Deborah Silver is an accomplished and experienced landscape and garden designer whose firm first opened its doors in 1986.
For everyone who lives too far away to visit, to follow is a collection of pictures of the shop decked out for the winter and holidays. The snow this morning-appropriate to the occasion.
Decorating the shop for the winter and holidays? All the work of it is all the fun of it.
An Italian sculptor named Luca Della Robbia produced many charming works in glazed terra cotta from 1400-1475. Many of his plaques featured frames depicting fruits and vegetables. This style of decoration still persists centuries later, in a style of Christmas decorating known in this country as the Williamsburg style. Someday I would like to go there at the holidays, and see all of the wreaths and architectural elements decorated with the fruits of the harvest and holiday season. Though the Willamsburg decor is traditionally done with real fruits and vegetables, my interpretation of the style makes use of faux fruit. The fruit in the above wreath is produced from a weighted core, and a rubbery, almost waxy outer layer. The color and texture is incredibly realistic. This magnolia della robbia wreath, with proper care thast protects the dry magnolia leaves, will last many years.
Why am I thinking about the della robbia style? Rob made me 2 sets of Christmas lights-one for my tree and one for my mantel. The red, yellow and green lights have a remarkably jewel like glow. They so remind me of the Christmas trees I remember from my childhood. Those big glowing lights on on our Christmas tree were enchanting. Seeing anything through a child’s eyes is a way of seeing like no other. How would I decorate my tree to make the most of these extraordinary lights? It seemed a natural choice to pair this color and texture with a mantel and tree decorated with ornament of a similar feeling.
My holiday tree does not have ornament with an intrinsic history. No objects which provoke memories, in and of themselves. I actually like it that way. I like having the option to decide on a scheme or a theme that is quite different than the previous year. The challenge of creating a display that reflects the immediate sentiments, importance, and aura of the season is an activity I enjoy. When the seasonal work for clients comes to a close, it is time to go home, and create a little holiday spirit of my own.
The della robbia tree had a modest beginning. A Christmas tree, an evergreen garland, plastic ornament balls in lime green, and lots of faux fruit. Having been laid low by the worst cold in a decade, Steve saw to getting the tree and mantel garland up, and the ornaments on the tree. Angie stuck the large fruits with floral picks; it is vastly easier to secure a stick than a heavy round slippery fruit. The rest would be up to me. For the better part of a day, I worried I might not have the strength to decorate our tree. Funny how once a project captures your interest, troubles fall away. Early on it became apparent that the big fruits could not go on the tree. They were much too heavy. The big fruits would have to go on the mantel.
The mantel garland was secured around a thick bamboo pole, and secured to the weighty metal mantel lights with zip ties. I managed to find spots in the evergreen garland that would grip the picks. As for the tree, I had to change gears. A trip to English Gardens yielded 10 boxes of dark red glass ornament balls. Miniature limes and green apples could easily be fastened to the tree-after Buck wired bag after bag of them for me. 40 red berry picks, when taken apart, yielded 480 individual berries. Other bits included 6 boxes of shiny lime green mini berry clusters.
I like a Christmas tree that still looks like a tree, even after it is decorated. This involved wiring on many small bits. Big bits can engulf a Christmas tree. I favor lots and lots of just a few types of little things.
I attached the red berry balls to the tips of as many branches as I could. At the time of this writing, I still have about fifty to go.
The tree and mantel only have 30 lights, but the bulbs are big, and make an impression. How this feels to me is nostalgic and warm-just how I like to celebrate the season.
I owe the look to the inspiration provided by Rob’s lights. May your holiday be just as warm and bright as mine has turned out to be.
The dark days are here. The needled foliage of the yews are not spring or summer green. They are black green. The colder the weather, the darker the color. By contrast with the snow, the boxwood foliage is dark too. I don’t mind it, really. Not now. But as the winter drags on and on, that brown, black green, black, gray and white can get to be tiresome. Not that I envy gardeners in California. I wouldn’t trade how one season gives way to the next for a warm and sunny winter. Having grown up in the midwest, a warm and sunny winter would just seem wrong.
But I won’t have to worry about coping with a limited and severe color palette. My winter garden in front of my house will be in the pink-dreary winter month after dreary winter month. Does the pink in this pot seem implausible? Not to my eye. The curly copper willow looks great with the brick. The gold sinamay has enough orange and enough mass to look like a party. The pink eucalyptus has a lavender cast, set against the cinnamon brown willow. Pink is by no means a traditional holiday color, but why not? How a color reads has everything to do with its relationship to neighboring colors. Color also reads so differently in daylight, or night light. Suffice it to say, we will have an abundance of gray days the next few months. I like the idea of unexpected winter color.
The holiday garland features pink bits. Funny how what seemed in the studio to be overwhelmingly pink looks so much more reserved outdoors.
It is hard to make out the individual elements from the street. There is the dark green of the evergreen boughs, punctuated by a color and forms that attract the eye. Pink may be out of season in the garden, but it is in season in my holiday garden. Of course anyone who comes to the door gets a clearer view. That is the point, of course. My landscape has a street presentation-neat, simple and well kept-and not especially given to the personal details. Those details are reserved for people I know and expect. For a guest that arrives at the front door, there is an element of surprise.
I would call this a juicy look. In contrast to the austere look of the overall winter landscape. I favor juicy, no matter the season. As in hellebores in really early spring, tulips in the late spring, and roses in June, and the hibiscus in late summer. I like flowers in the landscape. Clematis in bloom is quite unlike the color of any other green plant. As much as I like boxwood, yews, hosta, lady’s mantle and Princeton Gold maples, I like colors other than green-no matter the season.
White in the winter is a regular feature. Snow is snow. In this picture, the orange and pink looks companionable to the remains of my hydrangeas. The color scheme fits right in. The snow makes its own demands visually. Everything snow touches turns their color close to black. Snow that falls on temperature darkened ever greens is all about the contrast between black and white.
My pot in the side garden has a cut Christmas tree in it, strung with 7 strands of mini lights. At night, the glow is visible from the street, and from the south side of my house. I find that warm light comforting. Appropriate to the season. The lights add another color to the winter landscape-a warm color.
Lest you think there is no pink in the Michigan landscape in the third week of December, I invite you to give a look at my Parrotia. It is the very last tree in my yard to change color. The leaves are a brilliant yellow in late fall. This tree has yet to give up its leaves. They might stay stuck the entire winter. The dry leaves are pink – granted a muddy subtle brownish pink. But pink, nonetheless.
It’s December in the garden. Time to hang it up.