has had a remarkably inaccessible waterfront.

Nowhere has this been truer than in Brooklyn Heights, a stately old neighborhood, which is bordered by the East River and has two mon-

umental bridges and Manhattan’s glittering skyline for a backdrop.

Until recently, along this prime stretch of riverfront abandoned

warehouses sat forlornly on piers in varying states of disrepair, separated from the neighborhood by a roaring expressway and a chainlink fence.

But last spring, after two decades of wrangling among community members, real estate developers, city officials, and environmental activists, the first phase of the longawaited Brooklyn Bridge Park, with

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a landscape design masterminded

by Brooklyn/Cambridge–based Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, opened to the public, giving new life to the old industrial waterfront. The New York Times heralded it as “one of the most positive statements about our culture we’ve seen in years.”

Regina Myer, the president of Brooklyn Bridge Park, the

JULIENNE SCHAER

The remains of a pile field from the original structure of Pier 1, left in place for its arresting play of pattern, harks back to the history of the site.

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➋

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ELIzabETH FELIcELLa; juLIEnnE scHaER

➎

L E F T T O R I G H T: R E n d E R I n G b y m I c H a E L va n va L k E n b E R G

➍

Someday, Brooklyn Bridge Park will stretch for 1.3 miles along the East River and beyond, with a six-acre marina, fishing piers, paddling waters, jogging trails, and much more. About 10 percent of the site will be revenue-generating housing, including a 30-story tower, a hotel, retail stores, restaurants, and parking—none of it on the piers themselves but on the uplands or mainland portion of the site. The piers will be devoted to recreation. Piers 1 and 6 are already nearly complete; here’s a preview of what’s in store for Piers 2 through 5: Pier 2 The original steel frame of an existing shed building, with a new translucent roof designed by architect Maryann Thompson, will house six basketball courts and 10 handball courts, plus in-line skating tracks, bocce courts, and other game areas.

Construction is not yet scheduled. Pier 3 The most remote spot in the park—that is, farthest from the two entrances—will be a setting for large-scale civic and cultural events on informal lawns connected by wild plantings. Construction is not yet scheduled. Pier 4 A collapsed gantry (bridge system) will be cut free of the shore and transformed into a bird habitat. Construction is to begin in 2011. Pier 5 Three soccer fields with artificial turf and night lighting are expected to get heavy use, along with a picnic peninsula. They are scheduled to open in 2012.

a s s O c I aT E s , I n c / b R O O k Ly n b R I d G E pa R k c O R p O R aT I O n ;

The BesT Is YeT To Come

➌

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nonprofit entity responsible for the planning, construction, maintenance, and operations of the new public space— which will eventually comprise six piers and a strip of mainland connecting them and extending north to the Manhattan Bridge—is even more effusive: “This is the most significant park development in Brooklyn since the building of Prospect Park in 1873,” she says. “It’s a symbol of New York’s optimism, reconciling its industrial past with a genius design that uses the latest sustainability practices, all while providing spectacular views and activities.”

The park’s narrow, curving shape is dictated by the existing industrial footprint. So far, only Piers 1 and 6, at opposite ends of the park, have opened, and both immediately began drawing crowds. Some 8,000 people showed up on an open-air movie night last summer on Pier 1’s expansive lawns, while others came to picnic, launch kayaks, bird-watch, even do Pilates. Pier 6, where innovative

➊ A path through Pier 1’s uplands wends past a re-created salt marsh on the right and a water garden on the left. Riprap forms a stone edge where once there was a bulkhead.

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, at left, kept the waterfront separated from the neighborhood for decades. ➋ Sedges grow in a canal-like segment of Pier 1’s water garden.

playgrounds are linked by meandering paths, quickly became a destination for young families. “It’s been extraordinarily gratifying, after 25 years of work and dreams, to see the light in people’s eyes when they enter the park and see the magnificent harbor views and amazing playgrounds,” says Nancy Webster, executive director of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, the nonprofit citizens’ advocacy group, founded in 1988, that was instrumental in fundraising and coordinating the complex efforts needed to bring the park into being.

Pier 1 is the heart of the project so far, a majestic reimagining of six flat, exposed acres, which have been transformed into a topographically and ecologically varied space. “The big move was building a 30-foot hill in the middle of the pier,” says Matthew Urbanski, a principal with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. “In one act, we got a horseshoeshaped lawn facing the harbor and the Statue of Liberty, n o v/d e c 2010 gardendesign.com

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another lawn oriented to the bridge view, a valley in between that we call the Vale, and the granite prospect”— a flight of wide stone steps overlooking the river that doubles as stadium seating for the towering city view.

The man-made hill also serves to redirect storm water into underground cisterns, which provide 75 percent of the park’s irrigation needs.

Giving visitors a “dynamic relationship with the water,” as Urbanski puts it, has been a major goal. Pier 1 includes a boat ramp for non-motorized craft and a section of naturalistic shoreline where a bulkhead wall was replaced with riprap and plantings of Spartina (smooth cordgrass) in order to create a salt marsh—an attempted return to the days when the East River estuary was an important ecosystem for birds and fish.

Hundreds of trees have been planted on Pier 1, most in atypical ways. “Instead of making a lawn and scattering trees on it, we made stylized hedgerows that parallel

the main paths through the park,” says Urbanski, who chose multi-stemmed specimens of Kentucky coffee tree, London plane tree, and honey locust. “In a short time, they will make shaded tubes of space.” At the top of the granite prospect, a grove of tough Catalpa bignonioides (southern catalpa) and Paulownia tomentosa (princess tree) provide a place to pause and take in the view, while the Vale is filled with deciduous conifers like dawn redwood and bald cypress, which give additional shade. Rifts of sumac, bayberry, and sassafras will also run throughout the park.

All this is just the beginning. Two-thirds of the park, eventually to total 85 acres, will be completed by 2013. When the final third will be done, no one is saying. “The park was designed as an ensemble, a collection of different experiences,” Urbanski says. “There’s much more to come, and it’s not more of the same.” see soUrcebook for more informAtion, pAge 70

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➊ A 1.6-acre “destination playground” on Pier 6 includes such attractions as a two-story-high “slide mountain” that empties into a sandbox filled with stone animals, a “swing valley,” innovative climbing structures, and water play areas.

ELIzabETH FELIcELLa

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fresh / cutting edge

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An Artistic Legacy in Flowers

By LisA CregAn

On completing a painting, the great early-20th-century artist Marc Chagall would allegedly hold up an object of nature—a rock, a branch, a flower—and compare it to its counterpart on the canvas to see whether his work evoked the essence of the thing.

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2 ➊ Artist Bella Meyer, seen here holding an abundant arrangement of roses, peonies and calla lilies, has been enthralled by flowers since childhood. ➋ Memories of Meyer’s grandfather, artist Marc Chagall, continue to influence her work and she has inherited his love of color and storytelling. ➌ Earlier this year, Meyer opened her new floral shop, Fleurs Bella, near Union Square.

l e f t t o r i g h t: r o B i N B l A i r r i l e Y ( 2 ) ; © h e N r i C A r t i e r - B r e s s o N / M A g N u M P h o t o s

Today, Chagall’s granddaughter—the New York City–based artist and floral designer Bella Meyer—has turned her grandfather’s custom on its head, using objects of nature to create representations of the world around her. Asked recently to create a floral display for a benefit honoring one of the owners of the Empire State Building (proceeds went to the Natural Resources Defense Council), Meyer chose art deco– style centerpieces to echo that iconic landmark’s motifs; arrangements included purple calla lilies and tulips, and silvery-gray dusty miller, with each design rising from shiny, architectural pots set on metal trays—“a little skyline,” as she calls it. For a concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music featuring Shaker spirituals, she created a display of burlap linens and plain white planters filled with herbs. The 55-year-old Meyer, who was born in Paris and studied art history at the Université Paris-Sorbonne, says her love of flowers was inspired by trips to Chagall’s home near Nice in the South of France when she was a child. “We’d never visit without stopping at the local market and getting a big bouquet of flowers. It was a gesture of love and respect.” Earlier this year, Meyer opened a shop called Fleurs Bella in New York City’s Union Square area; the arrangements on display demonstrate that the designer has inherited her grandfather’s ability to tell stories through color and natural beauty. fleursbella.com

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Winner’s Circle

co u rt e sy t h e ja m e s ros e c e n t e r ( 3 )

■ Modern Revival (Sausalito, CA), Ive Haugeland/Shades of Green Landscape Architecture, shadesofgreenla.com (shown far left) ■ Midcentury Revival (Sarasota, FL), Dane Spencer Landscape Architecture, dane spencer-landscapearchitect .com (shown, left) ■ Water Treatment Facility as Neighborhood Asset (New Haven, CT), Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, mvvainc.com (below) ■ The Carriage House Garden (Amherst, MA), Joseph S. R. Volpe Associates, umass.edu/larp/faculty/jvolpe ■ Remembering Their Effort (Dallas, TX), Lisa L. Jenkins ■ Latitude: 41° 24’ 39” Longitude: -73° 20’ 32” (Newtown, CT), Billie Cohen, Ltd. Landscape Design Studio, billiecohenltd.com ■ Pamet Valley (Truro, MA), Keith LeBlanc Landscape Architecture, kl-la.com ■ Schain Residence: Applied Sustainability (Brooklyn, NY), Dinorah M Melendez Architecture & Landscape Design/Todd Haiman Landscape Design, dinorahm-melendez.com, toddhaiman.com ■ A Subdivision in the Sand (Amagansett, NY), Dirtworks, PC Landscape Architecture, dirtworks.us ■ Front Ridge Residence (Penobscot, ME), Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design, matthew cunningham.com

suburban revolution

A competition changes the status quo in residential landscapes storY bY Debra prinZing

In the sea of cul-de-sacs and cookie-cutter developments that has come to characterize North America’s suburbs, there is a cultural shift under way, one that is making conservation and sustainability an integral part of the everyday suburban residential environment. That shift is precisely what inspired Suburbia Transformed, a provocative competition and exhibition mounted this year by the James Rose Center for Landscape Architectural Research and Design in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The competition, according to the call for entries, aims to recognize “solutions to the ubiquitous small-lot, detached single-family, residential condition in the hope that we may better understand how to transform suburbia.”

The 10 residential landscapes honored in the competition—and showcased in a companion exhibition at the Rose Center this past fall—were chosen by jury from among a variety of submissions by garden designers, landscape architects, architects, and homeowners from around the country, and internationally.

The guiding spirit of Suburbia Transformed—and the research center’s namesake—is the iconoclastic landscape architect and theorist James Rose (1913– 1991), most often remembered as one of the three Harvard students who rebelled against their Beaux Arts training in the 1930s and who helped to usher the profession of landscape architecture into the modern era. “Rose incorporated a conservation ethic into a modern design aesthetic for the residential garden,” says Dean Cardasis, the director of the James Rose Center, which is housed in Rose’s 1953 residence and has been open to the public since 1993.

In Rose’s view, successful residential environments are “neither landscape nor architecture, but both; neither indoors, nor outdoors, but both.”

Cardasis adds, “the winning projects represent all kinds of different environmental problems.” He is also the head of the new graduate program in landscape architecture at Rutgers, the State University

of New Jersey. The designs addressed issues such as shoreline erosion control, storm-water retention, and habitat restoration, and utilized in their solutions recycled and sustainably produced materials and lowwater-use plantings.

See the full gallery of the 2010 winners at gardendesign.com/suBurBia

Among the projects recognized was landscape architect Dane Spencer’s exterior revival of a midcentury cinder-block ranch house in Sarasota, Florida.

The renovations added solar roof panels, a 3,000gallon rainwater cistern (disguised as a planter), native plantings, and permeable surfaces. “I wanted to show that all these sustainable solutions are great in and of themselves,” Spencer says, “but if they blend in with the surroundings and work with the site, it’s more successful.”

For his clients in Penobscot, Maine, landscape designer Matthew Cunningham replaced a vast expanse of intensively fertilized lawn with a meadow of native grasses, wildflowers, and clover to achieve greater biodiversity and reduce maintenance and water use. In Sausalito, California, Ive Haugeland of Shades of Green Landscape Architecture removed a dead lawn and replaced it with an attractive pattern of gravel and cast-in-place linear pavers—a modern and permeable surfacing solution that dovetails with both the home’s modern architecture and the site’s coastal setting.

The success of the first competition has prompted a second one, with the call for entries in spring 2010. “We will continue with the theme Suburbia Transformed,” says Cardasis, “because this subject hasn’t been fully exploited yet. While many people are doing ‘green design,’ we feel it is also important to recognize inspiring, sculptural, and artistic experiences in the suburban landscape.” For more information visit jamesrose center.org. see sourcebook for more information, page 70 n o v/d e c 2010 gardendesign.com

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plant palette

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Poinsettias That Pop

By Tovah MarTin ■ PhoToGraPhy By roB CarDiLLo

Poinsettias have become as entwined with our Christmastime traditions as carols and mistletoe. Last year, 100 million of them were sold in North America. And it’s no wonder. There’s something magical about poinsettias. Sparked by shortening days, they burst forth with dazzling color just as the world outside turns gray and cold. Right on cue, tiny topknots of flowers jut from colorful yellow pockets (called cyathia) while the bracts—actually modified leaves— take on colors that sing to you from across the room.

Poinsettias have come a long way from their Mexico-native species, Euphorbia pulcherrima.

Decades ago, poinsettias (named for the 19th-century ambassador to Mexico Joel Poinsett) were bred to have broader and brighter leaves. But that was only the beginning. Now there are many more forms to seduce us, with bracts embellished by streaks, marbling, zigzags, speckles, and creamy hems; others with dramatically curled bracts; and still others that impress with their size, from huge specimens to itty-bitty pocket-size ones. And then there are the colors: deep crimson, flaming orange, peach, and many other hues. There’s nothing blah-humbug about poinsettias these days—they’ve entered a new age.

1 ‘ICE PUNCH’ Marbling is all the rage in poinsettias. On this version from Ecke Ranch, lightning streaks of white emblazon the heart of red, holly leaf–shaped bracts. “What is cool,” says Jack Williams of Ecke, “is that ‘Ice Punch’ looks like frost has landed on the bracts.” And this poinsettia keeps getting better; week to week the central streak is joined by more white.

The Ecke family is credited with brokering the poinsettia’s Cinderella transformation from a tall, lanky species into the beautiful plant we know and love. In 1911 their California nursery, begun by Albert Ecke in 1906, turned its full attention to poinsettias. Later the discovery of a chance seedling in 1963 transformed the poinsettia from holiday cut flower to lush, compact superstar. To mark the centennial of its focus on poinsettias, Ecke Ranch is introducing the rich-red cultivar ‘Red Jubilee’ this December.

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rustic coLLection Visit our website at www.SummerClassics.com to find a dealer in your area and view our seven new collections for 2011.

plant palette

BA RT L E T T. B E C AU SE F U L L , H E A LT H Y TREES MAKE FOR F U L L , H E A LT H Y LIVES. Te trees and shrubs that shade us and grow along with us are valuable assets that deserve care and protection. For over 100 years, we’ve led both the science and services that make your landscape thrive. No matter the size or scope of your tree and shrub care needs, our experts provide you with a rare mix of local service, global resources and innovative practices.

Trees add so much value to our lives. And Bartlett adds even more value to your trees.

For the life of your trees.

PRUNING FERTILIZATION REMOVAL PEST & DISEASE MANAGEMENT CALL 877 BARTLETT 877.227.8538 OR VISIT BARTLETT.COM

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2 ‘CAROUSEL PINK’ Who would have thought we’d be describing poinsettia bracts as wavy, frilly, or frothy? All are apt descriptors for the salmon-pink bracts of this cultivar, from Syngenta Flowers. As with its sister ‘Carousel Dark Red’, this poinsettia begins showing color in late November. Given their curliness, the bracts are a tad smaller than your average wide-winged poinsettia. But the Carousel types branch beautifully to form a broad, strong plant that can be transported easily from the garden center without fear of damage.

4 ‘CINNAMON STAR’ Although red is still king for poinsettias, holiday revelers are also excited by other hues, especially around Thanksgiving. In fact, 20 to 30 percent of poinsettias sold throughout the early holiday season sport alternative shades rather than the traditional red.

Syngenta Flowers is the mastermind behind this luminous coral colored version. Given the season, cinnamon seemed like the perfect name. ‘Cinnamon Star’ boasts a rounded shape with expansive, almost winged bracts, and the younger central bracts begin with a darker sizzle before fading paler with the countdown to the winter holidays.

3 ‘WINTER BLUSh’ One of the most recent bombshells to land on the poinsettia market and the latest example of the marble trend is ‘Winter Blush’, introduced two years ago. This Ecke variety was chosen for both its patterned foliage (peach and yellow twilight colors dance around the veins) and for the pronounced contrast between the pink centers and the cream etching on the margins of its bracts. Bring it to friends and family as a holiday gift without fear—the strong stems withstand breakage. It’s also prone to linger long in average home conditions.

5 ‘WINTER ROSE EARLY RED’ No less than 30 years in the making, this novelty started the “nontraditional” streak at Ecke. For poinsettia breeders, the holy grail has been a flat-bracted, big red poinsettia. So it came as a welcome shock 14 years ago when a funky little version with a pageboy hairdo was the talk of the trials. Four years ago, the Early Series hit the scene and, quoting Jack Williams from Ecke, “something good got better.” Not only has ‘Winter Rose Early Red’ revolutionized the holiday container-plant market, it also made a splash with florists looking for a new spin on holiday décor.

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Design: ahoystudios.com

CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR

PULSE Miami Dec 2 – 5, 2010 The Ice Palace 1400 N. Miami Avenue (Corner of NW 14th Street) Miami, FL 33136 www.pulse-art.com

plant palette Nature, Nurture

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6 ‘ORANGE SPICE’ Originally, orange poinsettias were only imagined and wished for. Early attempts were actually just a yellowish shade of red rather than their own spin on the spectrum.

All that changed with the chance discovery of an orangecolored seedling at Ecke Ranch. The bracts of ‘Orange Spice’ are long, sleek, and graceful, highlighted against dark foliage. But the biggest news is the color. A true, burning sunset orange like never before, it can even be used for Halloween decoration. Better yet, it holds for Thanksgiving and is still going strong at Christmas.

8 ‘WHITESTAR’ Pink was the first non-red poinsettia color to become popular, in the late 1960s, but white was not far behind; the first white poinsettias were introduced in 1970. Nearly 30 years later, Syngenta Flowers came out with ‘Whitestar’, with its huge, smooth, flat bracts flaring out like doves from the central topknot of flowers. ‘Whitestar’ has a rounded habit, is generously branched, and will show color in time for Thanksgiving.

7 ‘MARS MARBLE’ The earliest marbled poinsettias, pioneered in the 1970s, were almost all based on red. Now other colors have joined the party, notably Syngenta Flowers’ ‘Mars Marble’, with its soft, delicate pink and equally demure milky cream colors on open-faced, smooth-edged bracts. This poinsettia starts to show color early, and the plant maintains a sturdy, upright posture.

9 ‘PREMIUM PICASSO’ “Jingling” is the term breeders use to denote white speckling on poinsettia bracts. ‘Premium Picasso’, by the German plant breeder Dümmen, delivers an especially diffuse, seemingly airbrushed look. Against a pinkish white background, cheery cherry red flecks spangle the bracts immediately encircling the yellow and red central cyathia, which are the plant’s true flowers. Meanwhile, the outer bracts range from pure white to palest pink.

The effect is a two-toned fantasia.

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Zones: Poinsettias will not withstand a frost and can be killed if temperatures go below 50 degrees for an extended period. That means getting a poinsettia home during the holidays can be dicey if you live in colder zones. Avoid leaving your new purchase in an unheated car, and protect it with a light covering when transporting it from store to car or car to home. The ideal temperature for growing poinsettias is between 65 and 70 degrees.

Exposure: Poinsettias need short days to form their bracts. When you purchase a poinsettia for the holidays, it’s primed and ready to perform and will keep on looking good for several weeks no matter where it’s displayed. To make your poinsettia last even longer, give it as much natural light as you can in midwinter, except in hot south-facing windows. Soil: Average potting soil is fine if you’re repotting your poinsettia.

Overwatering is a common killer. Remove any foil around the container that might inhibit drainage. Generally, watering once a week will suffice if you moisten the soil thoroughly. Avoid wetting the foliage. Care: Since poinsettias are blooming but not growing when purchased for the holidays, fertilizer isn’t necessary. Proper light, water, and warmth will help plants resist pests.

The latex in poinsettias can cause a dermatological reaction in some people— play it safe and wear gloves when grooming. All parts of the poinsettia plant are mildly toxic, so keep the plants away from children and pets.

storemags & fantamag - magazines for all The Cultural Landscape Foundation

The Cultural Landscape Foundation is pleased to announce the 2010 Landslide selections

Every Tree Tells a Story

These horticultural specimens, many under threat, stand as living reminders of our country’s past and have the potential to witness future generations.

Boxed Pines Weymouth Heights, Weymouth, NC

Arborland Old Growth Tree Farm Milliken, CO

Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees Branch Brook Park, Newark, NJ

Tulip Poplar Tudor Place, Washington, D.C.

Elms of East Hampton East Hampton, NY

Cummer Oak Cummer Museum of Art, Jacksonville, FL

Black Oak Tree Katewood, Bratenahl, OH

Sycamore Row Ames, IA

Río Piedras Ficuses San Juan, PR

Olmsted Parks and Parkways Louisville, KY (Pictured)

Commonwealth Avenue Mall Boston, MA

Since its inception in 2003, the Landslide initiative has spotlighted more than 150 significant at-risk parks, gardens, horticultural features, and working landscapes.

Landslide 2011 > Call for Nominations www.tclf.org/landslide Deadline: March 31, 2011

Photo by Bob Hower

Aoyama Tree Los Angeles, CA

Photo Exhibit This year, for the first time, TCLF has partnered with American Photo to create an original traveling exhibition about these seminal trees. The images, by prize-winning and renowned photographers, capture the magnificence, grandeur, and uniqueness of these extraordinary specimens and help reveal their stories.

See more images in the November 2010 issue of American Photo.

PRESENTING SPONSOR

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

living green

The dining terrace at the Ross home aords an ideal view of the meadow garden.

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At the entrance, grasses and sedges create a soft, green backdrop for the orange-tinged, rough-textured trunks of river birch trees.

Proving Ground A homestead in rural Pennsylvania becomes a standard-bearer for sustainable style sToRy by JENNy ANDREWs PhoToGRAPhy by Rob CARDILLo

When Cecilia Ross, the wife of Pennsylvania state representative Chris Ross, laid out her requirements for a new house and garden in the horse country of southeastern Pennsylvania, the guidelines were simple: to get off the electrical grid, put the garden close at hand, and keep maintenance idiotproof.

She didn’t want a geodesic dome, a manicured landscape, or wildlife out of sight across the fields. Chris Ross had another, perhaps loftier, goal: he saw the project as an opportunity to demonstrate to constituents and colleagues the potential for sustainable living. A longtime proponent of responsible energy use, Ross has a record of sponsoring legislation to that effect, including the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act of 2004, as well as efforts to establish minimum requirements for electricity conservation; he recently helped usher a bill through the House on recycling electronic waste. Of his own house and garden he says, “This place enables me to see how green issues work on the ground.”

Beyond those basic imperatives, the Rosses gave local architect Matthew Moger—then with Lyman Perry Architects but now a principal of Moger Mehrhof Architects—and landscape architect Jonathan Alderson freedom to work their own nature-meets-art magic. As Alderson explains, “I consider the Ross garden a sensitive marriage between sustainability and aesthetics.” In order to achieve a synchronistic end result, Moger and Alderson collaborated in tight tandem.

What was initially a blank-slate property in the midst of urban fields and farms, 15 miles from Wilmington, Delaware, was ultimately transformed into an earthy, sleek home with all the sustainable amenities, surrounded by a low-maintenance meadow.

The Rosses had been eyeing the three-acre property, adjacent to their previous house, for several years, and bought it in 1997. After their two children moved out, the Rosses decided it was time to create their dream home next door. So in 2003 they tore down the existing 1970s house, demolished the concrete swimming pool, and started from scratch, clearing everything essentially down to bare dirt.

Though the new house incorporates all manner of modern green technology (a green roof, a storm-water collection system, solar panels—the Rosses even sell excess energy back to the grid), Moger n o v/d e c 2010 gardendesign.com

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living green

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and Alderson also heeded old principles of good siting to achieve energy-conservation goals. The Ross home employs such smart construction concepts as channeling natural breezes (the Rosses rarely use air conditioning), taking advantage of shifting sunlight patterns through the seasons, and creating an earthen ramp for insulation and wind protection during cold weather. As forward-thinking as the house’s design is, its architectural style is a snug fit for the locale. It incorporates local Avondale stone, and it bears a strong resemblance to traditional “bank barns,” which are partly embedded in the side of a hill.

As for the garden, it serves as the connective tissue for the site, relating the newly built elements to the neighboring agricultural and wild properties. Alderson, along with landscape designer Chris Pugliese, who acted as the project manager, accomplished this by creating a meadow that is, in his words, “blended at the edges” with the surrounding terrain. The result, says Cecilia Ross, is a homestead that has “not only a sense of place, but also its own identity. The house and garden stretch the

imagination and make you think about the materials in more expansive and imaginative ways.”

In building the landscape, Alderson didn’t truck away any materials accumulated during construction; he sculpted excess soil into an earthen ramp and recycled the concrete from the old swimming pool into a base for the driveway. Throughout the process he also remained sensitive to the garden’s relationship to the house, making sure he created views from all the windows. On the north side, outside the living room, the grade was built up as a ramp to provide winter insulation, but it also puts the landscape at eye level so that the Rosses can see the garden even when they’re sitting down.

Given Chris Ross’s role in the public sector, the Rosses entertain often and host numerous events at their home, but they also want areas that are all their own. Accordingly, both the house and the garden comprise subtly delineated private and public spaces. Though the couple wanted to limit the amount of lawn on the property, one was included in the project to accommodate larger gatherings.

For more-intimate family get-togethers, the Rosses

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T O P L E F T: C O U R T E S Y J O N AT H A N A L D E R S O N L A N D S C A P E A R C H I T E C T S , I N C .

➊ Before the project began, the property was a barren landscape that included a 1970s ranch house, lawn areas, and a swimming pool. ➋ Even the container plantings reflect the meadow theme. ➌ In a scene that exemplifies the horse-country nature of the area, one of the Rosses’ horses grazes near the meadow garden, which smoothly segues to fields and pastureland beyond. Echinacea purpurea is in full bloom, while Amsonia hubrichtii (at right) adds a feathery texture. ➍ At the entrance to the terrace, a planting of Sedum ‘Autumn Fire’ softens the edges and coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens ‘Cedar Lane’) climbs the stucco columns. Much of the stone used for the project is local Avondale stone. Beneath the gravel drive lies a base partly made up of concrete from the old swimming pool.

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Making a Meadow

Once established, a meadow garden requires only basic maintenance and little water.

But it takes time and money to get it under way—no one believes anymore that you can just throw a can of seeds on the ground and stand back. There are several approaches, depending on your budget and space.

Remember to choose species appropriate for your area.

Seeds If you have a big space and a small budget, seeds can be the best choice. They are cheaper,

the meadow garden is resplendent in its late-summer glory, with black-eyed susan, Joe-pye weed and Eupatorium hyssopifolium in full bloom.

favor their cozy dining terrace. A stone wall, a raised landform, and screening plants create the line of demarcation between the two areas but not in a way that obviously interrupts the landscape. And the plantings smoothly transition from bold gestures in the “public” spaces to complex, subtle patterns in the “private” spaces.

To make the half-acre meadow, Alderson chose native species and their cultivars, and stuck to suppliers within a 50-mile radius of the location, particularly North Creek Nurseries, a wholesale grower based in nearby Landenberg. Not only did North Creek offer the material Alderson was seeking, but they grew plants as plugs, which are smaller than plants sold in quart or gallon containers but have big, healthy root systems. North Creek founders Steve Castorani and Dale Hendricks even developed a guide for contractors and designers, showing them how to plant the plugs for optimum success. Says Alderson, “It’s amazing what you can do with plugs if you prepare the site and time the planting right.

You need a client who’s willing to wait just a little longer, but the plugs are half the cost of larger plants per square foot and in 15 months’ time you have a phenomenal garden.”

The Rosses are indeed clients who appreciate the process. Even though the first two years were challenging, especially when it came to staying ahead of the weeds (like invasive, nonnative thistle, which

blows in from nearby fields), Cecilia says the transformation of the property was instantly captivating.

“In the first summer,” she says, “I thought, ‘This is so cool.’ And I love how it changes all the time. A thunderstorm is so much fun; we go from window to window to get different views.” Adds Chris, “It’s like watching the curtain come up.” Even in what most would consider a garden’s downtime, the Rosses are enthralled, and they have called Alderson in midwinter to tell him how much they’re enjoying the garden.

“It’s a dynamic, changing thing,” says Alderson, “not a series of rigid blocks.”

Planted in early May 2006, the garden is now a flourishing meadow alive with birds and insects. On the green roof, where initial plantings of grasses To see more of this garden, go to gARDENDESIgN.COm/ROSSgARDEN

died, seeds of native switch grass drifted in and took hold, visually taking the meadow up with it. Joe-Pye weed and sedges have found new spots for themselves. Birch trees shade the house in summer but allow warming sunlight through bare branches in winter. “I’ll be really interested to see what happens in the next 10 years,” says Alderson. “Will the garden still resemble the planting plan? We as designers can think about a space and make an intervention, but it’s temporary. It humbles you.” see sourcebook for more information, page 70

there is a good selection of species, and they are available year-round. But it is difficult to control placement, the germination rate won’t be 100 percent, weed control will be labor intensive, and the meadow will take longer to mature. Plants If you have a smaller space and/or more money, installing plants can speed the maturing process and provide better placement control. They are available in a variety of sizes, but at the Ross garden, small plants called “plugs” were the top choice.

Plugs are cheaper than larger plants, and quicker to establish than seeds. Combination You can also employ a mix of plants and seeds. Some species are more readily available in one form or the other, so a combination can lend diversity.

Installing plants of “backbone” species can establish structure and bring instant gratification.

Then seeds can be sowed among the plants. n o v/d e c 2010 gardendesign.com

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Luxury Digs

Hermès, the French fashion house known for its handbags and scarves, also supplies the gardener with a bit of style: hand-forged stainless steel, cherrywood-handled tools (set of pitchfork, dibble, and trowel, $345), and cotton canvas Demeter gardening gloves. $310.

Available at all Hermès stores; for locations, visit usa.hermes.com

GARDENER’S GIFT GUIDE STORY BY DAMARIS COLHOUN ■ PHOTOGRAPHY BY TODD COLEMAN

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The Constant Gardener

Avid gardeners can never have too many hats to protect themselves from the sun. With black stitching detail, this braided raďŹƒa hat travels nicely and has a UPF of 50+. $48. shopterrain.com

The Collector Terrariums are the perfect way to grow a miniature collection of plants indoors. We especially like this classic version called Lantern. $88. shopterrain.com

Early Riser With its sleek design, Riccardo Paolino and Matteo Fusi’s Cucuruku White Tree Clock turns traditional cuckoos on their heads. In a nod to its funkier ancestors, a little bird pops out on the hour, except at night, when a light sensor keeps him quiet. $490. conranusa.com

Northern Zones Lesley Hansard and Rebecca Welsh design these folksy and bright handmade felt slippers, crafted with the help of artisans in Nepal. $48. hwd-felt.com

Artful Botany Help out an urban-dwelling, blossom-loving friend. These brassy, modern owers brighten darkened corners and bring pizzazz to empty walls. $45 to $85. jaysonhomeandgarden.com 28

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A Gardening Legend Austin-based artist Leah Duncan has decorated trays, coasters, note cards, and runners for Teroforma. Named Wildflowers + Powerlines, the collection was inspired

by Lady Bird Johnson’s campaign for national beautification, which, in the 1960s, saw sweeping banks of wildflowers planted alongside U.S. highways. Six coasters, $45. teroforma.com

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Magical Thinking

Mixing various colors of stoneware clay, Berkeley-based sculptor Marcia Donahue shapes, ďŹ res, and carves lively clusters of acorns. $27.50 to $37.50.

415-864-2251. livinggreen .com

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Impressive Greetings Yee-Haw Industries in Knoxville, TN, sells a variety of hand-printed note cards with a “Farmer’s Market” theme, produced with its collection of antique letterpresses. All cards and their envelopes are printed on recycled paper. A miscellaneous set of five is $20. Several diffierent selections are available. yeehawindustries.com

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Winter Reading

Gardeners are readers and recorders, always on the lookout for new ideas and advice on gardening, and ready to take notes on what they’ve seen. Below is a selection of recent works on a variety of subjects.

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All-Weather Birder’s Journal (Rite in the Rain), $12, shopterrain.com The Dirt Cheap Green Thumb Book (Storey Publishing), $10.95, sprouthome .com For the Birds (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), $19.95, shopterrain.com What’s Wrong With My Plant (and How Do I Fix It)? (Timber Press), $24.95, amazon.com From Seed to Skillet: A Guide to Growing, Tending, Harvesting, and Cooking Up Fresh, Healthy Food to Share with People You Love (Chronicle Books), $30, chroniclebooks .com The New Encyclopedia of Gardening Techniques (Mitchel Beazley/ Octopus Books), $30, amazon.com

DIY Heirloom D. Landreth Seed Company is the oldest seed company in the U.S. It offiers 12 types of heirloom seeds, which arrive with a guide in a vintage-look burlap sack; these include Christmas Pole lima beans, Calabrese broccoli, Viroflay spinach, and Chervena Chujski peppers. $24. shopterrain.com 32

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History Buff

When Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, a professor of botany, and Johann Baptist von Spix, a zoologist, returned in 1820 from the Amazon Basin, where they’d spent three years collecting and sketching every species of palm they encountered, the men were knighted by the King of Bavaria.

The Book of Palms does justice to the pair’s landmark achievement, an exquisitely drawn history of palm trees. $150. taschen.com

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Italy InspIred A South FloridA lAndScApe by SAnchez & MAddux iS reSplendent with old-world chArM stOry By Cara GreenBerG phOtOGraphy By rOBIn hIll

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Arches cut out of massive Cuban laurel hedges are a decorative and functional leitmotif throughout the property.

T

erry Rakolta has no trouble reeling off words to describe what she desired for her South Florida waterfront property, a wedge-shaped halfacre mostly swallowed up by a Mediterranean-style villa. “I wanted charming, romantic, mysterious, Old World,” she says. “I just didn’t know how to get there from a big house sitting on a lot.”

Achieving this sublime vision fell to the Palm Beach–based landscape architecture firm of Sanchez & Maddux, known for their synthesis of classical European garden design elements with exotic tropical plants. The term they use to describe their signature style—“the civilized jungle”—is also the title of a book about their work published last year by Grayson Publishing.

Some initial landscaping had been done in the mid-1990s, when the house was built, but Rakolta was never completely satisfied with it. A few years ago, she contacted principals Jorge Sanchez and Phil Maddux, her head filled with images of northern Italy’s lake district. The

eventual result was an extensive redo of hardscaping and plantings. “We removed all of the walkways and some of the plants,” says Sanchez. “We left the swimming pool and a little terrace, but that’s about it.”

The most difficult challenge was the water view. The house faces the Lake Worth lagoon, which is lovely, but the buildings on the opposite bank less so.

“The view could have been either beautiful or common, depending on how it was handled,” says Sanchez. A clever workaround was needed.

Rakolta and her husband, John, who use the property as a winter getaway (they also have homes in New York, Harbor Springs and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and are building a home in Aspen), often joined by their four children and four—soon to be five— grandchildren, also wanted more privacy. “Boats would anchor and look in at us,” she says, a problem since the early days, when the new house was surrounded by a “moonscape,” with not a single tree.

1.Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy, France A few years before creating Louis XIV’s park at Versailles, landscape architect André Le Nôtre participated in the design of this mile-and-a-half-long 17thcentury garden, which was the dominant structure of a great complex of water basins and canals, fountains, gravel walks, and patterned parterres. Sanchez describes the garden succinctly: “Grandeur—completely over the top.” vaux-le-vicomte.com 36

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L E F T: H O R A C I O V I L L A L O B O S / E PA / C O R B I S

TOP 4 INSPIRATIONAL GARDENS

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The distinctive arched hedges hug the sides of the swimming pool, rendering it private and a bit mysterious.

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On a trip to Italy’s Lake Como, Rakolta had noticed hedges with arches cut out of them. She proposed a similar approach to taming the too-open view of the waterway. “Everyone fought me on it, saying, ‘You paid so much for the water view, why hide it?’

Only Jorge said, ‘Good idea.’” The sculpted hedge, comprising Ficus retusa (Cuban laurel) formed into arches, runs about one-third the length of the property’s 200-foot waterfront, between the lawn and a newly built sea wall, and also encloses the swimming pool on two sides. “You get views to the water without it being shown completely, while the eye tends to skip over the buildings across the way,” says Sanchez. “There’s a little bit of mystery.”

The irregularly shaped spaces around the sprawling house were organized as a series of outdoor rooms, each with a strong character of its own. The most dramatic of these is defined by an allée of eight towering date palms, which create a long view to the water

from the house’s front entrance.

“It feels to me like a cathedral,” says Rakolta, who plans to put a long harvest table in that serene space.

Moving counterclockwise from there, on the more formally designed waterfront side of the house, there’s the rectangular-shaped swimming pool “hugged by hedges, which makes it very private,” Sanchez says. A recessed open-air dining loggia, overlooking the lawn, is “a gathering place,” used for entertaining, says Rakolta: “I like to set tables on the grass.” Paved with coquina, a locally quarried, palecolored stone, and topped by a bougainvillea-clad pergola, the loggia could very well be somewhere in the hills of Italy.

A tiny waterside terrace with footed urns brings in still more of what Rakolta loves about Italian gardens. There’s a change in elevation here, says Maddux, an expert on rain forest plants who has worked with Sanchez since 1980. “The terrace drops from

Sanchez loves the “broad sweep and scope” of the work of Capability Brown, the landscape architect commissioned by the fourth Duke of Devonshire to transform his baroque estate in the fashionable naturalistic style of the 18th century. Brown converted most of the existing ponds and parterres to lawn, but important earlier features, including the Cascade, in which water flows over 24 stone steps, and the Seahorse and Willow Tree Fountains, as well as a classical temple, were spared. chatsworth.org 38

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L E F T: B A R B A R A O P I T z H E I m /A R C A I D / C O R B I S

2.Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England

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Clad in bougainvillea, a pergola tops the dining loggia.

The homeowner also likes to set tables on the lawn.

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The dining loggia, a covered open-air patio modeled closely on classical European architecture, overlooks a lawn used for entertaining.

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Peace lilies surround a stone rill and fountain designed by Terry Rakolta, the homeowner, in collaboration with Jorge Sanchez, in a “jungly� area appropriated from a former driveway.

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O P P O S I T E , B O T T O m L E F T T O R I G H T: R O G E R FO L E Y; N E D R A W E S T WAT E R / R O B E R T H A R D I N G

mirrors set within lattice arches create an illusion of great depth, making the property appear more expansive than it is. Opposite top: Bougainvillea ‘New River’.

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the level of the house to the sea wall. The drop is only a couple of feet, but the illusion is that it’s a lot more than that,” he explains.

“You look out the windows of the den and you’re right on the water,” Rakolta says. “It’s very Venetian in feeling.”

Bougainvillea ‘New River’ climbs the walls of a brick-paved interior courtyard with a circular wall fountain, next to which, in space reclaimed from an oversized driveway, Sanchez & Maddux created an informal, intensively planted area, referred to as “the jungle.” Here the classical symmetry and careful balance of the more formal waterfront areas give way to a naturalistic style.

Closing off part of the original driveway with a decorative iron gate to create the space was a “stroke of genius,” Rakolta says.

Centered around a big banyan tree, with curved brick walkways and plantings inspired by the rain forests of South America, this hidden garden is redolent with the seductive fragrance of Cananga odorata (ylang-ylang) and Michelia champaca, a magnolia relative (think Joy perfume).

“It’s wonderful in the evening,” Sanchez says. “Usually one or the other is in bloom, and it makes the space very romantic.”

Clusters of sky-blue blooms of Thunbergia grandiflora hang from above, while different varieties of palms, Heliconia (the “rhododendron of Florida,” Sanchez calls it, for its ubiquity), gingers, orchids in pots, bananas, chalice vine, and confederate jasmine, fill this part of the property with tropical scent and splendor.

Not all of the antecedents for the landscape are Italian. Sanchez counts the Generalife gardens next to Spain’s Alhambra palace (whose origins date to the 9th century), with its “placid pools, squirts of water, and little private spaces,” among his inspirations for the Rakolta property.

Andalusian gardens are historically designed to “draw the eye,” as Sanchez says, offering tantalizing glimpses from one discrete space into the next as you move through them. So it is at the Rakoltas’ home. “You can take a short walk and find different views,” Maddux says. “You don’t see everything all at once.”

Terry Rakolta knew she was asking for a lot, but she got it.

“I’m more than happy,” she says. “Until we redid the garden, I really wasn’t too excited about the house. Now I feel the love.”

SEE SOuRCEBOOk FOR mORE INFORmATION,

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3.Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. 4. Generalife, Granada, Spain Pioneering landscape architect Beatrix Farrand’s most notable work, accomplished between 1922 and 1940, was closely modeled on Italian Renaissance gardens. Formal terraces step down a steep slope, dissolving into more naturalistic effects toward the creek that runs along the bottom of the estate. “Farrand had an incredible eye for detail,” notes Sanchez. doaks.org

“Placid pools and private spaces” are among the features Sanchez admires at the 14th-century palace of Spain’s onetime Muslim rulers. Reorganized in the 1920s and ’30s by landscape designer Torres Balvas in classical French style, the Generalife is famous for its crenellated hedges, pool court, and bay laurel–draped staircase. alhambra.org 43

An early frost coats each blade of grass and every twig in this silvery landscape.

Jack Frost: Master Gardener STORY BY VALERIE EASTON

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It also works constructive magic. Without a period of serious cold, tulips won’t bloom in the spring, and lilacs and peonies won’t set flower buds. Instead of killing parsnips and collards, frost sweetens them and is said to boost their overall quality. Frost also gives the garden a break from slugs, snails, aphids, Japanese beetles, and many weeds.

Although winter can be like a slap in the face after a warm, lingering autumn, there’s usually plenty of warning. Chill fall mornings find roofs and evergreens delicately coated with sparkling white; then, as the day warms up, the garden rebounds, fluffs out, and continues to bloom and fruit as if never nipped. These light, teasing frosts can go on for weeks, but the time will come—in September, October, or even November, depending on your latitude and altitude—when the temperature dips into the mid-20s and a hard, killing frost will have its way with your garden. After weeks of frosty flirtation, this time most plants without a stout woody stem will be reduced to compost. Winter has arrived in the garden, no matter what the calendar says.

As soon as I’ve started to pull on warm gloves and a wooly hat before going outdoors, I’m on the lookout for hints of that first serious frost. In anticipation of its inevitable arrival, I dig the dahlias and cart pots of aeoniums and fragrant-leaved geraniums indoors.

I rush out to pick the last raspberries and the ‘Sungold’ tomatoes, turned sweeter by their brush with the impending freeze. I pull pots close to the house for protection and spread a blanket of insulating mulch over beds and borders. When the frost still sits lightly on the pumpkin, it’s time to pick the last of the zucchinis, tender lettuces and herbs, grapes, and green tomatoes.

Still, no matter how much I’ve prepared myself and my garden for that first killing frost, it’s a shock to wake up and find the entire scale and density of it all changed overnight by startling destruction. It’s as if frost turns the garden transparent, paring away

the massings of summer to reveal the underlying structure. New and unexpected sights are exposed, and light penetrates the garden, the sunrays weak and slanting but welcome all the same. In most climates, frost comes and goes through the winter months, but its effect on the garden lasts until foliage returns in spring.

There are few more dismal sights than a lovely clump of coleus taken down overnight, but the arrival of frost brings plenty of pleasures, too. It turns conifers and ornamental grasses to tawny shades of bronze and russet. Hydrangea heads take on soul-stirring hues of burgundy, mauve, and mossy green. The subtle splendors of tree bark, dangling berries, pods, and cones come into their own once frost has done its work to expose them. Finally I see the birds I’ve only heard rustling through the tree branches all summer. My terrier runs around the garden barking wildly at foraging squirrels she’s suspected were there but hadn’t been able to get a bead on before the garden died down.

Before modern meteorological forecasts, people predicted weather by careful observation and memories of seasons past, much as gardeners tend to do even today.

My mother, who taught me to garden, believed that her naked ladies, a k a Belladonna lilies, foretold frost dates. She swore by an old wives’ tale that first frost hits six weeks from the date these pink lilies drop their blooms.

As far as I’m concerned, feeling the weather “in your bones” is as good a way to anticipate frost as any chart or map of averages. So is stepping outside on an autumn evening to sniff the air—in many parts of the country, a cold, clear night, with glittering stars and a brilliant moon, is a sign that frost is on its way. Will tomorrow be the day?

There are myriad types of frost, their quality and appearance dependent on temperature and the amount of moisture in the air. When the air is dry and the temperature barely freezing, frost can look as ephemeral as the lightest dusting of pow-

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Degrees of Frost Maybe we should think of frost not as a great destroyer, but as something more akin to, say, rain or shade. We monitor drizzle and downpours for how deeply they penetrate the soil. We pay close attention to whether shade is partial, light, or deep, knowing it makes all the difference as to what can grow in it. Frost has its own variables and can be categorized by its effect on plants: In a light freeze the temperature dips just below freezing, to 29 degrees, killing only the tenderest of plants, including tomatoes. A moderate freeze, between 25 and 28 degrees, causes destruction of blossoms, fruit, and semi-hardy plants. A heavy or killing frost means the temperature has dropped to 24 degrees and below, bringing an end to herbaceous plants and the gardening season. If you’re a precise type of gardener who counts backward from the first killing frost to determine vegetable planting dates, check out the average frost-date map in the Farmer’s Almanac (farmersalmanac.com/ weather/2007/02/14/averagefrost-dates), which chronicles the normal averages for the first and last frosts around the country. Be aware, however, that there’s a 50 percent possibility of frost occurring earlier or later than these dates. Frost dates, though based on hard data, are really just a convenient way to look at seasonal weather changes.

Many plants hold up quite well to a light frost, rebounding as the sun melts it away. Left: Heuchera ‘Chocolate Ruffles’. Opposite: The last roses of the season.

a n d r e w l aw s o n / m m g i ; o p p o s i t e : m a r i a n n e m a j e r u s / m m g i

F

rost is a beautiful assassin. One wintry morning, we wake to a garden silvered with ice, the product of simple chemistry: water vapor forms frost when surface temperatures it comes in contact with are below freezing. Crystalline white replaces autumnal browns and greens. Tree branches glisten. Conifers look as if flocked for Christmas. The swaying inflorescences on ornamental grasses sparkle and shine like diamonds.

My children used to vie to be first out the door to crunch their boots across the newly frosted lawn, leaving a trail of footprints. Frost transforms the world, then melts away as quickly as chocolate on the tongue.

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“Frost is the greatest artist in our clime—He paints in nature and describes in rime.” —Thomas Hood

MARIANNE MAJERUS/MMGI; OPPOSITE: ANDREA JONES

One reason to refrain from cutting back perennials at season’s end is to enjoy the architectural quality of their seedheads in winter, especially when rimmed with frost. Shown here are purple coneflower and sea holly (opposite).

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o p p o s i t e : C l i V e n i C H o l s ; r i g H t: j e r r y H a r p u r

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

—J.R.R. Tolkien

Opposite: Spent blossoms of Hydrangea paniculata. Above: A blanket of frost can highlight the “good bones” of a formal garden, delineating every edge and curve of clipped hedges and garden ornaments.

dered sugar. At the other extreme is hoarfrost, which on cold, clear nights encrusts surfaces with a thick, white fuzz of feathery ice crystals.

In my part of the Pacific Northwest, we don’t often get hoarfrost. But one morning late last November my garden was coated in what looked like a dense albino pelt—could it be frozen fog? Each ice crystal was so long and thick that the frost looked pettable. A little urn holding sedum became an object of strange beauty when touched with hoarfrost, and I was sorry to look out at noon and see it gone, my garden now plain by comparison.

Then there is black frost, glazed frost, ground frost, and air frost. The rapscallion Jack Frost, an elfish creature of English and Scandinavian folktales, was held responsible for fern frost, the patterns etched across windowpanes on cold mornings. When I was little, it was a treat to help my dad scrape the intricate frost patterns off the car windshield. Sometimes the ice lay in fine swirls on the glass; other mornings it was as thick as fur.

Beware especially the frost pocket, which can damage even hardy plants. Because cold air sinks, it

tends to pool in low-lying areas, creating spots where frost hits earlier and lingers longer. When a frost is brief, plants can bounce back, but if it lasts several hours or more, it ruptures cell membranes by freezing the moisture inside the leaves and stems.

Plants then blacken and seem to melt, or in the case of perennials, die down and go dormant until the warmth of spring coaxes them out of the ground again.

But isn’t the first hard frost something of a relief?

For more on frost in the garden, go to gardendesign.Com/Frost

It signals an end to dragging hoses about, pulling weeds, and deadheading flowers. In fact, what I most appreciate about frost isn’t its fleeting beauty or its transformative effect on my garden. What I love best is how frost clears my calendar of routine garden chores as surely as it winnows out the plants in my garden. Only after a killing frost puts the garden decidedly to bed do I have guilt-free time to read a novel or go to the movies. The garden is at rest, and we are too, for a few months, anyway.

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pOwer flOwers Our “A-list” pArty experts shOw yOu hOw tO mAke yOur hOlidAy tAble the tAlk Of the tOwn sTORy By WIllIam l. HamIlTOn

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PHOTOGRaPHy By mICHaEl KRaUs

When Nicholas Apps, director of special programming and events at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, throws a party, he knows who to call to make it superb. So, too, the directors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and other well-known institutions. We asked for their favorite floral designers and made our own calls. They created six arrangements for the home, exclusively for Garden Design.

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David Stark Design & Production Stark, whose clients include Rachael Ray, Tiffany & Co., and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, cre-

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ated two arrangements for us. An assembly of beautiful bottles (below) deconstructs a formal spray and makes it easy to arrange; a dressy silver palette of whites and steel-blues (right) is set in a glass container with a clipart collar, giving the vase an inexpensive antique look that you can change at will. ➌

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Materials include: ➊Ranunculus ➋ rex begonia ➌ drumstick allium blossoms ➍ miniature pomegranate branches ➎ blue Viburnum berries ➏ dusty miller ➐ Echinops ➑ French anemones ➒ silver Brunia ➓ white tulips SUBSTITUTIONS: Use your favorite vases or bottles (as seen far left) to create your own still life; with a clever clip-art vase as its base (above), any tumble of whites and blues— hydrangeas, lavender, paperwhites, rosemary—would work.

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Banchet Flowers Banchet Jaigla, whose clients include Diane von Furstenberg and HBO, created an unexpected, exotic holiday arrangement that would work in a guest bedroom as well as in a hallway or on a dining table or sideboard. Inspired by her childhood in Thailand, it features a simple, tightly edited grouping of bold, colorful, graphic elements. The inside of the glass vase is wallpapered with foliage to hide the arrangement’s stems.

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Materials include: ➊ an Anthurium clarinervium leaf ➋ red ‘Indian Summer’ calla lilies ➌ green Cymbidium orchids ➍ Mokara Red Azacoff orchids ➎ white Dutch hydrangea ➏ aspidistra leaves SUBSTITUTIONS: The arrangement is based on making a big statement, not intricacy. Banchet suggests alternates of ‘Green Goddess’ calla lilies for the green orchids, white roses or tulips for the hydrangea, red roses for the red callas, red hypericum berries for the Mokara orchids, Monstera for the Anthurium clarinervium leaf.

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A. Choose a vase, and cut a piece of chicken wire wide enough to form into a ball that can sit in the opening of the vase. Push the ball halfway into the vase: this will secure your branches.

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B. Using your largest branches first, build a form and silhouette that you like. Thompson favors asymmetrical shapes, with some branches hanging down toward the table and some reaching up, for a more naturalistic effect.

C. Wire the stems of fruit onto wire skewers that can be inserted into the arrangement and secured to the branches, leaving enough length of wire skewer so that the fruit will either be at the surface of the leaves or dangle below the arrangement. Then add the most delicate elements, like grasses and flowers, filling in and extending beyond the leaves in a spray.

Materials include: ➊ ‘Purple Majesty’ millet ➋ bittersweet ➌ magnolia leaves ➍ purple clematis flowers ➎ pinecones SUBSTITUTIONS: Shape, height, and form dramatize an arrangement of relatively ordinary elements. Oak and magnolia leaves could be replaced with chestnut, sweet gum, pear, or plum leaves. Any type of grain, such as wheat or broomcorn, would do the expressionistic, skyrocketing work of the millet. Fall fruits look perfect for a Thanksgiving table; orchids would make the piece particularly elegant for New Year’s Eve.

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Emily Thompson Flowers

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Emily Thompson, whose clients include the Horticultural Society of New York, based her arrangement on a belief that humble materials can have as strong an impact as hothouse flowers. She chose oak and magnolia branches for shape, and millet for texture. Pears, grapes, and plums add color and cue the eye for a banquet feast.

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Van Vliet & Trap Remco van Vliet, whose clients include Ralph Lauren and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, created an arrangement largely based on texture: the use of many textures in the same family of colors lends peace to the eye, rather than the chaos typical of grander arrangements, a strategy that van Vliet equates with a painter’s technique. As a finishing touch, he let go the vase in favor of a twig bowl, which becomes a part of the design. He calls it a “Dutch still life” — not surprising since van Vliet is Dutch.

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Materials include: ➊ lotus seed pods ➋ ‘Schwarzwalder’ calla lilies ➌ chocolate cosmos ➍ Scabiosa seed pods ➎ fern fiddleheads ➏ ‘Amnesia’ roses ➐ Cymbidium orchids ➑ purple artichokes

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SUBSTITUTIONS: Other seed pods, berries, or succulents would work to bring texture and shape to the arrangement. Van Vliet recommends dark-colored dahlias or miniature dark sunflowers for the orchids, any other blush- or sand-colored roses such as ‘Sahara’ or ‘Silverstone’ for the ‘Amnesia’ roses, miniature eggplants or plums for the artichokes, field flowers or grasses for the fern fiddleheads.

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LMD New York Lewis Miller Design Lewis Miller, whose clients include Gucci and the New York Public Library, created an arrangement based on the winter-forest associations of wood and bark, and red, the season’s signature color. Pillar candles, the quintessential holiday lighting, complete the look. The pillars are wrapped like gifts at the bottom like gifts and set on pedestals of tree-branch sections. Most of the elements can be found easily at local flower shops, garden centers, and craft stores.

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Materials include: ➊ ‘Black Magic’ roses ➋ ‘Piano’ cabbage roses ➌ silver Brunia ➍ Protea nana SUBSTITUTIONS: Miller says the flowers were chosen for their rich color and contrast against the white tones of the birch bark. Red-onred flowers are complemented by the silver Brunia, which also relates to the silver in the bark. Another color palette different from red would also work, if it’s uniform. Miller suggests natural cork or green sheet moss as an alternative to the birch bark.

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A. Staple the bark

to a plain pine box: in addition to craft stores, there are good online resources for birch bark, such as birchbarkstore .com, which also sells fireplace logs to create the candle pedestals.

B. Cut the candle

pedestals to the desired heights.

Line the pine box with plastic—a heavy-duty garbage bag cut to fit is fine—and fill with Oasis floral foam, which will support the arrangement. It is available at craft stores or from online sources.

Start by arranging around the perimeter of the box, to conceal the edges of the container. Continue to fill in the center, varying height to create depth and movement.

C. Wrap the pillar candles with grosgrain ribbon and fasten with pins.

Wrap the ribbon with natural rope, such as linen twine or raffa, for a textural, organic contrast.

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groundbreaker

HEIRLOOM ACTIVIST

When it comes to preserving traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables, Amy Goldman is a force of nature StorY BY BiLL mArken

A barnful of squash, harvested from Amy goldman’s garden, waiting to be sorted, weighed and graded, then photographed for her book in an improvised studio in a corner of the barn.

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Patios, Driveways and Landscape Products to Inspire

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If you’ve looked at any of Amy Goldman’s beautiful, authoritative books on heirloom produce, you have a mental picture of what her Thanksgiving table will look like.

She says this year she’ll probably decorate with cheese pumpkins, which resemble a wheel of cheese with an exterior that looks likes terra-cotta—too fibrous and coarse for eating but beautiful to stack. For a side dish, she may cook a favorite winter squash such as ‘Musquée de Provence’, a variety that was introduced to American gardeners 111 years ago and, as one of her books describes it, the “color of milk chocolate and just as addictive.” Goldman says she thinks of Thanksgiving as a harvest festival, and the holiday reflects much of what she has been doing in the ground, in print, and in public for three decades.

While scientists and agricultural experts continue to press the case for genetic diversity, and organizations such as Seed Savers Exchange and a few mail-order companies (including Burpee) do their part

Above: The bump-encrusted rind of the turban squash ‘Marina di Chiogga’ masks highly edible golden insides. Author Amy Goldman (below) describes this Italian heirloom as an oddball, “born to be gnocci and ravioli.”

to collect, store, and disseminate seeds of heirloom plants, Goldman has a more direct approach to promoting precious varieties from the past. She makes us want to grow them and eat them. Cultivating edibles and cooking the harvest have been passions for Goldman since she was a teenager growing up on the North Shore of Long Island. With both parents (her mother a gardener herself) offering encouragement, she sprouted seeds in a greenhouse, grew tomatoes, corn, melons, squash, and other vegetables, and planted an orchard and grape vines. Later, while working as a clinical psychologist in upstate New York, she always managed to have a plot in Rhinebeck bursting with good things to eat.

In 1990, after her leeks and red onions won blue ribbons at the Dutchess County Fair, there was no stopping her. Five years later, her produce hauled in 38 blue ribbons, making her the fair’s grand-champion winner, thanks in large part, she says, to “mastering the growing n o v/d e c 2010 gardendesign.com

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of squash,” the competition’s largest category of vegetables.

Then she fell in love with heirlooms, those often curiously named open-pollinated varieties of fruits and vegetables passed down by generations of farmers and gardeners which have typically been shoved aside in the stampede toward produce developed for commercially appealing looks and durability in shipping. She credits her conversion to the seminal 1990 book on preserving genetic diversity, Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity, by Cary Fowler and Pat Mooney. Reading it, Goldman says, turned her into a “card-carrying seed saver, collector, and advocate” of heirloom edibles. As Goldman says, “Fowler’s and Mooney’s warnings about the dangers of genetic uniformity and seed monopoly were prescient. To create a more bountiful future, we need to preserve the vast genetic reservoir of food crops that is our heritage. Extinction happens when seeds are not passed along to the next generation, when the new replaces the old, and the old is

Above: named for Amy Goldman’s father’s grocery store in Brooklyn, this is ‘Goldman’s Italian American’ tomato—blood red, deeply ribbed, and considered multipurpose though it’s recommended for sauce.

not conserved.”

In 1997, Goldman won a Golden Trowel award from Garden Design magazine for her vegetable garden, and soon the avid gardener went from being the subject of articles to being a contributor, writing articles on melons, peppers, and cabbages. A few years later, Goldman asked New York City–based fine-arts photographer Victor Schrager to collaborate on a book about heirloom melons based on what she had learned growing them in her 1¼ acres of gardens in Rhinebeck. Schrager improvised a studio in Goldman’s barn, where she would cut the melons, taste them, and, says Schrager, “pronounce them fabulous or fit only for the local pigs.” Schrager would arrange the winners on sawhorses and shoot them with a large-format wooden Deardorff view camera.

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Heirlooms on the Block For evidence of just how highly esteemed heirloom fruits and vegetables have become these days, you need look no further than Sotheby’s in New York City. There, on a late September afternoon, an auctioneer stepped to the podium to sell just that: prized ‘Ozette’ potatoes, ‘Lady Godiva’ squash, ‘Isis Candy Cherry’ tomatoes, packets of open-pollinated heirloom seeds, and other rare treasures.

A single crate of heirloom vegetables sold for $1,000. The auction event, “The Art of Farming,” was a day of seminars and a reception and dinner—organized with the help of advocates like Amy Goldman, and farm-totable movement visionaries—to raise money for GrowNYC’s New Farmer Development

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Above: Sotheby’s auctioneer Jamie niven takes bids for crates of heirloom vegetables and produce-related art, including a squash painting

by P. Allen Smith.

Project, which supports and educates immigrants with agricultural experience to become local farmers, and for the Sylvia Center at Katchkie Farm, a New York–based nonprofit that strives to teach children good nutrition through hands-on experience with gardening and farming. Given Sotheby’s involvement, much was made of the heirloom vegetables’ artistic, sculptural appeal. Not everything on the block that day was edible. Among the lots was a limited-edition set of Amy Goldman’s bronzed squashes. n o v/d e c 2010 gardendesign.com

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groundbreaker Melons for the Passionate Grower came out in 2002 to instant acclaim, garnering such recognition as the American Horticultural Society’s Annual Garden Book Award.

The melon book also staked out Goldman’s strong advocacy for heirlooms. She disparaged many modern hybrids as “the green bowling balls that pass for watermelons or the melons posing as cantaloupes in grocery stores across America.” And she makes the point that sublime taste and fascinating histories are only part of the reason to grow heirloom varieties: “We need their germplasm,” she writes. “Without their genetic diversity, we will be prey to ever more virulent pests and diseases.”

Goldman’s second book, The Compleat Squash: A Passionate Grower’s Guide to Pumpkins, Squashes and Gourds, published in 2004, had an equally earnest mission: “to catalog these marvels before they disappear.”

But Goldman’s most ambitious work, six years in the making, is The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table: Recipes, Portraits, and History of the World’s Most Beautiful Fruit, published in 2008. Of nearly 6,000 estimated cultivated tomato varieties, she grew over 1,000 different types, 200 of which made it into the book. The work reflects Goldman’s nearly lifelong aversion to standard supermarket hybrid tomatoes, which she describes as “a tool of industry and the market economy.”

Heirloom tomatoes, on the other hand, are “designed to be homegrown…living legacies… valued by generations of gardeners.” As the book amply attests, heirloom varieties are as impressive to look at as they are to taste: the yellow and green stripes of ‘Green Zebra’, or the stunning orange, yellow, and pink flesh of ‘Gold Medal’. Often their names offer tantalizing hints of the cultivars’ rich histories: ‘Nebraska Wedding’, for example.

Cary Fowler, Goldman’s early role model and executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, wrote the preface for The Heirloom Tomato. “How, then, can we ensure that these wonderful varieties do not go the way of the dinosaurs and the dodo?” he writes. “We are in the midst of a mass extinction event in agriculture at precisely a moment in history when diversity for further adaptation is most needed.”

Over the years, Goldman’s activism has extended beyond gardening and writing.

In 1991, she became a member of the Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit formed in 1975 to save and share heirloom seeds— and a major source of her seeds when she first started growing heirlooms. She’s been

68 gardendesign.com n o v/d e c 2010

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a Seed Savers board member since 2001, and in 2007 she became chairperson of the board. Since Goldman came on as board chair, membership in the organization has significantly increased. She says she is especially proud of Seed Savers’ contribution of hundreds of heirlooms to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. Chiseled into a mountain, the Doomsday Vault, as it is colloquially known, stores seed collections from around the world as a safeguard against the extinction of the genes of plants that may be valuable in the future.

This fall and winter, Goldman is continuing to support the work of Seed Savers and doing book tours as she develops ideas for another book. Last spring and summer, while researching, she filled her garden

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above: Using plain backgrounds and dramatic lighting, photographer victor schrager posed melons to reveal their distinctive exteriors and luscious flesh. this is ‘Jenny Lind’, named after the celebrated soprano and introduced around 1846. goldman’s book points out its characteristic “outie belly button at its blossom end.”

with some 400 varieties of eggplant: round, oval, bat-shaped, purple, green, white, from ‘Antigua’ to ‘Zebrina’. But by August, she realized, “My heart wasn’t in eggplant.”

She scrapped that idea. She’s now firming up her planting plan for next year, which will include the usual melons, squash, and tomatoes plus, we can hope, other heirlooms that can form the basis of a next book based on her heart and hands.

See Sourcebook for more information, page 70

is giving you the chance to win big! Our Designa-Day Giveaway will feature some of our favorite design-inspired items, and we’ll be giving prizes away for the rest of the year.

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fresh / p. 8 “down By ThE RiVERSidE” GARdEn dESiGnER Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Cambridge, MA 617-864-2076 Brooklyn, NY 718-243-2044 mvvainc.com pARK inFoRMATion brooklynbridgepark.org brooklynbridgeparknyc.org

Just log on to gardendeSign.com/cS Our online customer service area is available 24 hours a day.

plant palette / p. 16 “poinSETTiAS ThAT pop” plAnTS Ecke Ranch To the trade info@pauleckepoinsettias .com

“SuBuRBAn REVoluTion” conTEST inFoRMATion James Rose center for landscape Architectural Research and design Ridgewood, NJ 201-446-6017 jamesrosecenter.org

Remco van Vliet Van Vliet & Trap 212-352-3385 vanvlietandtrap.com

Syngenta Flowers To the trade 800-344-7862 syngentaflowersinc.com living green / p. 22 GARdEn dESiGnER Jonathan Alderson Jonathan Alderson landscape Architects Wayne, PA 610-341-9925 jonathanalderson.com ARchiTEcT Matthew Moger Moger Mehrhof Architects Wayne, PA 484-343-2099 mmarch.net

“An ARTiSTic lEGAcy in FlowERS” BouTiQuE Fleurs Bella 55 East 11th Street New York, NY 10003 646-602-7037 fleursbella.com

Emily Thompson Emily Thompson Flowers 323-896-1494 emilythompsonflowers.com

plAnTS north creek nurseries Wholesale only Landenberg, PA 877-326-7584 northcreeknurseries.com

groundbreaker / p. 64 Amy Goldman rareforms.com FuRniTuRE Terrain at Styer’s Glen Mills, PA 610-459-2400 styers.shopterrain.com or shopterrain.com features • p. 34 “iTAly inSpiREd” GARdEn dESiGnERS Jorge Sanchez and phil Maddux Sanchez & Maddux, inc.

Palm Beach, FL 561-655-9006 sanchezandmaddux.net • p. 52 “powER FlowERS” FloRAl dESiGnERS Banchet Jaigla Banchet Flowers 212-989-1088 banchetflowers.com

The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table: Recipes, Portraits, and History of the World’s Most Beautiful Fruit Bloomsbury, 2008 The Compleat Squash: A Passionate Grower’s Guide to Pumpkins, Squashes and Gourds Artisan, 2004 Melons for the Passionate Grower Artisan, 2002 Seed Savers Exchange seedsavers.org one shot / p. 76 GARdEn dESiGnER Randy Thueme design San Francisco, CA 415-495-1178 randythuemedesign.com

lewis Miller lMd new york lewis Miller design 212-614-2734 lmdfloral.com david Stark david Stark design and production 718-534-6777 davidstarkdesign.com

postal information Garden Design, Number 169 (ISSN 0733-4923). Published 7 times per year (January/February, March, April, May/June, July/August, September/October, November/December) by Bonnier Corporation, P.O. Box 8500, Winter Park, FL 32790. © Copyright 2010, all rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without consent of the copyright owner. Periodicals postage paid at Winter Park, FL, and additional mailing offices. SuBScRipTionS: U.S.: $23.95 for one year, $39.95 for two years. Canadian subscribers add $8.00 per year, foreign subscribers add $21.00 per year. For subscription information, please call 800-513-0848. poSTMASTER: Send address changes to Garden Design, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. For faster service, please enclose your current subscription label. Occasionally, we make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services we think might be of interest to you. If you do not want to receive these offers, please advise us at 800-513-0848. EdiToRiAl: Send correspondence to Editorial Department, Garden Design, P.O. Box 8500, Winter Park, FL 32790; e-mail: gardendesign@bonniercorp.com.

We welcome all editorial submissions, but assume no responsibility for the loss or damage of unsolicited material. AdVERTiSinG: Send advertising materials to Attn: Garden Design Ad Management Module, 460 N. Orlando Avenue, Suite 200, Winter Park, FL 32789. Phone: 407-571-4798. Retail sales discounts available; contact Circulation Department. Following are trademarks of Garden Design and Bonnier Corporation, and their use by others is strictly prohibited: Fresh; Plant Palette; Style; Garden Gourmet; Living Green; Landscape; Groundbreaker; One Shot.

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PREMIER RETAIL PARTNER LISTING California Artefact Design & Salvage (Sonoma) 707-933-0660 www.artefactdesignsalvage.com Big Red Sun (Venice) PH: 310-433-0019 www.bigredsun.com DIG Gardens (Santa Cruz) 831-466-3444 www.diggardens.com Gardenology (Encinitas) PH: 760-753-5500 www.gardenology.com Intn’l Garden & Floral Design Center (El Segundo) PH: 310-615-0353 www.igardencenter.com Marina del Rey Garden Center (Marina del Rey) PH: 310-823-5956 www.marinagardencenter.com Potter Green & Company (Sonoma) PH: 415-902-0198 www.pottergreen.com Regan Roses (Fremont) PH: 510-797-3222 www.regannursery.com Richard Gervais Collection (San Francisco) PH: 415-255-4579 www.richardgervaiscollection.com Santa Barbara Botanical Garden (Santa Barbara) 805-682-4726 www.sbbg.org Seaside Gardens (Carpinteria) PH: 805-684-6001 www.seaside-gardens.com The Gardener (Healdsburg) PH: 707-431-1063 www.thegardener.com The Garden Gates (Metairie) 504-833-6699 www.thegardengates.com With Garden Flair (Stockton) PH: 209-933-9009 www.withgardenflair.com

Colorado Birdsall & Co. (Denver) 303-722-3535 www.birdsallgarden.com

Seasons Garden Center (Washington Crossing) PH: 215-493-4226 www.seasonsgardencenter.com

Georgia Boxwoods Gardens & Gifts (Atlanta) 404-233-3400 www.boxwoodsonline.com Four Seasons Pottery (Atlanta) 404-252-3411 www.4seasonspottery.com

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Illinois Steel Heart, Ltd. (Harvard) PH: 815-943-3465 www.steelheartlimited.com Minnesota Tangletown Gardens (Minneapolis) PH: 612-822-4769 www.tangletowngardens.com New Jersey J&M Home Garden (Madison) 973-377-4740 www.jmhg.com Sickles Market (Little Silver) PH: 732-741-9563 www.sicklesmarket.com Timothy’s Center for Gardening (Robbinsville) PH: 609-448-6222 www.timothyscenter.com New York Evan Peters & Co. (Long Island City) PH: 718-349-7545 www.evanpeters.com Fort Pond Native Plants (Montauk) 631-668-6452 www.nativeplants.net Plaisirs du Jardin (Port Jervis) PH: 845-856-6330 plaisirsdujardin@frontiernet.net Pennsylvania Garden Accents (W. Conshohocken) PH: 610-825-5525 www.gardenaccents.com

Vermont Verde for Garden and Home (Brattleboro) 802-258-3908 www.verdeforgardenandhome.com Washington Swansons Nursery (Seattle) 206-782-2543 www.swansonsnursery.com Wisconsin The Wreath Factory (Plymouth) PH: 920-893-8700 www.wreathfactoryonline.com International Atlas Pots (North Vancouver, British Columbia) PH: 604-960-0556 www.atlaspots.com Garden Architecture and Design (Saskatchewan) PH: 306-651-2828 www.gardenarchitecture.ca La Marche Vert (Quebec, Canada) 450-227-2775 peterboxer@bellnet.ca

Call today to find out how to become a GARDEN DESIGN retailer and be included in this list of exclusive retailers. The GARDEN DESIGN Retail Program offers you magazines for resale in your store and exposure for your shop in every issue of GARDEN DESIGN and on the web-site for one low annual cost.

For details call Linda today at 888-259-6753 Ext. 4511 To find out more about our featured retailers visit www.gardendesign.com/newsstands.jsp

gift guide

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Foxgloves Classic design, superior performance, luscious colors, comfortable form fit, soothing supple support, excellent sun protection and easy care combine to create the most versatile gloves in the world. Foxgloves are the gloves you’ll love to give and receive!

888-322-4450 www.foxglovesgardengloves.com

Loll Designs

David Austin Roses

New Harbor Bench Satellite Side Tables Made in Duluth, MN, U.S.A.

David Austin’s English roses combine the wonderful forms and fragrances of old roses with the repeat flowering of modern roses. Our new collection for 2011 contains over 200 varieties, all grown in the U.S., including fragrant shrub roses, climbers and ramblers.

It’s good to be recycled.™ 877-740-3387 www.lolldesigns.com

Call toll-free to request your free copy of David Austin’s 120-page Handbook of Roses, featuring six new English roses. Please quote code GD22.

800-328-8893 www.davidaustinroses.com us@davidaustinroses.com

From the Studio of George Carruth

2010 Gift Catalog Is Now Available

The work of George Carruth has been enjoyed by collectors for more than 25 years and we thank you for helping to support this little company in Waterville, Ohio. Visit our studio or shop online to see more than 250 original sculptures cast in stone for years of pleasure indoors or out. George’s desire has always been to “plant a smile in your home or garden” with exceptional and affordable American-made artwork.

Our annual gift catalog provides unique gift ideas for gardeners, woodworkers, culinary and outdoor enthusiasts, as well as toys for children. In addition to traditional items, we offer unusual gifts you can’t find just anywhere.

800-225-1178 www.carruthstudio.com

View the digital edition of our annual gift catalog online or call to have a print copy mailed to you free. When you’re ready to order, shopping is just a call or a click away.

800-683-8170 www.leevalley.com

to advertise, call 407-571- 4541

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Calico Juno Designs

Looking for unique gift ideas for the avid gardeners in your life? Create beautiful personalized notes from our wide selection of modernistinspired nature designs. These cards make perfect hostess gifts, holiday cards or party invites. And be sure to visit our One Dollar Greeting Card Shop for even more inspiration!

Beautifully crafted original gemstone jewelry with over 800 designs in gold and silver. Custom orders are available. Call or visit our website for a free catalog.

718-392-4823 www.calicojunodesigns.com calicojunodesigns@msn.com

www.fabulousstationery.com

White Flower Farm

Nature by Design’s Red Collection Featured: Elegantly decorated 28" mixed evergreen wreath, $89.95 + S/H. Other wreath sizes and styles, garlands and swags available. To order, call or visit our website.

888-552-3747 www.naturebydesign.com

800-503-9624 www.whiteflowerfarm.com/gifts

Eco-Friendly Lightweight Concrete Planters

Perennials, Grasses & Succulents Direct to You

Concrete R&D LLC is offering its Delaware Coast Planters, the first in a planned series of regional planters. Each 6" planter is unique and individually crafted in our workshop with our “eco-concrete” mix that includes 40% recycled and sustainable materials, including sand, seashells, pine needles and cones native to the Mid-Atlantic coast. The planters promote optimum plant growth through superior drainage, aeration and insulation and are built to last.

How does your garden grow? With plants you won’t normally find at your garden center or superstore. And they’re shipped right to you from Santa Rosa Gardens.

We’re the family-owned mail-order nursery with the industry’s largest availability of ornamental grasses, as well as perennial plants, ferns, hostas, daylilies, flowering bulbs, tropical palms, aquatic plants and gifts for gardeners. Browse our online catalog and sign up to receive our monthly gardeners’ newsletter.

A perfect holiday gift idea. One percent of sales are contributed to foundations dedicated to land and historic preservation.

866-681-0856 www.santarosagardens.com sales@santarosagardens.com

302-547-1101 www.delawarecoastplanter.com delawarecoastplanter@gmail.com

to advertise, call 407-571- 4541

gift guide

Superb gifts with service to match!

Celebrate the holidays with the natural beauty of amaryllis, fragrant wreaths and greens, jasmine and colorful houseplants fresh from our nursery, plus ripe citrus direct from the groves. Save 10% on gift certificates, too. Satisfaction is guaranteed.

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Fabulous Stationery

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Gorgeous Garden Gazebos Create outdoor retreats with our stunning selection of cedar, vinyl and pine gazebos in eye-catching shapes and sizes. Use our stepby-step customization process to completely personalize your design for a one-of-a-kind gazebo or other garden structure. We offer worldwide shipping and design consultations.

888-293-2339 www.gazebocreations.com contact@gazebocreations.com

Brent & Becky’s Bulbs Shop our extensive selection of unique bulbs and enjoy easy yearround color. A Garden Watchdog Top 30 company, we offer both old favorites and prized rarities. Visit our website or send for our lavishly illustrated free catalog.

877-661-2852 www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com info@brentandbeckysbulbs.com

Archie’s Island Furniture Our premium Adirondack furniture is constructed with environmentally harvested Malaysian mahogany.

Known for our 28 stunning custom colors, our furniture is now available unfinished and in a standard color palette as well. Enjoy affordable pricing on these new options. Call for details or visit us online.

800-486-1183 www.archiesisland.com

BambooFencer.com Fences · Poles · Edging · Wall Coverings

Bamboo Fencer has over twenty years of experience in the provision of bamboo fences. We’re happy to be your source for sustainable bamboo fencing materials. Build yourself that green picket fence. www.bamboofencer.com

Raw Urth Designs Our recycled steel fire features add the perfect blend of ambience and style to outdoor living and entertaining. Propane and natural gas models available. Handcrafted in our Colorado studio.

866-932-7510 www.rawurth.com steel@rawurth.com

LatticeStix

Authentic Handmade Clay Pottery Since 1992, Ceramica Renacimiento has been exporting quality products that bring the artisanal look of traditional stoneware to garden enthusiasts in the U.S. Our original designs include terra-cotta and glazed vases, bowls, pots, décor items and planters.

U.S.: 512-940-7600 renacimiento.sales@ceramicarenacimiento.com México: +52 477-267-1616 gventas@ceramicarenacimiento.com www.ceramicarenacimiento.com.mx

LatticeStix Standard Lattice Panels are an intriguing addition for gardens and landscapes. Available in seven sizes and 100 patterns, the panels can be inserted into site-built framing to create fence toppers, screens, gates, trellises and more. Visit our website to see our full range of captivating patterned lattice products including gates, screens, trellises, arbors, garden and wall décor. Lattice for life.

888-528-7849 www.latticestix.com

to advertise, call 407-571- 4541

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Trellis Structures designs and manufactures innovative solutions for pergolas, arbors, trellises and gates. Made of the finest quality western red cedar and mahogany in multiple styles and sizes. Custom pergolas also available. Shown here: Large pergola, stained white, with a shade cloth providing up to a 90% UV filter.

800-649-6920 www.trellisstructures.com sales@trellisstructures.com

Rainwater Harvesting

800-477-7724 www.rainwatertechnology.com sales@conservationtechnology.com

Imagine Your Home’s Potential Homeowners are looking at their yards and seeing an opportunity to expand their home’s living space. Landscape architects agree that renovating outdoor spaces enhances leisure time and adds value to a home—and water features are among the most requested landscape designs. At the heart of thousands of decorative water features are Firestone PondGard™ Rubber Liners. PondGard liners offer the utmost in design flexibility, resulting in water features that complement the style of the home owner, as well as the natural surroundings.

With the combination of conformability, ease of installation and durability inherent in PondGard liners, the only limit is your imagination.

800-428-4442 www.firestonesp.com/gd2 info@firestonesp.com

Bamboo Fencing & More Established in 1880, Bamboo & Rattan Works has been familyowned and -operated for five generations. We offer stock, custom, tropical or oriental fencing, as well as bamboo poles, roof thatching and much more. Call us for a free catalog or visit us on the web.

800-4-BAMBOO www.bambooandrattan.com suzbamboo@verizon.net

Vixen Hill Cedar Products

Drivable Grass® Make your neighbors green with envy. Effortless to install and aesthetically pleasing, Drivable Grass® provides you with an environmentally friendly alternative to poured concrete while offering the same strength and durability.

Permeable, flexible and plantable, Drivable Grass® is the solution for driveways, parking areas, pathways and patio areas. Explore your opportunities with Drivable Grass® using scented thyme, creeping oregano or colored crushed stone as an infill. With Drivable Grass®, it’s your choice!

800-346-7995 www.soilretention.com

Vixen Hill has developed an extraordinary selection of preengineered cedar products.

Modular gazebos, screened garden houses, shutters and porch systems designed for simple one-day installation. Visit our interactive website or call us toll-free for more information.

800-423-2766 www.vixenhill.com sales@vixenhill.com

to advertise, call 407-571- 4541

design showcase

Our RainBox system filters and stores rainwater for irrigating gardens, filling ponds and washing automobiles.

Interconnecting 75-gallon tanks made of super-thick, sunlight-stable plastic offer high-volume storage. We also offer surface and underground systems capable of recycling all of the rainwater from a home or commercial building.

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Trellis Structures

one shot COPPER TONE

In a San Francisco garden, a wall of woven metallic strips doubles as screening and sculpture

T

hink your tiny backyard is too small for big drama?

Then take a peek at this private garden, designed by San Francisco–based landscape architect Randy Thueme, only 550 feet square and tucked behind a classic Victorian house in Pacific Heights. What really makes the space sing is a stunning 10-foot-tall, 32-foot-long fence of 12-inch-wide bands of perforated copper, clad over a supportive structure of cedar slats and steel.

Undulating like an oversize detail of basket weaving, the fence was sculpted to allow three whitebarked Himalayan birch trees to interlace through the copper strips. Up-lit at night by low-voltage bulbs, the fence fairly glitters. As the homeowner says of the space at night, “Sheltered from the wind, with a soft glow illuminating the garden, I feel as if San Francisco has retreated and I am at peace.”

Before the new garden was installed the space was dank and dark, with unsightly views of neighboring fences, decks, railings, and walls.

Thueme’s goal was to block out the surroundings and create an inviting spot that extends the homeowners’ living space out of doors, both physically and visually (the patio can be seen from multiple rooms through French doors and floor-to-ceiling windows).

The warm tones of the cedar slats on other outdoor walls now coordinate with the copper, but Thueme anticipates that over time the materials will change and continue to harmonize, as the copper turns verdigris and the cedar mellows to gray. In expectation of this metamorphosis, the Chinese-limestone patio flooring incorporates bands of pale green, which is continued in a row of succulents at the base of the fence. sEE sOuRCEbOOk fOR mORE iNfORmaTiON, PagE 70

76 gardendesign.com n o v/d e c 2010

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B a r B a r a B o i s s e va i n

sTORy by JENNy aNDREWs

jwpictures.com

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Now you can create a lush oasis just about anywhere. Inside or out.

On the floor or on the wall. In a tiny apartment or covering the Empire State Building. The plant-abilities are endless!

Plants are natural friends, so let’s give them a cozy home they’ll love and thrive in. Made from 100% recycled materials, Pockets are soft-sided, breathable, modular and infectiously fun!

And they’re made right here in the USA by our Woolly little family.

/Terrace Concept 1 877 527 3468 jardindeville.com

EUROPE

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NORTH AMERICA