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1-800-Call-Linda

Though I do not talk about it much, a considerable amount of my time is spent as an administrator.  Though I would much rather be designing anything-a topiary sculpture, a series of containers,  a pergola, flowers for a wedding, a series of steel pots, a landscape, a vignette in the shop, a perennial garden, I am in fact a small business owner.  My simple version of what business ownership means to me can be summarized as follows.  My love of landscape and gardens, my interest in people who have the inclination to garden, my need to create-my plan is that my business enchants my clients, and sustains the evolution and expression of my entire group.

Sustenance is a word fraught with meaning to every gardener.  Healthy soil sustains everything that roots into it. Countless plants provide sustenance-grapes, tomatoes, chard, cauliflower, potatoes, corn.  The farmers in this country feed lots of people-I am grateful to them for the cippolini onions, garlic, chard, beet greens and tomatoes I bought last Saturday at market.  Sufficient water encourages new trees and shrubs to root.    I am particularly interested in my clients having success with their landscapes, their gardens, their pots, as I know they will get sustenance of some kind from it if they stick with it. 

I am sustained in no small part by my banker Linda Saperstein. For years she has made the administration of my business easier via National City Bank. I am a very small business, but she has always treated me with spot on attention and respect.  NCB has now become PNC bank- she did not skip a beat. I got lots of help from her, handling that change.   I had a letter/question from the bank; call our 800 number, it said.  20 unsuccessful minutes later, I called Linda. Never call the PNC 800line, she tells me today.  That’s what I’m for.  Call 1-800-Linda, ok?  She not only handled my request, she made me laugh. 

I have been thinking about her all day. I love how willing, able and available she is.  Our European shipper will collect everything Rob purchased; Linda electronically transferred the funds needed to their bank.  The process of collection, packing and shipping from overseas begins when the shipper has the funds to pay Rob’s bills.  Linda made that happen with dispatch.  Should you be interested in a banker who answers her phone and knows your name, call Linda Saperstein at PNC Bank.  As far as I am concerned, PNC Bank’s real name is Linda Saperstein.

Posted on: October 27, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Uncategorized

The Perennial Border

Just the words perennial border are enough to evoke visions of classical English gardens-breathtaking in width, and astonishing in length.  Lavish.  Believe me, if I could, I would have one, or five or twenty perennial borders each the size of a landing strip.  Big enough to grow stately stands of every perennial I took a fancy to. There would be room for everything, from alchemilla to verbascum; I would winter giant tubs of Zantedeschia Aethiopica in number 6 loggia. I would grow peonies like crops. I would enlarge every and any border, on the slightest whim.  I would have acres in meadow studded with fruit trees, and a wildflower garden the size of a football field.  I would have a giant barn for tools, and a lunchroom that could comfortably seat the fifty gardeners I would need to have help me maintain it all.  But my reality is much more about small urban gardens; these perennial gardens ask for some solid dreaming attended by careful editing.  

This very small L-shaped garden will very much have the feeling of a large garden, as big percentage of the square footage of the yard is devoted to perennials.  The house has something of a feel of a cottage, so though the planting is regular, the plant varieties are placed in casually determined numbers.  Towards a good, but not fixed, beat. The house is a very beautiful blue grey color; my first editing step was to consider color.  The major tree in the yard-pinus flexilis “Vanderwolf’s”; the needles are distinctly blue.  An underplanting of hosta krossa regal is a contrast in texture with much the same color. A blue hybrid of Panicum Virgatum  will back up and loosen up the Carefree Beauty roses. The intersection of the bluestone walk is marked by a terrace, and a copper pergola blue with age.  The blues rule here. 

The west border is frosty in color; Jack Frost brunnera, Lamium white Nancy, Japanese painted ferns, white Japanese anemone; I threw in a few flax and Salvia May night in the sunniest and driest spots.  This border may not be 10 feet deep, but relative to the overall space, the borders are generously configured.

The star of the west border-a Bradford pear trained as a espalier.  It is an old plant, but the branches are not yet sturdy enough to maintain their shape without a form.  The posts will be stained the same color as the house. Providing privacy in the yard is the arborvitae “DeGroot’s Spire”.  The small and fine texture of the needles is appropriate for a small space.  Once they establish, I will prune off the spire part.  This arborvitae takes well to a geometric pruning. I would like to see them kept at 10 feet with a flat face-a green wall.    


The north walk off the drive is home to two generously wide perennial borders, enclosed by a tall hedge of Green Mountain boxwood.  These borders feature Salvia May Night, a dwarf monarda and geranium Rozelle; the remaining space is given to a mix of angelina, dianthus and thyme.  Wide and low, this border will feature the ground plane, and make the space look spacious.  On the far side of the drive, limelight hydrangeas and Venus dogwoods will make the garden entirely private from the neighboring house.

Perennial borders occupy a lot of space at maturity.  A new garden with tall perennials is guaranteed to look sparsely planted the first year, and stuffed the third year.  That big and wild look can warm up a small space like nothing else can.  I always find someplace to plant a few verbena bonariensis-so the big garden looks airy, and not heavy.     


When your John Cabot rose gets to this age, changes have to be made. I planted this rose 20 years ago; this perennial garden has changed dramatically over the years.  Some perennials faded-some thrive.  The trees have changed the pattern of sun and shade as they have aged.  Unlike a tree, a perennial garden changes dramatically over that length of time.  Given this volatility, I try to edit in favor of perennial plants with a propensity to be healthy; long season interest,  good habit, interesting foliage and reasonable maintenance, and reliable bloom count for a lot too.  There are good reasons not to plant plenty of perennials, should your space be really small.  That said, there will likely be room for those perennials that only pass the “I cannot live without it” muster; why do without them?

Posted on: October 27, 2010 Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Garden Design Tagged With: ,

Holiday Diorama

 

I have one room in the shop from which I removed the solid roof, and installed the roof of an abandoned glass house.  Many years later, 15 creeping fig plants have completely covered the walls. In early spring this space provides protection for tender plants.  The summer sun shining down and through the glass roof endows this space with heat.  This hot space encourages the fig, tender begonias, tropical ferns-not to mention all of the gardeners that appreciate this growing space.  A concrete fountain built from an old French design sits on top of the one place we could not remove the concrete floor next to the wall for the fig; an old concrete waste oil tank sits below the surface.  So we built over it; the sound of the water in the space is great. I have water, light and plants in this room, year round.      

When the growing season closes, Rob makes the moves it takes to move on. How can this green wall be transformed?  He invariably has a big idea I do not see coming.  Hundreds of white birch sticks have been stashed in the garage for better than a month-waiting to be transformed into a birch forest holiday diorama.  If you are wondering if we really talk this way-holiday diorama-the answer is yes.  What you give a name to helps to endow an idea with an identity.  Brooklyn Botanical Garden is a name that says science; La Foce speaks to romance and magic.  

Chocolate terra cotta squares-they are Rob’s idea for a home for the birch.  How can we get those heavy branches to sit up straight?   My landscape superintendent Steve Bernard suggested Rob might sink those birch branches in washed sand.  This worked perfectly.  Every birch stick is standing tall; anyone wanting a birch stick for there own holiday will have no problem lifting out the sticks of their choice.  Steve made his contribution to the display early on. 


Rob knew to buy stout white birch poles, silver snowflakes in various materials and sizes, and snowballs.  Putting them together in this particular way involves introuducing the materials to each other, and to a space.  This is a romantic description of what is really about persistence.  He hauls materials all over the place until he sees something that he likes.  So much of successful design involves persistence and patience. 


The relationship of the materials is easy to believe; where there are snowflakes, snow balls cannot be far behind.  A visually successful arrangement is believable.  I do have a neighbor down the street with a life size lighted palm tree in her front yard-this would not be for me.  The contrast of texture, shape, and mass is pleasing. The white against the dark green of the fig wall looks good.

At the last minute, Rob had Catherine add stars to the mix. How this wall looks now could not be more unlike its summer appearance.  The dramatic change is enchanting.  Every person who sees it takes something away from it that is all their own. I had a lengthy discussion with one person about the cultural requirements of Himalayan white barked birch.  Another person planned to use a birch stick as a rod over her kitchen window, and hang ornaments from it like a valance.  Yet another planned to mass snowballs and snowflakes in a white washed vintage box on her front porch.  Our discussion was primarily about how she would light it.   

Of course we needed some lighting; daylight savings time means the dark comes early now.  White and chartreuse light garlands warm up the space on a cold and gloomy afternoon.  A midwestern summer garden can be sunny from dawn to very late in the day.  A winter garden is divided between day and night, and always about not so many sunny days.  A great holiday display takes lighting into consideration. 


Anyone can garden in the winter.  There are plenty of materials that can be arranged in those pots that held tree ferns over the summer. A favorite bench can be lit from the front with a spot light, or from below with strings of lights strewn on the ground.  Decorating a garden with holiday or winter lighting is an alternative type of gardening, but gardening none the less.  There are those gardeners that are relieved when a hard freeze puts an end to the season.  There is something attractive about putting the spade and pruners away for a while, but I like to keep on gardening.

Posted on: November 7, 2010 1 Comment
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Detroit Garden Works, Woody Plants, Holiday Tagged With: , , ,

Winter Pots: Old, New, and Favorite


Should you be the person who hybridized the red twig dogwood cultivar “Cardinal”-many thanks for your efforts.  I have just as many thanks to the branch farm that grew this dogwood.  These fiery stems are stout and, and unblemished; these branches are the brilliant red you only get from fresh growth.  I was never so diligent cutting my dogwood back to the ground-mainly as the shrub would look like heck most of the following season.  I like using multiple bunches of professionally farmed twigs, when I have big containers to fill.    


It is tough to go wrong, if your materials are beautiful.  A well grown perennial takes root fast. A big juicy tulip bulb will mean big juicy flowers in the spring.  What fistful of beautifully grown fresh flowers looks bad in a vase? All of the materials in these two pots were beautifully grown; this lends a formal and elegant air to the arrangements.    


The work involved in creating any container garden makes me ask in advance for good materials. This applies to any plant-whether it be a perennial, a tree, a shrub, or a bunch of cut roses. I tell clients all the time that the effort to plant an evergreen with an undersized rootball and dead leader is exactly the same as the effort it takes to plant a healthy plant.  Every spring I see rows of 6 foot arborvitae that deathly shade of orange brown.  If you do buy marginally healthy plant material, then make the committment to baby them along.


This client will not be lounging out much this winter, but that is not for lack of company.  Materials for winter pots especially need to be well grown and fresh-they have a very long winter ahead of them.  Greens cut too early and shedding needles in November-not a good sign. Shake before you buy, or cut at home. Fresh silver dollar eucalyptus fades to a papery taupe fast; it does not hold its fresh blue color.  That is fine for some-but maybe not fine for you. This preserved lilac and purple eucalyptus bravely shrugs off the winter.  Long about February 20 I will like this a lot. 


Stick stacks-how I love them.  It has been several long years I have done without them. The stems are shaved into squares-that process makes them absorb water unequally on each surface-they fan out and curve unpredictably when they absorb water. Every year I hope I will find a source for them again.  I take that back, I don’t hope.  I look long and hard for them.  Ting-those incredibly tough and wiry palm stems-easily survives our winter.  They may not be native, but they obligingly fit into a midwestern winter color scheme. 

I like dressing a summer topiary form in lights for the winter season.  The red faux money plant picks will reflect that light at night.  Some daytime sparkle is good-but nighttime sparkle is more than welcome. The dark red dogwood stems-I do not know the name of this cultivar.  I just know the color seems right.

I don’t know a cultivar name for black twig dogwood either.  But I do know these purple black stems pair well with cut magnolia.  The lead squares, the black dogwood, the dark green magnolia leaves with their rich brown obverse-a striking foil to this house clad in white painted wood.  Should you favor an arrangement made from dark materials, place them in front of something lighter. Dark materials need some lighting. 

RA2, these few sentences are for you.  I know you could barely bring yourself to drain your fountain for the winter.  This does not mean you have to tarp it.  See, this fountain has a winter life ahead of it.  Given its size, the foam that securely holds the cut greens requires a circular support of exterior ready plywood. Curly flame willow provides lots of volume without the need for so many stems.  The lights in the mixed into the mixed evergreen stems-stick around. This will look even better later in the day.


These two Belgian wood planters-still one of my favorites though I did them many years ago. Three stiffly vertical bleached willow bunches are surrounded with an equal number of  giant stick stacks.  How those stacks curved so beautifully, unexpectedly and asymmetrically-I had nothing to do with that outcome-but I sure do like it.  The natural bristle snowflakes-a winter ornament of perfect scale, and completely in keeping with the overall arrangement.  Handsome.

Posted on: November 26, 2010 2 Comments
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Holiday Tagged With: