Garden Design Hollywood party featured on Garden World Report

Art director Donna Reiss and I are just back in the office after a fabulous trip to Los Angeles last week for the launch party (March 4) of Garden Design's first Hollywood issue. The party was held at Rolling Greens' new location on Melrose, and I have to say, it was a great venue for not just any party, but for OUR party. Guests included many of the celebrities whose gardens we share in the March issue -- Bryan Cranston, R.J. Cutler and Kyle MacLachlan, plus Jon Voight even made an appearance on his way to the Mayor's Oscar party -- as well as garden designers, photographers, writers and other good friends of Garden Design.

Garden designer, television host and new media broadcaster Shirley Bovshow of Garden World Report, brought her crew, adding some extra sizzle to the event. Get a peek at the party by watching today's broadcast (Garden Design is the first segment after the introduction).

Garden Design Hollywood party at Garden World Report.

Photo credit: Victor Boghossian/Garden Design

Delighted to receive this note from Rick Darke, whom we profiled in the March issue in Groundbreaker:

Truly a handsome magazine. Glad to see you're maintaining high production values. Especially enjoyed the piece on forcing. We arrived home from Asheville to find the Corylopsis (pictured) we'd cut from the garden a week ago in full bloom on our dining room table. I look forward to seeing the image gallery when posted.

Best, Rick

Note: Stay tuned. We're on the verge of posting a lovely gallery of Rick's photos along with his observations.

The story Rick is referring to is called Bringing into Bloom: Spring-flowering trees and shrubs can be pushed to blossom indoors early, written by Jenny Andrews and photographed by Jon Whittle and featured in the March issue of GD. Get a sneak peek with this gallery posted online.

Swarthmore's New Greenhouse

At the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College, called "the most beautiful campus in America," Archer & Buchanan Architecture has just completed a 5,200 sf jewel of a building - the Wister Education Center and Greenhouse. Despite the snow, the new greenhouse is blooming with plants and programs for the horticulturally-inclined.

The building itself is seriously sustainable. Designed to respect the context of its setting, Wister is the most far-reaching sustainable building on campus and serves as a model for integrating green design with the function, mission and architecture of the institution. It will earn LEED silver and possibly gold, according to architect Dan Russoniello.

Aquaponics

It isn't every garden story that hovers near the top of the nytimes.com "most e-mailed" list day after day. But this one has.

New Awards Program!

The 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards are designed to give national recognition and $5,000 in plants to community groups and organizations that are improving their local environments. The annual award, sponsored by Omaha-based Nature Hills Nursery, will be presented in April 2010 to groups and organizations that are literally “greening” their communities, parks, schools and public spaces by planting trees, shrubs and other plants.

The winners of the 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards will be those nonprofit groups and organizations that truly are making a difference in their local neighborhoods.
The Grand Prize winning garden project will receive $2,500 in plants from Nature Hills Nursery. The First Prize winner will receive $1,500 in plants from Nature Hills Nursery, and the Second Prize winner will receive $1,000 in plants. The plant materials can contain any combination of trees, fruit trees, bushes and shrubs, perennials and vegetable seeds that Nature Hills Nursery offers.

To apply for the 2010 award online, visit this website and click on the Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards logo.

An Italian garden that's good for you, too

Planted between 1875 and 1890 by the renowned German botanist and landscape architect Ludwig Winter, the historic garden at the Borgo Storico Seghetti Panichi is situated on a hill along the valley of the River Tronto, not far from from Ascoli Piceno with spectacular views of the Adriatic coast and the Sibillini mountains.

Winter was an experimenter famed not only for his beautiful designs but also his love of rare tropical plants. Visitors can admire a great variety ‘monumental’ plants – there are trees planted more than 150 years ago, rare species of palm trees and some remarkable examples of exotic Asian plants. Due to the introduction of these rare plants, many bioenergetic areas were designed in the Borgo’s garden, which makes it the first of its kind in Europe.

A bioenergetic garden is a green space, where certain areas offer particular benefits to the surrounding environment. These benefits are produced by the interaction of the natural electromagnetism of the setting with the plants. With the help of an innovative technique therapeutic areas can be identified. These bioenergetic areas take our guests through a natural journey of well-being and relaxation. The beneficial electomagnesium generated has excellent effects on many organs of our body and specifically the liver, heart, stomach and kidneys, but also generally on the immune, nervous and cardiovascular systems.

Moving the Outdoors INdoors

(Post by guest blogger Anne Robert, founder of TheOutdoorStylist.com)

The past few years have been about abolishing the frontier between outdoor and indoor looks and designs. I think it is now commonly accepted that designers have successfully developed a huge selection of items to match both spaces. The next few years will see the rise of a new challenge: allowing those outdoor items to come back indoors and look absolutely spot on. My bet is that this will happen sooner and faster than anticipated.

In the current economy we all feel that any purchase should be an investment even if a little expensive on day one. Outdoor designs are no exception. Just two examples of basic outdoor items all patios or gardens have: Planters and lights

Planters have become stunning statement pieces offered in a zillions shapes, colors, materials and sizes. They were however doomed to stay put once outside because of their weight. This is no longer a challenge. Designers such as flora-online.de are developing pots and planters on wheels that are either apparent or concealed (lower image).

More often, outdoor lighting is incorporated into furniture or pots. The trick here is to pay attention to the materials, as some do not age well outdoors. And, choose more forgiving colors than white. Another good way to make your selections is to go for pieces that are specifically designed as part of an indoor/outdoor collection. I love these very sculptural planters (top) by Italian brand 21 St LIVINGART.

Read more by Anne Robert at TheOutdoorStylist.com.

Paula Hayes Hamptons Lecture: Garden in a Bottle

(Post contributed by guest blogger Cara Greenberg.)

Artist Paula Hayes, Brooklyn-based creator of fantastical landscapes large and small (some so small they can be worn as necklaces), is speaking in the Hamptons this weekend on a wonderful winter subject: terrariums.

Sunday, February 14, 1PM; Madoo Conservancy, 618 Sagg Main St., Sagaponack, N.Y.; For information: 631/537-7440; $25

Hayes, best known for her blob-like silicone planters but also an accomplished designer of quirky gardens for art-world clients, builds delicate horticultural universes, often including crystals, in biomorphically shaped, handblown glass vessels.

Having heard Hayes speak before, I don’t suppose this Sunday’s talk will be a homey how-to on making terrariums as a winter hobby – probably more of an artist’s ramble “questioning the idea of living plants as authored artworks,” as the write-up for the event puts it. But I expect to be inspired, and I have an old pickle jar under the sink and a bag of potting soil all ready to go.

To read more about Paula Hayes’s terrariums and see additional pictures, go to casacara.wordpress.com.

Hot Valentine's Gift: Beautiful, Green and Romantic

by Nicki Collett

This whimsical dish is made from 100% recycled aluminum materials. Cans, yogurt lids and hubcaps are melted down, and after earning the FDA’s stamp of approval, it takes shape and can be delivered to your loved one’s doorstep. “We were so excited to find out about this recycling process,” says Cole. “And this really does make the perfect green gift!” This 8” keepsake dish comes with either pink roses and lisianthus or green ranunculus and lady’s mantle. $85 plus shipping, rebeccacoledesign.com

Lecture: The Organic Garden at Royal Family's Highgrove: by head gardener Debs Goodenough

Says Kate Blumm from Brooklyn Botanic Garden, "I was just given the green light to send around news of this lecture, upcoming in a week, which we’re all terribly excited about. It's not so often that someone so intimately connected with these particularly exquisite (and highly progressive!) gardens comes around!

LEADERS IN SUSTAINABLE HORTICULTURE
Three Decades in the Garden at Highgrove
A lecture by Debs Goodenough, head gardener to 
TRH the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall; Thursday, February 11, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
2nd Floor Conference Center, Auditorium
Goldman Sachs, 32 Old Slip, New York City



Join us as Debs Goodenough tells the story of Highgrove, a 37-acre estate that Prince Charles began to garden organically long before the value of sustainable principles was widely accepted.

Appointed in 2008 to her present position as head gardener at Highgrove, Debs Goodenough has previously coordinated the restoration of the 300-acre Osborne House, the country home of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She has also gardened at Denver Botanic Gardens; the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; and Ventnor Botanic Garden on the Isle of Wight.

$9 for BBG members, $15 for nonmembers
Space is limited! Please reserve your seat today.

Purchase Your Tickets

For more information on the event, please call Christopher Shannon at 718-623-7248, or email him at chris.shannon@bbg.org.

The Alhambra's Generalife gardens, reported from Spain

(Contributed by guest blogger Cara Greenberg who is reporting from Spain.)

The fabled Alhambra, last stronghold of the Muslim rulers of Spain, has been on my bucket list for ages. Last week, I finally made it there, and I wasn’t disappointed. High above the modern city of Granada, the 13th century citadel, extraordinarily intact in all its spectacular decorative detail, is surely one of the world’s aesthetic wonders.

A gentle climb away from the three royal palaces is a peaceful area called the Generalife (from the Arabic Jennat al Arif, or ‘Garden of the Architect’), used by the sultans as a cool summer retreat. Surrounded by pools and fountains, the terraced gardens were re-landscaped in the 1920s and ‘30s in formal French style, with topiaried cypresses and myrtle-edged parterres.

I love the look of the paving here on paths and patios, though it’s not comfortable to walk on. Made of river pebbles laid out in patterns -- some scroll-like, others geometric -- it’s a technique you see all over the city of Granada, part of the Muslim decorative legacy.

At the moment, the Generalife gardens look “a bit dull,” our guide kept apologizing. In May, he told us, there’s an explosion of roses that lasts through November. The greenest section in winter is the pool court, where sunken gardens in the Islamic style contain lavender, thyme and other herbs, irises, and pomegranates…

To read more about the Alhambra and Generalife and see more pictures, go to casacara.wordpress.com.

Go Now! Sunday is last day to see Brooklyn Botanic Garden photography exhibit: "Then and Now"

This Sunday, January 31, is the last day to catch the exhibit of “now” images by Antonio Rosario of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden inspired by “then” images, taken by the garden's official photographer Louis Buhle during the early years of the garden, celebrating its hundredth anniversary. So who is photographer Antonio Rosario and why is his work being exhibited at the BBG? Rosario explains:

The short story is that some time in late 2007, early 2008, BBG found a picture of mine on Flickr which they wanted to use for their annual report. A little later in 2008, I got a call from the BBG saying they were looking for a new photographer to shoot their calendar for 2010, the BBG's centennial year. The theme was a "Then & Now" where I'd try to get some of the same images that had been shot long ago in the BBG's history. I shot over the course of a year and they published the twelve shots for their 2010 calendar. Since I shot so many images during the year, the BBG thought it would be a great idea to put the rest of the images into a show in their gallery space. I printed my 22 images and I also printed the 22 historical images which helped inspire me.

Japanese gardens in South Florida / Seagate Hotel and Spa

I’m just back from a quick trip to South Florida where I had the pleasure of visiting the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach while staying a few nights at the luxurious new Seagate Hotel and Spa on Delray’s revitalized Atlantic Avenue. While the gardens spread over 16 acres were the major draw for me, the cultural immersion of the Morikami as a whole — including an art museum, cultural library, café, exquisite gift shop and even an authentic teahouse — is incredibly satisfying. Especially in the context of being in South Florida where, let’s face it, one doesn’t automatically think “Japanese.” In fact, I believe that the regional Japanese population is less than one percent.

But that wasn’t always so. The thirty-some year-old park is named for George Morikami who donated the land to Palm Beach County in the 1970s and honors the Yamato Colony, a Japanese farming settlement of the early 1900s, of which Morikami had been a member. Interestingly, I had just learned of the Colony’s place in local history and connection to Henry Flagler the night before while on a narrated yacht cruise aboard the Lady Atlantic on the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Morikami itself is spread over 200 acres, but without question, the 16-acre “Roji-en: Gardens of the Drops of Dew,” designed by Hoichi Kurisu, are the focal point. A one-mile path around Morikami Pond meanders through six different gardens inspired by different historical periods and styles of Japanese gardening. The Journal of Japanese Gardening recognizes Roji-en as one of the top 10 Japanese gardens in Europe, North America and Australia.

A blogger in Seville

(Contributed by guest blogger Cara Greenberg who is reporting from Spain.)

Ahhhh, Seville…city of Roman arches and Moorish tiles, churches and towers and labyrinthine streets. I’m in love with everything about colorful, civilized Seville, especially the street trees laden with oranges. It’s harvest time now; the city will ship them off to Britain, where they’ll be made into marmalade.

No matter that it’s mid-winter and 40 degrees, The cheerful orange trees are everywhere: in courtyard gardens glimpsed through iron gates as you thread your way through impossibly narrow streets, and in the exquisite, elaborate walled gardens that spread out behind the Real Alcazar, onetime palace of Muslim kings, which I visited yesterday.

In its 14^th century heyday, the Real Alcazar’s gardens were sunken, according to our guide, so the royals could pick fruit without having to stretch. Centuries later, under Christian rulers, the gardens were re-done in formal Renaissance style, and so they mostly remain, divided into myrtle-edged beds filled with acanthus, agapanthus, jacaranda, elephant ear, magnolia, philadelphus, pittosporum and more, punctuated here and there by soaring date palms and columnar cypresses. But there are also strong elements of characteristic Iberian garden design: patios, terraces, and arcades edged with brilliantly colored tiles, with archways and iron grilles in the walls between each section offering glimpses of what’s to come, and drawing you in and on…

To read more about Seville’s gardens and see more pictures, go to casacara.wordpress.com.

Join us at Inner Gardens' opening party, Jan 21

(post by Sarah Kinbar)

Longtime Garden Design readers know I've been following Stephen Block of Inner Gardens in Los Angeles since 2001. First he introduced me—and our readers—to vintage American terra cotta, then French roadside pottery and his original Multiples collection. Inner Gardens was a top pick for our "favorite garden shops" feature in 2003. We've entertained readers, designers and friends at his original showroom on Jefferson, and his newer showroom on Melrose. And last year, I drove around Los Angeles with Stephen and his two staff landscape architects as they showed me the work that represents the latest phase of their evolution: design services.

Tomorrow night is the opening party for Stephen's new location in Santa Monica. Garden Design is sponsoring the event, and I hope you'll be there, too. The showroom will stock everything from chic Nala Beads to Peace Signs to Statuesque Poodles, cowhide chairs plus a vast array of chic mid-century modern garden furniture, antiques and stylish faux bois planters. Inner Gardens will bring Westsiders an array of well-styled decorative items for indoor and outdoor living.

You are invited:
OPENING NIGHT PARTY WITH GARDEN DESIGN
THURSDAY EVENING, January 21, 2010; 6-8 p.m.
R.S.V.P. by calling 310-838-8378

Inner Gardens
1324 Montana Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Call for Entries: 2010 Green Awards

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Garden Design's second annual awards program reveals the exciting moment when great design meets ecological responsibility. Smart water and energy use, repurposing, recyclables, natives and organics, and other earth-friendly innovations will be recognized.

categories:
∅Residential Gardens
∅Public Spaces
∅Corporate Landscapes
∅Edible Gardens
∅Outdoor Products: Furniture, Décor and Lighting

To Enter: Your online entry should include the following: a completed entry form, 10 uploaded images with captions showing all parts of the completed project (professional images are preferred) and a single-paragraph summary of the project to be uploaded with the first image of the project.
Fee of $50 per entry.

Eligibility: Only designers and companies owning designs are eligible to enter this awards program. Entries must highlight key “green” components and should not have previously appeared in a national publication. See online Rules for complete details.

Deadline for Entries: May 1, 2010 / Winners will be published in Garden Design, January/February 2011

Enter online only: gdgreenawards.com

Photo: Margarido House, 2009 Green Award Winner. Photography by Mariko Reed.