Detroit Garden Works | Deborah Silver & Co.

Behind The Scenes

The work involved in transforming Detroit Garden Works for the holidays and winter began last January. A week long intensive shopping trip was followed up with short side trips and lengthy decision making about what to order-this went on all spring long. We shop ahead, so we have what we want when the season turns. Our holiday revolves around a gardening point of view. Of course we have amaryllis. New this year are the vases made especially for growing amaryllis, and the glossy chartreuse hat boxes frosted in faux white amaryllis-a beautiful package for that gift of life inside-a single large aromatic bulb, brimming with the promise of holiday flowers.

No amount of advance planning prepares you for a client that needs a vastly overgown hedge of burning bush removed. I could not bear to throw all those mature branches away. Rob set a good many of them in this Belgian oak box, and trimmed the resulting tree for the holidays with ornaments and garland. This boxed tree occupies what I would guess is 144 square feet-the shop is almost 10,000 square feet. Ten times this space needs attention.

It takes several days to decorate my small house for the holidays-10,000 square feet needing display is a daunting task. Some people fuss about holiday decor in early November, but it takes many hands and many weeks behind the scenes to get everything ready. No matter what I buy for this holidays, I have an idea in mind-that idea asks for some detail. Display work is much about arranging any given object in such a way that what you loved about it so much to begin with is clearly expressed. These simple red-beaded wire trees-how airy, festive, and delicate. Displayed in tandem with a solidly cast and detailed sculpture from Garden Traditions-a good mix. Discovering what works well together is the fun of it. Unpacking and placing what seems like many thousands of small objects is the work of it.

What possessed me to buy four stained glass windows from a garden antiques dealer? The leaf shapes, the textured glass, the color-irresistable. I went on to do some considerable conservation on them-these windows are extraordinary, and were worth the expense. Someone will fall for them. In the meantime, a curtain of platinum garlands are weighted at their ends with glass icicles, and displayed in front of these windows. Indoors or out, glass drops, icicles and prisms can endow your winter with a lot of sparkle.

I have not one problem in the world with faux grass picks, or faux seed and berry stems. Should you ask, my idea of real is every gardener’s committment to their gardening life. Any gardener who collects and constructs a winter arrangement from both real and faux materials-that gesture is real. That creativity is real. The love of the garden is as real as real gets with me. I am all about horticulture, science, good gardening practices-and so on. But I want a winter holiday with a little theatre. These picks can help out with that.

I have to admit I value anything which reflects light in the winter season. Michigan goes grey early, and persists with that grey a long time. Lighting is a critically important factor in holiday display-as you can count on gloomy skies. This glittery-I am all for it. Chocolate and platinum-these two colors are great together. I could use this garland inside and out-I like that possibility. Though we have great ornaments for holiday trees, we do try to equally focus on materials that can be used outdoors.

Howard accompanies me, and stays close wherever I am working in the shop. He seems to know when I will be in a spot briefly, or for a long time. He is watching my face here-he knows I am trying to organize the opening gestures in this space. He has a shop dog’s incredible patience for the process.

My clients respond to any representation of a bird in the shop. Everyone who gardens respects and delights in the birds. From the geese to the hawks to the hummingbirds, the robins and the gold finches- and on to the cedar waxwings in transit-no small part of my feeling of success with my garden has to do with my bird population. I firmly intend that my landscape be a haven for any bird passing by. A glass or wood bird hung in my window reminds me of this. Birds at the holiday-essential.

Our outdoor display is changing over as well. Our stick stacks have arrived. Copper curly willow, yellow twig dogwood, black willow-these vibrantly colored natural stems add much to a winter container. This fiery red twig dogwood reminds me; to everything, there is a season.

Posted on: November 5, 2010 3 Comments

Filed Under: Holiday, Detroit Garden Works Tagged With: Detroit Garden Works

Pastoral Landscapes

Rob’s shopping trip abroad for Detroit Garden Works is well into its second week. He has attended some antique faires, as well as visiting dealers specializing in vintage or antique garden ornament. His route from this country faire to that rural dealer has been dreamy to say the least. I have gotten scads of pictures. Many of them have a very painterly quality about them. Boxwood Hill, with its path to the top looks like a scene from a Tolkien novel-a pastoral landscape fraught with history. This photograph of surely trimmed boxwood, and a path up to the tree on top set in rough grass is heart stopping-can you imagine seeing this in person?

These four terra cotta squares, made at the the Liberty Company in London at the turn of the century, look particularly beautiful displayed against the park like landscape. These rare signed and stamped pots have a quietly classical and architectural presence that suits me just fine. They have that chunky and solid English aura about them that rings true. Any genuine expression I admire.

Where Rob was when he took this photograph, I have no idea. It looks to me like the junction of the road, and the road not taken- made famous by the poem by Robert Frost. I will have to ask Rob which road he eventually took, as his camera recorded that moment seconds before he made his decision. There is not a building nor a sign to be seen-striking, that. This pair of two-tracks; each one holds promise.

Like this antique curved iron bench or not, the combination of bench, lawn and light is beautiful.

This country house is of a grand scale, but the attendant landscape is seems barely touched by human hands. Field grass like this-full of all sorts of plants and infrequently cut or grazed is completely unlike what I would call lawn. The grass adjacent to a wild garden I once had was overrun in the spring with every color of violet imagineable. I don’t think I knew how good it was until it was gone. A lawn overrun with violets; what could be better?

Many of the places that Rob shops have deconstructed landscapes such as this. The look is lovely, natural and soft. In charming disarray, this landscape has a life of its own, with a minimum of interference from a human hand. Though some may say this is evidence of neglect or poor housekeeping, I like how this space has been colonized. The natural landscape fringes and grows up onto the benches, gates, chairs, and ironwork-a natural, and beautiful relationship.

This ancient limestone sculpture in a church yard cemetery is amazing. The children seem to be praying for the immortal soul of the deceased-already firmly in the hands of an angel. The expression on the face of the angel-no doubt he takes his job seriously. Many lichens have grown up and over this old sculpture-not to mention the rough grass.

A winding and narrow country lane high on a ridge provides Rob a great view of a herd of sheep, placidly grazing. This is a landscape of a time and place unbeknownst to me. There is eveything to be learned from landscapes that have evolved from agricultural, commerce, country, and community. There are no strident notes. Nothing contrived, or trying too hard. What is hard- the work of a life. What gets done-a sign of a life well lived.

This container may have had some hens and chicks planted in it a long time ago, but what you see here is a container planting gone wild, and a moss lawn establishing itself-the handiwork of a hand far greater than mine. I cannot really explain why this photograph appeals so much to me, but I doubt I need to.

Posted on: October 14, 2010 Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Detroit Garden Works, The Natural World Tagged With: antique garden ornament, natural landscapes

Fall Is For Planting

Our fall plantings have begun in earnest this week; very cool night temperatures are a sure sign that fall is underway. My boston ivy wall has three distinctly dark red streaks in evidence in an ocean of green. More to follow on that story. A maple down the street is emphatically turning color. Speaking of emphatic, I like to plant big plants in the fall. The cool soil means that growth will be slow, especially in an exposed location. Scale is so important in any seasonal planting; in a good year, we have two months of fall. Start big; make yourself happy. Fall plantings do several things for the gardening psyche. When summer plantings get to looking like they are infected and going down from the cold, a fall planting can be robust and cheery. Fall pots can stretch and test your ingenuity, as the palette of suitable plants is vastly less than one’s spring choices. The cool weather means all of us are more energetic, enterprising, and tuned in. The mix-much like a cool jazz inprovization.

Ornamental kale can be found in large sizes, and shrugs off the cold. The color only gets better as the temperatures decline. The tuscan kale I have had in the shop pots all summer will go on until very late in the fall. Good deal. If you are new to a planting that will span our fall, galvanized steel and steel wire buckets make great fall planters. They are relatively inexpensive, and they have that bushel basket look about them. Who can resist a bushel basket of apples, or a quarter bushel of new potatoes? These wire containers are particularly attractive; the moss sides makes this planting green from top to bottom. How the kale spills abundantly over the edge speaks to the time of the harvest. Lush in a different way than spring. A lush finish-the harvest ripening, maturing-the best part of the summer season.

I think there is a gene that makes it a snap for some gardeners to expertly moss a basket. Others of us struggle with this job-me included. At Detroit Garden Works, we now use a florist’s moss mounted on a netted backing. This makes mossing very quick, and easy. This moss comes in a roll; drape the basket, and fill. Fill any number of bushel baskets with kales, pansies, twigs, grasses-whatever seems to be maturing in your garden or available at your farmer’s market. My most favorite stems of this season-the maturing pods of asclepias tuberosa-butterfly weed. Those pods-so beautiful.

Cirrus dusty miller has large felted silver leaves with great substance. They tolerate the cold well. The serrated dusty miller does just as well in fall pots, but looks better paired with cabbages, or bergenia. Dusty miller takes a long time to grow-should you be interested in cirrus, talk to your greenhouse grower now. This big leaved dusty miller deserves more attention. The drapy Angelina stays green all winter; it is a consummate professional of a plant. Whatever grows and stays green over my winter gets my attention.

Ornamental cabbages and kales can be had of considerable size; I like my fall pots stuffed to overflowing. Buy big. Stuff as many plants as you can manage into your pots. The fall is fleeting-do not be late to the concert.
I do not mind the passing of the geraniums, the verbena, the impatiens and the coleus. To everything there is a season, yes? I am focused now on fall. What will I do?

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The hydrangea flowers are pinking from the cold-enjoy this. In much the same way that you reluctantly let go of spring and move into summer-celebrate the fall. Change is in the air. What is not to love about this season? I would advise-wake up and get ready.