Perennial Plant Symposium in Atlanta

I spent most of yesterday at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, attending the annual Perennial Plant Symposium that is co-hosted by Georgia Perennial Plant Association.  (Is that a ridiculous number of very long words in one sentence, or what?)

Anyway, the first speaker of the morning (who turned out to be my favorite of the five speakers, I think) was Claire Sawyers, who is the director of the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College.  I was fortunate to meet Claire at a small dinner the night before, so we had a chance to chat then, as well.

Much of Claire's program came from her book, The Authentic Garden, which was published in 2007.  Fortunately Claire's program was not an infomercial for her book, which is so often the case. 

The focus of Claire's presentation can be summarized in a quote from the dustjacket on her book, which starts, "American gardeners have tended to turn to other national traditions - such as Italy's, Japan's, or England's - for inspiration.  The unhappy result of this piecemeal stylistic borrowing has been the creation of gardens that bear no relationship to local landscapes and history, and that have no connection with our daily lives."  Claire elaborated in her presentation the need for American gardeners to emphasize our own styles, rather than creating (for example) a Japanese garden in Georgia.

Claire Sawyer's recommendations (that she goes into great depth about in the book), are:
1. Capture the sense of place. Have a garden that is appropriate to your locale.
2.  Derive beauty from function.  A driveway is a part of the garden at this point, so why do we ignore it as a necessary evil and treat it as an afterthought?
3.  Use humble or indigenous materials.  Gravel paths are appropriate for my humble Georgia garden;       marble is not!
4.  Marry the inside of the house to the outside.
5.  Involve the visitor!  When our garden is perfect and museum like for the visitors, they miss the  experience of the garden.

If you haven't seen Claire's book, check it out of your local library or go to TimberPress or Amazon and buy yourself a gift during this never-ending winter we're experiencing!  The incredible photos will remind you this spring really is coming!

Great Book!

One of my favorite books this season is Landscape Lessons, by Patricia Godwin Dunleavy. She is someone who literally grew up in the nursery business, and operates Pine Bush Nursery.

Because the book is formatted for each brief chapter to correspond to a year in the gardening calendar, it’s a very easy read that can be picked up and read whenever I find a free half hour.
This book is filled with great information, presented in a very soft and subtle manner.

The chapter I was reading last night is about camellias. To give you an idea of a typical section, here are some points that Patricia makes about camellias:

• Planting semi-doubles rather than the larger doubles will yield more flowers with less freeze damage, since the semi-doubles open more quickly;
  
• To prevent browning on camellia flowers, plant them in a spot where they won’t get morning sun until after the frost has dried;
  
• If flowers have brown on the edges, it is probably cold or wind damage. If the flowers are browning from the center out, it is a fungal blight. Remove those flowers from the bush and the surrounding ground and bury or burn them;
  


• Look for Camellia sinensis for the earliest bloom, then C. sasanqua, then finally C. japonica to finish out the bloom season.


• The most cold hardy are the tea-oil varieties, C. oleifera, which are sometimes hard to find in cultivation. This variety has been hybridized with some others, however, such as “Winter’s Star,” which is easier to find. (I can vouch for “Winter’s Star” and “Winter’s Snowman” as two spectacular hybrids, since both grow in the stepchild garden. They produce incredible shows every winter, with virtually no attention from me.

I got this book from Amazon. Just for a little plug, buy it from the dealer listed as "Bibliowrite"in Ila, Georgia, if you want the copy personalized and signed.
Happy reading!