Though I wrote about this is a past Mother’s Day post, I am writing about it again.  In 2004, a client, whose wife and mother of his children was suffering from an incurable illness, called.  Could I possibly make a visit on Mother’s Day?  He wanted me to talk to her about what changes and what annuals would go in the garden that year.  He asked if I could plant their project first, as he felt the time she had left was running short.   I drove those many miles out to Oakland Township to meet with them.  They made the rounds of the gardens with me.  Her concern for her husband, her four children, and her garden was evident.  I could see that no matter her illness, she wanted to discuss the future of the garden.  Though that walk was difficult for her, the responsibility she felt towards those she had always nurtured seemed as robust as ever.  Funny how one’s own troubles have a habit of fading away, when there is another in need of help.  She was a Mom I hold in great regard, and I will never forget that particular Mother’s Day.    

I write about this again, as this Mother’s Day, he came by.  He was on his way to a Mother’s Day brunch with his wife’s mother. He tells me that though it is hard to be both and Mom and a Dad, all of his kids are doing well.  He wanted to be sure his garden was on my list of places to plant for the summer.  Did the garden need anything?  That I still look after their garden was a Mother’s Day moment for me.  I can’t help but think it was no accident that he came by yesterday.

There are other women who have provided me with great inspiration and encouragement.  Mien Ruys and Xa Tollemache.   Kathryn Gustafson, Beatrix Farrand, Andrea Cochran, Ursula Buchan, Marella Agnelli, and Claude LaLanne.  A real list would be miles longer than this, and would certainly include Eleanor Roosevelt.  A thorough list would include some nurturers of the male variety- Dick Beier, Fletcher Steele, Geoffrey Bellicoe, Jacques Wirtz and Fernando Caruncho.  The most comprehensive list has lots and lots of names.  I like the Mother’s Day holiday.  It is a chance to honor those who have been nurturing, and a reminder to nurture anyone and anything that means something to me.            

purple pansies

Cathedral Sky Blue salvia

lavender bicolor violas and lettuce

lavender lisianthus

lime leaved coral bells and lavender streptocarpus

wisteria Blue Moon

 Opal Moon escheveria, angelina, and sweet alyssum

lavender clematis

purple pansy mix

spring planting

carmine pansies and alyssum

purple violas and angelina

purple columbine

I do like cut flower arrangements that are more about the flowers than the foliage, but there are other good reasons to remove most of it.  any leaves below water will immediately begine to deteriorate.  Bacteria proliferate under such circumstances.  Eventually it will interfere with the stem’s ability to take up water.  That uptake is essential to a vase of flowers that lasts. A flower flush with water will stay fresh longer.

The cut flowers I buy from a wholesale flower house may be local, or they may come from a long ways away.  Though modern transportation means that a cut flower spends as little time as possible in a box, there is an immediate need to get them a drink of water.  After stripping the low foliage, I recut every stem on a slant.  This maximizes the stem surface that can absorb water.  The asters, ranunculus, and grape hyacinths in these arrangements have a naturally good shelf life.  The purple campanula, white phlox, and orlaya (this is the Queen Anne’s lace like flower)  need 24 hours of conditioning-meaning immersion deep lukewarm water in a cool spot- before they are arranged.  

Dutch iris are fleeting in a vase under the best of circumstances, so I buy them in tight bud.  Making sure the flowers you buy are fresh to begin with is important.  If you are buying flowers from a grocery store, find out what day their fresh flowers come in.  Check for any browning.  Whether you are picking tomatoes or fresh flowers, the same rules apply.  Even if those buds of iris are not showing color, once the stems absorb water they will pop overnight.  Roses in tight bud, showing no color, may never open. 

Ranunculus have an amazing long vase life.  They are readily available in the spring season.  Buying cut flowers that are in season means they are readily available at a reasonable price.  Long stemmed red roses available at Valentine’s Day in February are hot house grown, or shipped into my area from California, or South America-an out of season luxury. 

The giant long stemmed Pacific hybrid blue delphiniums are indeed a sight to behold, but they are difficult and awkward to arrange.  The shorter growing belladonna delphinium is every bit as beautiful a blue, and much more graceful in a vase. The delphiniums were arranged in this vase first.  The larger flowered tulips and iris came next.  The dashes of white sweet peas-last.  Trumpet shaped vases help give a cut flower arrangement a graceful overall appearance.  Cylinders can be tough.  Every flower wants to be upright. 

 Tulips are long lasting in a vase too.  But as their stems tend to be wobbly, they like a little existing structure to lean up against.  I try to condition tulips with plenty of natural light.  They look to the light.  I like them to be upright while they are taking up water that first day out of the box.  The flower heads are heavy, and the stems slight- inevitably the stems will swoop.  Conditioning will make them much easier to arrange. 

The Dutch iris are very stiff and set, once they open.  I like to pair them with other flowers that have a more relaxed habit in the vase.  Multiflowered double yellow tulips and sweet peas loosen things up a little.  This arrangement went to a Mom with great grandchildren.  Pastel flowers are easier to see that dark colored ones.  A bouquet of fragrant flowers adds a whole other dimension to the enjoyment of those flowers.

A mix of all white flowers is always a beautiful choice.  Veronica, lisianthis, phlox, campanula and orlaya in a vase suggests the profusion of the garden.  For a thoroughly modern Mom, a vase full of one kind of flower may be more appealing. 

I like mixed flowers in a vase for one practical reason.  If the campanula wilts and fades, it can be removed.  Clean water, and a little fluffing means the arrangement it there to enjoy for a few more days. 

There are those circumstances when arranging flowers in oasis, or floral foam is a necessity.  But flowers arranged in water that is kept fresh will last.  All of those green stems in clean water is a pretty look.

A smaller scale arrangement will be easier to handle.  Recutting the stems every other day, and clean water will help with their longevity.  If you buy cut flowers that routinely come with buds-such as lisianthus and ranunculus, making those buds part of the arrangement becomes part of the charm. 

The lavender and purple veined freesia in this vase-wonderfully fragrant.  The feverfew-very garden like.  The ranunculus-like little peonies. 

Cut flowers from the garden make lovely arrangements, but I have little in bloom right now.  What’s available in my yard and maybe yours right now-lily of the valley. Given that they are usually in bloom on Mother’s Day might be just enough of a good reason to grow them.   

I shouldn’t take it personally.  They don’t like much of anyone who gardens in my zone.  Why should they?  If you look at a map that details where rhododendron catawbiense in native, you’ll see the Appalachian mountains from West Virginia extending as far south as Alabama.  I do not garden in the mountains, nor is my climate remotely like West Virginia.  One neoighborhood in my area features big stands of old oak trees.  The rhododendron are passable there.

I have seen rhododendrons in private gardens in Philadelphia that grow to great heights, and great widths.  The shrubs are thickly foliated; the glossy leaves healthy and robust.  A big shrub in full bloom is a sight to behold.  Even in a good spring, those massive flower heads with their seductively beautiful individual florets are fleeting.  But if they did not flower, a broad-leaved evergreen is a plant to be coveted-especially if 6 months of winter is part of your yearly gardening program.

There are otherworldly gardens in Scotland and England that feature extravagantly happy and healthy stands of rhododendron.  So what do they want that I do not have?  Just about everything, as it turns out.  They want an acid soil, lots of organic material, lots of sun, but protection from winter winds, regular moisture and perfect drainage.  As imposing as they are is in every way equal to how particular and demanding they are about soil type and ph, and siting.

In general I subscribe to that school of thought that says if you you don’t have it to begin with, you chances of making it happen are slim to none.  I do not believe I can create an Appalachian mountain weather and soil zone in my yard that would fool rhododendrons into believing they had been planted in West Virginia.

When I was young, I put huge effort into to amending soil, in the belief that it was within my power to fool the plants.  Plants are actually very specific about what they need, and if they don’t get it, they will not prosper.  The right soil, siting, light, mositure, drainage, weather. When you match the plant to the existing conditions, you get romance.  Real romance.  Now, I try very hard to match the plant to the existing conditions.  Plants planted where they do not want to be sulk, decline, and die.  This is not a good look for a landscape or garden. 

 Can I really turn my basic heavy clay Oakland County Michigan soil into an acid soil native to the open Appalachian woodlands?  Not really.  But that does not mean I do not lust after a beautifully grown rhododendron in my own yard.  Lots of other people have the same idea.  My local nurseries are stuffed with row after row of rhododendron, and azaleas, even though they mostly languish here.  Rhodies are easy to dig, being shallow rooted.  And those flowers are close to irresistible.

The flowers are incredibly beautiful, and the leaves so handsome-who wouldn’t be captivated by the thought that they might make one grow and prosper?  I had a client once who spent a fortune every year replacing and coddling them.  We bought big ones, tall ones, short ones dense from regular pruning-I was so relieved the day she gave them up.  Who wants to get a failing grade in rhododendron 101, year after year?

This said, I have a number of rhodendron in my yard. I inherited a group of a Rhododendron catawbiense hybrids that are red-I do not know the name.  The color is electric. They must be 20 years old by now.  2 years ago Melissa from M and M Flowers pruned them back hard-they had become very leggy, as old rhododendron do.Last year, I had very few blooms-I suspect they were pouting.  This year, they are stellar.  Why-I have no idea.  They are planted on the north side of the house.  They get almost nothing in the way of sun, which would encourage good blooming.  I am quite sure the soil is basic.  I use no chemicals in an effort to change the ph-this I could not stomach.  I don’t feed them.  They are surrounded by pink azaleas of an equal age, with a groundcover of lily of the valley.  I have no idea what the soil and drainage is like here-I have never waded in to check.

I leave them be.  As rhododendron are very shallow rooted, I am sure they appreciate that I am not poking around.  This part of my landscape is that which came before me, and I do not disturb it.  Right now, I have a show-some fading dogwoods, the red rhododendron, a stand of hot pink azaleas, and a lush carpet of lily of the valley.

I did loose one a few years ago.  The group of three PJM cultivars I planted as replacements have looked like the devil since day one, and still do.  Whatever.  They have not grown one inch in three years.  Unhappy?  Oh yes. 

A Rhodendron catawbiense “Boursault” is blooming outside my home office window right now.  It is the so called “iron-clad” rhododendron.  I moved my computer screen to the side a few days ago, so I have an unobstructed view of it. Right this minute-it is breathtaking.  I would guess it is 8 feet tall, spindly and leggy-but it is blooming to beat the band. 

I do have a cluster of PJM rhododendron roaring back from a hard pruning two years ago.  The bloom this year-who knows what it might have been, but for a perfectly timed frost. I am mildly surprised that I have never touched this north side garden since I moved here 16 years ago.  But the fact that these displaced plants do as well as they do asks for a little respect. 

I leave them be-these West Virginia natives of the Appalachia stuck in a city garden in Michigan are doing the best they can.  I truly appreciate their effort.  I did have a bout with black vine weevils a few years back-I did treat for this.  Those bugs have not been back.  The highlight of this spring, with its round after round of disappointment from wretched weather, belongs to my rhodies.         

There may have been little in the way of winter weather in my zone, and the 80 degree days we had in March were disturbingly unusual-but the winter weather we have had this spring has been devastating.  Every bloom on twelve magnolias in my yard-and lots of other yards- was summarily frosted off at the end of March.  OK, no flowers this year.  But a week ago Sunday-24 degrees overnight.  The new leaves pushing out past those dead blooms were hit hard.  You can tell from my picture, this Galaxy magnolia does not look good. 

The new growth on the boxwood at the shop-pushed out too early due to an abnormally warm March-was thoroughly damaged by frost.  24 degrees in midwinter-all of the evergreens have gone dormant, and are laying low.  They can shrug off this kind of cold.  Evergreens which have broken dormancy, and are actively growing, are vulnerable.  New growth is soft-as in very tender. A very hard freeze in April-devastating. That extremely cold night proved fatal to every new shoot on this boxwood.   

Deciduous material suffered as well.  The leaves on these hops-too pale green, and burned brown.  This plant has cold burn.  I am seeing this damage everywhere-on maples that have leafed out.  Japanese maples planted in open areas have been partivcularly hard hit.  One grower I know feels he has lost a lot of trees.  Terrible, this.

The flowers on our espaliers dropped.  Those espaliers that had already shed flower petals will bear no fruit. Though these fruit trees have leafed out, any chance of fruit was frosted off.   I hear from friends in the gardening business of hostas 8 inches out of the ground, turned to mush.  This old rosemary, just a week out of storage, was hit hard.  The damage is everywhere-so discouraging.   The fruit tree growers in our state-devastating, the losses.    

Finally, the rain we needed so badly in April is falling in early May.  I do think the very dry conditions contributed to the frost damage.  A healthy and juicy plant is better able to fend off trouble than a stressed one.  Water stress-try working in the garden all day without a drink of water when it is hot as blazes.  Big stress.  I welcome the rain.  Rain drops on large foliaged plants is so beautiful.  These Chicago figs are loving the bath. 

Many perennials hold those rain drops.  This Creme Brulee heuchera is looking good. Though its leaves are struggling with the cold, the rain looks like good medicine. 

Water is life giving.  Miraculous, that.  No matter that I had to change my sopping wet socks twice today-I am grateful for the rain.  The difficulty I am having dealing with plants damaged by frost-soothed by the big rains. I am happy about the rain.   

This red lettuce is growing like crazy.  It is somewhat cold tolerant-the brutal frost passed it by.  The fresh leaves soaked with rain-do they not look delicious?  That gardening is not for the faint of heart is abundantly clear this spring.  The tulips bent over to ground encased in ice-this was painful to see.  The rain soaking my dry garden and landscape-a little respite from bad news.  Always, there are those good things, and those bad moments.

As delicate as a pansy bloom appears, pansy plants are very sturdy and cold tolerant. They duck down in inclement weather; they survive.  They are the mainstay of spring-along with the spring flowering trees, the early planted vegetables, and the wildflowers.  Not one pansy or viola sustained any frost damage at the shop.  They are the perfect plant for a season marked by tumult.   What to do about plants damaged by frost-wait.  Be patient. Make no moves before their time.  Many plants will releaf-many plants will handle the killing frost in their own way.  Don’t intervene until you really need to.  Survival is a primal instinct.  Like you, plants have the instinct to survive and prosper.   Give them space. 

 These yews had all of their new spring growth frosted off.  But I am seeing new shoots-they are re-leafing.  The spring rain helps fuel that.  Nature has a way of bringing any gardener up short.  But the will to live is a very strong one.  Should you garden, that natural force is more your friend than your foe.  Enjoy the rain.

As I have written before, my job for a client is best described as a conceptual plan.  A schematic plan.  A few broad strokes, an idea.  All of the details, which make a landscape project, are all about a relationship.  The strength of a designer/client relationship makes all the difference in the world.  My client was discerning, committed, articulate-a joy to work with.  These rustic concrete planters with iron rings-she thought they were prefect for the front door.   

She wrote me once that she dreamed regularly about what this garden would look like.  That’s when I started sending her the landscape/garden installation news, regularly.  She was decisive-but she was open to suggestions.  She took a lot of time with me.  I took an equal amount of time with her.  All of the details of this project have everything to do with her taste.   

She made me want to be the best I could possibly be.  My landscape design practice has been graced with clients like this.  She asked me to design this landscape as if it were mine.  I had never been asked that before, but I did just that.  But I have Harriet to thank for all of the details that emerged along the way.  This is her house and garden-not mine. 

She made time to work through the details.  These Himalayan white barked birch-especially for her.  Birches are a favorite tree. The details of my plan are all about what she likes. 

stone planter box with espaliered katsuras.  Frank Lloyd Wright reproduction stone urns.

Steel fence and tapered steel Hudson pot

gate cane bolt detail

side gate

steel fence with shelf

outdoor shower

circular staircase from the first floor terrace to the second floor balcony

stone terrace in bluestone squares and dots set on the 45

 Spa featuring blue grey glass tiles, and copper waterfall

spa detail

 deck/dock cantilevered over the water

 The house is beautiful.  The landscape-my best effort.  I could not be more pleased about the relationship, the process, the finish.  She influenced and brought to bear every personal detail.   All my thanks,  Harriet.  I could not have begun to do this project without her.  Our relationship is on a certain kind of common ground.  That ground will be an organizing metaphor for the future of this landscape.  I expect to hear about this landscape again from her-soon. 

I have written about this lakefront landscape project several times before.  We have been working on it since last September.  All of last October and half of November was a wash-literally.  The relentless rain made it impossible to work there.  In late November we finally began planting the evergreens.  We managed to finished by the holidays.  After that fiasco of a working fall, I was hoping for an early spring. 

Little did I know then that we would not have any winter at all.  That worked in our favor, given how far behind we were. The fence, gates, and a pair of pergolas were installed in February.  In early March we were back to work.  We left the burlap on the boxwood and yews-who knew what would happen with the weather next.  The finishing grading of the property was the next step. 

 We were able to plant 4 Whitespire birch, and 10 Venus dogwood on the lake side.  The dogwoods run parallel, and along the outside edge of each pergola.  They will supply some green backup and subtle screening from the street, and a neighboring property.  The birch are informally scattered in three different beds.  Some hydrangeas were added for height and privacy on the perimeter edges of the property.  The steel beams hanging out over the water would become a small deck.  Aluminum edger strip defines all of the bed edges-this is a maintenance issue.  The garden areas are large. I wanted them to be as easy as possible to maintain.

 This perennial garden is an edited version of a meadow.  Chasmanthium latifolium, or northern sea oats, will be fine with the shade from the carpinus, and the damp soil.  Added to this, aster laevis “Bluebird” , and monarda fistulosa “Claire Grace”.  In the front 1/3, Astilbe Snowdrift, notable for its lacy open blooms, a dwarf amsonia called “Blue Ice”, and Leucanthemum vulgare-oxeye daisy.  The more wild daisies, the better.  It will have a gently meadowy look.    

 The shade garden on the side is predominantly hostas and  ferns, but there are some snakeroot, some goat’s beard, bleeding hearts, and white Japanese anemone.  A single patch of acanthus, or bear’s breeches, will provide a tall vertical accent.  Along the fence-thalictrum, or meadow rue.  The garden has lots of hellebores, naturally. It is an informal mix of shade tolerant plants of varying heights.     

The perennial gardens have lots of purple lavender and white-as in catmint, campanula carpatica, baptisia, phlox, shasta daisies, platycodon-and a little red violet from stachys Hummelo.  Most all of the perennials are reliable in growth and habit, and have a relaxed, summery, and cottagy look.  This is afterall, their lake house. My clients like alliums; the garden has several varieties of small growing ornamental onions.     

This view of the shade garden was taken before the rest of the pachysandra went in, but you get the idea.  The shelf on top of the fence will have rectangular planters with flowers.  The bowhall maples, once they settle down, will do a great job of screening the house next door from the second floor.  The garden on the lake side of the fence-more of the same cultivars.

A rectangular lawn plane accented with decomposed granite and boxwood is flat.  Friendly to people. The rest of the back yard slopes gently to the steel seawall. The ground ramps up at the dock-this eliminated the need for a step.  The circular lawn section at the far right will soon have a decomposed granite firepit.

I planted the climbing rose John Davis on every other pair of pergola poles.  They will greatly soften the look of the structures, given enough time and good care. The clematis range in color from dark purple, to light purple to lavender and white-the white being planted the furthest away from the house, and the dark purple, close up.  The steel box has an irrigation line in it, which we will cap and finish with a watering head once the box is filled with soil and planted with flowers for the summer.  The Venus dogwoods on the right-underplanted with myrtle.  On the opposite side of the yard, I planted taller perennials with the dogwoods, as the ground slopes down on that side.  Taller plants on the low side will give an overall visual impression of level.

The Venus dogwoods will provide privacy to the back yard from the street.  Given the lay of the property on this dead end street, there are public views of the back yard.  The bed you see unplanted on the left now has white knockout roses.  It is my favorite of the series-it is a great grower, and a reliable bloomer.

This break in the yew and boxwood hedge from the street allows access to the back yard for guests, and a deliberately cropped view in.  This large rectangular bed of grass edged in yews and boxwood-in deference to a deed restriction which allows no plant taller than 4 feet from the house to the street. Everyone living on this short dead end street will still have a view of the water. 

This project has taken many months to complete, but it is just about there.  Given all the months I have spent working here, I understand what is so magical about living on the water.  The weather on the water-incredibly beautiful.    My clients moved in 10 days ago-they like how it looks.  They are very special people-I wanted them to a landscape and garden as distinctive as I could muster.  Time will tell.

This piece of paper does little justice in describing the size of this property, but perhaps if I say that every square inch represents 400 square feet, you will  get the idea.  Transforming what was a field with an occasional box elder, lots of buckthorn and plenty of quack grass into a home with a landscape has been an enormous project that is still going on, years later.  The land is very hilly and high.  While that seems so romantic at first glance, it did make for a site where the winds, summer and winter, are fierce.  Steep slopes are great for goats-and very tough for people.  Nonetheless, I have a client with lots and lots of property that he loves, not to mention lots and lots of energy.  He has a mind to live here-beautifully. 

The construction of the house came first, of course.  Then, a landscape plan.  My client knew there would be a lot of time between the beginning and the end of the landscape project-me too.  Something is always in progress.  Progress, no matter how slow or intermittent-is a good thing.  Given the intense winds, and the acres of dirt, his first move was to grass every dirt surface and install irrigation.  That done, some perimeter plantings of evergreens were installed to break the wind as much as to screen the property.  The landscape in the front was designed, and installed.  Given the sheer numbers of plants required, certain key plants were big to begin with-others planted by the hundreds were smaller in size.     

 A big home is one thing, but large tracts of land are usually known as parks, farms, ranches, or golf courses. This much property was a big thing to take on.  But my client has an incredible amount of energy, and a vision for his place.  It is just going to take some time.  A number of dry stack stone walls were built to transform an irregularly hilly site into three large level planes that would be friendly to people.  Last year, a terrace and dining area was installed off the back porch.   

Under construction now, the pool, and a wood pergola.  The construction made quick work of destroying the lawn, but this phase will be coming to a close soon. The idea is to have grass, pots and planters-and friends over for a swim in June.  Well, that may be a little bit optimistic, but not too much so.  What you see here is a lot of broken eggs-but I see plenty of cooking going on.       

The back of the pergola will be closed off with a series of horizontal cordon espaliers.  They will provide some filtered privacy, and with any luck, some fruit.  The pool was designed with a very minimal surround.  Large paved surfaces around a pool say “swimming pool”-loud and clear.  Minimal pool coping quietly says “reflecting pool”, dead ahead.  People who go the distance for a pool generally have very definite ideas about how they should look.  This pool will have a very dark pebbletec surface inside.  That dark color means every cloud in the sky will be reflected in the surface of the water.  It will be much more a water feature in feeling than a swimming pool.  The only other accompaniment-4 very large steel boxes from Branch, with their characteristic dark grey patina.  

The pool is just days from a finish.  The debris has been hauled away, and the ground regraded. This was not a job for two men and a pair of shovels.  Lots of people were involved.  I so like to build things-this stage of a project is my idea of adventure.     

There were lots of documents.  Lots of trades coordinating their efforts.  Lots of measurements.  A whole lot of work to do.  One step at a time.  No matter a big, a small, or a medium sized project, everything moves one step at a time.  

Why this picture?  You are looking at the pool terrace retaining wall surface, and the first post of the pool fence.  The plan here-a double row of hydrangeas.  The outside row, closest to the wall-Annabelle hydrangeas.  Unstaked Annabelles.  Thier natural propensity to fall over will greatly soften the stone wall.  I cannot wait to see how that looks in 3 years.  The back row-Limelight hydrangeas.  I have never planted them together before-but a tall stone wall and a pool fence asked for some big simple solution to both issues.  Annabelles and Limelights together-my idea of a really great party.  The grass in the background-a grass ramp up to the pool level-for those guests for whom stairs are too tough.

 These stone walls were the first gesture.  They are better than 5 feet tall, and beautifully done.  There was a year when all that got done was the grading, and these walls, the irrigation system, and the grass. 

Now the upper level has the pool-the pergola is not far behind.  The stairs are in.  The fence posts are in.  This is a very exciting time for me-seeing a conceptual plan with just a few lines come to life.  Any time now, we will be installing the gardens. 

 A year ago, I was looking at all of this grass, and trying to imagine a rear yard landscape.  I stood a good 10 feet above the house grade to take this picture.  All of the terrace furniture-piled up on the back porch.   

There is a terrace now-the furniture is out.  An outdoor grilling area not pictured to the left of this photo-operational.  I cannot tell you for sure if this is phase 4 or 5 or 6-but I can tell you this project is on the move. As for the pace-whatever makes sense for my client.         

 Landscape design is much about numbers and measurements.  The height of a pergola and the width of a sidewalk, the turning radiuses of UPS trucks, the angle of the sun in the fall,  grades, fall, drainage schemes, the angle of repose, ppms of fertilizer, the plants needed per square foot, the face feet of stone required, the longevity of certain species of trees, the composition of soil, proper planting practices, and scale drawings-the accumulation of knowledge of these things begins to make for a design judgment with depth.  The more “strings” I can become familiar with means I am one step closer to a “tumultuous ocean of strings”.  I am thousands of strings short of a Kathryn Gustafson or a Beatrix Farrand, but I have accumulated a few strings along the way.    I doubt I will ever understand the scientific meaning of strings, but I can understand how many different threads woven together can create something new altogether.  Given a little poetic license, imagine how a great landscape that is a tumultuous ocean of strings might go on to makes an utterly memorable and emotionally charged four dimensional sculpture.  Sensational-yes.

The depth of the ocean is not really so much different an idea than the depth of a person’s knowledge.  Though it is so easy to look up the cultural requirements of hellebores, possessing depth on the subject means growing them, over and over again, in lots of different environments.  Should you wish to grow gorgeous hellebores, put your hands in the dirt.  Or find someone whose hands will gather that knowledge for you.  Given this, my most trusted source on the subject of choosing perennials for a particular place is a grower who has grown many hundreds of thousands of plants in his career-both at work, and at home.  His depth is vastly greater than mine.  Once I have heard his string, I may accept it, or move on. 

There are those times when making a right choice about which plants to use is not the best choice.  Some out of the ordinary plantings are worth taking a chance on.  This means that the string which is about the scientific choice is reverberating with a string of another sort.  It might be a visual string, or a string about memory, or a string about geometric relationships.  This may sound like loads of gobbledegook, but the chance that it may resonate is just as great.  The depth of any gardener’s life, knowledge as aspiration, makes for quite a stew.  The same is true for garden designers.  If you are a gardener looking for a designer, see how many strings they have to put to your project. See if your strings will harmonize with theirs.  

I have posted, and have more posts to come, involving schematic plans.  I rather dislike landscape plans with too much detail in the beginning.  It is a rare project that takes me more than 8 hours to conceptualize.  How so?  Clients have every right to expect that I have depth in design and horticulture.  That I am educated, and keep up with what is new.  The depth of my understanding of their needs and requirements for the landscape-they need to assess that on their own.  But they can expect that I have experience.  That I will know what visual and horticultural relationships work.  And all of those numbers-I know them.  I provide an overall idea in a conceptual plan,  given how I hear all the strings resonating in concert.   A client, should I manage to interest them, responds by stringing up an instrument all of their own.  All of the details come from their strings.  They need a kitchen garden here, and not there.  They like this stone-not that.  A place to plant with their kids-where will that be?  A place to entertain family.  A memory of a certain tree, or a certain garden.  An idea of what beautiful looks like.  It is the relationship forged over these details that makes for that tumultuous ocean of strings.  Not everyone knows how to create or facilitate that, but everyone knows what it sounds like. 

Listen to see if that idea for your garden rings true.  Is there a depth of strings reverberating?  Any move in a landscape or garden that is more about a look than a life that has depth will sound like a spoon hitting a tin can. You’ll know when you need to invite a few more strings to the concert.   

We had temperatures in the upper twenties last night-my butterburrs at home, and the tulips at the shop, were not very happy.

 oh my

We ran the irrigation, in hopes that only the surface water would freeze, and not the flowers.

The first rays of the sun started melting the ice.

Frozen tulips-not such a great look.

Other flowers like these violas brushed off the bad weather.  Though I hope this is the last of the inclement weather, I am sure there will be more where that came from.  PS-the tulips are looking much better now.