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Favorite Greens

Though I posted last week at some length about my favorite greens, I was in fact telling a tale.  If I had to choose between lima beans and farfugium, I would gladly do without the lima beans. The vast majority of a garden is green-this makes picking favorites difficult.  But farfugium crispata has an especially gorgeous green leaf; large, undulating, and in this case, heavily ruffled. The trailing vinca maculatum has a thick glossy leaf, with both forest green and lime markings-but it is the habit of the plant that gets my attention.  This plant will send out runners all season long, and trail two stories, given the chance.  During the fall cleanups, I potted up every plant I had planted in containers in May.  They were still growing vigorously, the beginning of November. I am interested to see what they might go on to become next season. This green plant has it all over the traditional vinca vine one sees in container plantings. They would make a swell start for a hanging garden.     

Selaginella, or club moss, is a spreading green plant with tiny scale-like leaves.  They like moist shade, and will spread indefinitely if they are happy.  They make great container plants, in combination with upright growing plants that will not shade them out completely.  They are great in combination with begonias and tropical ferns.  This lime green version is especially handsome with a big leaved pepperomia.  The pepperomias-I cannot believe I left them off this list.  I like them all; the more the better.

Green and gold plectranthus is a vigorous and lax growing green planted, sporting large felted leaves.  They are related to coleus.  The plant can be pruned into shapes if pinched regularly-just like a coleus.  They grow large, so they need big company.  This zebra grass rises above the fray, as my friend Denise would say.   

Angelina is a succulent which is hardy for me. I have had it winter over in pots; I have had it stay green, wintering over in pots.  It trails just enough to make it good in any size pot. Any scrap of a piece that falls on the ground roots.  Willing, this plant. 

There are plenty of greens represented here-the panic grass is my urban version of a meadow.  The baltic ivy was here when I moved here, and it still going strong 15 years later.  I planted a few planted of lysimachia nummularia aurea-the lime version of creeping jenny, on the edge of this path.  2 years later it is holding its own with the ivy.  The combination of the two groundcovers is interesting.  Creeping jenny trails long in pots and window boxes.  It is equally at home in boggy locations, or at the water’s edge.  It will burn in full sun unless it has constant moisture.  The best lime color requires a part sun-part shade location. 

Polka dot plant, or hypoestes, has similar requirements. Popular as house plants, new cultivars such as pink splash, do well in containers in partially shaded locations. They can be made to grow in full sun locations, but you need be very mindful of the water. They make a great supporting cast plant for shade loving tropicals or caladiums.  As you can see, they mix well with lime licorice too. The white spots help lighten up a really shady location.     

Most places in my yard are green.  This large pot has a little white from a mandevillea and some petunias, but the lime nicotiana alata and gren and white plectranthus keeps the green dominant.  In a mostly green garden, the visual focus shifts to texture, shape, surface, volume and mass-all things that interest me.     


I do not miss seeing the concrete block wall that is completely obscured by this boston ivy.  600 square feet of concrete in the vertical plane-not so pretty.  This green plant securely attached itself to it, and grew without any attention from me. When it sheds its leaves, I can see that 15 years of attachment to this wall has not damaged it in the least bit.  I am sure I could write about good greens every week for years, and not get to the end of them.  This green part of gardening is great fun.

Posted on: January 12, 2011 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Good Design Tagged With: ,

The Garnkirk Fireclay Company

It has been three years since I have shopped for garden ornament in England.  This past October, Rob travelled to England and shopped furiously over the course of 2 weeks; just 2 days ago, our first container was finally delivered.  The shipping has always been an arduous experience, but this shipment was a lesson in the new world order.  No dirt, unknown organisms or moss could be imported. My customs broker requested a crew to come to their warehouse-to dry brush any and all soil and moss from our antique and vintage garden items.  I was reluctant to remove all of the beautiful evidence of age, but I complied.  The rare Scottish Garnkirk fireclay urn circa 1860-1870 pictured above-I just wanted to have it in my possession, along with all of the other things aboard our container.


 Antique garden ornaments have that history that guarantees a story.  What are those stories? The Garnkirk company was founded opened for business in 1832, by Mark Sprot.  He had purchased Garnkirk House in 1811; the Garnkirk Colliery and Brickfield was created nearby.  The name was later changed to the Garnkirk Fireclay Company.  Their fireclay, used to manufacture firebricks and firebrick products, quickly gained a reputation for very high quality and an exceptional light color.  A business in brick, glazed water pipes and other architectural items expanded into beautiful objects for the garden.   By 1833, it became apparent that the ornamental products they made for gardens were a growing and important part of the company. Garnkirk garden ornament was said to “exhibit pleasing forms and a soft mellow shade of color, harmonizing admirably the hue of foliage and turf”.  This reference comes from the Horticulturist, in an article published in July of 1848.  My source for this?  A Sotheby’s auction catalogue from 1999. 

 The Garnkirk Fireclay Company was the largest of its kind in Britain.  The seam bed of fireclay varied in thickness from four to nineteen feet, located some 150 feet below the surface.  The clay was of a composition such that objects made from it had great strength and beauty.  The same could be said for the clay found in Impruneta, Italy;  entire local industries developed from the availability of beautiful and strong clay.  Garnkirk products were shipped all over the world, including the US.   

In 1869, their employees numbered close to three hundred.  Some 200 tons of clay were used daily.  By 1895, the fireclay pits were exhausted.  The company continued production until 1901, when it closed.  It is easy to see why this particular clay was so prized.  It has a dense and smooth surface which reflects light beautifully.  I am sure that density has much to do with the fact that these urns have relatively little damage, considering that they are 151 years old.   

The urns have been colonized by moss, and have patches of black typical on garden ornament from this period.  The engine powering the industrial revolution in the British Isles was coal.  I have seen limestone pieces completely blackened from coal smog.    

None of the research I have done on these urns has revealed who designed them.  The petalled rim is quite beautiful and sculptural, and clearly derived from natural forms.  The incised detail is crisp and dramatic.  The proportions are handsome.  Some very talented person designed these-would that I could know something about them. 


I only know where these urns were for the past year; this leaves 150 years unaccounted for. I do so wish that story could be told; I am sure it would be a tale worth listening to.

Posted on: February 26, 2011 17 Comments
Filed Under: Garden Ornament, Detroit Garden Works Tagged With: , , , ,

Flow Blue

Occasionally there is an opportunity to help a client create a landscape for an event.  In this case, a fundraising event for Temple Bethel involved individual participants and groups setting their own distinctive versions of a Passover Seder table. My client knew three things.  She was interested in using a pavillion she ordinarily kept in her garden to create a room with a walls and a roof that would provide a framework for her table. She also wanted to set the table with her own collection of antique flow blue china.  And she wanted an overall look that would be unexpectedly contemporary.   I immediatey thought of billiard table felt as an appropriate material for the pavillion roof.  It comes in very wide widths, and drapes beautifully.  It would be striking in color, but warm and cozy in feeling-perfectly appropriate for an early March event.  Cutting a series of abstract stalagtite shapes into the edges of the vertical elements of the roof would be a considerable visual departure from a traditional garden awning.  We set the pavillion up in the shop-this made the cutting of the roof fabric much easier.          

Flow blue china originated with Staffordshire potters in England in the 1820’s.  It is a white porcelain patterned transferware whose deep blue color actually comes from cobalt oxide.  Many of the patterns were Asian in origin.  The china is quite ornate, and delicate-but visually graphic.  We repeated that white and deep cobalt blue palette simply,  with the idea of creating a limited, and more contemporary look.    

We added white unsheared sheepskin throws to each piece of a suite of mid century modern foam chairs and a chaise covered in a navy blue wool.  These chairs belonged to my client, and clearly reflected her point of view.  The juxtaposition of the traditional elements of the Seder celebration in a decidedly contemporary context provides visual interest.  The table itself was covered in four cloths in two shades of blue, three of which had the same edge treatment as the roof.  

The interior rails of the tent were dressed with multiple pieces of cut felt.  A collection of my client’s glass drops echoed the crystal on the table, and provided a striking contrast to the light absorbing felt.  Once the pavillion was set up with its cover, my client set her table.   

This is a very formal and very important occasion; the china, fine glassware, silver and linens reflects this.  The traditional elements required in a Passover Seder dinner are represented in a graphic way.  A contemporary glass vase of faux calla lilies anchored in glass ice provides some height.  The ruffled edges of the callas recall the cut edges of the roof.  Hung from the roof of the pavillion, a contemporary steel sphere representing the idea of a chandelier whose blue-black finish stands out against the white roof.    

The big gestures come from the hand and eye of my client.  The little and very personal touches- enamelled frog napkin rings, and a ring of elegantly narrow votive candles.   The round and regular shapes of the plates, glassware and flow blue spheres is in strong contrast to the roof fabric.   

People collect all sorts of things, depending on their interests.  What a treat to see a collection so beautifully displayed.  Better yet, a chance to work with a client whose thoughtful attention to detail, and committment to following through was considerable.  The pleasure was all mine. 


The event was to be lit softly; I am sure this added lots to the atmosphere.  Every table I saw was set with the same attention of design and detail-but they were all very different.  Anyone who went last night was in for a treat.  But I had great admiration for this particular space.  Not for what I helped with.  I did help, yes-ok and fine.  But she had an idea, and a committment to bringing her idea to life.  This I greatly admire.

Posted on: March 4, 2011 4 Comments
Filed Under: Good Design, Parties and Events Tagged With:

The Grand Hotel Topiary Sculptures

I do not remember what year it was, nor do I remember why, but Rob and I took a trip to New York-it may have been to see the Lucien Freud exhibit at the Met, and eat hot dogs after in Central Park.  On the way, we visited every place in Pennsylvania that we thought might have garden ornament or pots.  We visited Campania in Quakertown; I was unable to convince them to part with a single piece of their vintage Italian terra cotta.  Can you hear me sighing?  Meadowbrook Farm, just north of Philadelphia, was a delight to visit.  J. Liddon Pennock, noted garden designer and plantsman, willed his 25 acre estate and gardens to the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society in 2004.  He kept a small nursery and shop there; I made my first garden ornament purchase ever there.  Eventually we ended up at Longwood Gardens-wow.  I could write for days about that place, but what enchanted me the most were the topiary ivy sculptures.  I bought the book.   

The topiary were not rooted in the ground.  The plants were rooted in every surface of the sculptures. The New Topiary: Imaginative Techniques From Longwood  was a do it yourself topiary stylist’s dream book come true.  Patricia detailed exactly how they were constructed.  The steel frames had been made at the Longwood Manufacturing Corporation (no relation to the gardens) and stuffed with plants at the gardens.  I could not get these sculptures out of my mind.  On the strength of what I saw at Longwood, and what I read in the book, I managed to persuade Grand Hotel to invest in 3 topiary sculptures.  A pair of Hackneys, drawing a carriage, as depicted in their logo.  They agreed.  Some months later, the three steel and wire topiary frames were delivered to me-it was my turn. 

This glimpse of the interior of one of the horses helps tell the story of the construction.  The topiaries were built in horizontal layers, from the hoofs on up. A layer of the frame was covered in a netting of fishing line.  Florists moss was pressed into the fish line.  3 inches of soil came next; individual ivy plants were planted sideways in the breaks between the moss.  The body of the horse-much too large a volume to load up with soil.  The belly of each horse, a collection of styrofoam peanuts packed loosely into individual plastic baggies.  The worst enemy of any topiary built in this way-topiary erosion. The styrofoam interior had to perfectly conform to the available space without any air pockets.  We packed and stuffed, and packed again.  This photograph was taken when I had to repair a horse that had suffered a too rough a ride back to Mackinac Island in the spring.  A large topiary such as this requires a lot of patient work.   

It is easy to see in this picture how the plants were layered horizontally.  Finishing the forms took 400 hours-I remember this-and the countless miles of fishline and boxes of moss.  Truth be told, it was much more than I bargained for.  What it took to make these sculptures road ready-I had no clue; frankly, I grew up with these sculptures. I soaked the sculptures thoroughly before they got packed in their crates.  I would get them back in the fall, and winter them in a makeshift greenhouse I had put up for exactly this purpose.

I kept the original crates that the frames came in; Mackinac Island is 340 miles north of where I live. I knew the sculptures would need to travel.  A forklift loaded them on a boat, and offloaded them onto a horse drawn wagon for their trip up the hill.

I planted Stella D’Oro daylilies in the manes and tails.  I found glass eyes for the horses from a taxidermy shop.  They were finally ready to be placed in the garden. 

They made quite a statement.  This garden had a focus.  No matter when I visited, someone was taking a picture.  This part felt great.  They made the garden so much more friendly, and personal.  They invited people to interact with the grounds and gardens.

Back then, they were the star attraction in the Triangle garden.  Today they reside in a giant lawn space in the tea gardens.   This particular year, the tea garden was all white, pale yellow, and dilly.  So many dill plants and white nicotiana alata. 


Dorothy Farmer, noted gardener and supervisor of the Cranbrook Gardens auxiliary for so many years took my favorite picture of these sculptures.  She framed a copy of her picture, and gave it to me.  My photograph of her picture is terrible, but perhaps you can discern a little of what felt like magic to me.  The one red canna at the lower right-the odd man out.  She asked me about that.  Every garden I design has one plant that does not fit.  Most times I do it, in acknowledgement of nature.  In this garden this particular year, 1996,  I planted it for the owners of Grand Hotel.  Their interest and committment made a special moment in a garden possible.

Posted on: April 6, 2011 5 Comments
Filed Under: Woody Plants, Garden Ornament, The Natural World Tagged With: , , ,