There were a few people who took one look at the naturalistic meadow plantings
of my Chelsea garden earlier this year and quipped “well, that’s what
happens if I let my lawn go”. However, the reality is that creating the rich
tapestry of naturalistic planting requires a lot of planning as well as a
new set of compositional rules.

_{Sarah Price’s gold medal winning Chelsea garden (MARTIN POPE)}

It begins with the careful study of natural habitats. I love to do this on
walking holidays, but if that’s not possible I find myself spending long
hours on the internet looking at amazing photographs of wild plant
communities. I am looking for plants that like to grow together, and in what
conditions. I also look at the pattern and distribution of different species
in their natural setting. A good garden designer needs to be a visual
sponge.

When it comes to selecting plants, there are a few basic rules to consider.
Ecological compatibility is vital, which means choosing plants that suit the
conditions but will also work well as a community. Again, the easiest way to
make the right decisions is to take cues from what you observe growing in
nature.

Then I draw cross-sections of my planting schemes. Simple squiggles will do,
representing a simplification of the main plant forms: umbels, spires,
button-like dots and low, mounded hummocks. Use tracing paper or layers of
greaseproof paper for this. Always draw to the same scale so you can see how
different layers will combine and interact visually. Refer to a nursery
catalogue for information on the height and spread of the plants when they
reach maturity.

The purpose of these sketches is to test your planting scheme to make sure you
have enough variety in contrasting plant forms. This is the key to an
interesting composition.

A strong rhythm

To simplify things, I build up my planting schemes in three vertical layers,
starting with the lowest. Short plants (less than 12in/30cm) should form the
base of the planting scheme (around 40-50 per cent of the mix), and I tend
to choose plants that naturally form low hummocks.

The middle layer (approximately 12in-40in/30cm-100cm, around 40 per cent of
the mix) often contains plants with a long flowering season. Finally, I
choose two to three species that will emerge through this tapestry, the
taller the better (40in/100cm or more, approximately 10 per cent or less of
the mix). I rely on these plants to bring a strong rhythm to the scheme and
so I usually place these first so that I can see their distribution clearly.
The lower two layers are planted at random among them. Random doesn’t mean
the distribution lacks any kind of pattern or regularity: there will be
clumps of certain species, just as there are in nature.

A planting scheme like this is a radical departure from the classic,
hierarchical scheme that gives each plant its own place in the sun.
Intermingled plantings require more careful plant selection to ensure enough
sunlight can penetrate to the lowest levels. This means choosing plants for
the middle and upper layers that have near-leafless stems (see Tips, right),
avoiding taller plants with a thick canopy of leaves. If you want to achieve
a really natural effect you have to embrace the dynamic nature of plant
communities. The balance of species will change from year to year, just as
it does in a grassland meadow.

Beautiful wild places

If all this seems like three-dimensional chess, the best thing to do is to pay
a visit to a garden where you can see this kind of planting for yourself.

The Phoenix Garden in London’s West End (reopening early in 2013) is a small
garden that champions ecological principles on a small scale with plenty of
colours and habitat-rich plantings. James Hitchmough’s exotic meadow at RHS
Wisley is a long-flowering spectacle of colour. Keith Wiley is another
daring plantsman I admire for his work at the Garden House in north Devon
and his new Wildside nursery is just down the road.

Cassian Schmidt’s gardens at Hermannshof in south-west Germany were important
influences on our planting strategy for the Olympic Park. It was pouring
with rain when I visited, yet the rich golden yellows of Solidago caesia
‘Goldbandrute’, Helianthus occidentalis and the purple aster
novi-belgii, as well as the towering scale of the planting, created a
lasting impression.

This approach to planting design isn’t for everyone, nor is it right for every
garden. There’s still a place for the more traditional approach. But if what
you want from your garden is a reconnection with beautiful wild places, you
have to take on a different approach to design. It may require some
experimentation, but you can rest assured that you’ll be joining a small but
growing number of pioneers in this new wave of “gardening in the round”.

How to use plants in three vertical layers

• Use plants with low hummock forms for the lowest layer.
Heuchera villosa is shade-tolerant, making it particularly useful as a
ground-layer plant that won’t mind a little shading from the taller plants.
It is very architectural, with long- lasting, creamy flower spikes. In the
Olympic Park’s North American garden it has been planted to spectacular
effect in among the bright yellow flowers of the low-growing Coreopsis
verticillata ‘Zagreb’. Aster divaricatus would work equally
well. Primula veris and Primula vulgaris are other
shade-tolerant options, perfect for a hedgerow or woodland-edge-inspired
area of planting.

If you’re looking to create a scheme inspired by dry meadow or steppes, Dianthus
carthusianorum would be perfect as a low-layer species. It is very
long-flowering and its low mound of grassy foliage is evergreen. Try it
alongside Pulsatilla vulgaris.

• For the middle layer, use plants with a long season of interest
that have a relatively upright form. Sanguisorbas are invaluable for their
airy structure and elongated tassel or button-like flowers. For a scheme
inspired by British moist meadows, try Sanguisorba officinalis, Lythrum
virgatum ‘Dropmore Purple’, Succisa pratensis and Centaurea
nigra (otherwise known as devil’s bit scabious and common knapweed).

If you have a free-draining soil in a sunny situation, Achillea ‘Credo’,
Achnatherum calamagrostis, Liatris spicata ‘Alba’, Eryngium
bourgatii, Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’ and Salvia nemorosa would all
suit.

• For the upper layer, use tall upright species with near
leafless stems. Rudbeckia maxima creates a vibrant composition when
planted with Verbena bonariensis and/or the less well known Verbena
hastata. Coreopsis tripteris is equally tall and airy with single
yellow daisies on a profusion of wiry stems. The molinia grasses are well
known for their upright, near transparent flower stems; try Molinia
caerulea ‘Karl Foerster’ or the even taller ‘Skyracer’. Calamagrostis
x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ always stands upright, as does the less
well known North American prairie grass Andropogon gerardii.

Top tips

• Lack of leaves

This is important for the middle and tallest emergent layers. Sunlight needs
to penetrate through the different layers of planting.

A transparent form does not mean that it lacks vigour; look at the towering
clear stems of Silphium terebinthinaceum, or at the plumes of Molinia
caerulea ‘Transparent’ and the persistence of our native meadow
buttercup, Ranunculus acris.

• Ecological compatibility

Take the lead from a plant community that you are familiar with, for example
what you see along a woodland edge in Britain in spring. Consider growth
rates – will one plant become dominant and eliminate the slower-growing
species? Match the chosen plant palette to your soil and to the growing
conditions.

• Variety of shapes

Contrasting plant shapes create an interesting composition (and also promotes
a richer habitat).

• Long season

Select mainstay theme plants that will carry the scheme through the seasons
and choose plants that have interesting seed heads after flowering.

• Planting density

Increasing the planting density reduces the likelihood of weed invasion. If
you were to plant nine 1 litre plants per square metre in spring, by early
summer there would be no bare soil showing, allowing little opportunity for
airborne seeds to take hold.

Look at wild plants

Plantlife (plantlife.org.uk)
is a charity that speaks up for the nation’s wild plants and which has 23
nature reserves across Britain. In spring and summer, all of their reserves
are open to the public. Here you can find a rich source of inspiration in
important wild plant habitats such as hay meadows, chalk grassland,
limestone pavement and culm grassland.

Reader offer Buy six 9cm (3.5in) pots of the tall, airy perennial
Verbena bonariensis for half price – only £14.97. Visit gardenshop.telegraph.co.uk/offers

Ann Stookey, 60, formerly of Chestnut Hill, an award-winning floral designer, died Nov. 6 in Paris after suffering a brain hemorrhage while vacationing with her husband, Joe Waz.

The couple had been living in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles since 2011 when her husband retired as an executive with the Comcast Corp. They had been traveling with friends in Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy and France.

While living in Chestnut Hill, Ms. Stookey became an active gardener and floral designer, winning awards at the Philadelphia Flower Show and becoming an accredited judge of floral design. The “green garden” she created at the family’s residence in Chestnut Hill was featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer and magazine and online spreads, and has been recorded in the Smithsonian Institution’s Archive of American Gardens.

An active volunteer, she chaired various charitable events at Germantown Friends School and Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, among other institutions. With her husband, she co-chaired the Parents Leadership Council of Emerson College in 2007-08.

Ms. Stookey also was an accomplished choral singer and was a member of church choirs at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill, Grace Episcopal Church in Silver Spring, Md., and All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, Calif.

She and her husband met in 1979 when both were working for the National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting, an organization chaired by Ralph Nader. During her years in the Washington area, she worked in various capacities at National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System, and related institutions.

She was a member of the Wissahickon Garden Club of Philadelphia, a member of the Philadelphia Aviation Country Club, and a former member of the Philadelphia Cricket Club.  She was an avid traveler.

In addition to her husband, Ms. Stookey is survived by a son, Jack Waz, of Los Angeles; her mother, Martha Ann Stookey, of Texas; brothers Steve, of Doylestown, and Robert, of Minturn, Colo.

A celebration of Ms. Stookey’s life was held Nov. 10 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill. Memorial funds in her name will be established to support the arts of music and floral design in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. – WF

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BOOTHBAY, Maine, Nov. 12, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ — The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Bosarge Family Education Center, a LEED Platinum certified facility located in Boothbay, Maine, has achieved confirmation of Net-Zero Energy status after a year of operation. The Education Center is recognized as one of only a handful of Net-Zero, non-residential buildings in New England, and is the second commercial LEED Platinum building in Maine.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121112/PH10888-a )

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121112/PH10888-b )

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a Net-Zero building is a structure with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually. After a year of operation, an analysis of the property’s performance has confirmed that the Center is producing almost 30% more energy than it is using, and the excess energy produced is being used to supplement other power needs at the Gardens. Only a few select commercial projects nationwide achieve this distinction annually and the Center is the first non-residential development in Maine to achieve Net-Zero Energy status.

The new Center highlights the remarkable growth of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, which opened in 2007, on 128 acres of forest and tidal frontage. The Gardens attracted about 40,000 visitors the first year. Since then it has expanded to 248 acres, becoming the largest botanical garden in New England and one of Maine’s top tourist attractions. Today it hosts about 100,000 visitors annually.

This fast-growing popularity caused Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to quickly outgrow its visitor center, prompting the decision to build the education center. At the facility’s opening in the summer of 2011, the 8,000-square-foot Education Center was hailed as the “greenest building in Maine.” This building stands at the next frontier of building design, going beyond LEED standards to achieve much greater energy savings and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The building enclosure is at least a foot thick. Designed and specified by Maclay Architects of Waitsfield, VT, this innovative enclosure design achieves an impressive efficiency rating of R-40 in the walls and R-60 in the roof. Special triple-glazed windows, among the most efficient windows that can be bought in the U.S., allow for passive solar gain in the winter, while keeping out the heat in the summer. In addition, a recent energy audit of air leakage concluded that air infiltration at the facility is by far the lowest in the state. All these factors combined allow for a building with incredibly low energy consumption, before renewables are even factored into the mix.

To produce the energy required to achieve Net-Zero status, 135 photovoltaic panels are mounted on the south-facing roof, and an additional 102-panel array is located in an open field nearby. Altogether this solar installation generated 55,184 kWh last year. Payback for the solar system is estimated at 10 years.

The structure was a collaborative effort of integrated design and construction that included Portland-based Fore Solutions, the green building consulting company acquired by Thornton Tomasetti in 2012, which served as the project’s green building consultant. Their work also includes Maine’s only other LEED Platinum commercial building, the Augusta Hannaford supermarket.

The design was led by a collaboration between Maclay Architects and Portland, Maine-based Scott Simons Architects. Maclay Architects, a widely-recognized leader in sustainable and Net-Zero design, has completed 10 Net-Zero or Net-Zero ready projects ranging from 3,000 to 75,000 square feet. Scott Simons Architects has been recognized nationally for innovative design.

In addition, Allied Engineering, also of Portland, collaborated with Energy Balance of Montpelier, VT to design and engineer the mechanical and electrical systems, which include a massive array of on-site solar photovoltaic electricity generation capable of generating 55,184 kilowatt hours.

H. P. Cummings of Winthrop, Maine was the construction manager on the project. Becker Structural Engineers provided structural design services for the project. Bensonwood, of Walpole, New Hampshire, builders of high performance houses and commercial structures, produced and installed the super-insulated, tightly-sealed building shell.  To reduce waste and minimize disruption to the build site, Bensonwood fabricated the panelized construction assemblies off-site at their NH facilities, and assembled them rapidly on-site at the Gardens.  Bensonwood’s off-site fabrication techniques enabled the building to be rapidly assembled on-site during the winter months while ensuring the highest building performance standards.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens has been praised widely, receiving accolades from the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Katye Charette, who commented “Healthy, high performance buildings like the Bosarge Family Education Center are key to creating a sustainable built environment in Maine.”

Funding for the project came from the Bosarge Family Foundation, which was so impressed by the plans for the Education Center that it donated $2 million, including a $1.5 million matching challenge, which the Gardens not only met but exceeded. The total cost for the Center and its all-native landscape is $4.2 million.

To learn more, call 207-633-4333, visit www.MaineGardens.org, or stop by the Gardens, off Barters Island Road in Boothbay, Maine.

This press release was issued through eReleases® Press Release Distribution. For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

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