DESIGN / 13
SEEDS OF CHANGE
PLANTING DESIGN FOR
THE 21 ST CENTURY: BY PATRICIA TYRELL
GLDA SEMINAR REPORT
M
et Éirean warned of Storm Jorge, and recommended that everyone stay at home, but that did not deter the 250 delegates who flocked to the GLDA Seminar at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Santry on the last day of February. What’s a little hurricane to those who are inured to the great outdoors and the vagaries of the Irish weather? Working in an industry as old as time, but still open to new and exciting ideas and approaches, is one of the great pleasures of horticulture and garden design. Those who attended were up for the challenge and eager to learn more. The buzz of conversation during the breaks was testament to the sociability of the day, chatting with old friends, making new ones, meeting the speakers and chatting with the sponsors about their latest products.
AMAZING DESIGN WITH LOW-MAINTENANCE PLANTING Our first speaker was Cassian Schmidt. With a landscape architecture degree, a Master’s in horticulture, and more than 25 years’ experience as a professional plantsman, Cassian Schmidt is at the forefront of the New German and Dutch Wave movement. Cassian is the director at Herrmanshoff Gardens, Germany a privately funded trials garden opened in 1983. It attracts about 170,000 visitors a year and its main aims are research, education and display. The garden planting is an experiment and therefore is always changing, exploring and pushing boundaries. It showcases everything from annual beds to perennials and grasses and other structural plants that offer a naturalistic look, changing seasons of interest and beautiful colour combinations. The planting style changes rapidly as you move through the garden to demonstrate various styles or habitats.
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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Spring 2020
