SUTTON
The Sutton Garden Club will have its first meeting of the season at 7 p.m. Sept. 18 at the Dudley-Gendron Post, 156 Boston Road.
Guest speaker will be Trevor Smith of Land Escapes, who will explain the benefits of living wall technology and how to incorporate living walls into your garden design repertoire.
Refreshments will be served. A signup sheet will be available to those interested in joining the Garden Club. For more information, visit www.suttongardenclub.com
WOODBURY — The Pomperaug Valley Garden Club will present a special program, A Bouquet of Memories From the Met, featuring renowned floral designer Chris Giftos, Tuesday, October 16, at the Old Town Hall, 5 Mountain Rd.
For 33 years, Mr. Giftos was a flower designer at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. While at the Met, he created thousands of floral designs for which he gained international acclaim and recognition.
For this occasion, Mr. Giftos will make six flower arrangements which will be raffled off at the end of the event.
His narrative will be peppered with entertaining anecdotes from his days of working with numerous celebrities whose names will be familiar to all who attend.
Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. when attendees will receive a gourmet box lunch prepared by The Pantry in Washington Depot.
A raffle of gift certificates from local merchants will take place prior to the 1 p.m. presentation.
The Old Town Hall will be decorated with Oriental rugs provided by Karen Hughes, owner of Abrash Galleries and Antiques.
The price of admission is $40 in advance and $45 at the door, including lunch.
Tickets can be purchased at Canfield Corner Pharmacy, the Woodbury Drug Store or by calling 860-354-8339.
Funds raised by the garden club from this event will go back to the community in the form of planting and maintenance of numerous town gardens and public spaces as well as community outreach programs such as youth and senior workshops.
At holiday time, members construct the many wreaths and swags that adorn town buildings.
The club also offers a scholarship award.
Those seeking additional information may call 860-354-8339 or visit www.pomperaugvalleygc .org.
LARGO, Fla. — Palm Springs Rattan’s new fabric offerings include botanical, nautical, contemporary prints and solids.
Palm Springs Rattan and Garden Classics, a wholesale manufacturer and distributor of indoor and outdoor casual furnishings, announced the addition of new fabric selections for all of the company’s furnishing lines.
The expansion includes 12 additional selections to the company’s large stock fabric program and access to hundreds of fabric selections from the entire Sunbrella brand.
“Palm Springs Rattan understands the importance of fabric in the overall design of the room furnishings and the coordination of the end consumer’s décor,” said Tami Newton, sales manager for Palm Springs Rattan and Garden Classics. “Not only is the expanded range of designs and colorations important, but so are the durability options we are able to offer our customers for their consumers.”
The depth of the fabric options will be on display on furnishing introductions during the International Casual Furniture and Accessories Market (Booth 8-4049) in Chicago from Sept. 20-23, as well as at the High Point Market this October (Showplace #1539).
The 12 fabric designs being added to the stock fabric selections will join the company’s 100-plus current textile options with each available for shipment at the one grade pricing. Designs in the new offerings include botanical, nautical, contemporary prints and solids. A book of the complete fabric offering will be available at the upcoming trade shows and via Palm Springs Rattan’s website.
Palm Springs Rattan and Garden Classics’ dealers also will now be able to offer their customers the complete selection of fabric designs and weaves from Sunbrella on all indoor and outdoor furniture.
We would love your feedback!
Post a comment
FurnitureCore.com is a dynamic web application aimed at the furniture industry. Retailers and manufacturers alike will find our deep reserve of tools to be exactly what their furniture business needs.www.furniturecore.com…
more
Memphis is one of 36 U.S. cities chosen to receive centennial yoshino cherry seedlings.
Japanese cherry trees were introduced to America 100 years ago when they were planted around the Tidal Basin in Washington. Memphians enjoy an alley of blossoms every spring on Cherry Road in Audubon Park.
Plant lovers and gardeners have been “thinking globally” since long before it became a mantra of the 21st century.
At his wife Josephine’s request, Napoleon ordered his military leaders and envoys to bring back plants from faraway destinations for the gardens at Chateau de Malmaison outside Paris.
Early American plant explorers shipped our native trees, shrubs and perennials back to English horticulturists hungry for exotics from the New World to use in grand gardens.
Today, we think nothing of growing tulips native to Turkey, hellebores discovered in Europe and nandinas found first in China and Japan, to name just a few.
This weekend, the Memphis Botanic Garden will plant three seedling trees in celebration of the centennial of one of best-known horticultural exchanges: the planting of 3,000 yoshino cherry trees around the Tidal Basin in Washington.
After much diplomatic, political and horticultural preparation, on March 27, 1912, first lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Iwa Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two of 3,000 trees given to the people of America by Yukio Ozaki, the mayor of Tokyo.
The seedling trees were propagated from cuttings taken from a few of the surviving original Tidal Basin trees. Because yoshino cherries typically have a life span of about 50 years, the seedlings are treasured plants.
Thirty-six U.S. cities received centennial trees from the Japanese Embassy. Hiroshi Sato, the former consul general in Nashville, gave three of them to Memphis in recognition of the strong relationships formed between Japanese businesses and residents and the people of Memphis.
“This is a huge honor,” said Gina Harris, the director of education at the Botanic Garden who is coordinating the event.
Memphians appreciate the beauty of the pink-to-white cherry blossoms planted on streets and in yards all over the city. But for the Japanese, cherry trees have a special, even spiritual, meaning.
They see the life cycle of the tree as a metaphor for human life. Cherry trees, whose flowers bloom brilliantly for just a short time before falling to the ground, reflect the way every human being briefly flourishes.
Cherry blossoms will return the next year, just as the Japanese believe deceased family members will be reunited with families once a year during the festival of Bon.
At the end of the festival, spirits are lovingly released by their relatives in ceremonies featuring candlelit lanterns floating on rivers.
That Bon tradition will be re-created at dusk Friday on the lake in the Japanese Garden.
The tree planting and festival can help us notice Japanese influences in American gardens.
“Japanese gardeners want to re-create nature on a small scale,” said Nick Esthus, curator of the Japanese Garden at the Botanic Garden. “Their gardens are more asymmetrical and natural than European designs, even though they are highly maintained.”
Because Japan is mountainous, many of the trees growing on the slopes have a weathered, windswept appearance. That look is re-created through pruning and training of full-size trees like the black pines in the Japanese Garden and also in miniature bonsai trees.
“The simplicity of the design is meant to have a calming effect,” Esthus said.
The Japanese Garden reflects that goal in its design and name, “Seijaku-En,” which means “Garden of Tranquility.”
You don’t need a specially designed garden to enjoy the beauty of Japanese maple, bamboo, koi swimming in small ponds or an artful ikebana flower arrangement. Many of us find they fit in well with our American landscapes and architecture.
You can see and learn about examples of all of these “horticultural gifts from Japan” at a Japanese festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $10, or $5 for MBG members.
Members of the Memphis Bonsai Society will show examples of the miniature trees of Japan and demonstrate how they are trained and maintained.
Jim Crowder, operations manager with Dan West Garden Centers, will disperse information on building and landscaping water features for keeping koi, the colorful ornamental carp that are considered symbols of love and friendship in Japan.
Members of Bamboo Chapter of Ikebana International will display floral arrangements done in the Japanese style. A demonstration will take place on the main stage at 1:40 p.m.
A stroll around the garden will allow visitors to see numerous Japanese plants, including bamboo, black pines and a collection of ginkgo trees.
Other attractions include dance and music performances, martial arts demonstrations, a kimono fashion show, opportunities to make origami, paint Japanese calligraphy and master chopsticks; a traditional tea ceremony as well as vendors selling sushi, Japanese garments, jewelry, anime props and other items.
See you at the red drum bridge.
Questions or comments? Email Christine Arpe Gang at chrisagang@hotmail.com, or call 901-529-2372.
Higurashi-En, in Hillsborough, boasts more than 500 plant species, including 19 different types of maple trees; a Himalayan spruce and a 200-year-old five needle Mikado pine tree, both found nowhere else in the United States.
Nestled in the Hillsborough knolls, an ancient Japanese tea garden has flourished for more than 100 years. In the early 1900s, Japanese-born landscape designer Baron Makota Hagiwara created “Higurashi-En,” the Garden Worthy of a Day of Contemplation.
This San Mateo County treasure and the Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate Park are the only surviving examples of Hagiwara’s work. Influential in Japanese design, Hagiwara created the three-quarter-acre Hillsborough garden that is now a nationally registered historical place.
The garden boasts more than 500 plant species, including 19 different types of maple trees; a Himalayan spruce and a 200-year-old five needle Mikado pine tree, both found nowhere else in the United States. A 100,000-gallon koi pond and a 400-year-old bridge create a spectacular centerpiece, said current owner Joan Paladini, 76.
Joan and her husband, Achille Paladini, became acquainted with the property during a San Mateo Arboretum Society’s garden tour. This Saturday marks the arboretum society’s 37th annual garden tour where attendees will have access to the historical “Higurashi-En.”
Garden enthusiast Maxine Terner, 69, is the arboretum society’s chair of publicity. Terner and many other volunteers are the backbone of the arboretum society, which is responsible for improving and maintaining its location at San Mateo Central Park. The Kohl Pumphouse, built in the early 1900s, continues to irrigate the park and serves as the society’s headquarters, Terner said.
The arboretum society serves the public and the horticulture community. Free educational seminars are on the first Sundays of every month. Experts assist with planting queries, pruning instructions, earth-friendly gardening practices, water conservation and more. During the tour, master gardeners will hold a plant “clinic” where people can bring their sickly plant specimens and receive green thumb advice, Terner said.
This Saturday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., supporters will get an exclusive look into exemplary local gardens. The San Mateo Fall Garden Tour and Plant Sale is a self-guided tour and the society’s main fundraiser. Attendees will be given a map to six gorgeous private gardens within Hillsborough, San Mateo and Burlingame, Terner said.
“It’s really an opportunity for anyone interested in gardening and what it takes to make some of the beautiful gardens they’re going to be looking at,” Terner said.
Each garden is unique in design, plant species, character and ornament. Others include: Native Hillside Retreat, Purring Waters, Backyard Retreat, Reflections on Roses and Rustic Whimsy.
Each location will have additional special attractions including plein air painters, musicians, food, backyard chicken coops, rose experts and more. Various horticulture experts, including landscape architects, designers and garden coaches, will be on standby to freely assist visitors with questions or suggestions, Terner said.
Central Park is listed as the seventh garden where there will be food, wine tasting and plants for sale. By filling out a survey, attendees will be entered into a raffle where they can win several prizes including original orchid arrangements, Terner said.
The arboretum society hopes to inspire people and become more involved with the organization. It takes tremendous cooperation and dedication in developing and maintaining a garden, especially the Central Park garden. But being involved has its rewards for Terner.
“You get an opportunity to both learn a lot about a subject you’re interested in, as well as giving back to the community in a very easy and satisfying way,” Terner said.
Saturday’s garden tour will still be enjoyable for those who don’t like to get their hands dirty. The Japanese tea garden is highlighted on the tour and for good reason. Walking across the 400-year-old “bridge to eternal tranquility” around the ancient koi pond and surrounded by trees that predate most of the town, is an experience unlike any other, Paladini said.
“You walk through the gates and you’re in a different world, there’s peace, tranquility and a beauty about it,” Paladini said.
The Garden Tour is this Saturday from 10 a.m-4 p.m. at locations disclosed only to ticket buyers. Pre-sale tickets are $35 and $40 the day of the event.
For more information about buying tickets, becoming a member or visiting the Arboretum Society visit sanmateoarboretum.org. The San Mateo Arboretum Society is located at San Mateo Central Park, at 101 Ninth Ave.
A couple who wanted to move on from shared to full ownership have found the answer in a Glastonbury development. When Joanna Boughen-Hunt and her husband Tim began looking for their new home, they found Taylor Wimpey’s Dunstan Park development, in Glastonbury, ticked all the boxes.
Joanna said: “We were living nearby in shared ownership property. Shared ownership was a great way for us to get on the property ladder a few years ago, but we decided we wanted to move up the ladder. We were looking for a new build property in a townhouse style and we wanted 100 per cent ownership on our house.”
With that in mind they visited Dunstan Park and purchased a three-bedroomed Scotney property.
Joanna said: “We chose the house because of its size and the design features. It is an impressive design with large bedrooms, and a garden off the living room which is good for our two children – Madison who is four and two-year-old Riley.
“The area is perfect for us too. The schools are good and it’s local for both our places of work.”
Joanna said: “We spent time away tending to a sick relative during the process and the Taylor Wimpey team helped tremendously with chasing solicitors and moving the whole thing along.”
The development has homes ranging from starter two-bedroomed homes through to spacious four-bedroom properties. Prices start at £148,995, requiring a deposit of just £6,899 using the Government-backed NewBuy scheme. For more information , visit the marketing suite which is located on Wells Road and is open Thursday to Monday, 11am to 5.30pm. Alternatively, call 0845 671 9006 or log onto www.taylorwimpey.co.uk.
Do you have a green thumb? Or maybe just wish you did?
The Peninsula is home to some of the most talented gardeners and amazing gardens on the West Coast. And now, this Saturday, you can get your chance to take a peek into some of the area’s most beautiful and lush home gardens around.
Whether gardening is your personal sanctuary or something you admire in others but could never emulate, spending a few moments in each of these gardens is sure to be a beautiful experience.
This Saturday, Sept. 8, the San Mateo Arboretum Society invites all to its 37th Annual Hillsborough-San Mateo Fall Garden Tour, presenting six incredible private gardens.
“These homes with amazing views, bird-tuned ravines and peaceful decks are tucked lovingly into our busy Peninsula,” say event organizers. “Each of these urban treasures reflects the special relationship between homeowner and landscape designer/contractor that helps create such personal and unique havens.”
All six gardens on the tour are in Hillsborough, Burlingame and San Mateo, within easy driving distance of each other.
A highlight of this year’s tour is sure to be the Eugene De Sabla Teahouse and Tea Garden, a nationally recognized historic resource listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The garden is one of the only two remaining gardens designed by Makota Hagiwara, who also designed the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.
Organizers also say the gardens on this year’s tour “showcase creative and practical solutions to a variety of typical garden situations, including how to tame challenging hillside sites, how to include drought-tolerant and native plants into the landscape plan, and how to create easy-to-use entertainment areas.”
“Our garden tour really prides itself on the extra attractions available at each garden to enhance the learning opportunities for the visitor,” Arboretum Society members say. “Representatives from specialty associations, like the Master Composters, and horticultural experts, including bonsai and rose, are available to patiently answer questions and provide detailed knowledge of the plants and their growing requirements.
“Specialty vendors who participated in the creation of the gardens are also available to showcase sustainable practices and materials. Visitors will come away with both inspiration and information to tackle their own gardening challenges.”
The historic Kohl Pumphouse, located at San Mateo Central Park, is the “touchstone” of the tour, and will feature a plant sale at the Arboretum Society Greenhouses from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with vendor food from Flamin’ Dogs available for sale as well.
Sponsors of this year’s tour include Blue Sky Design, Lyngso Garden Materials, Borel Bank and Hillsborough Garden Crafters.
The tour has an open schedule from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 on the day of the tour, to be sold at the Kohl Pumphouse.
Tickets can be purchased online via PayPal at www.sanmateoarboretum.org. The following local retailers will also be selling tickets:
Event organizers strongly encourage attendees to carpool and to wear comfortable walking shoes, as there are some steps, natural non-flat gravel paths and small hills, and the estates on the tour can be up to an acre in size. Organizers disourage strollers, walkers and wheelchairs.
For the latest news on cool local events such as this, follow Patch! And don’t forget to sign up for our daily e-newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.
Get daily local breaking news with our daily newsletter | | Like Burlingame Patch on Facebook | Blog for Burlingame Patch | Follow Burlingame Patch on Twitter
Today, September 7
Horttalk – Tips for the Home Gardener. Otago Polytechnic
lecturer Lisa Short talks about garden design principles and
what’s new in garden design. Botanic Garden Centre, upper
Lovelock Ave, noon.
Monday, September 10
Otago/Southland Branch New Zealand Camellia Society
monthly meeting, St Peter’s Church hall, cnr Hillside Rd and
Eastbourne St, South Dunedin, at 7.30pm. Prelude to show,
revision on benching and steward’s duties. Supper to follow.
Public welcome.
Tuesday, September 11
Cromwell Garden Club will meet at 7.30pm in the St John
rooms. Guest speaker: Peter Brass from Evandale Gardens.
Dunedin Gardening Club will meet in the Church of
Christ hall, cnr Filleul/St Andrew streets, 7.30pm. Wayne
Tuck will talk about glasshouse maintenance and growing
tomatoes. Normal monthly competitions – spontaneous flower is
Hellebores. Phone Midge 488-2796.
Dunedin Garden Lover’s Group meets at the St Andrew
Street Church of Christ hall at 1.30pm. Discussion on garden
problems and garden hints. Inquiries to Pam, Phone 488-2285.
Wednesday, September 12
Dunedin Rhododendron Group annual general meeting will be
held at the Botanic Garden Centre, Lovelock Ave, 7.30pm.
Guest speaker Lesley Cox. Bring and buy plant sale and supper
to follow. Visitors welcome.
Taieri Garden Club meets in the McKerrow Lounge,
Mosgiel Presbyterian Church hall, 7.30pm. Speaker Gillian
Vine on European gardens. Competition, sales table, supper.
Inquiries to Amy 489-1473 or Nola 476-3994.
Thursday, September 13
Fairfield Garden Club meets in the Fairfield Community
Hall at 7.30pm. AGM and mini spring show: bring your best
blooms, baking and preserves, and a tray of any six items.
Inquiries to Joy, 489-5774.
Saturday, September 15
The Dead-headers Picnic, 11am-noon at the camellia
collection, Dunedin Botanic Garden. Wear something gorgeous
and your favourite garden party sun-hat and join our social
event to dead-head camellias so they also look gorgeous.
Bring some food, tea or coffee to share for a picnic in the
garden afterwards. All welcome. Contact, Marianne 027
333-6673.
Contact us
Email notices by noon Wednesday to odt.features@odt.co.nz or
write to ODT Editorial Features, PO Box 181, Dunedin.
This Sunday, windmills across the region will fling wide their doors for an Open Day – including the almost-restored smock mill at Impington. Its owner tells EMMA HIGGINBOTHAM why it’s still a work in progress, 12 years after he began.
Everybody loves a windmill, especially children – but when I was little they gave me the heebie-jeebies.
I blame Windy Miller from TV classic Camberwick Green. Whenever he stepped out of his mill, and the gigantic sails swooshed past the door, I was convinced they’d lop his head off.
Now I’m nearly 41, I find the magnificent structures less traumatic – which is just as well, as I’m visiting Steve Temple in his newly restored smock mill in Impington.
It’s a breathtaking sight, and thankfully Steve’s sails are nowhere near the ground, having been raised by a brick tower some 130 years ago: “You get more wind the higher you go,” he explains. “The sails on the earlier mill would have come right down to the ground, and knocked your head off as they were coming round, but now they clear the ground by about 20 feet.”
A-ha! So Windy Miller could have been decapitated? Steve laughs. “Traditionally you would have had two doors, on opposite sides. So if the sails were going past one of those doors, you’d go out the back door.
“Windy Miller never behaved properly.”
Steve, who’s 65, first set eyes on the mill when he and his wife Pippa moved to Girton in 1972: “We could see it from our back windows,” he says. “Over the years it deteriorated, and I muttered several times that someone ought to take it in hand and do something about it.”
In 1999, a friend told them it was for sale. But, as Steve’s elderly parents were still living in Girton, they had no plans to move.
“She eventually persuaded my wife to come and have a look at it – I was away on business – and she fell in love with it, really because of the garden. The house was nice, but an acre-and-a-half, two miles from the centre of Cambridge, was just too good an opportunity.
“So she was terribly excited, and said to me ‘You really ought to go and have a look, I think you’d be quite interested’.” He was. “I spent a quarter of an hour going round the house, and three quarters of an hour going up the mill!
“We sat down in our garden and said ‘Are we completely bananas for doing this?’, drank a glass of wine, and decided we were. So we put in a bid – and we got it.”
The windmill was in a sorry state. Listed as ‘at risk’, the cap was leaking, the woodwork was rotting, and the overgrown trees in its jungle of a garden meant there was no room for sails.
“The garden was a disaster when we came. In fact I was more daunted by the garden than the mill,” says Steve. But after inviting friends to numerous ‘slash and burn’ parties, they cleared it all, and have since planted more than 28,000 bulbs as well as 28 trees (albeit smaller and more ornamental). It’s now a fairytale-like space, and much loved by the couple’s two grandchildren. “Probably more hours, and nearly more money, has gone on the garden than on the mill,” he confides.
Although an inventor and engineer by trade, Steve admits to being a mill ignoramus when he began the restoration back in 2000: “I know a great deal about machinery and mechanisms, but I didn’t know anything at all about mills. I had to learn it all.” Was it as interesting as he thought it would be? “Oh yeah, every bit! More so.”
He’s done most of the work himself, with the help of several mill fans: every weekend, five or six volunteers – ranging from local teenagers to an enthusiast who comes specially from Ipswich – get stuck in: “and I’ve got three female volunteers who are all very willing to climb up and do the work.”
That’s no mean feat, as the mill is no place for vertigo sufferers: in order to clean, paint and repair, Steve regularly hangs off ropes and even abseils with stilts on to get at the right angle. Fortunately he loves heights: his hobby is flying a paramotor (“a parachute with an engine strapped on your back” he explains).
Happily, money to fund the project hasn’t been an issue. In 1990, Steve was a co-founder of Xaar, who make ink-jet print-heads: “It’s now worth somewhere in the region of £180 million, and it’s got a turnover of £60 million a year,” he says. “I left about four years ago, because there were other things I wanted to do. I’ve done some of them, but not quite all – I’ve spent more time on the mill than either I perhaps intended or should have…”
Mind you, he adds, it hasn’t been as expensive as you might expect: “After 12 years, it’s up to about £50,000, so £4,000 a year. People spend a lot more than that on hobbies – you’d spend that much golfing.” So it’s a hobby, then? “It’s a mission,” he grins.
Another mission for Steve is The East Anglian Mill Society (TEAMS), which he and other local millers began five years ago to share inspiration, ideas and practical help. They’re keen to preserve the few mills that remain in the countryside too: “We’re just losing this landscape and history,” he says.
“In the middle of the 19th century there were about 1,000 mills in Cambridgeshire: two in Impington, two in Histon, four in Cottenham, two in Oakington, one in Chesterton, one in Milton… that’s the sort of density, but most of those have gone without trace. So we need a small number of working mills, and a small number of preserved sites.”
There’s obviously a thirst for it: at the National Mills Open Day in May, around 200 people came for a nose around Steve’s mill: “and that’s fairly typical for all of the mills in TEAMS.”
So why does everyone love a windmill? “It’s got everything, hasn’t it? It’s a nice piece of architecture, fascinating engineering, history – and increasingly people are realising that stone-ground flour is much nicer than the stuff you buy in the supermarket.”
Steve isn’t making flour yet: he reckons restoring the grinding mechanism will take another couple of years, and confesses that side of it doesn’t particularly interest him: “I don’t have any desire to grind commercially, but when we come to sell it – when I’m too decrepit to climb it – we want to have the mill in working condition.” Wouldn’t it be nice to bake his own bread? “It would be fabulous! Trouble is, you’ve got to buy a tonne of wheat to do it, and you’ve then got to get rid of the other 999 kilos…”
Twelve years on, the mill looks immaculate. But there’s plenty still to do: “I don’t know how long it will take to finish, and I don’t care!” laughs Steve. “All the while I’m enjoying it, what does it matter?
“It’s a wonderful piece of structure, it’s great fun climbing up and down it, and it’s a great thing for an engineer to have in his garden.”
And is he a ‘mill bore’ at dinner parties? “Well you’d have to ask my friends, and I think they’d probably uniformly say yes! But quite a lot of my friends come and work on it anyway, so they’re fairly happy to be bored.”
emma.higginbotham@cambridge-news.co.uk
