Garden Traveler Clippings

A Garden Walk for All Seasons

2009-07-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

Seasonal Walk at the New York Botanical Garden

Armchair gardeners everywhere can stroll along the famous New York Botanical Garden’s Seasonal Walk and watch what promises to be a truly inspired garden installation take shape over four seasons. Linger as long as you want. In fact, if you want to go back and see April’s “confection of tulip’s blooming once again, go right ahead.

The New York Botanical Garden’s Seasonal Walk is a broad garden path running between two wide borders, adjacent to the glass-domed Enid A. Haupt Conservatory that the Garden redesigns yearly, and refreshes seasonally.
For 2009, the Garden invited two international garden design superstars from the Netherlands, Piet Oudolf of Hummelo, NL and Jacqueline van der Kloet of Weesp, NL, to create a custom four-season garden installation, evolving over 12 months... “Both designers are known for sophisticated plant mixes, an artist’s eye for form and color, and complex naturalized plantings that evolve over the seasons,” according to the Garden’s Web site.

The Seasonal Walk Chronicles is a year-long project documenting the design as it evolves week by week, month after month. From planting approximately 30,000 bulbs in November of 2008 – along with the what, why and how (if you want to learn the flick-of-the-wrist technique so “the whole surface is a tapestry of bulbs”) is the work of Tovah Martin (the writer whose work has appeared in Victoria magazine, among numerous other places – including several Tasha Tudor books) and Rob Cardillo’s beautiful photographs.

There’s also a Step-by-Step Guide for Landscapers, with useful advice such as “how to make a mixed bulb border happen,” along with plant lists and photos so you know what the plant actually looks like, and stunning photos of plant pairings(courtesy of Rob Cardillo) and lots more.
Enjoy! Over and over again!

Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)

2009-05-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Photo: The Sequim Lavender Grower’s Association

Lavender wands, lavender sachets, lavender ice cream, lavender cookies. It’s time for lavender festivals, coast to coast. http://www.gardentraveler.com/pages/events.htm

Now it’s time for some lavender songs. Lavender Blue (Dilly, Dilly) was performed by Burl Ives in a Disney movie and some other artists, including Solomon Burke. Sammy Turner had a Top 40 hit that your grandparents (or you) danced to back in 1959. Remember this one?

Here are the lyrics and a link to Sammy Turner singing:
Lavender Blue (Dilly, Dilly)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6djUWGzhnc

Lavender blue, dilly-dilly

Lavender green

If I were king, dilly-dilly, I'd need a queen

Whoa-oh, who told me so?, dilly-dilly

Who told me so?

I told myself, dilly-dilly

I told me so

If your dilly-dilly heart

Feels a dilly-dilly way

If you'll answer yes

In a pretty little church

On a dilly-dilly day

You'll be wed in a dilly-dilly dress of

Lavender blue, dilly-dilly

Lavender green

Then I'll be king, dilly-dilly

You'll be my queen

Then I'll be king dilly-dilly

You'll be my queen
Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,

Lavender's green

When you are King, dilly dilly,

I shall be Queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,

Who told you so?'

Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,

That told me so

Call up your friends, dilly, dilly

Set them to work

Some to the plough, dilly dilly,

Some to the fork

Some to the hay, dilly dilly,

Some to thresh corn

Whilst you and I, dilly dilly,

Keep ourselves warm

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,

Lavender's green

When you are King, dilly dilly,

I shall be Queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,

Who told you so?'

Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,

That told me so

An Olmsted Tabletop Garden

2009-04-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

Biltmore House, the 250-room French Renaissance chateau located in Asheville, NC, was built in the late 1800s as the country retreat of George and Edith Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilts commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture in America, to design the grounds.

Probably best known as the landscape architect of Central Park in New York, gentleness, charm and naturalness are keynotes of Olmsted's style. If creating your own park based on Olmsted’s principals is beyond reach, why not try creating a miniature landscape -- an "Olmsted Basket."

To create this small garden you must first choose a container, plant materials, and accessories that compliment each other and your setting.

A Garden Traveler’s Pilgrimage: Charleston

2009-03-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

Where’s your Holy Grail?

One day, are you going to follow the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) across northern Spain, a route that has been walked by millions of pilgrims since the Middle Ages, and who, even today, make the journey on foot, or bicycle or mule? Are you one of the legions of Elvis fans across the world (including Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi when he visited the U.S.) who make the annual pilgrimage to Graceland in Memphis?

For gardeners, Charleston, known as “a city set in a garden” is Mecca. For me, within this Celestial City of Southern Gardens, my Mecca remains steadfast: Mrs. Whaley’s Charleston garden on Church Street.

It was early on a Sunday morning and, of course, the garden wasn’t open to the public the first time I made it there. But we were heading back to Atlanta and I could not/would not leave Charleston without making an attempt to see one of the most visited private gardens in America.

Like many of the gates and fences standing sentinel at the gardens of Charleston, the grillwork here was fashioned in black wrought-iron; a flirtatious Southern belle offering just a glimpse of a well-turned ankle. A charming gate, but still, it was keeping me outside of this particular Eden and I wanted to see more. Was that pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira) around the corner? I fancied that I caught a whiff of Confederate jasmine. Perhaps that sweet scent was a tea olive (Osmanthus fragrans)? Somewhere nearby a church bell was chiming. The current occupants of the house were undoubtedly enjoying a leisurely second cup of coffee, lingering over the Sunday paper, oblivious to this stranger lurking just outside. But I was to determined to, at the very least, catch a peek at the masterpiece the late Emily Whaley created, based on the plan originally drawn up for her in 1940 by Mr. Loutrel Briggs, the renowned landscape architect who designed many of the wonderful gardens in Charleston.

Alas, my traveling companion was tugging on my arm, mumbling about trespassing on private property, and I was forced to retreat with only a hasty look at my Holy Grail of Charleston’s gardens. In my mind I was not trespassing. After all, when your garden is the title of a book – Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden, by Emily Whaley in conversation with William Baldwin -- as well as the subject of numerous magazine and newspaper articles and has even appeared on the cover of the Charleston telephone book, it’s inevitable that stray gardener pilgrims will pop up from time to time.

Luckily for me (and everyone else), during Historic Charleston Foundation’s Annual Festival of Houses and Gardens, owners of the private gardens in the Historic District of Charleston graciously open their signature wrought-iron garden gates – and in many cases their front doors – to welcome visitors. During the month-long celebration, daily tours feature the interiors and gardens of nearly 150 historic private houses in 12 colonial and antebellum neighborhoods during the peak of the city's blooming season.

I have visited Mrs. Whaley’s garden several times – legitimately, courtesy of events like these in Charleston – and I am always inspired and always vow to return. After all, inspiration is what we’re all searching for, in one form or another.

The late Emily Whaley said it best. “Inspiration is the bottom line. Without it the first move could not be made. . . . We see, absorb, winnow, and sift, and finally our imaginations take wing and out of all this come our gardening plans.”

The gates will be open in Charleston, March 19 - April 22.

Say it With Bare Root Roses

2009-02-11T06:50:00.000-08:00

Valentines Day isn’t the only reason to think roses in February.

Depending on where you live, it’s approaching the time to get ready to plant your own bare root roses, which I personally think are the best way to grow roses. Those of us in the South plant in mid- to late February, but check with your local Rose Society for information for your area.

If you need some inspiration, this year's AARS award winning roses for 2009 are Carefree Spirit™, Pink Promise (shown here), and Cinco de Mayo.™ Carefree Spirit is the first landscape shrub to be named a winner.

For suggestions on planting bare root roses, check out these instructions from the AARS.

The American Rose Society is another great source of information, plus they can put you in touch with local Rosarians in your area who'll give you advice.

Flower and Garden Shows 2009

2008-11-29T06:43:00.000-08:00

“Passion! How do you Bloom?”

That’s the theme for the 22nd annual Southeastern Flower Show, scheduled January 28 - February 1, one of the first of the garden shows to be held in 2009. This year the show moves to its new home, the Galleria Centre in Cobb County, GA (free parking this year!!!).
Horticultural societies are getting ready to kick off spring with the 2009 Flower and Garden Shows around the country. No need for green thumbs, just make sure you’re wearing your walking shoes when you go. Prepare to be dazzled and inspired by fabulous gardens and displays, plus there’s typically demonstrations, lectures and great shopping.

Check back with Garden Traveler for updates on future shows.

http://www.gardentraveler.com/pages/events.htm
21st Annual Southeastern Flower Show Entrance Garden
Design by Chuck Henry, Director of Show Design, Southeastern Flower Show
Rendering by Jim Keen, Landscape Architect

Lavender Fields Forever

2008-07-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

Our lavender is just coming into bloom and it’s gorgeous. We use it as a hedge throughout our rose garden, and now the purple and blue spikes rock gently with bumblebees and butterflies perched atop the blossoms, like a sway pole in a circus.
Some background: Lavender (lavandula angustifolia) is native to the Mediterranean region. It was used in ancient Egypt as part of the process for mummifying bodies. Lavender's use as a bath additive originated in Persia, Greece, and Rome. The herb's name comes from the Latin lavare, which means "to wash." (from Wikipedia)

Do you yearn to visit the lavender fields of Provence? If that’s not on your agenda in the near future, visit one of the Lavender Festivals here in the U.S. Both Washington and Oregon have cultivated viable, thriving agribusinesses of lavender and many of the region’s farms will be open during the festivals.

12th annual Sequim Lavender Festival
Friday, July 18 - Sunday, July 20, 2008
Sequim, Washington is known as the Lavender Capital of North America and this is the largest lavender event in the country, with eight farms on tour. The Street Fair showcases many products made from lavender grown locally in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley by members of the Sequim Lavender Growers Association. There are 45 different varieties of lavender for purchase, along with new flavors of lavender ice cream, smoothies, and possibly lavender pie.

For more lavender festivals, visit the events section of Garden Traveler.

If you’re fortunate enough to have some lavender already growing in your garden, here are some instructions for making lavender wands: http://www.achs.edu/mediabank/files/Lavender_Wand_instructions.pdf

Gardens of Seattle

2008-06-02T05:39:00.000-07:00

Q. We are master gardeners and are coming to Seattle area in June. What gardens should we see? Are there private gardens open to visitors? (We visited back yard gardens in Ireland) Any help you can give on this would be most appreciated.Thank you!

A. The Seattle area has wonderful gardens – here are a few for your gardens-I-must-visit list. (Please check individual garden links for the latest visiting hours!)

The Garden Conservancy Open Days: Seattle, June 8

The Garden Conservancy is a national, nonprofit organization founded in 1989 to preserve exceptional American gardens. Gardens of unusual merit across the U.S. are identified and the Garden Conservatory works with their owners and others to ensure the gardens’ futures and to make them permanently accessible to the public. Inspiration came from England’s National Gardens Scheme and its guidebook, Gardens of England and Wales Open for Charity, informally known as the Yellow Book. During the Open Days in the U.S., private gardens are open for self-guided tours, $5 admission fee per person per garden.
· Old Goat Farm Old Goat Farm is a small nursery located in the foothills below Mt. Rainier. The property includes a very small farm with a 100-year-old farm house and a large garden featuring both sun and shade beds.
· Homeranch_Ted Van Velzen & Ruben Corpuz
· The Chase Garden
The garden is also open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays from April through October, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reservations are not required on these days for self-guided tours. Entrance fee is $5.00 per person.

Blodel Reserve

Seattle Chinese Garden

Evergreen Arboretum & Gardens

Kubota Garden

Ohme Gardens

Growing a Garden: Idaho’s Sawtooth Botanical Garden

2008-04-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

To conceive and create a botanical garden is a daunting endeavor for anyone, anywhere, but in Idaho?

The Sawtooth Botanical Garden started as a community garden. In 1995 a small, yet determined, local group of gardeners and environmentalists acquired a former horse pasture – with the help of the Global Environmental Project Institute. The idea was to demonstrate sustainable gardening practices and allow community members to rent plots and grow vegetables and flowers.

As membership grew, so did the vision. By 2000, the Community Garden was renamed the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, with a vision to celebrate the unique beauty and diverse plant life of the region and to educate and inspire people to appreciate and live in balance with the natural world.

The Garden of Infinite Compassion

In the Northeast corner is the Garden of Infinite Compassion, a high altitude alpine rock garden designed for meditation by renowned landscape designer Martin Mosko. At its center is a beautifully carved Tibetan Prayer Wheel, installed in conjunction with a visit by the Dalai Lama in September, 2005 and blessed by His Holiness.

The 400 lb. copper Prayer Wheel, created by Buddhist monks in Dharamasala, is filled with over one million written mantras. As the Prayer Wheel spins, blessings and hopes for peace and compassion are sent worldwide. A journey through this garden begins with a path to the serenity pond, where benches offer a place to relax and enjoy the Healing Crystal. Placed throughout the garden, giant boulders keep watch over reflecting ponds and a quiet, meandering stream.

Riparian
Willow, Aspen and Cottonwood trees, along with other native riparian plants, line the banks of the spring-fed creek that runs through the garden. This creek is known as a Comstock Ditch which never freezes and flows year-round. It is a wetland wildlife habitat for birds, native trout, beaver, moose and insect life.

Home Demonstration Xeriscape Garden
Funded by a grant from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust, these beds showcase a wide variety of colorful drought-tolerant plants and demonstrate low water usage with a drip irrigation system.

Herbaceous Perennial Display Garden
A project donated and installed by The Dig It Garden Club, this formally arranged garden displays perennials blooming spring to fall in the Wood River Valley’s high altitude climate.

For more information about building a community garden:

Announcing the Garden Conservancy’s 2008 Open Days

2008-03-19T13:47:00.000-07:00

April 5, Vero Beach, Florida
My courtyard is typical of Andalusian courtyards in Spain, which were recreated in the Caribbean during the Spanish conquest.

April 5, Ithaca, New York
A unique collection of over 400 snowdrop varieties along with other very early spring flowers. The 1848 Greek Revival-style farmhouse was moved to this site in 1990.

April 27, Pasadena, California
Designed in the 1930s by Roland Coate, we are the second owners of this magnificent Monterey Colonial house which is surrounded by majestic old oaks, broad lawns, and a variety of gardens. We have a mature, old-fashioned, two-acre estate which offers peace, beauty, and woodland serenity.

Photo: Greenwood Gardens is a twenty-two acre formal garden in Short Hills, New Jersey, about twenty miles to the north of New York City.

From coast to coast, April through November, more than 300 private gardens like these will once again welcome visitors on scheduled days through the Garden Conservatory’s Open Days Program.

The Garden Conservancy is a national, nonprofit organization founded in 1989 to preserve exceptional American gardens. Gardens of unusual merit across the U.S. are identified and the Garden Conservatory works with their owners and other interested parties to ensure the gardens’ futures and to make them permanently accessible to the public.

The Open Days are self-guided tours, with a $5 admission fee per person per garden.
For more information, as well as the 2008 schedule, visit http://www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays/index.pl

Catch up: Indoor gardening

2008-01-25T07:41:00.000-08:00

It’s winter and my garden really isn’t that inviting, but check out my terrariums! More and more gardeners are capturing nature in miniature and under glass.

Bring the outdoors in with miniature gardens
MSNBC - USA
Now’s the time to try three classic indoor gardening projects: terrariums, topiaries and bonsai.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22828363/

An inside job on terrariums
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
A new generation of designers is reinventing the mini-garden, and devotees are lining up.
http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-terrariums24jan24,1,2981593.story?ctrack=7&cset=true

Mini plants, major care
Mini plants, major care
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
How should tend your terrarium? With anything from a heart surgeon's tweezers and surgical scissors to tools found in your kitchen drawer.
http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-terrariumsside24jan24,1,2568933.story?ctrack=5&cset=true

Gardeners get ready: 2008 Flower and Garden Shows

2008-01-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

Anxious to get out in the garden and start planting, but cold weather and gray skies holding you back? Gardeners put on your walking shoes and get ready. The 2008 Flower and Garden Show season is about to start and thousands of garden enthusiasts, from neophytes to master gardeners, will find garden design inspiration and advice to make this year’s garden the best ever.

Show highlights typically include professionally landscaped gardens; amateur and professional floral designs; seminars and demonstrations; horticultural information and advice for gardeners of all ages; and great shopping.

One of the first shows is the 21st annual Southeastern Flower Show.
This year’s theme: Imagine That!
Wednesday, January 30 – Sunday, February 3, 2008
Georgia World Congress Center, located across from CNN Center at Andrew Young International Boulevard and Marietta Street,
Atlanta, GA.

The granddaddy of all flower shows: the Philadelphia Flower Show.
This year’s theme: Jazz It Up
Sunday, March 2 - Sunday, March 9
Pennsylvania Convention Center
Philadelphia, PA

Begun in 1829, the Philadelphia Flower Show is the oldest U.S. flower show and the largest annual indoor flower show in the world, covering 33 indoor acres in all. The country's premier landscape designers and florists turn 10 acres of the Convention Center into a floral fantasy world with exotic plants and eclectic designs.

For other shows around the U.S. visit: http://http//www.gardentraveler.com/pages/events.htm

Emily’s Birthday

2007-12-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

Some say Emily Dickinson (1830–86) is America’s greatest poet. I know that she’s definitely one of myFaves. Since today’s Miss Emily’s birthday, here are some of her thoughts.

To make a prairie it takes a clover
And one bee, ―
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

###

Before you thought of spring,
Except as a surmise,
You see, God bless his suddenness,
A fellow in the skies
Of independent hues,
A little weather-worn,
Inspiriting habiliments
Of indigo and brown.

With specimens of song,
As if for you to choose,
Discretion in the interval,
With gay delays he goes
To some superior tree
Without a single leaf,
And shouts for joy to nobody
But his seraphic self!

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Inside Out

2007-12-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

The Art and Craft of Home Landscaping
By Jeff Hutton

Are you a gardener or a landscaper? According to Jeff Hutton, a landscape designer in Vernon, Connecticut, there’s a distinction.

After all, would you furnish your home by popping into a furniture store on a whim, buying whatever catches your eye and then shoving your I-don’t-care-if-it-is-too big -and-clashes-I-want-it-anyway sofas and chairs just anywhere and expect your home to look attractive and inviting? Well, if your whole house is furnished straight from Ethan Allen, yeah, you might. Most people, however, decorate their home with at least some thought to the basics of concepts like color, space, patterns, flow, scale — even if it’s only subconsciously.

These same basic design principles could and should apply to the landscape outside of your home as well, according to Hutton, who shares his more than thirty years of experience designing outdoor living spaces in his new book, Inside Out. Hutton advocates “. . . merging the surrounding landscape with the structure of the house.” Calling himself, “a great proponent of what I call ‘inside out’ – effectively blurring the border between architecture and landscape architecture, or interior and exterior design,” he contends: “Your yard is the canvas. Design is about composition, no matter what the application.”

Since too much of my garden canvas is now blank, courtesy of the ongoing drought here in Georgia, this book offers a much-needed landscape cache of information and ideas. Foundation beds, walkways and paths, decks and porches, patios and courtyards, retaining walls, ornamental grasses, ornamental and shade trees, foliage and flowers, as well as easy-to-follow discussions of integration, intersection, association, balance, composition, and color are all here in the wonderful book.

Hutton is also a self-proclaimed lifelong student of plant nomenclature and he includes a fascinating chapter on deciphering the Linnaeus Code, the methodology of classifying and naming living organisms organized by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, often called the Father of Taxonomy. According to Hutton, “It’s pretty satisfying to be able to read the label on a plant, and understand its character from its name.”

Do you think this is useless information? Not so. If you’re browsing the garden center for something to plant in that small wedge of ground next to your house, you’ll know enough to give the plant with giganteum on its label a pass.

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Child’s Play: Longwood's New Indoor Children's Garden

2007-11-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

Does “children” and “garden” and “glass” sound like a kid-friendly activity? Most definitely — at Longwood's New Indoor Children's Garden. More than a decade in the making, the new 4,000 square-foot Indoor Children’s Garden is three times larger than Longwood’s previous indoor children’s garden. A surrounding walkway allows “grown” children to enjoy the garden, as well as keep an eye on the action.

What’s the theme? “Longwood Children’s Garden is unique because there is no central theme,” said Patricia Evans, communications manager at Longwoods. “We have created a magical world for children to explore and most importantly, use their imaginations to create the story or experience with each visit. There are educational elements, and the opportunity for kids to learn about plants, but the most important goal was for children to realize the joy of being in a garden, to want to visit gardens and perhaps inspire future horticulturists!”

Along with 17 fountains, Longwood’s Indoor Children's Garden features:
The Central Cove, with a tree-covered seating area, a central pool with flower-shaped water jets and jewel-like mosaics, and three animal adorned sculptures shooting streams of water from overhead into the pool. Children will move from the Central Cove into the Rain Pavilion, which features water curtains on two sides. Look up and you will see the glass ceiling allowing a view of water running overhead.
The Secret Room is home to the Drooling Dragon water feature, and a balcony that overlooks the Central Cove.
The Ramp, accented by an ever-changing Water Curtain and animated by the leaping water “glow worm,” leads children to a Tower overlooking the Bamboo Maze. Water runs down the glow worm into a swallowing salamander at the bottom of the ramp.
The Grotto Cave, underneath the Tower, contains a shallow fog-covered pool activated by water dripping from sculpted snakes coiled overhead.
The Bamboo Maze offers a jungle of tree-size bamboos for children to explore. The Maze contains five visitor-activated water features accented with ornate bird sculptures.

Longwood Gardens, located on US Route 1 near Kennett Square, PA, is open daily. For more information, visit www.longwoodgardens.org.

The Drooling Dragon (pictured) is the centerpiece of Longwood’s new Indoor Children’s Garden. Weighing an amazing 3,500 pounds, water streams down the Dragon’s mouth and colored lights add to the effect.

The $64 Tomato

2007-08-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

The $64 Tomato, How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity,

Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis

in the Quest for the Perfect Garden

By William Alexander

I don’t know about you, but I have never considered adding up how much I spend on my garden during the year and then, somehow, calculating how much each plant has actually cost. I’m feeling stressed just thinking about it.

However, a New England gardener named William Alexander did just that for his three acre backyard vegetable garden and small orchard in a small town in the Hudson Valley. The result is his hilarious book: The $64 Tomato.

Alexander relates his quest for organic gardening, IPM (integrated pest management) and agonizes over the philosophical horticultural conundrum: what actually constitutes “organic”? He takes us along as he starts down the slippery slope of chemicals in the garden, providing us with lots of laughs, as well as a lot of interesting facts. (Although I learned more than I really needed to know about apple trees and baggies.)

When his family has the inevitable plumbing problems related to their septic tank, we meet Lou, the local excavator, who doesn’t quite finish up the job he started back in the November. Not only do the Alexanders not hear from him, but Lou leaves his backhoe behind, stuck in their yard.

For Alexander, gardening is also a bit of a blood sport. He tries to go after deer, squirrels, an opossum and a groundhog he calls Superchuck. I’m not a hunting/trapping fan, so I was rooting for his Havahartattack trap. Thankfully, Alexander is rather inept at animal control.

William Alexander deftly and hilariously relates his gardening/small-scale farming experience (When does a vegetable garden become a farm? Is yet another thought worth exploring.) When it’s too hot or too cold to be out in your garden, do yourself a favor and curl up with this excellent book. You won’t be disappointed.

P.S. Next year I’m going to grow heirloom Brandywine tomatoes.

“Gardening is, by its very nature, an expression of the triumph of optimism over experience. No matter how bad this year was, there’s always next year. Experience doesn’t count. Just because the carrots have been knobby, misshapen, and somewhat bitter four years in a row doesn’t mean they’re going to be knobby and misshapen next year.” --- William Alexander

Cemetery Gardens: Mount Auburn Cemetery

2007-07-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Nobody wants to visit a garden where most of it is dead, do they? Well, when the garden is beautiful and what’s dead is buried, then yes – a garden -- found in a cemetery -- is well worth a visit. In fact, some of the most beautiful gardens in the U.S. are found in cemeteries, beginning with "America's first garden cemetery,” the Mount Auburn Cemetery of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Founded in 1831, Mount Auburn Cemetery is widely acknowledged as the catalyst for the “garden cemetery” movement, where landscaped parks become an alternative to burial in church graveyards. Up until then, the dead were buried in churchyards located in close proximity to churches. General Henry A. S. Dearborn, president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, along with Alexander Wadsworth, a civil engineer and surveyor, plus others, banded together to create a tranquil and beautiful landscape that not only honors the dead, but provides enjoyment, succor, and inspiration for the living as well. Mount Auburn became the model for cemeteries nationwide and inspired the creation of America’s public parks.

Today, Mount Auburn Cemetery has over 5,000 trees, representing 630 taxa, and thousands of shrubs and herbaceous plants throughout 175 acres of hills, dells, ponds, woodlands and clearings. There are Victorian and formal ornamental gardens, contemporary gardens and natural woodlands.

Open daily, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. October through April.; 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. May through September.

From: The "Rural" Cemetery Movement and its Impact on American Landscape Design;
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service; II. BURIAL CUSTOMS AND CEMETERIES IN AMERICAN HISTORY

The "rural" cemeteries laid out by horticulturists in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York in the 1830s were romantic pastoral landscapes of the picturesque type. Planned as serene and spacious grounds where the combination of nature and monuments would be spiritually uplifting, they came to be looked on as public parks, places of respite and recreation acclaimed for their beauty and usefulness to society.

In the early "rural" cemeteries and in those which followed their pattern, hilly, wooded sites were enhanced by grading, selective thinning of trees, and massing of plant materials which directed views opening onto broad vistas. The cemetery gateway established separation from the workaday world, and a winding drive of gradual ascent slowed progress to a stately pace. Such settings stirred an appreciation of nature and a sense of the continuity of life.

By their example, the popular new cemeteries started a movement for urban parks that was encouraged by the writings of Andrew Jackson Downing and the pioneering work of other advocates of "picturesque" landscaping, most particularly Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, who collaborated in the design of New York City's Central Park.

See Rock City

2007-05-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Everybody should see Rock City. Why? Located atop Georgia’s Lookout Mountain, just six miles from downtown Chattanooga, Rock City is a true marvel of nature and advertising.

It was started in the 1920s by the Carter family (Garnet and Frieda, not those other Carters). Garnet decided to develop a Lookout Mountain community that ended up including the first miniature golf course in the U.S. (The originally planned traditional golf course was way behind construction schedule so Garnet offered guests a “miniature” golf course. That turned out to be very popular and the Carters franchised the concept: Tom Thumb Golf.)

Meanwhile, Frieda set out to develop “a rock garden to end all rock gardens.” Today her vision has developed into a 4,100-foot trail along rock formations, caves and wonderful gardens with native plants.

However, situated on top of a mountain, Rock City was in an out-of-the-way location. To attract crowds, Garnet decided to advertise in a new medium. In 1936 Garnet Carter gave Clark Byers, a sign painter, a truck, some paint and a mission: paint "See Rock City" on barn roofs on highways from Michigan to Texas. According to a background of Rock City, “Clark Byers painted the barns for three decades and became a legend in his own right by braving bulls, slippery roofs and lightning bolts. When he retired in 1969, he had painted some 900 barns in 19 states.”

The Rock City barns became an American icon, but there’s truth in that advertising. The impressive views alone are worth the trip. From atop Lookout Mountain, visitors have a spectacular panorama of seven states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Rock City combines natural and man-made wonders. Plus, you can also buy a world-famous See Rock City birdhouse!

Announcing the Garden Conservancy’s 2007 Open Days

2007-03-05T14:55:00.001-08:00

The Open Days Program is a series of tours of more than 450 private gardens around the country — from April through October — in conjunction with the Garden Conservancy, a national organization dedicated to preserving exceptional American gardens.

It’s estimated that more than two-thirds of great American gardens have already been lost. The Garden Conservancy identifies exceptional gardens and works with their owners and others to ensure the gardens’ futures.
Proceeds from the Open Days Program support the national preservation work of the Garden Conservancy.

The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Directory books list Open Days and participating gardens with garden descriptions, open hours, and directions. To order an Open Days Directory, please click here.

For more information visit www.gardenconservancy.org

All-America Rose Selections Announces 'Designing With Roses' Competition

2007-01-04T08:42:00.000-08:00

How About a Bed of Roses?

When love came first to Earth,the Spring spread rose-beds to receive him.
- Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet

(1777-1844)

All-America Rose Selections™ (AARS™) announced the call for entries for its Designing with Roses Competition, which honors excellence in landscape architecture and garden design.

Submissions must incorporate U.S. roses as a primary design element.

Competition is open to professionals, students or teachers in the fields of landscape architect and landscape/garden design. New this year is a category for the best regional public gardens.

Even if you don’t qualify for the competition, you can still tackle a new challenge: design your garden with roses. You say you always wanted a bed of roses? Well, this is your year. Go for it.

You have lots of beauties to choose from, including the AARS’ 2007 award-winning roses above.

Top: Rainbow Knock Out

Middle: Moondance

Bottom: Strike It Rich

All-America Rose Selections is a nonprofit association dedicated to the introduction and promotion of exceptional roses. For more information visit http://www.rose.org

Prison Break at the Botanical Garden

2006-11-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

How can anyone seriously think that a botanical garden isn’t the perfect setting for action-packed drama? After all, gardens are pretty thrilling places. Gardeners know that and so do viewers of the hit Fox network drama, Prison Break.

In this episode, Michael Scofield has to make a stop at the Blanding Botanical Gardens. He checks the prison tattoo on the back of his right elbow and a tourist map of the gardens and goes looking for ….

Check out Episode 209 of Prison Break that aired on 10/30/2006 and find out what Michael Scofield was looking for at the Blanding Botanical Gardens.

http://www.fox.com/prisonbreak/recaps/

(Back story: Scofield committed a crime so he would get sent to Fox River State Penitentiary -- where his brother Lincoln Burrows is on death row -- and stages the ultimate Prison Break to free his brother and assorted others. Now they’re on the run.)

Fairy Gardens

2006-08-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces
and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.
Sir James M. Barrie; Peter Pan

If you believe in fairies, clap your hands and get started.
There’s a popular gardening trend just for you: Fairy Gardens.

Create your miniature fairy garden wherever your imagination leads -- window boxes, terra cotta containers, a trough, wooden boxes, bird baths, or even a sandbox.

Use twigs and sticks and bark for tiny houses. Paths and a pond or lake can be made of pebbles and colored sand. When designing your landscape, keep a fairy-sized scale in mind. An enchanted forest can be made up of miniature and dwarf conifers that grow one inch or less a year. Plants with small leaves such as herbs work well. After all, in Shakespeare’s play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream,” the fairy queen Titania sleeps in a bed of thyme.

Here are a few more sources:

The magical world of fairy gardeningMini landscapes allow creativity to shine
The magical world of fairy gardeningThe Coloradoan - Fort Collins,CO,USA

Rebecca’s Garden, HGTV; September 22, 2006
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_design_other/article/0,1785,HGTV_3566_3479587,00.html

Step-by-step directions for children to make an indoor miniature fairy garden out of a window box or container.
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_containers_indoor/article/0,1785,HGTV_3559_1667624,00.html

Walk this way . . .

2006-07-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

The Garden Traveler's Library:

The Welcoming Garden; Designing Your Own Front Garden

by Gordon Hayward

walk this way, walk this way, walk this way. . .

No, Aerosmith wasn’t singing about the pathways and front gardens of American homes. But it could well be garden designer Gordon Hayward’s personal mantra. He wants gardeners everywhere to rethink our front and entry gardens and make them more imaginative and inviting. After all, it’s what visitors see first.

As this book demonstrates, there is more to front yard landscaping than foundation plantings. Hayward provides a step-by-step approach to transform your own front garden to reflect your personal style and your landscape. He gives design principles that everyone can follow, including plenty of gorgeous photographs of actual gardens.

2006 Perennial of the Year: Dianthus Firewitch

2006-01-30T05:13:00.000-08:00

I first fell in love with pinks at an office park. The landscape company used them to ring a flower bed and they were absolutely breathtaking. After they bloomed, some of us were hoping that they would be dug up and discarded (as is usually the case in commercial office park’s season landscaping plans – out with the old, in with the new) -- and we could give them permanent homes in our gardens. However these pinks remained and their blue-gray evergreen foliage were a pleasure to look at as we trudged past them every day.

This year the perennial plant association has named a pink as the perennial plant of the year for 2006: Dianthus gratianopolitanus “Feuerhexe’ (Firewitch). Here’s what they say about it:

"Dianthus gratianopolitanus “Feuerhexe’ (Firewitch) is a low growing, mat-forming alpine plant with narrow bluish-gray foliage that remains evergreen. Brilliant purplish-pink flowers cover the plant at bloom time. The flower color has also been variously described at hot pink or purple red or magenta. The color combination of the foliage and flower is striking at peak bloom in id-spring. And if that weren’t enough, the air becomes performed from the scented flowers which have a spicy and clove-like fragrance. Peak bloom is mid-to-late spring with rebloom occurring in the summer and fall especially when the spent flowers are removed. The foliage height is 3 to 4 inches with flower stems reaching to 8 inches. This favorite Cheddar pink is hardy from USDA zones of 3 to 9."

If you've only had Bath's Pink in your garden up until now, find some room for Firewitch -- it's going to cast a spell on gardeners everywhere this year.

2006 February Flower and Garden shows

2006-01-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

Southeastern Flower Show
at the Georgia World Congress
February 8 – 12

If you don’t have a trip planned to Italy any time soon, you can drop in at the Southeastern Flower Show at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta and visit some Italian inspired gardens and exhibits. The theme of this year’s show is "Inspiration, Education, Entertainment . . . The Italian Experience."

And for Georgia Bulldog fans who like to garden, they may catch a glimpse of the new member of the Southeastern Flower Show board of trustees at the show: UGA athletics legend Vince Dooley, the former University of Georgia Athletics Director and the most successful football coach in the University of Georgia history. Coach Dooley is an avid gardener whose impressive Athens garden includes a species of hydrangea named after him – the Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Dooley’-- as well as a topiary Bulldog (of course) covered with a fig vine.

For more 2006 flower and garden shows around the country, visit Garden Events at GardenTraveler.com.