Detroit Garden Works | Deborah Silver & Co.

Hellebores: Recent Forms

I have only been growing helleborus orientalis in my garden for 10 years or so. Why I was so late adding them to me garden is a mystery. Perhaps they were done blooming by the time I started haunting nurseries for plants. I may have missed them. Perhaps the time it took a hellebore to grow into a decent sized blooming plant was too long to make commercial production widespread. Whatever the reason, I am a fan now. They are sturdy plants with thick leather like foliage. Many of them are hardy in zone 4, which means very hardy. They thrive in light to medium shade, and like alkaline soil-perfect for my yard. In a mild winter, the foliage is evergreen. The color of the petals eventually fade, but they hold onto the stalk for a long time after the flower is spent. In June my plants will look like they are covered with green flowers. My plants are a strain grown from seed called Royal Heritage mix. This mix has been around for a fairly long time, and produces somewhat muted flowers from dark purple to pink, white and green.
Hellebores increase in size slowly, so the prices for good size plants can be considerable. The flowers emerge on leafless stalks in early spring-late March or early April in my yard. The new season’s leaves come from the ground after the flowering cycle is over. They are long lived, and make dense clumps some 18 inches tall or so. They are willing seeders, should you have the mind to grow them on. The species helleborus orientalis features nodding flowers, meaning they face down. You would have to get down on the ground to look up into their faces, or cut the flowers and float them in a bowl.

One can now find varieties with yellow flowers-shocking, this development. The first yellow hellebore I ever saw in person-I could not take my eyes off of it. This development was only the beginning. Breeders in Japan, England, Canada and the US (and no doubt in many other countries) are breeding plants with double flowers. Spots. picotee forms. unusual colors. Helleborus Black Oddyssey is just that-an inky black. Helleborus Ivory Price is a strong grower, and features flowers that face up. Michigan hybridizer Chris Hansen is responsible for breeding a breathtakingly beautiful group of hellebores known as “Winter Thrillers”. Improved flower color, flower size, plant vigor, and foliage are the trademark of these plants. He has been breeding hellebores for over 15 years; his newer introductions are stunning. There is a wealth of information about hellebores on line now. If you are interested, make a cup of coffee, and explore.

I have never been so much a fan of double flowers. The singles just appeal to me more. This is a preference that is being challenged by the new varieties of double hellebores. A flower such as this is very hard to pass by. A fan of double bloodroot might well be taken with this hellebore. Many of the newer named hellebores are available via the technology of tissue culture. Helleborus orientalis hybrids of old were all seed strains. No technology existed to exactly reproduce a particular plant. Not that I do not treasure seed strains of hellebores. There is always the chance of once in a lifetime spectacular plant. No one discusses the beauty of seed strains better than Carolyn from Carolyn’s Shade Garden.

A love for seed strains of hellebores implies a gardener that can successfully bring on seedlings or grow successfully from seed (I am thinking Joseph Tychonievich who grows for Arrowhead Alpines in Michigan)-or that gardener who is intrigued by the prospect of a seedling that is yet to flower. Not your thing? Lots of hellebores are available true to name-meaning they are being reproduced by tissue culture. I do have a few plants from my Royal heritage mix that are extraordinary in plant habit and bloom-others are not so swell. This named cultivar, Anna’s Red, is an outstanding plant. It was named after Anna Pavord, UK gardener and writer.

No matter what you might fancy, there is probably a hellebore that will appeal to you. Hellebores, in my opinion, are part of that group of plants that I call fancy plants. Fancy, as in new hybrids of hosta. Fancy, as in unusual. Like the Rembrandt tulips-although their news is now centuries old. Lots of rare and gorgeous plants that gardeners are prone to become besotted over are not such great growers. But I feel convinced that the new hybrids of hellebores are rugged plants. I feel confident in saying any effort you make to grow them will be rewarded.

I have never seen one that did not make my heart pound a little faster. This single flower with an anemone center-wow. Though I have always favored green or white single flowered hellebores, I see no good reason not to change my mind. Interested further? The book “Hellebores – A Comprehensive Guide”, written by C. Colston Burrell and Judith Knott Tyler is a classic. Judith’s nursery, Pine Knott Farms, is a major supplier of fine hellebores. Even a casual internet search will provide lots of information and sources for this stellar spring blooming perennial.

Rob always has a fresh idea for Detroit Garden Works. This winter has been so severe and so long, I doubt anyone will be turning over the dirt much in March. The freezing and snowy landscape notwithstanding, every gardener will be ready to talk plants the first day we hit 40 degrees. He has a plan for a big opportunity for some gardening conversation. In late March, we will have over 600 hellebores available for review and purchase. A helleborus Festivalis.

Every gardener has a big interest in plants. The plants are a bridge where every gardener of every persuasion might meet. That bridge is a place to be. A chance to move from where we are, given a little conversation and exchange, to where or how we might want to be gardening. We hope you are able to join us March 22nd and 23rd at Detroit Garden Works for a little taste of the spring to come.

A double pink hellebore might be just the thing to chase away the late winter blues.

Posted on: March 3, 2014 21 Comments

Filed Under: flowers, Plants, Detroit Garden Works, Picture This Tagged With: spring flowering perennials, helleborus orientalis hybrids, helleborus orientalis

The 2014 Gardening Season

Though nature had no plans to attend the opening of Detroit Garden Works today for the 2014 gardening season, the robins in the tree next door are here right on schedule. Rob says they look to be the fattest robins ever. I personally think they have their feathers fluffed out to the max-trying to defend themselves against the extreme cold. On the news this morning, the following. The combination of cold and snow this winter makes this the worst winter we have had for 130 years. This means that the oldest gardener in my zone is experiencing a record breaking and a particularly heart breakingly endless winter for the first time. This going on 64 year old gardener can attest to the accuracy of this statement. I have never.

Taking the 2013 version of Detroit Garden Works apart, repainting and cleaning, reinventing and redoing with all the new things for 2014 is a big job. Both of my landscape crews are instrumental in helping out the shop staff with this transformation. This means that both Steve and I have been there with Rob to plan and consider every move that gets made. Keeping up with the winter landscape design work for projects on deck for spring, with a big dose of Detroit Garden Works on the side means I have been really busy. This level of being busy helps to keep my mind off the winter that has engulfed us all. Though my landscape design practice is the love of my life, the shop is a close second. How so?

All of what Rob buys interests me. Containers, sculpture, fountains, tools are an integral part of gardening. But placing every element in a 10,000 square foot space in an interesting and well designed way is a challenge. But I am happy for the work-this greatly informs my landscape practice. I am dealing with objects big and small. Lots of colors. This line and that one. This shape that relates to that one. A garage full of pallets of objects I have never seen before all need to have a home, a scheme. Rob does the vast majority of the buying for the shop. It falls some to him, and a lot to me about how to present his collection. It is not so much different than designing a landscape for a particular property, and a particular client. Objects from many countries in February, each with their own shape, color, texture and mass ask for an arrangement that will please the eye. Making sense of a whole world of disparate objects can be exasperating, but it is a job I would not trade for any other.

Designing a landscape asks for everything a gardener has available to them. A love of the living earth. A plan to compost, which will enrich any planting. A plan to plant. Lots of energy and good will. Faith in one’s convictions. And a plan that personally expresses what that gardeners values and needs from their garden. A plan that is coherent. Dissonant shapes, forms, textures and colors all ask for some sense to be made. And sense can be made of those things in many different ways. How Rob puts a series of things together is very different than mine, as it should be. I can’t be privy to why he selected certain things, until I start to work with them. Even then, I may visualize them in a very different way. As much as I enjoy poking around the pallets, I more enjoy making a melody from a lot of different voices.

Surfaces really interest me. Some are shiny. Some are smooth and matte. Some are rough textured. Others are dark-some are light. One surface contrasted with another generates interest. What is happening near the ground level interests me as much as what is at eye level. Then there is that vast space overhead. My first moves in the shop always involve covering the walls, and populating the air space. Part of that had to do with staging the work. An empty room is the ideal place to navigate with a big ladder. Once that work is done, everything else is arranged to fit in the physical and visual space.

Anything that generates an interest in the garden is of interest to me. What I like is big and wide-a lot. On a good and rare day, it is deep. Any person who responds to the garden interests me, whether it comes via my landscape practice, or my shop. Any place that encourages people to garden is my idea of a good place. Rob and I both subscribe to the idea that a great garden shop ultimately should provide an experience of the garden.

I will confess I am tired out from the work of the past month. But this kind of tired is a good kind of tired. I was truly thrilled that Detroit Garden Works opened for the 2014 gardening season as usual March 1-even though our winter rages on. I am pleased we have been welcoming gardeners of every persuasion for 18 years, come March 29. We were happy to have gardeners gracing our gates today. Spring is a state of mind-is it not?

Rob’s buying trips to growers of hellebores all over the US and Canada means we have plants in our greenhouse now, with many more to come. The sight and smell of live and blooming plants is a sight for sore eyes. We have planned an event the third week of March-a Helleborus Festivalis. For every winter weary gardener who has another month of winter to go yet. We have missed all of you that visit our shop! See you soon.

Posted on: March 1, 2014 20 Comments

Filed Under: Garden Design, flowers, Detroit Garden Works, Spring Tagged With: helleborus, Garden Design, design

The Edge

We are on the edge of the end of a year. The furthest edge. In just a few hours, that year will be part of the past. There will be discussion-a retrospective. Some memories will be sentimental. It is easy to remember the roses, and gloss over the beetles. We are likewise on the edge of a new year. In a few hours, we will cross over the leading edge of a new year-to an unknown but greatly anticipated future. It is an interesting place to be-on the edge. Great design, no matter the discipline, tends to hover, and thrive there. Edgy may not describe my shining hour. I suspect I am just too old. But as a designer I am very interested in composition. Composition, in my opinion, is much ado about edges. These French glazed pots have beautiful edges. The top edge is compound. The sides are sleek and precisely contoured. The edge that meets the ground is generous and hefty. What I would plant in them has everything to do with the shape, size, color and decoration of the pot.

Composing seasonal plantings in pots is all about creating a world unique, complete, and believable, in a space notable for its sharply defined edges. A pot has a distinct shape. A top, a bottom, and 2 sides. The four sides frame an expression. Much like a frame contains a painting. Much like the composition of a painting has four edges. No matter whether you choose to respect or breach the edges, the treatment of the edges will dominate a certain part of the discussion. How I design a planting begins with the space in question. I have always wondered how the person who purchased this concrete pot with its companion dog chose to plant it. The top edge is abrupt, and unadorned. This pot could have plants draping over and down the sides-or not. Were the paws of the dog still visible? Did the dog appear to be enchanted by the fragrance of the flowers, or was he staring down a bug at eye level?

Containers with ornament and detail at the top edge may suffer from a mature planting that obscures that detail. Some pots demand visual respect of the edges. Were I to plant these containers, I would concentrate on plants that lift off. The visual relationship between the planting and the pot is a relationship worth exploring. These pots would look equally fine in a garden, unplanted. I did not plant any containers when I was young. I could barely afford to buy plants-much less containers. Everything I planted went in the ground. But even then, I was concerned about my composition. My gardens had edges. My grass had edges. I would frame some views, and disguise others.

I will confess I have always edged my beds. I would strike a flat shovel deep down on an edge, and toss the soil up into the bed. I liked making a clear decision about shape and direction – for better, or for worse. Any composition that was sloppy was unsatisfying. Every gardener has their own point of view, and I have mine. No matter how exuberant and wild the planting, the container holds it all together. This late 19th century French pot from Biot is a container of breathtaking beauty. If I were to plant it, I would go up. The rim is too beautiful to obscure. As strong as the rim edge is the slight foot at the bottom. I would place this pot on a plinth, no matter how slight, so that detail would not be lost.

This vintage stone campagna shaped urn is beautifully simple. Much is made of the top edge. The compound curvy shape and foot is hefty, yet graceful. Any pot is an expression of the garden ready to be more.

This pair of glazed stoneware pots made in Chicago in the 1930’s have generous rims. The body of the pots-low and wide. The square foot is large enough to visually support that width. Would I plant them low and very wide-yes. I respect the edges established by the maker. However I might compose plantings for these pots would be as much about the architecture of the pots as the horticulture.

Over the past 18 years, I have had the pleasure of an exposure to pots, containers, boxes, buckets, troughs, and urns of every description. I feel quite certain that part what the future holds involves containers the likes of which I have never seen before. I like that promise inherent to the future. Those people who made it their business to fashion a vehicle by which a small collection of plants can grow and prosper-I appreciate them. The range of shapes, styles and colors is astonishing. The containers I have chosen for my own garden are friendly to the period and architecture of my house. I favor bigger pots over small ones-I like having a lot of room to plant. A pot whose top is 30 inches across represents an embarrassment of riches in container planting space. That size space in my garden is a trifle. Given that my property is very small, I like gardening opportunities that seem large.

This giant enameled pot of French origin circa the 19th century-astonishing in its size. Buck did a great job of repairing it. Every year it is my pleasure to plant it for the summer, and the winter. Its edges are of a scale and shape that challenge me. In my favor? A container planting rules for but one season. You have another shot-next year.

These English cast stone urns are an invitation to a seasonal party. They are also large enough to comfortably contain the rootball of a good sized boxwood.

The pots hand made by Francesca del Re are of the toughest frostproof stoneware it has ever been my pleasure to meet. The design of the pots-surprisingly soft. The edges are forgiving. Plant away. This pot can take whatever dream you have the mind to dish out. A traditional container planting will be just as successful as a contemporary scheme. The edges of these pots are friendly, and forgiving. The planting will make the pot.

This antique English glazed pot manufactured by Doulton – who knows how a gardener might interpret this pot. A placement where the shape and decoration could be easily seen would be the first move worth making. It would be lovely on a plinth, or on a wall. The shape and decoration is bold. An oakleaf hydrangea might be just the plant for this pot.

By way of contrast, these massive and benign cast stone urns manufactured from a design by Frank Lloyd Wright, would handle almost any idea for planting you had in mind.

This is a picture of my most favorite seasonal container, ever. Italian terracotta is a personal favorite. The relationship of the container to the plants-as edgy as I am ever likely to get. This coming year, I will have another chance to compose and plant. How good does this sound? Happy New Year!