Boston Flora

Tag: Stephanie Cohen

  • Tuesday, August 27, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm – Perennial Plant Symposium

    Presented by Massachusetts Horticultural Society & the Perennial Plant Association, the regional PPA symposium on August 27 from 9 – 3 at The Gardens at Elm Bank is open to all levels of gardeners and professionals. This year’s symposium includes four presentations led by some of the perennial industry’s best. Pre-registration required by visiting www.masshort.org. Early Bird: $99. After August 18: $125

    Presenters Mike & Angelina Chute (they have spoken to The Garden Club of the Back Bay) will speak on Selecting Sustainable Roses. Sustainable roses are sturdy, attractive plants that can hold their own in a pesticide-free landscape. This program features modern, recently-introduced varieties as well as old favorites that are disease-resistant, winter hardy, easy to grow and bloom all season. Selecting Sustainable Roses delves into the core of sustainability, explains the different grades and types of roses, their growth habits and how to select the best varieties for your garden. We use the experience gained in our own sustainable rose garden as a practical model to share tips on sustainable and basic rose gardening. Be amazed at the wide choices of color, size, and fragrance that are available and will fit into any New England garden. 

    Stephanie Cohen, author, gardener and Perennial Diva, entitles her talk Cutting Edge Perennials: No Bandages Provided! The Diva loves new plants and will show you new in non-natives and natives. The word “new” does not necessarily mean better. It should just mean different flower size, color of flower or  leaf, immunity to pests and diseases, and even lower maintenance. Some good plants slip through the cracks and others are worthy candidates for the compost pile. Be prepared as the Diva does not mince words  and the dirt will fly during this presentation

    Executive Director of the Morris Arboretum William Cullina’s lecture is Beyond Black-eyed Susans and Border Phlox: Exceptional Native Perennials for Creative Gardening. Though gardening with native plants has truly come of age in this country, the nursery industry has barely begun to tap the amazing diversity within our flora. You don’t need to travel to Tibet to find plants that will thrill the eye and feed the soul. In this program, Bill Cullina will profile some of the outstanding native perennials yet to be discovered by the gardening public.

    Finally, Dan Jaffe, photographer and landscape consultant, will offer For Us and Them, Perennial Edible Plants for Pollinators and Ourselves.

  • Wednesday, September 11, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm – Exploring Design & Perennial Selection for the Landscape

    The 2013 Northeast Region Perennial Plant Symposium will take place Wednesday, September 11, from 8 – 5 at the Elm Bank Horticulture Center in Wellesley, presented by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and The Perennial Plant Association.

    Following registration at 8 am, David Culp of Sunny Border Nurseries will speak on The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year Round Beauty.  Brandywine Cottage is David Culp’s two-acre garden where he has mastered the design technique of layering – interplanting many different species in the same area.  David will illustrate a basic lesson in layering:  how to choose the correct plants, how to design a layered garden, and how to keep it maintained.

    Following a break and visit to the Elm Bank Gardens, Stephanie Cohen, the Perennial Diva, will share The Path to an Exciting Mixed Border: Perennials and Shrubs.  Creating a garden for four seasons is always Stephanie’s goal.  In recent years, adding flowering shrubs that play nicely with perennial plants has added a new dimension.  Interesting flowers, lovely bark, fall color, berries,  and interesting shapes make shrubs and perennials perfect buddies in the border.  The Perennial Diva is not only opinionated about perennials, but she has added shrubs to her love ’em or leave ’em list.  Her book is illustrated below.

    Before lunch, Dr. Denise Adams will lecture on American Home Landscapes. American landscape design certainly has evolved over the years–from Colonial subsistence gardens to Victorian gardens of excess to 1980’s backyard barbecues. This lecture will provide a survey of American residential landscape history. Learn about the major landscape design trends and most popular plants since our country’s establishment to the present with special emphasis on the New England landscape.

    After lunch, Lloyd Traven of Peace Tree Farm will speak on Bringing the Awesome Every Day.  When you go shopping before a fancy party, do you say to yourself “I hope I can find the same dress everyone is buying?”  Do you want your living room decorated just like your neighbor’s?  Of course not.  Your garden should be no different.  All want their garden to stand out, to shine, to stop traffic (in a good way.)  We all need fresh ideas, new choices, different methods and a whole new design concept.  Water-friendly, edibles, foliage, container combinations – the rules have changed and a new world awaits.

    Jennifer Brennan of Chalet Nursery and Garden Shop will speak on Perennials for Problem Areas. Whether it is for our own gardens or for clients and customers, there are always those problem areas that need recommendations of perennials that do not just survive but thrive. Heavy clay soil and deep shade are also included.  Whatever the conditions, there are perennials that will work.  Expand your problem solving palette with these selections.

    Finally, John Friel of Emerald Coast Growers will present Tell Me What’s New! Tell Me What Works!  The growing zones of Massachusetts and region encompass great diversity.  John will present a roundup of perennials and ornamental grasses, new and known, that will provide great punch to the landscape.

    Registration fee is $99 per person before August 25, and $109 per person after August 25. This price includes lunch. The program will be held at 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, and you may register online at www.perennialplant.org or by calling 614-771-8431.  You may also mail the registration form found on the website to 3383 Schirtzinger Road, Hilliard, OH. Checks may be made payable to the Perennial Plant Association.

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  • Wednesday, September 2, 9 – 5 – Creating a Garden for Multi-Season Interest

    On Wednesday, September 2, MassHort and the Perennial Plant Association are teaming up to offer a day-long seminar titled, ‘Creating a Garden for Multi-Season Interest’. They’re bringing in some of the best writers, down-to-earth speakers and creative plantsmen in the business to Elm Bank, and you’re invited to listen, learn and ask questions.

    The speakers include Adrian Bloom (of Blooms of Bressingham); Stephanie Cohen, who has earned the title of ‘the Perennial Diva’; William Cullina of the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden; ‘Victory Garden’ host and writer Roger Swain, Weston Nurseries’ Wayne Mezitt, and MassHort’s own Joe Kunkel.

    Adrian Bloom starts things off by talking about the practical and inspirational factors for success in a garden. His thesis is that we all know that perennials and grasses have a changing role to play through the seasons but how often do we consider their placing and potential impact in combination with other plants? Elm Bank’s Bressingham Garden is a study in how to make the a garden’s impact greater than the sum total of its plants.

    Award-willing author and garden designer Stephanie Cohen will focus on the autumn garden. The lushness of summer need not be followed by a whimper in the fall. Ms. Cohen will show examples of perennials and grasses that peak in autumn, berries and fruits, bark, and glorious color adorning trees and shrubs. You’ll walk away with an understanding that ‘Fallscaping’ ought to be a part of every garden’s design.

    Bill Cullina may well be the world’s most engaging garden writer. Books about perennials fill the shelves of every store, but Cullina’s newest offering in his series on plants, ‘Perennials: A New Look at an Old Favorite’, breathes new insights into a familiar subject. He will present the “psychology of perennials” – their needs, wants, and potentials. By starting at the roots, moving up the stems, leaves and flowers, Bill will provide both new and seasoned gardeners with a strong foundation for a lasting relationship with perennials.

    In the afternoon, horticulturalist Roger Swain will address the subject of garden tools. His view is that hand tools – the trowels, spades and other implements that extend our reach and power – may have evolved for evolution’s sake rather than for the benefit of the user. His presentation will be a tour through the evolution of familiar garden tools emphasizing the importance of matching not only the tool to the task, but fitting it to the user’s hand and body.

    Swain will be followed by veteran New England plantsman Wayne Mezitt, who will focus on the interplay between woody plants and perennials. Mezitt, whose family has bred many of best known rhododendron and azalea in use in the northeast today, will offer practical advice on flowering shrubs that push the beginning and end of the gardening season in New England.

    Joe KunkelThe day’s final speaker will be veteran nurseryman and MassHort executive director Joe Kunkel, who will speak on plant evaluations at Elm Bank. Commercial plant breeders from around the world send Elm Bank hundreds of cultivars for evaluation. Kunkel will highlight the plants that have stood out among their peers in the New England Trial Garden and the Bressingham Garden. He’ll talk about how homeowners can use regional trial gardens to narrow the list of attractive cultivars to a group that not only looks good in a pot at a garden center, but that will thrive in a back yard.

    The program runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The fee for those who register before August 25 is $95. The price rises $20 after that date. Lunch is included in the cost of the program.

    To sign up download the program and registration form or call 614-771-8431.
    Early registration ends August 25.