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Budding

I am writing this Friday post late Saturday afternoon; sorry, it has been a busy week.  The warm weather has brought in  friends and clients -for a spring hello, and for spring work.  I am so glad to be back to work designing. Every project has its own 3″ by 5″ card-they go on my bulletin board wall.  This way, I can see everything I have going on at a glance. I get messages; “please put me on the board for….” -I like this. Green cards for design.  Blue cards for design going into the build phase.  Lavender cards for spring plantings.  Pink cards for summer plantings.  Yellow cards for parties and events. This may seen archaic to most, but it works great for me.   Having a stack of design and build cards-each design project benefits the other.  Design is very much about rhythm and regular engagement, and I am engaged on a number of fronts.  Everything is budding-I am sure you have noticed, as I have.     

This green flowered primula “Francisca” was discovered by Francicsa Dart on a traffic island in Canada in 1995. Green flowers look good for a long time-as their petals photosynthesize just like leaves-the info from the new issue of “Gardens Illustrated”.   Many older green flowered primroses have been propagated too long, with attendant viruses that weaken them. This primula is an exception- remarkable for its robust growth.  Budding is about anticipation, and expectation; people and plants share this come spring. This late wait- just one of a list of rewarding things a gardener has to look forward to.  This late winter wait is a vast improvement over the post holiday wait-I’ll take it.

The forsythia in the outlot has budded and swelled in the twinkling of an eye; this is its habit.  The recent night temps in the twenties has not damaged the emerging flowers, but it has thrown them into a cryogenic state of inanimation.  I am sure this terminology would make any biologist laugh-but whatever.  These buds are at a standstill. If I cut and brought these branches inside, they would pop overnight.  Watching them move ahead, and then screech to a halt outdoors-a good lesson about how good timing helps any new venture.

My hellebores have sent up buds very cautiously-there is something in the hellebore internal clock which hedges the bloom time bet. How plants interact with weather is incredibly interesting, and beautifully complicated.  No stalks will push these buds skyward until conditions seem optimal.  After all, the purpose of the flower is to make itself available for pollination, set seed, and thus insure the survival of the species. An inauspicious start out of the box doesn’t speak well for a good finish. That those flowers thoroughly enchant me; I am sure nature is rolling her eyes.  Make what she will of my naivete, I like the enchanting part of spring blooming.    

I am so fond of willows-in any and every form.  Their most amazing moves come right about now.  Their branches tell you when the spring sap is rising-branches dulled and browned by winter come alive-before the leaves bud.  Willow tree branches will go intensely yellow green, and glow, in early spring.  These trees light up, when the season turns-like no other plant.  This is a gift to the garden.

My rhododendron flower buds have been in place since last season. All winter they impassively withstood every insult the Michigan winter had to serve up. They are still tight and tightly closed.  It is much too cold for opening day. A few 60 degree days does not impress them-they need to be sure winter has let go-before they let go.   

No one could fault Rob for lacking a sense of humor.  These budding bulbs are made of wax, and have wicks.  Planting them in wood trays and candle holders in natural and preserved moss; this represents a wickedly funny hope for budding.  I have seen a lot of second takes at the shop this week.  This budding out is all about how just about everyone is searching for any sign that the winter is over. Some have succumbed-and taken them home for spring dinner parties; our warm weather is dicey at best, until June 15.

On every gardener’s mind- is it time?

Posted on: March 27, 2010 6 Comments
Filed Under: Spring, Landscape Design, Detroit Garden Works Tagged With: , ,

Neither Rain Nor Snow Nor Sleet…..

Annual planting season is an event like no other. The next six weeks are the most intense design/plant days of my entire year.  I review the plants, first.  I have a large group of plants that I custom grow, and then there is the shopping for whatever looks great and sparks an idea.  My annual design is plant generated.  They may inspire a color palette, an shape, an exciting exercise in texture, or suggest a gorgeous mass.  Groups of pots-I think a lot about the rhythm that gets established.  I could explain my process in a hundred essays-but in the end, my eye is my own. All I have to offer anyone is my point of view.  That point of view-I have no formula.  All I have is my off the cuff, late to be delivered, idea.  The big  idea here-trust your own vision, or find someone who can beautifully represent you.   Should you plant for yourself, I am happy to contribute to your effort.  But be advised-what I do in the blink of an eye, is all my own.

My client with the firebowl-she has an event on Thursday.  Flowers-especially in a zone 5 where the summers are relatively short-are a very emotional issue for Michigan gardeners.  Once the weather shows signs of breaking, I get calls.  Everyone is so relieved the endless winter is over-everyone wants to move outside, and enjoy every day of the summer.  No one has any interest in the night temperatures, the soil temperatures-why should they?  That is my job.   

But all of them have special birthdays, trunk shows, parties, graduations, anniversaries-important milestones.  Milestones that need be celebrated with flowers.  A late May early June annual garden is no looker-everyone knows that.  But when the seasonal flowers are planted, any event is all the better and happier for that expression.  My notes are as much about events that influence scheduling, as design.     

Inclement weather-whatever. There are no rain days when we plant annuals.  The annual planting season is short, so we all have gear.  The actual planting is a footnote.  The bulk of the work is the contracting for custom grown material, the contracting for a custom soil mix, the maintenance and gas for the truck, the design, the shopping, the arranging for transport, the hauling of soil, the cleanup, the disposal of debris-big, and largely unseen, work. Whew!

My client Susie wanted orange this year-she loved how my pots looked last year.  What do I so love about her? She has one big idea to express-having done so, she is confident enough to step back, and watch what happens.  We have been working together more than 15 years.  Relationships get forged, over time. Those relationships show, believe me.  Good design relationships result in work any eye would appreciate.  

We moved one pot this year to a new location-I was caught flat footed today.  I had to regroup, and come back. I spent no small amount of time deciding what should go in that Francesca del Re pot at the corner of the pool-as well I should.  Taking the time to do a thoughtful job in the middle of a frenetic season-I can be depended upon for this.  No client knows I am awake half the night worrying about their design,  their life and their installation-this is as it should be.    It is my worry about how to bring orange,white, and lime to life for Susie.   

I planned and planted surely around the pool deck.  That newly placed planter took the better part of the afternoon to resolve.  I promise to post pictures of the mature annual plantings-you can decide if you like them.

My client Susie-she bought giant white dahlias for her wood boxes.  Fine.  I tuned up.  The planting of the annual gardens and pots-lots of emotion, lots of changes, lots of conversation-lots of tuning up.  I would not have it any other way.  


Outside her annual plantings-I am so pleased to see the butterburrs have taken hold at the pond.  The long view-so beautiful.  Any relationship forged over a conversation about the landscape-energetic, and very beautiful.  Thanks, Susie.

Posted on: May 18, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Garden Design Tagged With: ,

Mary Starnes

Mary Starnes is a reader.  I know nothing of her, her life, or her garden. We have never met, nor have we corresponded.  But her comment on my blog yesterday (or was it the day before or last week?) struck a chord.  Facing flats of flowers on her drive, in blistering heat, she had the time to write to me.  I do not know how you do it, she said.  My first reaction-I am not sure I know how I do it either. With the first three weeks of June-the busiest and most intense weeks of my year-looming large on the horizon, I am under siege.  I am adamant about the design and installation being of quality.  This is in diametric opposition to the need for speed. Our annual planting season is short, and every client has a good reason why they would want their plantings done sooner, rather than later.  I wake up in the middle of the night with a discussion of this planting or that already underway.  I worry my way through the three weeks to come.  No kidding. 

Planting during annual season is loads of work.  Just making sure the proper plant material is on site for a job is a full time job some air traffic controller might want to take on, in the interest of some marginally less stress. Contact me, if this seems like a good idea-please.   I dream about that person coming into my life,-but in fact, I select all the material.  I travel, review, order, and arrange for.  I work 7 days a week most weeks of the year-but these particular seven days a week threatens to knock me to the ground. Designing, locating, and getting plant material delivered, instructing a crew on the installation-this seems to me the full time job of three people.      

No matter how carefully I plan, everything out of my control holds all the cards. Weather, plant availability, a crew person out due to a car accident, a client who changes their mind-the list of what I do not have control over is long and extensive.   Though it may appear that all goes smoothly for me, usually nothing goes as planned.  I can count on this.  Rough around the edges does not show particularly well in photographs-thank God. 

My clients-I cannot count on what they signed up for.  There are invariably extenuating circumstances. Being asked to shift gears midstream-this is my life. I can count on a big fluid situation.  I cannot count on what I contracted to have grown being ready and available-crop failures, mistaken sales to others, disease, too much heat, too much cold-this list of what is not ready and available to me is long. My job involves switching gears on a dime.  My job part two-I assess the big picture, and make a plan for what will work.  It is not my idea that a client needs to know about any problems.  They need to be pleased-satisfied. 

My crew superintendent forgets to charge his phone.  Construction traffic makes me 20 minutes late.  A crew person blacks out, and forgets to load a flat of pink polka dot plants. The heat soars to ninety for two weeks in late May.  The maintenance/watering issues for plants in four inch pots-huge right now. Much of what I had counted on has gone south.  Should this writing read to you as all over the map, I am  pleased.  My life in late spring as best I can represent it-as usual.

No pictures today-I would not dream of touching my camera given the dirt stuck to my hands.  Please just imagine; thanks.

Posted on: June 1, 2010 4 Comments
Filed Under: Uncategorized

Green, please.

A client with whom I have had a relationship spanning many years-how can I describe her point of view about the landscape?  She was never interested in showy, always in stately.  Her color palette-quiet.  She oversees an amazing collection of old yews, and older trees. Her landscape, gardens, and containers clearly reflect her understated taste. Many years ago I added touches of pale pink, blue and lavender-and of course the white.   

In recent years her taste has evolved such that I plant her containers with green plants of all different textures and habits. I store her collection of green topiary plants every winter; many have considerable age.  The agave of hers pictured above is many years old.  We plant it in a Bulbeck lead egg cup every year.  Each and every one of her garden containers have a history of note.  It took no small amount of time to put that collection together. Her plants-a collection of considerable age. 

This years annual planting of course involved the planting out of her topiary collection. The underplanting this year-green, more green, white and grey.  The triple ball eugenia topiary pictured above on the left I underplanted with parsley.  The Bulbeck egg cup-a king Tut papyrus, and white nicotiana alata.  The lead square is home to a cardoon, and some blue pencil succulents. 

The thriple ball eugenia on the shady side of the terrace gets a ruff of ferns.  The big Belgian oak box-a mass of farfugium.  The small lead square-a mass of white datura and variegated sage.  The empty Bulbeck egg cup-waiting for the old agave.

White datura-spectacular.  Though every part of the plant is poisonous, I plant it whenever I can-with strong instruction.  When you touch this plant to deadhead it, wash your hands afterwards.  Gardening is all about the work-is it not?   The underplanting of this double white petunia-this I like.  They grow long and lanky-I am hoping for sideways growth under the datura.  The pairing of simple white datura flowers with ultra double white petunia flowers-this is my idea of an interesting conversation. 

These old eugenias-I will need to replace them next year. In an effort to keep the grime off the painted porch floor, we replanted them, and underplanted them with lime selaginella on a tarp.  A dirty business, gardening.  No small amount of what I do is to be efficient about the cleanup.    

We planted the playhouse for the first time this year.  White nicotiana, white Christmas caladiums, white polka dot plant, white impatiens.  As this area is some distance from the rear terrace, I called for lots of white.  White-what it does I could write a book about-but not this week.  Ask me later.  White reads beautifully from a distance.  My idea here is to connect the playhouse visually with the rear terrace-so lots of the white that will bring the two spaces closer. A second pair of triple ball eugenia topiaries flank the front door.  I try never to treat a space on autopilot.  So many shady annual plantings- routine.  Who needs routine? 

We have big boxes to plant, and small containers to plant.  Each and every pot may have its planting, but the existing landscape, the relationship of the big planter boxes to the small containers-everything needs to work with the neighbor. My idea-be friendly.    

These single ball eugenia topiaries are but 2 years old.  I am pleased about how they are coming along.  I underplanted them with white new guinea impatiens; come August, these pots should be more than beautiful.  Patience-you and I know all about this.  My client-she knows about patience better than anyone else I have ever met. 

The long troughs planted thickly with lavender-they will be incredibly beautiful with some time. The walls we built to enclose the terrace have a considerable space to plant-on top.  My work is not so much about the actual, physical work.  It is much more about the evolution, the building, the communication and interaction.  When I wake up in the middle of the night anxious-it is not about her.   My green please client-she is a keeper.

Posted on: June 7, 2010 9 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Design, Good Design Tagged With: ,