happy birthday to me

Camellia, one of my favorite flowers, blooms each year on my birthday. There is a hedge of Sasanqua Camellias planted along the back side of my house, which I started from cuttings while a student at the University of Georgia in Athens. Camellia’s aren’t thought of as particularly cold hardy (especially Sasanquas); but these have survived several cold Nashville winters and now stand over 5’ tall.

Sasanqua Camellias bloom earlier and are more demure in flower and leaf size than their cousin, the hardier Japanese Camellia (Camellia japonica). Another cousin, the Tea Camellia (Camellia sinensis) is not nearly as showy as the other species. But its value lies in creating more cold-hardy crosses, and it is the plant from which tea is made!

The Camellia’s blush white to deep red flower stands out well against its dark evergreen foliage. And while I have planted specimens of this shrub for a few clients, I prefer to see them in groupings. My favorite grouping is at the Founder’s Memorial Garden at the University of Georgia, where Camellia hedges create walls of lush foliage and colorful blooms.

Between my love of UGA’s campus and my reverence for cold-weather blooms, I was destined to adore this shrub. Camellia’s are much more versatile and low maintenance than many realize. For a safe bet on cold hardiness, select a Camellia variety with ‘winter’, ‘snow’, or ‘ice’ in the name. Most prefer some shade and moist, well-draining, slightly acidic soil.

Frederick Law Olmsted & the Olmsted elm

Today marks the beginning of landscape architecture’s campaign for awareness. What is landscape architecture? It’s the design of outdoor spaces for environmental, socio-behavioral, and/or aesthetic purposes. Landscape architects design college campuses, golf courses, public parks, backyards, and everything in between.

The most iconic figure of our profession is Frederick Law Olmsted, often referred to as the “father of Landscape Architecture.” FLO was a journalist, naturalist, social critic, and public health advocate who believed that green space must be equally accessible to all citizens. His first design, New York’s Central Park in 1858, embodies that ideal.

Most Americans have probably visited an Olmsted commission, which are numerous and span the entire country. While touring FLO’s Emerald Necklace in Boston, I had the opportunity to visit the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts. Olmsted referred to his home office in Brookline as Fairsted.

Administered by the National Park Service, Fairsted remains virtually unchanged. Housing nearly 1,000,000 original design records for some of the most important American landscapes including the U.S. Capitol grounds, the Great Smoky Mountains, Niagara Falls Park, the Biltmore, etc.; Fairsted is a national treasure.

A central feature of the property was the ‘Olmsted Elm,’ a statuesque 200+ year old American elm tree which held court over the pastoral landscape Olmsted personally tended. And just as the man became a symbol of our profession, the elm has become a symbol of the man. Unfortunately, the Olmsted Elm’s tenure has ended.

Suffering from Dutch elm disease, the tree exhibited typical signs of decline, including crown die back, dropping limbs, and peeling bark. This spring, the NPS decided to fell the historic tree which posed too great a risk to visitors. There are high hopes that one day a genetic clone of the tree will be planted in its place, though this may take many years.

In the meantime, the images of the Olmsted Elm will endure as FLO’s design theories and social principles have endured in his writings and throughout our nation’s great public spaces. Olmsted is a touchstone for many in our profession; his paradigm for egalitarianism and environmental conservation continue to inspire us, 150 years later.

This poignant video documents the felling of this historic tree.

the High Line

The High Line is a 1.5 mile linear park built on abandoned elevated rail lines in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Originally constructed in the thirties to lift dangerous freight trains off busy streets, the rail lines sat abandoned for over twenty years after the last train in the 1980’s.

In 1999, the non-profit group Friends of the High Line was formed. Ten years later, through a joint public and private funding effort, the first section of the park opened. Friends of the High Line is now responsible for raising private funds and overseeing the park’s maintenance and operation.

My first opportunity to visit the High Line came just before the second big section of the park opened in early June. My good friend Patrick Hazari is one of the architects working for Friends of the High Line and he gave us a personal tour of the project. Exploring this urban park was definitely one of the highlights of my trip to New York.

The design of the High Line draws directly from its history. In fact there are rail lines which have been incorporated into the planting beds and give shape to the hardscape. The planting design is inspired by the plant community that developed during the 25 years The High Line sat abandoned.

My favorite design element is how the planting beds effortlessly transition to hardscape; there are no hard edges. Every space is inviting and intimately proportioned to the pedestrian. This place is a must-see for every tourist let alone any plant, architecture, or urban-design enthusiast.

a word about Crape Murder

I saw something on my street this weekend that I’ve seen hundreds of times before, and it still gets me every time; someone cut their Crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia spp.) trees almost to the ground. Maybe murder is too strong a word, since more often than not they come back very much alive. However, there is no need for this plant cruelty and aesthetic nightmare.

Some people feel this is the best way to maintain these trees. Other Crape murderers feel they bloom better with this treatment. Conversely, with proper (sometimes yearly) pruning, a Crapemyrtle specimen can take on the loveliest of forms. And with time, your Crapemyrtle branches will develop into the most wonderful example of mottled bark you have ever seen (see photo). Here's a link to some helpful information regarding proper pruning techniques for Crapemyrtles:

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/C944/C944.htm#Pruning

Crapemyrtles are wonderful small to medium-sized (15-25’ in height), non-native, summer-flowering, deciduous trees. They come in a variety of colors ranging from white to pink, to purple, to red, and every shade in between. Some varieties even have nice fall color on their fine textured foliage. Crapemyrtles come in a variety of shapes; more formal specimens have only a single trunk, others can be multi-trunked.

My favorite examples of this tree are in Georgia. The Founder’s Memorial Garden at The University of Georgia in Athens, and gardens throughout the Savannah/Charleston area immediately come to mind. This photo is a particularly old and refined specimen located at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.

Dumbarton Oaks is a beautiful (once private, now public) garden to visit if you’re ever in the Georgetown area of D.C. It was designed by the first female landscape architect, Beatrix Jones Farrand, through the patronage of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss. It is a real gem!

hollyhocks

During a trip to LA in the summer of 2008, I visited the Hollyhock House. What makes this visit so special to me is the souvenir I brought home: Hollyhock seeds from the Hollyhock house! This iconic piece of architecture sits perched atop Olive Hill in Hollywood. From this site, so aptly chosen for its views of the Los Angeles basin, you can see the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Hollyhock house for oil tycoon heiress, Aline Barnsdall. Hollyhocks were her favorite flower and Wright used stylized representations of them on architectural details and furnishings throughout the home. Completed in 1921, during Wright’s self-described ‘California Romanza’ period, Hollyhock House represents Wright’s first project in Los Angeles. The 36 acre parcel was originally envisioned as a theatrical community. However, because of artistic and budgetary differences between Barnsdall and Wright, only three structures were ever realized.

Today, only the main house and a secondary structure remain on 11 acres. The unkempt, sparse interiors and lackluster gardens left me wondering what had happened to the glorious house and grounds I had seen in countless architectural books. The only saving grace for me, were the Hollyhocks. The architectural stalks and backlit blooms of this incredible flower stood as a living witness to FLW’s inspiration. Amazingly, I found not only beautiful flowers, but also near bursting seed pods. I stuffed as many into my camera case and pockets as I could without looking too ‘obvious’. Never in my life had I wanted to grow Hollyhocks, but now I wanted to cultivate a multitude of them.

That was a year and a half ago. So what of my hollyhocks? Well, they were germinated over the winter of ‘08/‘09 in a greenhouse. I planted several of the beefier specimens in the skinny planting bed between my driveway and neighbor’s fence this past summer, here’s hoping they survived our record breaking cold winter. And the remaining seedlings currently reside in a greenhouse. 100 seeds became 18 seedlings, which have whittled away to 6. Since Hollyhocks are herbaceous biennials or short-lived perennials, I don’t have much time. If I could get just a few to bloom this year and hopefully go to seed, I would be beyond thrilled. Here’s to FLW’s brilliant marriage of architecture and horticulture.

For more information on the Hollyhock House, please visit their website.