14 February 2013

Garden
Designers Turn Dreams Into Reality For
Ellerslie

Dreams have started to become reality
today when dozens of designers begin the process of creating
their exhibition gardens for the Ellerslie International
Flower Show.

After months of planning the designers can
finally begin constructing their gardens on-site in North
Hagley Park in preparation for their judging on Monday, 4
March and for their public unveiling on Wednesday, March
6.

While the professionals move in today, the aspiring
professionals have to wait until Saturday until they can get
started on their entries in the show. That is when those
competing in the Emerging Designs – Student of the Year
competition can start putting their creations
together.

For Wellington landscape design student Bayley
LuuTomes the start of Ellerslie cannot come soon enough. He
is excited about participating in the prestigious show and
having the chance to compete for gold.

“It has been an
amazing journey to date with so many wonderful people in
this industry. I can’t wait to get there,” he
says.

For a group of enthusiastic amateurs from Raumati
School in Kapiti, March 2 is D-day. That is when they will
arrive at North Hagley Park to begin work on their
exhibition garden – the first ever by a school.

“It
goes without saying that we are all extremely excited to be
coming down and taking part in the Ellerslie International
Flower Show,” says their teacher Diane
Turner.

Preparations for the opening of the Ellerslie show
are well underway. Fifteen large marquees are being erected
on site, which along with Hagley Park’s two large geodesic
event domes, will create a garden village
atmosphere.

There are a total of 73 horticultural exhibits
this year including 26 outdoor gardens. Putting the show
together is a team of 50 full-time and contract staff
assisted by around 200 local volunteers.

Ellerslie
International Flower Show Managing Director Dave Mee says up
to 200 people will be on site during the next week with
numbers building to 1000 in the days leading up to the
show’s public opening.

“This year’s show is all
about flowers and it has a new edible component too. With
more than 200 exhibits in total and a quarter of a million
flowers, there will be plenty to see and do during the
five-day show,” he says.

—

The Ellerslie
International Flower Show is on in North Hagley Park from
March 6 to 10.

Tickets are available from the website
www.ellerslieflowershow.co.nz, all open Christchurch City
Council Service Centres, Mitre 10 Mega Stores in
Christchurch, Ashburton and Timaru, Terra Viva, EziBuy
Christchurch and Nichols Garden
Centres.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

It’s a request the City Council should deny.

The last thing New York needs is to enshrine the aging and oppressive Garden, which may be the world’s most famous arena but is also one of the ugliest and, for millions of commuters using the station trapped beneath it, a daily blight.

The Council could grant a 10-year permit, enough time so that the Garden and the various parties responsible for the station can come up with an appropriately aggressive plan to improve the site, a plan that should include discussions about a possible future home, elsewhere, for the arena. Renewal of the permit is one of the few points of leverage the city has over the Garden.

The special permit approval process starts with Community Board 5, which is to vote on the request Thursday evening, after which the Manhattan borough president and City Planning Commission will make their recommendations. Then the City Council will rule.

The Council should also deny the Garden permission for signage of up to 17,300 square feet on the building (that’s more than five times the current amount). This would include signs of up to eight stories high on the corners of 31st and 33rd Streets on Eighth Avenue, and a 5,300-square-foot “media wall” on that avenue’s facade. The wall would no doubt create an appalling floodlight of announcements and advertisements that could only further degrade the neighborhood: an immense, flashing electronic billboard would be the first thing many visitors to the city see if Amtrak ever moves, as intended, to the James Farley Post Office building across the avenue.

The Garden, as compensation, proposes also to add directional signs on the surrounding streets and install a few semicircular benches and decorative concrete paving, along with “interpretive pavement inlays commemorating significant people and events associated with Madison Square Garden,” according to the Garden’s land use application. That’s what passes in the application for public amenities.

On their own New Jersey Transit, Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak have banded together to hire the design and engineering firm Aecom and James Carpenter Design Associates to devise ways to bring a little light and air down into the bowels of Penn Station. But so far the plans, hamstrung by the arena, seem only to recommend modest changes and perhaps the partial closing of 33rd Street at Seventh Avenue, to create a small pedestrian plaza. Serious change to the area, to heal one of most painful wounds the city has ever inflicted on itself, must involve the Garden.

Its owners, the Dolan family, have been pouring a billion dollars into upgrading the arena. New York taxpayers are effectively footing part of the bill. In 1982 the New York State Legislature, worried that the Knicks and Rangers might leave town, granted the Garden a tax abatement that last year alone saved the Dolans $16.5 million, according to the New York City Independent Budget Office. In 2008, by which time the abatement was estimated to have cost the city $300 million, the City Council recommended that it be ended, but the state legislature declined.

Penn Station was designed half a century ago when some 200,000 riders a day used it, but now 650,000 do, and that number is growing. With the Garden on top of it, relief is not likely. The City Planning Commission, which recommended the demolition in 1963 of the old Penn Station, now has, for the first time since then, a chance to atone by giving the permit a time limit. The permit that has just expired was for 50 years.

Several years ago the Garden entertained a proposal by developers to vacate its site and move to the back of the post office. Having just spent a fortune on improvements, the Dolans probably have no desire to entertain a move now.

But a decade of wear and tear should help to amortize their investment and make the notion of a new home more palatable, especially compared with the endless prospect of sinking yet more millions into an already decrepit building. The Garden has already moved twice since its establishment, in 1879. Another move, one that sustains the arena’s mass-transit link, could provide an opportunity to build what the Garden should be, the newest and best sports and entertainment facility in the city: an architectural landmark as opposed to an eyesore, lately made to look even worse by the arrival of the spanking new and striking Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

New York deserves better, not flashing signs, decorative paving stones and more of the same, in perpetuity.

Follow Michael Kimmelman on Twitter, @kimmelman.

Mike Russell from Designs with Nature received the ‘Local Services’ award from the Shropshire Hills Area of Natural Beauty (AONB) in early February, in recognition of his valuable contribution towards the Shropshire Hills Sustainable Business Scheme Pledge.

Jodie Griffith, from the Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership, explained “We organised this event to say thank you to the local businesses who continue to support the
Sustainable Business Scheme.”

The Business Scheme has been running for five years and members pledge to become more sustainable by working towards reducing their impact on the environment, enhancing wildlife and landscape, involving local people and visitors and supporting the local economy.

Mike said “as a bespoke garden design and build company, Designs with Nature is always striving to be sustainable. We know it’s important to value, support and use local products, services and suppliers”. Mike continued “to have been nominated for this award is wonderful; it means we are being recognised for achieving the pledges of sustainability that we have made to ourselves, our clients, the community and the planet”.

The Sustainable Business Pledge Scheme for Mike’s business includes acting locally but thinking globally, planting native plants and trees, promoting and helping people grow their own organic fruit, vegetables herbs, creating and promoting wildlife gardens, woodlands, wetlands and meadows. Mike said “we encourage composting, gardening organically, recycling, water conservation and the use of reclaimed materials”.

Mike Russell.

With experience in creating outdoor spaces for communities and schools, Mike continued “where possible we use local craftspeople, artists and plant suppliers within the gardens that we design and build, we also strive to incorporate wildlife habitats which is vital for a sustainable future. Our gardens make up the largest nature reserve in the country, so we need to work with nature and not against it”.

Garden designer Mike continued “it is great to be recognised for the work that we do, and just as importantly the way that we do it. We will continue to make pledges for a greener business and sustainable future”.

Mike is currently working very locally on a public sensory garden in his home town of Church Stretton. Time, materials and plants have been donated by his team
to realise the dream of the Church Stretton Play Area Group, to create a sensory garden that can be enjoyed by children of all abilities. The design and build of the garden has been undertaken by Mike and his team and includes an impressive labyrinth, wildflower meadow as well as sensory planting based around the senses.

The award from the Shropshire Hills AONB adds to Mike’s impressive list of awards, which include a Gold award from the 2011 Shrewsbury Flower Show, a Silver Gilt medal at the 2011 Royal Horticultural Malvern Spring Gardening Show and in 2010 Mike won Gold and Best at Show at the Shrewsbury Flower Show for a garden designed for Headway. Mike has also scooped two other RHS Silver Gilt Awards in the past at BBC Gardeners World Live.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

The Lauritzen Gardens Antique and Garden Show unveiled its 2013 lineup of design experts, authors and trendsetters to serve as keynote lecturers at the highly-anticipated event to be held September 26-29. In its tenth year, guests can anticipate a spectacular celebration of a decade of treasures at the garden.

Carolyne Roehm, the Friday luncheon speaker, has been viewed for more than two decades as one of this country’s trendsetters in fashion, elegance, and taste making.

Roehm has been described as one of the world’s best-dressed women, one of the most beautiful and charming women in New York, driven and highly organized.

She worked for Oscar de la Renta for ten years as a house model and designer and was President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Roehm’s passion for beauty extends beyond fashion into the world of flowers, entertaining, garden design, and interior and product design. Flowers, Roehm’s latest book, is a floral photographic journey through her gardens.

The Friday evening event, Cocktails and Collectibles, will feature Eddie Ross and his approach to giving new life to old things.

Ross has a devout group of followers for his blog on affordable decorating and entertaining; he is a lifestyle expert and former Senior Style Editor of Martha Stewart Living.

Kathryn Ireland, interior designer to the stars and featured decorator on Bravo TV’s Million Dollar Decorators, will address guests for the brunch on Saturday, September 28. With a style described as “comfortable, bohemian, and family-friendly,” Ireland will outline her approach to Timeless Interiors, also the name of her recent book.

Self-described domestic diva, Danielle Rollins, will be speaking on Sunday, September 29.

In Soiree, her recently published first book, Rollins emphasizes gracious living and stylish entertaining by focusing on the simple things that can be done to make life’s occasions memorable.

With the backdrop of one of the Midwest’s premier botanical gardens, the one-of-a-kind event brings together approximately 30 national and international antique dealers with all genres of antiques and collectibles of exceptional quality and extraordinary style.

• 

Omaha, NE (PRWEB) February 12, 2013

The Lauritzen Gardens Antique and Garden Show unveiled its 2013 lineup of design experts, authors and trendsetters to serve as keynote lecturers at the highly-anticipated event to be held September 26-29. In its tenth year, guests can anticipate a spectacular celebration of a decade of treasures at the garden.

Carolyne Roehm, the Friday luncheon speaker, has been viewed for more than two decades as one of this country’s trendsetters in fashion, elegance, and taste making. Roehm has been described as one of the world’s best-dressed women, one of the most beautiful and charming women in New York, driven and highly organized. She worked for Oscar de la Renta for ten years as a house model and designer and was President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Roehm’s passion for beauty extends beyond fashion into the world of flowers, entertaining, garden design, and interior and product design. Flowers, Roehm’s latest book, is a floral photographic journey through her gardens.

The Friday evening event, Cocktails and Collectibles, will feature Eddie Ross and his approach to giving new life to old things. Ross has a devout group of followers for his daily blog on affordable decorating and entertaining; he is a lifestyle expert and former Senior Style Editor of Martha Stewart Living.

Kathryn Ireland, interior designer to the stars and featured decorator on Bravo TV’s Million Dollar Decorators, will address guests for the brunch on Saturday, September 28. With a style described as “comfortable, bohemian, and family- friendly,” Ireland will outline her approach to Timeless Interiors, also the name of her recent book.

Self-described domestic diva, Danielle Rollins will be speaking on Sunday, September 29. In Soiree, her recently published first book, Rollins emphasizes gracious living and stylish entertaining by focusing on the simple things that can be done to make life’s occasions memorable.

With the backdrop of one of the Midwest’s premier botanical gardens, the one-of-a-kind event brings together approximately 30 national and international antique dealers with all genres of antiques and collectibles of exceptional quality and extraordinary style.

For advance ticket sales and complete show details, including a preliminary list of exhibitors, please visit http://www.omahaantiqueshow.org.

Lauritzen Gardens is an urban oasis of beauty and tranquility. This 100-acre botanical garden, comprised of several outdoor garden areas, creates a living museum of unique four-season plant displays, maintained to the highest standards consistent with environmental stewardship. The visitor and education center includes the 5,000-square-foot floral display hall, a café, gift shop, horticultural library and rental spaces.

Lauritzen Gardens is conveniently located in the beautiful riverfront hills at First and Bancroft Streets and is close to the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and the Old Market. For more information, please call (402) 346-4002.

# # #

PDF


Print

Have you ever seen a garden that just took your breath away?  You visit two months later and the garden is again in full glory and you wonder how do people do it?  How do you design a garden that offers visual interest through the seasons?  University of Illinois Extension offers many resources to help you create your very own eye-stopping flowerbed.

The Stepping Stones to Perennial Garden Design program has helped many gardeners create amazing outdoor spaces. Created by Martha Smith, extension educator in horticulture, this program is available online at http://web.extension.illinois.edu/gardendesign/. There you’ll find lessons designed to help the homeowner evaluate their landscape, select a garden site, and follow a step-by-step approach to creating a perennial garden suited to their own personal tastes. The information is free and available anytime you are ready to begin.

If you prefer a face-go-face program, don’t miss this year’s Gardeners’ Big Day. I started this annual event in 2000 in partnership with Spoon River College and am proud of how the event has grown and expanded over the years. This year’s Big Day will be at Dickson Mounds Museum on April 6^th. I will give the keynote presentation to kick off the day. My “New Plant Runway” presentation will highlight the top new plants for 2013. Every year new plants are introduced to fit a particular horticultural need or garden niche. The best of the best is promoted each year through the various gardening organizations and plant testing groups. See the top plants this year and select a few to try in your own garden.

Another popular Extension program is the 4-Seasons Gardening Telenet Series. The 2013 series begins on April 9^th with “Spruce Problems” and ends October 1^st with “Landscape Design.” In between are programs about pollinators, tomatoes, your yard after the drought, plants for dry sites, winter garden tips, and more. These are broadcast simultaneously to Extension offices all over Illinois.

While on our website, be sure to visit my horticulture and blog pages. My “ILRiverHort” blog provides general garden information and the “Community Garden Programming” blog is a place to learn more about community, school, and youth gardens. In the Master Gardener My “Eye-Spy on Current Plant Problems” Master Gardener page gives information on current plant issues and pests. The horticulture pages provide links to other sites. You’ll also find links to my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and our YouTube garden sites.

Finally, if you prefer to talk to someone in person about your plant or garden design questions, our 200 Master Gardener volunteer covering Fulton, Mason, Peoria, and Tazewell counties are happy to “Help Others Learn to Grow.” You might even consider being a Master Gardener too.

More information about any University of Illinois Extension horticultural program is found on our website at http://web.extension.illinois.edu/fmpt or by calling your county Extension office at 547-3711 (Lewistown), 543-3308 (Havana), 347-6614 (Pekin), or 685-3140 (Peoria).

I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming program. Have fun designing your new garden!

 

 

View full size

David Slawson’s Japanese garden design incorporates a stream and patio in a small backyard in Fayetteville, Ark.

Sylvia M. Banks, Special to The PD

 

If you’re interested in a variety of gardening aesthetics, Japanese garden designer David Slawson of Seven Hills has a video on YouTube that he thinks you’ll enjoy.

In the short video, with a background of tranquil music and a slideshow, Slawson explains the essence of Japanese gardening and how it differs from the Western approach to dressing up yards.

“One of the striking differences between Japanese gardens and most western gardens is the Japanese use of plants to evoke their habitat in nature versus the western use of plants purely for their decorative qualities,” Slawson says on the video. “A plant’s special beauty comes fully alive in the context of its habitat.”

If that piques your interest, and you’re curious about how you might weave Japanese influences into your landscape, Slawson expounds on the subject on his new DVD, “Evoking Native Landscape Using Japanese Garden Principles,” available for $15.

The DVD takes viewers on a journey through three key aspects of Japan landscape art form: sources of inspiration, natural habitat, and compositional techniques.

“The film demystifies the art by showing how aesthetic techniques based on observation of nature and human perception are used to create gardens with the power to move us and soothe our spirit,” Slawson said in a telephone interview.

Slawson apprenticed in Kyoto in 1971-72 under Kinsaku Nakane, who he says is one of Japan’s foremost 20th-century garden makers. Slawson designed the Japanese Garden at Cleveland Botanical Garden in 1974. He also designed the Japanese gardens at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., and Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Ark. These two have been voted among the top 10 Japanese gardens in America, he said.

His book, “Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens: Design Principles, Aesthetic Values,” is regarded as a classic for its presentation of landscape design principles and translation of the 15th-century Japanese garden manual “Illustrations for Designing Mountain, Water, and Hillside Field Landscapes,” he said.

Slawson has spent the past 40 years designing, writing and teaching. Throughout his career, he’s moved toward taking the universal principles of the Japanese garden art form and interpreting them to show the beauty of native landscapes in North America and throughout the world. His ideal is to create gardens inspired by the beauty of regional landscapes and unique attributes of a site, using locally available materials and the client’s taste.

“Every ecosystem on earth offers places of beauty worthy of recreating in the garden, and the possibilities are endless,” he said. “What you need are the aesthetic tools, imagination and a skilled garden maker, preferably combined in one.”

The DVD is 32 minutes long and features photos taken by Slawson and his partner, Sylvia M. Banks, who has had many of her landscape photos in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park calendar and other publications. The production and meditative background music are by Greg Slawson — Slawson’s nephew and a graduate of The Cleveland Institute of Music in piano — from his CD “Waterflow II.”

“The most moving, deeply satisfying landscape gardens don’t come from our heads, but come through our heart and senses, from our experience in the natural world,” he concludes.

To order the DVD, call Slawson at 216-524-3257 or e-mail david_slawson@sbcglobal.net

The Fauquier and Loudoun Garden Club will offer a special horticultural event—Creating an Inspired Garden and Landscape— Saturday, Feb. 23, at The Hill School in Middleburg.

The program will feature some of the leading experts in gardening beginning with William Cullina at 9:45 a.m. He will speak on “Sugar, Sex, and Poison: Shocking Plant Secrets Caught on Camera.”

“Everything eats plants,” Cullina said, “and because they don’t move around they have evolved an incredible arsenal for protection all the while remaining seductive in order to perform pollination, seed dispersal and nutrient acquisition. It’s a delicate balance.”

Cullina is the executive director at The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. An author and authority on North American native plants, his books include, Wildflowers, Native Trees, Shrubs and Vines, Understanding Orchids, Native Ferns, Mosses and Grasses, and Understanding Perennials. He will demonstrate how the world of pollen, poisons, pigments, pheromones, sugar and sex translates to sound organic horticultural practices.

Helen Dillon’s acre of town garden in the elegant Ranelagh district of Dublin has become the most photographed garden in Ireland. She confesses that her tastes are constantly changing. In her view, gardening should be an entirely intuitive process.

“The best gardening happens when you’ve done all the things you intended to do, and you’re just walking about letting your mind run free,” she said. Dillon will present “Dig It Up and Throw It Away” at 11 a.m.

The undisputed queen of Irish gardening, Dillon will share her spirited approach to dividing, conquering and revitalizing your garden. She is known for unorthodox methods that achieve stunning results.

Following a box lunch which is included in the $125 early bird registration, W. Gary Smith’s “Art to Landscape” will help designers solve problems and artists raise questions. Step beyond creating “solutions” in garden design and find delight in a world where there are more questions than answers.

Smith, one of North America’s leading landscape designers, specializes in botanical gardens, as well as public art installations and private gardens. He received the national Award of Distinction from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers and a Design Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

His recent work includes the new Santa Fe Botanical Garden, the Master Plan and Children’s Garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the Discovery Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Therapeutic Garden at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. His book, From Art to Landscape—Unleashing Creativity in Garden Design, will be available at the symposium.

The final speaker will be Thomas Hobbs, with a lecture “Is Your Cake Baked? Mine Was: Starting Over From the Ground Up.” An iconoclastic and trend-setting garden visionary, Hobbs will lead a journey of garden design and implementation at his new garden acquisition in British Columbia, Canada.

Hobbs will speak on learning from nature how to blend color, texture and species of plants to create beauty in the garden. This internationally known impresario of garden and floral design began growing seeds when he was 5 years old and has never looked back.

He is the founder of Thomas Hobbs Florist in Vancouver, and the author of the books Shocking Beauty and The Jewel Box Garden. He is the owner of Southlands Nursery, a culmination of loving and growing plants.

The Fauquier and Loudoun Garden Club is a nonprofit organization affiliated with The Garden Club of America and The Garden Club of Virginia.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Early bird registration fee is $125 prior to Feb. 4 and after that day the fee is $140. No refunds can be made after Feb. 18 or because of inclement weather. Tickets will not be mailed. Registrants’ names will be checked at the door on the day of the symposium. The fee includes a box lunch and all handouts. For more information, call Susan Wallace at 540-338-3514 or sent a email to susan@hedgewoodfarm.com.

Dave Freygang hasn’t wasted time in taking a hard look at Bonnier Corp.’s financials since becoming its new CEO last month.

On Thursday, one of his first appointees, David Ritchie, notified the staff of Garden Design that the magazine would be folded after the April issue. The announcement was made by Ritchie, the newly appointed chief content officer at the company.

Garden Design, along with Saveur, was one of two high-end magazines that World Publications, Bonnier’s predecessor company, bought from Meigher Communications in 2000, giving the then-niche publisher credibility on a bigger stage. Garden Design remained small, even by Bonnier’s standards, publishing seven times a year with a total print circulation of 185,741 and just 189 ad pages in all of 2012, per Publishers Information Bureau. Five staffers were affected.

“The economic climate, compounded by the significant industry transition to digital, have limited the growth in advertising needed to make this brand viable for our future,” the company said, in a statement.

Earlier this year, Bonnier closed Snow, another small title. With Bonnier’s new CEO expected to give close scrutiny to underperforming titles, it’s expected that Garden Design won’t be the last to go. Garden Design subscribers will be offered another magazine to fulfill their orders.

 

 

 

“);
}

var re = /((http|https|ftp)://[w?=./-;#~%-]+(?![ws?./;#~%”=-]*))/g;

var count = 1;
$.each(data.results, function(i, item) {
if(count $1 ‘);
tweet = tweet.replace(/(^|s)@(w+)/g, ‘$1@$2‘);
tweet = tweet.replace(/(^|s).@(w+)/g, ‘$1.@$2‘);
tweet = tweet.replace(/(^|s)#(w+)/g, ‘$1#$2‘);

// intents
var intents = “”;
intents = intents + ‘

‘;
intents = intents + ‘
• Reply

‘;
intents = intents + ‘

• Retweet

‘;
intents = intents + ‘

• Favorite

‘;
intents = intents + ‘

‘;
intents = intents.replace(/##ID##/g, item.id_str);

$(‘#lmoses_tweets’).append(“

“+ tweet + “

“+intents+””);

count++;
}
});
});
}
});

“);
}

var re = /((http|https|ftp)://[w?=./-;#~%-]+(?![ws?./;#~%”=-]*))/g;

var count = 1;
$.each(data.results, function(i, item) {
if(count $1 ‘);
tweet = tweet.replace(/(^|s)@(w+)/g, ‘$1@$2‘);
tweet = tweet.replace(/(^|s).@(w+)/g, ‘$1.@$2‘);
tweet = tweet.replace(/(^|s)#(w+)/g, ‘$1#$2‘);

// intents
var intents = “”;
intents = intents + ‘

‘;
intents = intents + ‘
• Reply

‘;
intents = intents + ‘

• Retweet

‘;
intents = intents + ‘

• Favorite

‘;
intents = intents + ‘

‘;
intents = intents.replace(/##ID##/g, item.id_str);

$(‘#bonnier_tweets’).append(“

“+ tweet + “

“+intents+””);

count++;
}
});
});
}
});

Homeowners with little or no experience in gardening with native plants are invited to an April 24 workshop on how to create a native wildflower garden, hosted by Friends of the Rouge. 

According to a flyer for the 6 p.m. event, attendees will be able to meet with experts and talk about plant selection and garden design. Other dates and locations are available. Learn more at fhgov.com.