Shopping The Yard

Rob shops the yard for the holidays.  This means he is tromping through the fields, the gardens, the roadside ditches, the 7 acres at Branch and the neighborhood park for inspiration for the holidays.  That which nature discarded, the perennials, annuals and roadside weeds that never got cleaned up or cut back-grist for his mill.  These steel plant climbers got covered in grapevine and brown corded lights and light covers-have you seen them?  The combination of the sturdy plant climber, the textural vine, and the light-they say Happy Holidays from the garden.   

There are lots of perennials I have no problem passing by, but I do like butterfly weed.  The orange flower heads beloved of gardeners and butterflies alike are modestly good looking.  The stout stems and big leaves make the plants a standout in an uncultivated field populated with grasses and Queen Annes lace.  The seed pots are spectacular in shape and color; that celery green is delicious. 

But by far and away my favorite state of butterfly weed being is the mature seed pods.  The seeds in the pod, each one attached to its own private kapok aircraft, hopes to become airborne, fly, and eventually land in a spot friendly to germination.  When I had land, one highlight of my gardening fall was the launching of the butterfly weed seeds.  Rob collected these stems for me from the far side of the guard rail on the exit ramp for Telegraph.  To preserve them in this state just preceding liftoff-a little artist’s fixative.  What fixes the pastel to the page will keep these seeds from flying all over the room every time the heat comes on.  This fixative works with other seedheads as well.  

Butterfly weed is not all that Rob finds in the ditch.  A steel hoop from a farm wheel becomes a light ring.  A galvanized bucket that no longer holds water can certainly hold dry floral foam.  A garden shed is a good place to find tools and materials that might have a new life used in a decorative way.  A too rusted pair of pruners or shears, the old wood garden stakes you haven’t the heart to throw away,  the leather holster for your pruners that has never been used-these things have decorative possibilities. 

Multiple strand jute rope, makes a fine bow or tie-back for some holiday garland. A fresh garland from market can be made more generous and personal with the addition of twigs, cutting from a yew or holly, echinacea seed heads or rose hips, tufts of rosemary or moss. Would that fresh fruit would last outside the entire season, but dried orange slices and lemon wedges do just fine. Marlene had them at the Oakland County Farmer’s market last Saturday.   

Nature has her own idea of decorative.  The deeply furrowed bark of this old willow is a home to a mature tutu of climbing hydrangea. I might like this seasonal display better than the summer-their living arrangement is beautiful to see.   No amount of engineering on my part could create this-but I do have the option of making a note to plant a tree with hydrangea first thing come spring.  I doubt the hydrangea would mind one bit, should you have the idea to snip a few branches for a wreath. 

There are times when I regret I turned in my five acres in for a city lot.  I would guess that the Ilex Verticillata still there is loaded with berries.  The advantage to my winter berry?  No wading through the swampy ground to cut them. The rosa multiflora way at the wild back of that property-I made many a wreath from their long supple red, green and red violet canes.  Ditto the rosa rubrifolia, and rosa complicata.  The London Plane has no doubt shed giant pieces of bark by now.  I am sure there are abandoned bird’s nests there, like always.  The gold finch nests-tiny and incredibly beautifully made. The apple tree twigs were perfect for making small tabletop trees; the multiple spurs make for plenty of places to hang little ornaments.  The poplar tree branches are equally spectacular for their smooth grey-green bark, and big green buds formed in anticipation of next spring.  �
A park down the street from the shop is littered with thousands of white pine cones.  Their peachy cream color is distinctive, as is their long narrow and curving shape.  The resin you will no doubt get on your hands smells like the holidays-and I am sure the Parks and Rec people will be happy that you lent a hand to their cleanup efforts. 

  

The bleached stems of ornamental grasses make great decoration, although I spray the seedheads.  If you have grown chasmanthium, you know it will seed anywhere and everywhere-the seed heads drop at the slightest provocation.  A little fixature will keep them glued on, but still dangling like a charm. 

The fruiting body of this fungus spells terrible trouble for this tree.  By the time these appear, little can be done to cure the infection.  But deadly can also be beautiful.  I have quite a collection of bracket fungus; they dry rock hard.  Some are decades old-the appearance has not changed one bit. 


This bunch of cirrus dusty miller looks much the same as when it was alive; the leaves have dried a silvery, felted white.  One client for whom I planted these in the fall-his pots look great, although I am sure the dusty miller succumbed to the frost long ago.  There are so many materials to be had, should you shop your garden.  Switch on your visual vacuum cleaner-you never know what you might pick up.

Holiday Diorama

 

I have one room in the shop from which I removed the solid roof, and installed the roof of an abandoned glass house.  Many years later, 15 creeping fig plants have completely covered the walls. In early spring this space provides protection for tender plants.  The summer sun shining down and through the glass roof endows this space with heat.  This hot space encourages the fig, tender begonias, tropical ferns-not to mention all of the gardeners that appreciate this growing space.  A concrete fountain built from an old French design sits on top of the one place we could not remove the concrete floor next to the wall for the fig; an old concrete waste oil tank sits below the surface.  So we built over it; the sound of the water in the space is great. I have water, light and plants in this room, year round.      

When the growing season closes, Rob makes the moves it takes to move on. How can this green wall be transformed?  He invariably has a big idea I do not see coming.  Hundreds of white birch sticks have been stashed in the garage for better than a month-waiting to be transformed into a birch forest holiday diorama.  If you are wondering if we really talk this way-holiday diorama-the answer is yes.  What you give a name to helps to endow an idea with an identity.  Brooklyn Botanical Garden is a name that says science; La Foce speaks to romance and magic.  

Chocolate terra cotta squares-they are Rob’s idea for a home for the birch.  How can we get those heavy branches to sit up straight?   My landscape superintendent Steve Bernard suggested Rob might sink those birch branches in washed sand.  This worked perfectly.  Every birch stick is standing tall; anyone wanting a birch stick for there own holiday will have no problem lifting out the sticks of their choice.  Steve made his contribution to the display early on. 


Rob knew to buy stout white birch poles, silver snowflakes in various materials and sizes, and snowballs.  Putting them together in this particular way involves introuducing the materials to each other, and to a space.  This is a romantic description of what is really about persistence.  He hauls materials all over the place until he sees something that he likes.  So much of successful design involves persistence and patience. 


The relationship of the materials is easy to believe; where there are snowflakes, snow balls cannot be far behind.  A visually successful arrangement is believable.  I do have a neighbor down the street with a life size lighted palm tree in her front yard-this would not be for me.  The contrast of texture, shape, and mass is pleasing. The white against the dark green of the fig wall looks good.

At the last minute, Rob had Catherine add stars to the mix. How this wall looks now could not be more unlike its summer appearance.  The dramatic change is enchanting.  Every person who sees it takes something away from it that is all their own. I had a lengthy discussion with one person about the cultural requirements of Himalayan white barked birch.  Another person planned to use a birch stick as a rod over her kitchen window, and hang ornaments from it like a valance.  Yet another planned to mass snowballs and snowflakes in a white washed vintage box on her front porch.  Our discussion was primarily about how she would light it.   

Of course we needed some lighting; daylight savings time means the dark comes early now.  White and chartreuse light garlands warm up the space on a cold and gloomy afternoon.  A midwestern summer garden can be sunny from dawn to very late in the day.  A winter garden is divided between day and night, and always about not so many sunny days.  A great holiday display takes lighting into consideration. 


Anyone can garden in the winter.  There are plenty of materials that can be arranged in those pots that held tree ferns over the summer. A favorite bench can be lit from the front with a spot light, or from below with strings of lights strewn on the ground.  Decorating a garden with holiday or winter lighting is an alternative type of gardening, but gardening none the less.  There are those gardeners that are relieved when a hard freeze puts an end to the season.  There is something attractive about putting the spade and pruners away for a while, but I like to keep on gardening.

Winter Green

KurnickWinter (2)
An evergreen is nature’s equivalent of an engineering miracle.  Evergreen needles are long, narrow, thick and waxy; their shape evolved specifically in response to one thing-the conservation of moisture.  Evergreens cannot take up water once all the available water in the soil freezes.  The needles thus have a minimum amount of surface area from which moisture can evaporate; such is how they stay green all winter. Even when cut, the needles stay green a long time.  Trees cut in August destined to be Christmas trees are still green in December, though they are beginning to dry.  Cut greens play a crucial role in our winter displays.  White pine has a gracefully informal look.  We stuff our forms with the branches curved side up, as they are pliable in stem, and soft in needle.  The very sculptural centerpiece in this urn rests on its pillow of white pine.  

2007 Payne, Lisa HOLIDAY 12-3-07 (10)Mixing greens makes it possible to hedge your bet. Cut evergreens are best in cold temperatures; the cold further slows the rate of water evaporation.  Though all the cedar species have attractive flat scaly needles, they are the first to dessicate if the late fall takes a warm turn.  Their loss of color from evaporation is less noticeable when they have more lively companionship.  Mixed greens add textural interest interest in volume.  This mix of Douglas fir, white pine, cedar and silver fir illustrates clearly how variable a natural green color can be.  

KurnickWinter (10) Fir species are instantly identifiable. The needles are arranged in the half round; the branches are flat on their undersides.  Douglas fir is one of my favorite evrgreen plants.  They will tolerate a little shade, and they are very disease and insect resistant.  They are commonly available as Christmas trees; their soft needles make trimming a tree easy on the hands.  As cut branches, they are remarkably long lasting.  Their bright medium green makes them a good choice for arrangements viewed from far away.  It is not unusual for me to clean out winter pots in April where the Douglas fir branches are still green. 

2008 Egren WINTER 11-19-08 (2)

Cut boxwood is a great choice for more formal arrangements.  As boxwood is a broad leaf evergreen, I wiltpruf the cut stems after I arrange them.  This liquid waxy emulsion helps to further slow the loss of water from the leaves.  Milky when applied, it dries clear.  Research has shown that late fall plantings of boxwood, yews and evergreen trees benefit greatly from a treatment of wiltpruf.   

Creed 2 (4)Silver fir branches are an icy blue color; it is all the more attractive paired with red.  These spheres are made from giant wood shavings that are dyed red.  The color is remarkable stable outdoors; there is little in the way of fading even in full sun.  We test any materials we think might go outdoors, to be sure they can withstand wet weather.

Lobsinger (2)Berried juniper, and noble fir contrast in texture, and compliment one another in color. Natural eucalyptus pods are quite blue, and weather to a soft grey. Chocolate and cream ting stacks complete the ensemble. 

ForbesWinter (1)This dried mood moss is soaked with a spray of moss dye before it goes outdoors.  In full sun, this treatment may need to be repeated during the course of the season.  The wood dowel trunk of this winter topiary is covered in mountain reed of a color similar to the rusty age on these vintage English painted steel boxes.  The top of the box is stuffed with a variegated boxwood known in the florist’s trade as oregonia.

2007 Kurnick Holiday 12-4-07 (11)
No matter which form or color of evergreen appeals to you, they all perform a great service during our winter months-in or out of the ground.

Shopwrecked

Nov 5 011Though I shopped this past January for the holiday, and most everything was here this past August, I am never ready for what it really takes to change seasons.  Have you ever?  Even the corgis have that slightly appalled look on their faces.  I am certain that the 10,000 square feet I have to deal with is secretly multiplying in the dead of night. It seems that everything needs to get moved-at least twice. Spaces have to be cleared-and of course cleaned-before they can be re-imagined. Sometimes it seems like my imagination will never ignite.  When that everything involves stone, steel and lead, I have been known to daydream about being in the stamp-collecting business.

Nov 5 004Rob likes everything imaginable in front of him all at once. The disaster that is his desk-loaded with messages, invoices, catalogues, notes, and all manner of other bits, spreads to the floorspace like a slime mold on steroids. This week he has been working away on the last of my leftover Halloween candy; the combination of his blood sugar level and his natural propensity to disorder defies description.  Suffice it to say, I am living in a universe tending towards dissolution.    

Nov 5 005The greenhouse fernery, so gorgeous a week ago, is now bulging with all those things that have lost their homes, and have no place to go.  An impossibly delicate terra cotta pot with applied roses from Espace Buffon in Paris is one of a hundred fragile items crowding my office conference table.  What floor space is still available makes walking through any room, objects in tow, nervewracking.  Should anyone out there know of a small scale hovercraft rated for interior use, please let me know.  

Nov 5 013The rear portion of the shop is a cavernous garage-at least it seemed that way when I bought the building in 1995. Today every square foot has something going on, and not in any particular order.  The arrangement of boxes so neatly shelved and stored has become completely unglued.  The corgis treat this space like a formula one course, fraught with hairpin turns and unexpected obstructions.  Great fun for them-not so much for me.  This space needs to be shovelled out soon,  such that we have room for the crew and materials necessary to construct of all our winter and holiday decor. 

Nov 5 021Progress has been made; certain big gestures are in place. Every box I unpack, I hope I remember what I was thinking when I bought ,works out.  My idea of holiday has everything to do with materials and references to the garden.  This part is simple. It takes a great deal of concentration to shop materials from 30 or better vendors such that you end up with a cohesive collection; this is only the beginning. Remembering what I had in mind over 10 months ago-even my notes don’t ring any bells.  The materials pile up faster than I can do display; just this morning a semi truckload of twigs arrived.  At this moment, the driveway is impassable.    

Nov 5 015
Though this scene smacks of a storage facility whose loading in has never been accompanied by any loading out, my clients seem to like this phase.  They amiably poke through everything, and have no problem asking to have a promising box opened for them-thank heavens. They even go so far as to say how beautiful everything looks-I think they feel sorry for me. This process takes a month anyway, start to finish.  I learned a long time ago, if you do not set a deadline, you will never be done. 

Nov 5 010Next week Thursday November 12th is our deadline.  We host an evening holiday preview and shopping soiree for our clients.  Our 4pm to 9pm event ran until 11:30 last year.  We serve a little something to eat and drink; lots of people come, and we have a great time.  We aim for picture perfect,  we are 6 days out and counting. I don’t see how we will be ready this minute, but somehow we will get there. Stop in, should you have a chance.

Nov 5 022
Now, where was I?