Holiday | Deborah Silver & Co.

Stick Work

Mid November is a good time to be planning what you might do to interpret the garden and landscape for the holiday and the winter. Early is the best time to get going on a scheme. The most compelling reason has to do with weather. The past few years, our late fall was very mild. Mild means it is reasonably easy to work outdoors. A really cold late fall makes so much work of any installation outdoors. For those gardeners that do their own work, dramatically cold fall temperatures is enough to make anyone consider skipping the winter work altogether.

My advice-don’t skip any experience of the garden. Plant roses, peonies, trees, and wildflowers. Plant bulbs in the ground, or in pots. Grow topiaries and espaliers. Plant clematis and tomatoes. Take a liking to asters, and amass a collection. Make enthusiasm for the garden and landscape a way of life. Plan to express a winter idea-you will not be sorry. On and off, we have had extremely cold temperatures in November. The temperature today when I came to work was 20 degrees. This is unseasonably cold, but by no means unheard of. I remember those years when we had to chop frozen soil out of pots in order to install a winter arrangement. Should night temperatures this low persist for much longer, our winter installations will be arduous. Tough conditions in the landscape are my problem-not my client’s problem.

If your winter garden is all your own to create, I would urge you to get dressed, and get out there. The forecast for our coming weekend calls for 50 degrees both days. All you need for a stellar winter arrangement in your pots are some great materials, a load of lights, and an atmosphere in which you have time to concentrate. Once I am in the process of stuffing a pot with sticks for the winter, I do not much notice the cold. The fresh cut branches we bring in for the winter season shrug off the cold-why shouldn’t I? I spent the entire day today outdoors, installing our first winter/holiday pots of the season.

Stick week-we take possession of so many beautiful fresh cut twigs. The stick work is what comes next. Those sticks can be bound together. They can provide the bulk and mass of a beautiful centerpiece. They can be stuck into the soil, one at a time. They can provide the stalk of a great winter topiary for a sideboard in the dining room. They can be woven around a form. Our bunches of fresh cut twigs delight and challenge me, in the beginning of that season when the landscape is going dormant. I find that the best antidote to loss is taking on the responsibility for a life that goes on. A gorgeous winter garden helps to take the sting out of experiencing a garden going down for the winter.

Nature provides a backdrop which is always interesting, and regularly spectacular. Figure in the wind, the snow, the sunny days, the gray days, the cold, the ice, and that special quality which we call natural. I have always posted entries to this online gardening journal of mine in real time. This year, my idea is to pose the questions, post the pictures, and speak to the season, ahead of time. In time for a reader to have time to consider all their options. Rob loads in all manner of materials for the holiday and winter season. I shop what he stocks at Detroit Garden Works for my projects. Sticks, picks, greens, garlands, magnolia, grapevine, sinamay, weather proof ornament-his selections are beautiful. Better than the beauty is the depth. He takes great care to represent a wide range of interests. Gardeners comprise a very big group with very diverse interests. Rob aims to engage each and every gardener.

We do anticipate the season to come-we have to. Rob and I shop for the holiday to come the previous January. We order materials in small numbers. We hope that each gardener will draw from a large group of a limited stock of materials to create a holiday and winter that produces an original and personal result. The order we place for sticks for your works happens in August. The holiday display at Detroit Garden Works takes weeks to create. We think ahead, so you do not have to. But this year, the weather may close out early. Our winter usually commences in January sometime. I am thinking the winter will come early this year. There is much stick work to do. If you plan to harvest materials from your yard, or from the roadside, or the empty lot next door-now is the time.

The curly copper willow that we installed in 12 pots downtown today is exuberant. Lively. I do so like the warm color. All of those curly stems are airy in a way only nature could create. Our part was to put together an arrangement in which the twigs would celebrate winter season in a striking way.

Our expression of the winter season for this client is a relationship forged from cut twigs, fresh cut greens, dyed kiwi vine, sugar pine cones, gold sinamay, and fresh cut magnolia. Any expression in the landscape revolves around a conversation. If you are a gardener, you have a voice. The season is another voice. Nature is the first and foremost voice. Multiple voices-harmonic.

All the voices interacting-love this.

Your winter season-love it up.

Posted on: November 14, 2013 16 Comments

Filed Under: Winter, container planting, Plants, Holiday, Detroit Garden Works Tagged With: winter garden, winter arrangements, holiday containers, winter containers, holiday decor

The Holiday/Winter Preview Party

Detroit Garden Works throws one evening party a year. It is, in part, a thank you for all of the gardeners that have or have a mind to shop with us. It is, in part, the opening night of our winter and holiday season. It is, in every regard, a party. We serve great things to eat, and a variety of things to drink. We have spent weeks constructing the light sculptures that Rob designs. One of them in a pot, or hung from a tree, or sunk into the ground lights up the night that is our gardening future. Is there more to see? Yes.

We have spent weeks tearing apart the remains of our summer garden vignettes to make way for the winter season to come. It could be 10 years ago that we began stocking materials for gardeners-for winter containers. What seems so logical now is what was uncharted territory then. We live in a gardening zone with a fourth quarter than can be really daunting. Gray skies give way to the dark-early. Morning skies are gray and dark-late. The landscape goes dormant.Why not offer materials for winter container plantings? Some garden based materials to make the winter a little easier to bear? Materials for winter containers include fresh cut twigs and substantially hefty and lengthy greens. Preserved natural materials and remarkably weather resistant and visually compelling picks. Landscape lighting-how do you plan to handle the need for light in the dark season?

The big idea is that the love of the garden can be represented in a celebratory way over the winter. The big sleep freeze that will chill every plant in my landscape into utter dormancy does not apply to me. People do not go dormant. I will experience everything that the winter has to offer, every day, day after day. Though the winter is no longer than all of the other seasons, it can feel longer. I have options about how I want to live through that time. I can construct containers at my front and back door with cut materials from the garden. I can light those pots in such a way that they light my way. I can festoon this and decorate that-outdoors. It is a choice- to make the winter landscape cozy and inviting.

The shop is not quite ready for our opening tomorrow night. It takes a lot of time and thought to create an atmosphere that engages gardeners when the garden has gone quiet. Rob has done a perfect job of sourcing great materials and lighting, and arranging for them to be delivered in time for our opening night. We shop together for the following holiday in January, while the season is still fresh in our minds. Our entire company numbering 21 people have worked long and hard to make the transition from the joy that is the summer landscape, to the steadfast belief that even the winter season is worth treasuring.

Should you decide to attend our once a year night time winter season opening on Thursday night, we will park your car, provide you with something good to eat and fun to drink. We leave the rest up to you. How the materials we have chosen might inspire or intrigue-that’s the fun of it. We like throwing this yearly party. The preview party and holiday open house which runs through Sunday is a lot about giving thanks to all of the gardeners that have enabled Detroit Garden Works to stay viable for going on 18 years. It is just as much about a community of gardening people determined to make a stand-for a beautiful winter.

I so look forward to this night every year. We try our best to make the anticipation of winter an extraordinary experience. Interested? Our winter/holiday open house runs from Thursday night the 7th from 5 to whenever. Yes, we provide valet parking for our Thursday night party. As for the weekend, Friday through Sunday, 9 to 5 all three days, we have a coffee pot fueled by Starbucks coffee, and plenty of treats. Our idea is to make the prospect of the winter season seem all good.

Rob does plenty to make this season happen. He sees that we have fresh cut twigs, fresh cut greens-and spectacular winter lighting. He is the most creative person it has ever been my pleasure to know. He is an ace in the hole-should you need help designing or constructing a winter display.

We do try to cover all the bases. Winter containers. Holiday decor. Parties and events. Wrapping and packaging. Gifts for gardeners. Fresh cut twigs and greens. Lighting. Design. Coaching. Holiday decorating both inside and out. Give us a call.

Tomorrow night, I hope to make the experience worthy of attention. Everyone I know has a busy life. I would not be writing this post, but for the fact that I believe a visit to our shop would be well worth your while.

We view the winter and holiday season from a particular point of view. The garden funds and fuels all of our efforts. Every move we make is with the landscape in mind. Winter gardening-oh yes. The holidays? Any cause for celebration is a cause we support.

If you have a mind, pay us a visit. We promise to make your winter season a season in which you can survive better. Have the prospect of winter blues dead ahead? You have lots of company. You and all of your company-we hope to help make your winter a better winter.

Posted on: November 6, 2013 26 Comments

Filed Under: Lighting, Holiday, Detroit Garden Works Tagged With: the holidays, winter containers

At A Glance: Christmas Dinner

My good friends host a Christmas dinner that is so beautiful, I cannot help but want to share their pictures. The biggest change this year-a Christmas tree fashioned from tree branches from their own property. The Branch trees this holiday season at the shop were an inspiration-I liked hearing that.

On the unusually deep window sills, fresh fruit and vegetables.

Tall stalks from Oriental lilies that they grow in the garden kept the tall tapers company. The silver, white and green table decor is a beautiful contrast to all the color in the windows. I was happy to see that the magnolia wreath I made them last year was hung in its accustomed place.