Serenity in the Garden

rose hips photo by Jan Johnsen  Allow your roses to form hips. Did you know that, like  many plants that produce fruit, the formation of rose hips is a signal to the rose to go dormant for the season? from Monrovia - Japanese rose  Rose hips provide wonderful color in the garden and are a good source of vitamin C for birds in the fall and winter.  They are one of the highest plant sources of Vitamin C. 'Cherry Pie' Rose makes great rose hips: Oso Easy Cherry Pie Rose -from May Dreams Garden Blog  You can eat them too. Rose hips are used for jam, jelly, syrup, soup, beverages, pies, bread, and wine.  They can also be eaten raw if care is used to avoid the hairs inside the fruit.   The redder they are, the softer and sweeter.   source: live by the sun blog  for more info on roses go to Chris Van Cleave - click here . 

Amsonia foliage sparkles in fall Speaking with Earth Spirits  Deep down, in the warmth of the fecund earth, the spirits sing songs of life. Hoping we hear, they inhale and exhale along with the seasons. Beautyberry in November Now, in the cool days of November, they sing to us of rest and replenishment  and ask us to be calm. Molinia stands tall in late fall The time has come to listen and of course, to rake the leaves...the leaves... - Jan Johnsen the deep reds of November

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This is a great magazine. Have you noticed that I love the new Garden Design Magazine? At every talk I give, I gush about it.  It is a gorgeous magazine devoted to garden design and plants. Every article is fascinating. It comes every few months. Dwarf NY Asters featured in the Fall issue of Garden Design magazine Now they have upped their game even more and have developed some fabulous videos that share with you a little of what is in their issue.... Jim Peterson, the publisher and driving force behind the magazine, plans to make three kinds of videos. The first supports stories in the magazine. The second is about garden features that are popular and on the fabulous Garden Design website  and the third will be about garden design and will be made in collaboration with designer,  Richard Hartlage. Here is an interview with the editor of Garden Design magazine, Thad Orr, talking about the magazine and what is covered. It is a gem of a magaz...

October Skies Aster- Jan Johnsen   In my part of the world - New York State - October is when Mother Nature shines.  The days are shorter, the sun is low in the sky, but the weather stays warm enough for the flowering plants to hang on.  I design and install gardens with October in mind because it is now when people have time to appreciate their grounds - it is too cold for the beach and graduations and summer parties are a memory.  This is when people can stop and savor a garden.   The design of Fall gardens is something I urge my students to master because these gardens prolong our enjoyment of Nature's gracious gifts.   And, more importantly, they quietly trumpet the siren call of the garden muse who is about to take her leave...but not just yet..... she sticks around to give it one last show .... So in that vein, I am describing a little of what goes into making a autumn flower b...

Otisville Correctional Facility - where I taught but it was not this nice looking back then In the 1970s, I was a part of a team that taught a one year intensive certificate program on Landscape Development and Maintenance at a community college near New Paltz, NY. I was a young instructor but was very earnest and devoted to teaching. Then one day the president of the college called me in and told me that I, alone, would be teaching all my courses at a men's correctional facility 44 miles away.  What??!! all my classes? away from the campus? in a prison? After much protesting, I was sent 'away' to teach the entire program at a men's prison. Well, as often happens, it was one of the best experiences in my life. I taught full time there for 2 years and still cherish the memories. Otisville Correctional Facility classroom  - but not my specific class I have a lot of fun stories. We installed walks, plant beds and even a solar greenhouse (it was donate...

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