garden design 2010.11-12

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NINE NEW KNOCKOUT POINSETTIAS page 16

Palm Beach ParadiseExplore the UltimateWinter Getawaypage 34

GREAT

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IDEASpage 26

NOV/DEC 2010 U.S. $5.99

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contentsnovember/december 2010

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Features34 italy inspired To create this Palm Beach landscape, the

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

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 design-ers to craft arrangements especially for Garden Design. Here are the ravishing results. By williaM l. haMiltOn

departMents6 editOr’s letter/cOntriButOrs

8 Fresh A new park in Brooklyn; the James Rose Center re-thinks suburban gardens; floral art by Bella Meyer.

16 plant palette The poinsettia is the quintessential holiday plant. But these varieties—in pink, orange, white, and marbled—will make you think beyond traditional red.

22 liVing green A lush low-maintenance meadow and a very sustainable house in Pennsylvania are proof that an energy-conscious state representative knows how to walk the walk.

26 style Our editors have picked a collection of holiday gift ideas that are perfect for any gardener.

64 grOundBreaKer Author, gardener, artist Amy Goldman is the champion of heirloom edibles.

70 sOurceBOOK A listing of products and services mentioned and shown in our pages.

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

2 gardendesign.com nov/dec 2010

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

I’m always reminded of this as the holi-day season approaches. With the arrival of the short, chilly days of winter, I take a lot of pleasure in looking back at the fl eeting 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 pon-dering 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 fi rst 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 fl oral arrangement techniques that bring color and beauty indoors, shar-ing inspired holiday ideas from some of the best fl oral designers around. And on page 34, writer Cara Greenberg gives us a health-ful wintertime dose of warm Mediterranean beauty, by way of South Florida, with her arti-cle on a remarkable garden designed by the

Palm Beach–based fi rm Sanchez & Maddux, “Italy Inspired.” And that’s just a taste.

So, raise a glass of something fi zzy 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 sur-prises in store.

—James Oseland, Editorial Director

SEASON OF CHANGE

Robin Hill, who pho-tographed 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 excep-

tional light,” says the British-born photographer. “The cooler temperatures mean the air condi-tioner gets turned off , the windows are open, and we can enjoy longer bike rides, mosquito-free eve-nings, 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

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 Pacifi c 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 Pacifi c Northwest Maga-zine of the Seattle Sun Times. Her latest project is her recently released book, The New Low-Maintenance Garden (Timber Press). valeaston.com

Arrangement by David Stark

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contributors


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A L L T H I N G S B R I G H T A N D B E A U T I F U L

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T H E F I N E S T G L A S S H O U S E S M O N E Y C A N B U Y - N O T H I N G E L S E I S A H A R T L E Y

To enjoy our book of greenhouses cal l 781 933 1993 hartleybotanic.com [email protected]

fresh

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, sep-arated from the neighborhood by a roaring expressway and a chain-link 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 long-awaited Brooklyn Bridge Park, with

a landscape design masterminded by Brooklyn/Cambridge–based Michael Van Valkenburgh Asso-ciates, opened to the public, giving new life to the old industrial waterfront. The New York Times heralded it as “one of the most pos-itive statements about our culture we’ve seen in years.”

Regina Myer, the president of Brooklyn Bridge Park, the

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.

A new pArk in brooklyn suburbAn gArdens trAnsformed florAl Artist bellA meyer

Down by the RiversideBy CaRa GReenBeRG

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

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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 cul-tural 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.

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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 immedi-ately 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 kay-aks, bird-watch, even do Pilates. Pier 6, where innovative

playgrounds are linked by meandering paths, quickly became a destination for young families. “It’s been extraor-dinarily 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 fundrais-ing and coordinating the complex efforts needed to bring the park into being.

Pier 1 is the heart of the project so far, a majestic reimagin-ing 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 horseshoe-shaped lawn facing the harbor and the Statue of Liberty,

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.

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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 nat-uralistic 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 importantecosystem for birds and fish.

Hundreds of trees have been planted on Pier 1, most in atypical ways. “Instead of making a lawn and scatter-ing 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 red-wood and bald cypress, which give additional shade. Rifts of sumac, bayberry, and sassafras will also run through-out 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 col-lection 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

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

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➊ Artist Bella Meyer, seen here hold-ing 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 influ-ence 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.

Today, Chagall’s granddaugh-ter—the New York City–based artist and floral designer Bella Meyer—has turned her grandfa-ther’s custom on its head, using objects of nature to create repre-sentations of the world around her. Asked recently to create a flo-ral 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; arrange-ments 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 stud-ied 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 with-out stopping at the local market and getting a big bouquet of flow-ers. 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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An Artistic Legacy in FlowersBy 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. l

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■ Modern Revival (Sausalito, CA), Ive Haugeland/Shades of Green Landscape Architecture,

shadesofgreenla.com (shown far left) ■ Midcentury Revival (Sarasota, FL), Dane Spencer

Landscape Architecture, danespencer-landscapearchitect .com (shown, left) ■ Water

Treatment Facility as Neigh-borhood 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” Longi-tude: -73° 20’ 32” (Newtown,

CT), Billie Cohen, Ltd. Landscape Design Studio,

billiecohenltd.com ■ Pamet Valley (Truro, MA), Keith

LeBlanc Landscape Archi-tecture, kl-la.com ■ Schain

Residence: Applied Sustain-ability (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 Res-idence (Penobscot, ME),

Matthew Cunningham Land-scape Design, matthew

cunningham.com

A competition changes the status quo in residential landscapes

In the sea of cul-de-sacs and cookie-cutter develop-ments 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 environ-ment. That shift is precisely what inspired Suburbia Transformed, a provocative competition and exhibi-tion 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 com-petition—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 design-ers, 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 residen-tial 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; nei-ther 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 land-scape 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 low-water-use plantings.

Among the projects recognized was landscape architect Dane Spencer’s exterior revival of a mid-century cinder-block ranch house in Sarasota, Florida. The renovations added solar roof panels, a 3,000- gallon 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 inspir-ing, sculptural, and artistic experiences in the suburban landscape.” For more information visit jamesrose center.org. see sourcebook for more information, page 70

suburban revolution

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

storY bY Debra prinZing

Winner’s Circle


plant palette

Poinsettias have become as entwined with our Christmastime traditions as carols and mistle-toe. 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 daz-zling 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.

Poinsettias That PopBy Tovah MarTin ■ PhoToGraPhy By roB CarDiLLo

1 ‘ICE PUNCH’ Marbling is all the rage in poinsettias. On this version from Ecke Ranch, lightning streaks of white embla-zon 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 poin-settia’s Cinderella transformation from a tall, lanky species into the beautiful plant we know and love. In1911 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 poin-settias, Ecke Ranch is introducing the rich-red cultivar ‘Red Jubilee’ this December.

1


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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 descrip-tors 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 revel-ers are also excited by other hues, especially around Thanksgiving. In fact, 20 to 30 percent of poinset-tias 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. ‘Cinna-mon Star’ boasts a rounded shape with expansive, almost winged bracts, and the younger central bractsbegin with a darker sizzle before fading paler with the countdown to the winter holidays.

5 ‘WINTER ROSE EARLY RED’

No less than 30 years in the making, this novelty started the “nontraditional” streak at Ecke. For poin-settia 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 con-tainer-plant market, it also made a splash with florists looking for a new spin on holiday décor.

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 pat-terned 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 fam-ily as a holiday gift without fear—the strong stems withstand breakage. It’s also prone to linger long in average home conditions.

plant palette

2 4

53

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C O N T E M P O R A R Y A RT FA I R

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plant palette

Nature, NurtureZones: 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 grow-

ing poinsettias is between

65 and 70 degrees.

Exposure: Poinsettias need

short days to form their

bracts. When you purchase

a poinsettia for the holi-

days, it’s primed and ready

to perform and will keep

on looking good for sev-

eral 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 pot-

ting soil is fine if you’re

repotting your poinsettia.

Overwatering is a com-

mon killer. Remove any

foil around the container

that might inhibit drain-

age. Generally, watering

once a week will suffice if

you moisten the soil thor-

oughly. Avoid wetting the

foliage. Care: Since poinset-

tias are blooming but not

growing when purchased

for the holidays, fertil-

izer 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.

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 orange-colored 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, burn-ing sunset orange like never before, it can even be used for Halloween decoration. Better yet, it holds for Thanks-giving and is still going strong at Christmas.

8 ‘WHITESTAR’

Pink was the first non-red poinsettia color to become popu-lar, 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.

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.

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 poin-settia starts to show color early, and the plant maintains a sturdy, upright posture.

6 8

97


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

Photo ExhibitThis year, for the fi rst

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 magnifi cence, grandeur, and uniqueness of these

extraordinary specimens and help reveal their stories.

See more images in the November 2010

issue of American Photo.

Since its inception in 2003, the Landslide initiative has spotlighted more than 150

signifi cant at-risk parks, gardens, horticultural features, and working landscapes.

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

Every Tree Tells a Story

Photo by Bob H

ower

Landslide 2011 > Call for Nominations

www.tclf.org/landslide Deadline: March 31, 2011

Aoyama Tree

Los Angeles, CA

Arborland Old Growth Tree Farm

Milliken, CO

Tulip Poplar

Tudor Place, Washington, D.C.

Cummer Oak

Cummer Museum of Art, Jacksonville, FL

Sycamore Row

Ames, IA

Olmsted Parks and Parkways

Louisville, KY (Pictured)

Boxed Pines

Weymouth Heights, Weymouth, NC

Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees

Branch Brook Park, Newark, NJ

Elms of East Hampton

East Hampton, NY

Black Oak Tree

Katewood, Bratenahl, OH

Río Piedras Ficuses

San Juan, PR

Commonwealth Avenue Mall

Boston, MA

The Cultural Landscape Foundation

P R E S E N T I N G S P O N S O R

A D D I T I O N A L S U P P O R T

living green

The dining terrace at the Ross home affords

an ideal view of the meadow garden.


She didn’t want a geodesic dome, a manicured landscape, or wild-life 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 mini-mum 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 princi-pal 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 synchro-nistic 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 trans-formed 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

Proving GroundA homestead in rural Pennsylvania becomes a standard-bearer for sustainable stylesToRy by JENNy ANDREWs PhoToGRAPhy by Rob CARDILLo

At the entrance, grasses and sedges create a soft, green

backdrop for the orange-tinged,

rough-textured trunks of river birch

trees.

When Cecilia Ross, the wife of Pennsylvania state representative Chris Ross, laid out her require-ments for a new house and garden in the horse country of southeastern Pennsylvania, the guide-lines were simple: to get off the electrical grid, put the garden close at hand, and keep mainte-nance idiotproof.


living green

and Alderson also heeded old principles of good sit-ing 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 tis-sue for the site, relating the newly built elements to the neighboring agricultural and wild proper-ties. Alderson, along with landscape designer Chris Pugliese, who acted as the project manager, accom-plished 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 home-stead 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 construc-tion; he sculpted excess soil into an earthen ramp andrecycled the concrete from the old swimming pool into a base for the driveway. Throughout the process he also remained sensitive to the garden’s relation-ship 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 pub-lic 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

1

3

➊ Before the project began, the property was a barren land-

scape 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-coun-try 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 plant-

ing of Sedum ‘Autumn Fire’ softens the edges and coral hon-

eysuckle (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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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, par-ticularly 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 chal-lenging, especially when it came to staying ahead of the weeds (like invasive, nonnative thistle, which

blows in from nearby fields), Cecilia says the trans-formation 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 midwin-ter 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

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 them-selves. 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

the meadow garden is resplendent in its

late-summer glory, with black-eyed susan, Joe-pye

weed and Eupatorium hyssopifolium in full bloom.

Making a MeadowOnce 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, depend-ing 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,

there is a good selection of spe-cies, and they are available year-round. But it is difficult to control placement, the germina-tion rate won’t be 100 percent, weed control will be labor inten-sive, 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 com-bination can lend diversity. Installing plants of “backbone” species can establish structure and bring instant gratification. Then seeds can be sowed among the plants.

To see more of this garden, go togARDENDESIgN.COm/ROSSgARDEN


26 26

STORY BY DAMARIS COLHOUN ■ PHOTOGRAPHY BY TODD COLEMAN

GARDENER’S GIFT GUIDE

Luxury Digs Hermès, the

French fashion

house known for

its handbags and

scarves, also sup-

plies the gardener

with a bit of style:

hand-forged

stainless steel,

cherrywood-han-

dled tools (set of

pitchfork, dibble,

and trowel, $345),

and cotton canvas

Demeter garden-

ing gloves. $310.

Available at all

Hermès stores;

for locations, visit

usa.hermes.com

The Constant Gardener

Avid gardeners

can never have

too many hats to

protect themselves

from the sun. With

black stitching

detail, this braided

raffi a hat travels

nicely and has a

UPF of 50+. $48.

shopterrain.com

28

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

Artful Botany Help out an urban-dwelling, blossom-loving

friend. These brassy, modern fl owers brighten darkened corners

and bring pizzazz to empty walls. $45 to $85.

jaysonhomeandgarden.com

The Collector

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

Northern Zones

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

Early Riser

�

�

�

�

29

A Gardening Legend Austin-based artist

Leah Duncan has deco-

rated trays, coasters, note

cards, and runners for

Teroforma. Named Wild-

flowers + Powerlines, the

collection was inspired

by Lady Bird Johnson’s

campaign for national

beautification, which, in

the 1960s, saw sweep-

ing banks of wildflowers

planted alongside U.S.

highways. Six coasters,

$45. teroforma.com

Magical Thinking Mixing various

colors of stone-

ware clay, Berke-

ley-based sculptor

Marcia Donahue

shapes, fires,

and carves lively

clusters of acorns.

$27.50 to $37.50.

415-864-2251.

livinggreen

.com

Impressive Greetings Yee-Haw Industries in Knoxville, TN,

sells a variety of hand-printed note cards

with a “Farmer’s Market” theme, pro-

duced with its collection of antique letter-

presses. All cards and their envelopes are

printed on recycled paper. A miscella-

neous set of five is $20. Several diffierent

selections are available.

yeehawindustries.com

32

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.

All-Weather Birder’s Journal (Rite in the Rain), $12, shopterrain.comThe Dirt Cheap Green Thumb Book (Sto-rey 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 Gar-dening 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 spin-

ach, and Chervena Chujski peppers. $24. shopterrain.com

Winter Reading

33

History Buff

When Carl

Friedrich Philipp

von Martius,

a professor of

botany, and

Johann Baptist

von Spix, a zoolo-

gist, 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

Italy InspIred

stOry By Cara GreenBerG phOtOGraphy By rOBIn hIll

A South FloridA lAndScApe by SAnchez & MAddux

iS reSplendent with old-world chArM

Arches cut out of massive Cuban laurel hedges are a deco-

rative and functional leitmotif throughout the property.

36

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Terry Rakolta has no trou-ble reeling off words to describe what she desired

for her South Florida waterfront property, a wedge-shaped half-acre mostly swallowed up by a Mediterranean-style villa. “I wanted charming, romantic, mys-terious, 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 Euro-pean 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 north-ern Italy’s lake district. The

eventual result was an exten-sive 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, depend-ing 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 prob-lem since the early days, when the new house was surrounded by a “moonscape,” with not a sin-gle tree.

1.Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy, France A few years before

creating Louis XIV’s

park at Versailles,

landscape archi-

tect André Le Nôtre

participated in the

design of this mile-and-a-half-long 17th-

century garden, which was the dominant

structure of a great complex of water basins

and canals, fountains, gravel walks, and pat-

terned parterres. Sanchez describes the

garden succinctly: “Grandeur—completely

over the top.” vaux-le-vicomte.com

TOP 4 INSPIRATIONAL GARDENS

37

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 pro-posed 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 charac-ter 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 for-mally 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 enter-taining, says Rakolta: “I like to set tables on the grass.” Paved with coquina, a locally quarried, pale-colored stone, and topped by a bougainvillea-clad pergola, the loggia could very well be some-where 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 ele-vation here, says Maddux, an expert on rain forest plants who has worked with Sanchez since 1980. “The terrace drops from

2.Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England Sanchez loves the

“broad sweep and

scope” of the work

of Capability Brown,

the landscape archi-

tect commissioned

by the fourth Duke of Devonshire to trans-

form 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 fea-

tures, including the Cascade, in which water

flows over 24 stone steps, and the Seahorse

and Willow Tree Fountains, as well as a clas-

sical temple, were spared. chatsworth.org

39

Clad in bougainvillea, a per-gola tops the dining loggia.

The homeowner also likes to set tables on the lawn.

40

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

41

Peace lilies surround a stone rill and fountain designed by Terry Rakolta,

the homeowner, in collaboration with Jorge Sanchez, in a “jungly” area ap-

propriated from a former driveway.

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

43

3.Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Pioneering land-

scape architect Beatrix

Farrand’s most nota-

ble work, accomplished

between 1922 and 1940,

was closely modeled on

Italian Renaissance gardens. Formal terraces step

down a steep slope, dissolving into more natural-

istic effects toward the creek that runs along the

bottom of the estate. “Farrand had an incredible

eye for detail,” notes Sanchez. doaks.org

4.Generalife, Granada, Spain “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

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 sym-metry and careful balance of the more formal waterfront areas give way to a naturalistic style.

Closing off part of the origi-nal 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 mag-nolia 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 “rhododen-dron 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 pal-ace (whose origins date to the 9th century), with its “placid pools, squirts of water, and little private spaces,” among his inspi-rations for the Rakolta property. Andalusian gardens are histori-cally designed to “draw the eye,” as Sanchez says, offering tanta-lizing 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,

PAGE 70

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

Jack Frost: Master GardenerSTORY 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 lati-tude 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 flirta-tion, 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 seri-ous frost. In anticipation of its inevitable arrival, I dig the dahl-ias 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 insu-lating 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 foli-age 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 mem-ories of seasons past, much as gardeners tend to do even today. My mother, who taught me to gar-den, 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 glitter-ing 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- a

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Degrees of FrostMaybe we should think of frost not as a great destroyer, but as something more akin to, say, rain or shade. We moni-tor 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 catego-rized by its effect on plants: In a light freeze the tempera-ture 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 blos-soms, 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 firstkilling frost to determine veg-etable planting dates, check out the average frost-date map in the Farmer’s Alma-nac (farmersalmanac.com/weather/2007/02/14/average-frost-dates), which chronicles the normal averages for the first and last frosts around the country. Be aware, however, that there’s a 50 percent possi-bility of frost occurring earlier or later than these dates. Frostdates, though based on harddata, are really just a conve-nient way to look at seasonalweather 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.

Frost is a beautiful assassin. One wintry morning, we wake to a gar-den 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.

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

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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).

51

“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

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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 frostis brief, plants can bounce back, but if it lasts sev-eral 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?

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 gar-den 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.

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.

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

53

Our “A-list” pArty experts shOw yOu hOw tO mAke

yOur hOlidAy tAble the tAlk Of the tOwn

sTORy By WIllIam l. HamIlTOn ■ PHOTOGRaPHy By mICHaEl KRaUs

pOwer flOwers

When Nicholas Apps, direc-

tor 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 insti-

tutions. We asked for their

favorite floral designers and

made our own calls. They

created six arrangements for

the home, exclusively for

Garden Design.

54

➎

➌

➋

➊

➏

➍

Stark, whose clients include Rachael Ray, Tiff any &

Co., and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, cre-

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 clip-

art collar, giving the vase an inexpensive antique look

that you can change at will.

David Stark Design & Production

55

Materials include: ➊Ranunculus ➋ rex begonia ➌ drumstick allium blossoms ➍ minia-

ture 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.

➐

➓

➑

➒

56

➊

➌

➋

➊

57

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.

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 din-

ing 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.

Banchet Flowers

➏

➎

➍

58

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.

B. Using your largest branches first, build a form and sil-houette that you like. Thompson favors asymmet-rical shapes, with some branches hanging down toward the table and some reach-ing 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 sur-face of the leaves or dangle below the arrange-ment. Then add the most delicate elements, like grasses and flow-ers, filling in and extending beyond the leaves in a spray.

➊

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 rel-

atively 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 par-

ticularly elegant for New Year’s Eve.

59

➋

➎

➌

➍

Emily Thompson, whose clients include the

Horticultural Society of New York, based her

arrangement on a belief that humble materi-

als 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.

Emily Thompson Flowers

60

➌

➋

➊

6161

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

SUBSTITUTIONS: Other seed pods, berries, or succulents would work to bring

texture and shape to the arrangement. Van Vliet recommends dark-colored dahl-

ias 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.➑

➐

➏

➍

➎

Remco van Vliet, whose clients include

Ralph Lauren and the Metropolitan

Museum of Art, created an arrange-

ment largely based on texture: the use of

many textures in the same family of col-

ors lends peace to the eye, rather than

the chaos typical of grander arrange-

ments, a strategy that van Vliet equates

with a painter’s technique. As a fi nish-

ing 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.

Van Vliet & Trap

➋

Lewis Miller, whose clients include Gucci and the New York Public

Library, created an arrangement based on the winter-forest associa-

tions 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 ped-

estals of tree-branch sections. Most of the elements can be found

easily at local fl ower shops, garden centers, and craft stores.

LMD New York Lewis Miller Design

➊

➌

63

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 fi replace logs to create the can-

dle pedestals.

B. Cut the candle pedestals to the desired heights.

Line the pine box with plastic—a heavy-duty gar-bage bag cut to fi t is fi ne—and

fi ll with Oasis fl o-ral foam, which will support the

arrangement. It is available at craft

stores or from online sources.

Start by arranging around the perim-

eter of the box, to conceal the

edges of the con-tainer. Continue to fi ll in the cen-

ter, varying height to create depth

and movement.

C. Wrap the pillar candles with gros-

grain ribbon and fasten with pins. Wrap the ribbon

with natural rope, such as linen

twine or raff a, for a textural, organic

contrast.

➍

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-on-

red 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.

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, har-vested 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.

groundbreaker

HEIRLOOM ACTIVIST


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 holi-day reflects much of what she has been doing in the ground, in print, and in public for three decades.

While scientists and agricul-tural 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

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 NorthShore of Long Island. With both parents (her mother a gardener herself) offering encour-

agement, she sprouted seeds in a greenhouse, grew tomatoes, corn, melons, squash, and other vegeta-bles, and planted an orchard and grape vines. Later, while work-ing as a clinical psychologist in upstate New York, she always man-aged 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 pro-duce hauled in 38 blue ribbons, making her the fair’s grand-champion winner, thanks in large part, she says, to “mastering the growing

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.”

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


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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 vari-eties 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 durabil-ity 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, collec-tor, and advocate” of heirloom edibles. As Goldman says, “Fowler’s and Mooney’s warn-ings 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

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 mel-ons, 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.

groundbreaker

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


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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 recep-tion and dinner—organized with the help of advocates like Amy Goldman, and farm-to-table movement visionaries—to raise money for GrowNYC’s New Farmer Development

Project, which supports and educates immi-grants 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 nutritionthrough 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.

Heirlooms on the Block

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.

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groundbreaker

Melons for the Passionate Grower came out in 2002 to instant acclaim, garnering such recog-nition 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 sub-lime taste and fascinating histories are only part of the reason to grow heirloom varieties: “We need their germplasm,” she writes. “With-out 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 Pump-kins, 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, pub-lished 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 supermar-ket 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 tan-talizing 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 Heir-loom 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 his-tory 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


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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 espe-cially 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 col-loquially 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 continu-ing 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

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 heir-looms that can form the basis of a next book based on her heart and hands. See Sourcebook for more information, page 70

above: Using plain backgrounds and dramatic lighting, photographer victor schrager posedmelons 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 characteris-tic “outie belly button at its blossom end.”

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sourcebook

Emily ThompsonEmily Thompson Flowers323-896-1494emilythompsonflowers.com

Remco van VlietVan Vliet & Trap212-352-3385 vanvlietandtrap.com

groundbreaker / p. 64Amy Goldman rareforms.com

The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table: Recipes, Portraits, and History of the World’s Most Beautiful FruitBloomsbury, 2008

The Compleat Squash:A Passionate Grower’s Guide to Pumpkins, Squashes and GourdsArtisan, 2004

Melons for the Passionate GrowerArtisan, 2002

Seed Savers Exchangeseedsavers.org

one shot / p. 76GARdEn dESiGnERRandy Thueme designSan Francisco, CA415-495-1178 randythuemedesign.com

FuRniTuRETerrain at Styer’sGlen Mills, PA610-459-2400styers.shopterrain.com or shopterrain.com

features• p. 34“iTAly inSpiREd”GARdEn dESiGnERSJorge Sanchez and phil MadduxSanchez & Maddux, inc.Palm Beach, FL561-655-9006sanchezandmaddux.net

• p. 52“powER FlowERS”FloRAl dESiGnERSBanchet JaiglaBanchet Flowers212-989-1088 banchetflowers.com

lewis MillerlMd new york lewis Miller design212-614-2734lmdfloral.com

david Starkdavid Stark design and production718-534-6777davidstarkdesign.com

plant palette / p. 16“poinSETTiAS ThAT pop”plAnTSEcke RanchTo the tradeinfo@pauleckepoinsettias .com

Syngenta FlowersTo the trade800-344-7862syngentaflowersinc.com

living green / p. 22GARdEn dESiGnERJonathan AldersonJonathan Alderson landscape ArchitectsWayne, PA610-341-9925jonathanalderson.com

ARchiTEcTMatthew MogerMoger Mehrhof ArchitectsWayne, PA484-343-2099mmarch.net

plAnTSnorth creek nurseriesWholesale onlyLandenberg, PA877-326-7584northcreeknurseries.com

fresh / p. 8 “down By ThE RiVERSidE”GARdEn dESiGnERMichael Van Valkenburgh AssociatesCambridge, MA617-864-2076Brooklyn, NY718-243-2044mvvainc.com

pARK inFoRMATionbrooklynbridgepark.orgbrooklynbridgeparknyc.org

“An ARTiSTic lEGAcy in FlowERS”BouTiQuEFleurs Bella55 East 11th StreetNew York, NY 10003646-602-7037fleursbella.com

“SuBuRBAn REVoluTion”conTEST inFoRMATionJames Rose center for landscape Architectural Research and designRidgewood, NJ201-446-6017jamesrosecenter.org

postal information Garden Design, Number 169 (ISSN 0733-4923). Published 7 times per year (January/February, March, April, May/June, July/August, September/Octo-

ber, 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 repro-

duced 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

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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: [email protected].

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 Man-

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2010 Gift Catalog Is Now Available

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one shot COPPER TONEIn a San Francisco garden, a wall of woven metallic strips doubles as screening and sculpture

Think 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 inter-lace 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 invit-ing 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

sTORy by JENNy aNDREWs


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

On the fl oor 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.

garden design 2010.11-12

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