Serenity in the Garden

Chris Hansen 'Chick Charms' Sedum in his garden SunSparkler™ Sedums If you have a hot, dry garden and want almost 2 months of vibrant color then try Chris Hansen's collection of   brilliantly colored, quick-spreading, ultra-tough and long-lived sedum cultivars  - SunSparklers™.  Zones 4-9. SunSparkler™ sedums stand up to cold as well as heat,  and once established,  do not mind poor soil fertility or long periods of drought. They are great for containers that you often forget to water ( me...). And there is no better plant for sunny banks, slopes, and rocky garden spots. These perennials  may reach 6 to 8 inches high and spread 18 inches wide within a single season.  Butterflies adore the flowers and deer may avoid nibbling the leaves ( it depends).    Sedum 'Cherry Tart' 'Cherry Tart' has cherry-red, 6" high foliage and 3 season interest.   Deep pink blooms appear in...

Amsonia Blue Ice  by Monrovia Nurseries The Blue Star perennial family -   Amsonia tabernaemontana - has a hybrid cousin,  Amsonia 'Blue Ice'  that is an amazingly vigorous, low growing plant with deep blue flowers.    photo by Jan Johnsen Amsonia 'Blue Ice'  has a white, milky sap that is toxic to deer and more. Yay!  Amsonia 'Blue Ice' is easy to grow and drought tolerant.  12-16" tall, 18-24" wide. Needs full sun. It blooms from late spring to early summer.  amsonia Blue Ice fall foliage is stunning - photo by Jan Johnsen It grows in a 15" tall by 2' wide mound of narrow, dark green, deer-resistant foliage. And in spring it is topped with large clusters of lavender-blue flowers which are more vivid than other blue stars.  It  blooms prolifically and turns a fabulous golden yellow in the fall.  Zones 4-9   Amsonia blue ice , Miscanthus 'Morning light' ,  Nepeta 'Dropmore Hy...

This interview was published on July 18, 2017 on the great blog Gardening Know How . You can see it and much more - click here .  Q & A with Jan Johnsen, author of ‘Spirit of Stone’ Share Article         Jan Johnsen  is a well-regarded landscape designer, author and teacher with a passion for plants, rocks and beautiful gardens.  Jan is a co-principal of the design firm, Johnsen Landscapes & Pools, in Westchester County, New York.   Jan’s book,  Heaven is a Garden , (published by St Lynn’s Press, 2014)  is now in its third printing. In her new book, “ The Spirit of Stone: 101 Practical & Creative Stonescaping Ideas for Your Garden ’, (St Lynn’s Press, 2017) she celebrates this natural material and highlights its many uses in the landscape. 1.      Why do you have a soft spot for hard rock? Rocks are plentiful where I live in the Northeast. Growing up h...

Three is nothing as delightful as a clear, crisp morning in spring... I took this at the Everett Rock Garden at NY Botanical Garden. A must-see for Garden lovers.

rocks and blue fescue - Johnsen Landscapes My upcoming book, The Spirit of Stone (published by St Lynn's Press) will be out in February, 2017 .  It looks at many ways you can use natural stone in the garden from artful accents and stone walks to sustainable dry creeks and rock gardens. One of the topics I address is the art of setting stones in a rock garden. I once lived in Japan (I worked in a landscape architecture office in Osaka) and so I feel a special connection to Japanese rock gardens.   In my work with placing rocks (often with large machines) I always listen to what the stone says. Sometimes, after a tough time placing a rock , I say that the stone does not want to be there and remove it.   I used to think that this conversation with a rock was my unique approach. But I was wrong.  I also said that the first rock to be set determined the rest of the rocks in the garden and so this was the most important. Again, this was an old rul...

Rock Art by Thomas D Kent, Jr This is funny.   Glenn Eichler wrote an open letter to the New York Botanical Garden in 2014 in the New Yorker regarding his love of their rock garden. He felt it deserved more attention:  "...rocks—dragged by glaciers, striped and striated by, I guess, also glaciers—deserve better.  Not sexy? Compared to what, the Donald J. Bruckmann Crabapple Collection?  No disrespect to Mr. Bruckmann, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards haven’t spent fifty years playing to sold-out crowds as the Rolling Crabapples, the world’s greatest crabapple-and-roll band." Glenn has a point, don't you think? Mick Jagger in garden

Spirit of Stone - Jan Johnsen  Stone is so often overlooked but it is an integral part of our landscape.   I will be presenting my popular powerpoint talk, Spirit of Stone, at Tower Hill Botanic Garden next  Saturday, April 2. 10:00 am - 12:00 pm During the informative and captivationg class, I will share the secrets of stone placement in the garden and talk about how to use stone in innovative ways. Register for a  chance to learn how to create sublime gardens that feature both plants and  stone! Click here: https://towerhillbg.thankyou4caring.org/pages/event-registration-form---the-spirit-of-stone

   The thing to do this year is PLANT FOR THE BEES.   So if you join me on that important bandwagon I suggest you plant -  Dwarf Calamint 'Montrose White'   ( Calamintha nepeta spp nepeta 'Montrose White'). Calamintha is an herb that's native to Europe and is used in cooking in Italy under the name nepitella. This plant, I predict, will be a  'Perennial Plant of the Year'.  Why? because it is a hardy (to USDA zone 4) and delightful flowering perennial plant that is  deer resistant.   YAY! Calamintha nepeta spp nepeta 'Montrose White'  was named by Mike Yanny of Johnson’s Nursery in Menomonee Falls, Wis.  Yanny’s wife purchased the calamint from  Nancy Goodwin at Montrose Nursery . Yanny saw that the plant thrived under benign neglect and came back every year as strong as ever. He asked Goodwin if he could name and patent this particular calamint ‘Montrose White.’ She agreed....

'Sea Gold' Sedum rupestre   Sedums seem to be taking over the plant world and for good reason -  these small but tough succulent plants are well suited to the growing conditions of rock gardens, green walls, dry harsh environments and green roofs.    They can survive with very little water (in the first year they will need extra watering during a dry period). And many have small but numerous flowers which are amazingly eye catching. Today low growing sedum varieties are more available than ever thanks to the popularity of green roofs. There are companies that sell  Sedum Mats  which I think are a great way to install a sedum garden. Just unroll the mat and there you go! Sedum mats from green roof I like to use creeping sedum in the rock gardens that I create - the first year they may look like little clumps but they spread within a year to create a solid cover even on rock outcrops...Sedum 'Angelina' is a fave. Sedum 'Angelina' ...