A Golden Year: The New Perennialist on a Roll

There’s a profusion of things happening lately – running on a scale from good to great.

Here’s the major bit of news: The New Perennialist recently won the Gold Award For ‘Best Overall Electronic Media’ in the 2015 Garden Writers Association Media Awards.

Gold winners were announced at the 67th GWA Annual Symposium held in Pasadena, California.

I was a little stunned by the news. And then elated. My Facebook community of real and virtual friends were euphoric, which is actually kinda touching.

To celebrate the moment, I’m sticking the Gold medal up in the top right corner of the page. And pouring myself a dram of single malt. Cheers!

My initial impressions? It places this blog in mighty fine company alongside writers and photographers I deeply admire.

It also means, Dear readers and subscribers – apparently you have exemplary taste in blogs and design movements.

Seriously though, I feel deeply honoured by the recognition of my work/healthy obsession. But I’m also convinced it’s about more than me – I’ve tapped into a movement, so it’s also about us. Ultimately, it’s about our relationship to the great outside.

I recently posted about the people who inspired and helped create this blog. But let me double-down on my debt of gratitude to Piet Oudolf and Nöel Kingsbury, two architects of the movement without whom none of this would’ve transpired.

(These recent shots of Hummelo in the gloaming of fall were taken by the master himself.)

As if the medals weren’t enough, around the same time I was also elected as a regional director for the GWA in Canada. For that, I send a thousand bouquets deep of thanks to fellow Canuck writers who think I’m up for the job.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is both dead and wrong. In my life’s second act, I’ve become an inadvertent poster-boy for the rewards of pursuing your passions (preferably with secateurs sharpened.)

My mania for plants is the spark, which lit the fuse, which started this whole conflagration.

I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Talk Talk Talk

For an introverted writer type, I’m unstoppable when you get me talking about plants. I recently spoke about ‘Designing with Grasses’ at the Toronto Botanical Gardens and later at the Parkdale and Toronto Horticultural Societies.

Both talks were highly entertaining to deliver and I plan to share the content at some point. I put together a wildly evocative slideshow courtesy of images drawn from creative allies in the global frontline. Shout out to Piet, Adam Woodruff, Bettina Jaugstetter, Carien van Boxtel, and Jaap de Vries, whose majestic ‘Wave’ image sits right below.

I also went virtual with a hyper-paced Twitter event with Cristina da Silva, the host of #groundchat to talk about the New Perennial approach to soil preparation.

The answer’s in the dirt, my friends.

Meetings with Remarkable People

In a summer of exploring the world at large, I’m fortunate to have connected with some very special people at the forefront of modern planting design.

More recently, I didn’t have to go anywhere.

Claudia West from North Creek Nursery in Pennsylvania came to Toronto to speak about her new book co-written with futurist garden designer and blogger, Thomas Rainer.

Pictured above, their new/hybrid manifesto to planting design is creating quite the buzz in design and horticultural circles. And rightly so.

I saw Claudia deliver a superb lecture about German garden icon Karl Foerster in Baltimore this past summer. She’s dynamic, knowledgeable, impassioned and radiates a kind of sweetness of spirit. Her ideas rush by like quicksilver.

This time in TO, she spoke about her new book, which advances the concept of creating designed plant communities – inspired and informed by how they grow in nature.

In their model, what happens below the earth is as important as what grows above. They advocate a rich density of planting from the vegetal layer on up to solve the maintenance challenges of naturalistic gardening.

Excitingly, the book fuses together German perennial design strategies developed over decades with new thinking about ecologically designed plant communities in America.

The core idea is about designing in a series of layers – with a systematic yet liberating approach to how to create, plant, and maintain them. I’m midway through the book and plan to give a full report upon completion.

My pre-review is go out, get it. Now!

Before Claudia’s lecture, we sat down for a brief interlude in the garden and I was struck by her genuine sincerity, passion, and openness. We hope to continue the conversation down in Pennsylvania with a visit to her horticultural corner of the world next spring.

A Pick of Piet

Like a presiding spirit, Piet Oudolf continues to appear everywhere and yet, outwardly seems untouched by the attention.

There’s a great read by writer Tovah Martin about Piet’s refresh of the Seasonal Walk at the New York Botanical Garden in the lushly revived Garden Design magazine.

Martin’s focused dissection of the planting design is terrific and particularly insightful for home gardeners. One caveat: For some reason, the mag describes Piet’s style as ‘New Wave’ planting, a term which never really found favour – least of all with Piet.

On the strength of that one article though, I’ve happily subscribed to Garden Design. At last, an American counterpart to my desert island Gardens Illustrated.

One more gem before I go: Piet and Anja were profiled on Dutch television two days ago at their home in Hummelo. I can’t understand a word of Dutch but the backdrops are sublime. I’ve drawn some images in this post from his quixotic fall plantings, deconstructing from the inside out.

You can drown in beauty by clicking here. You must admit, it’s a golden way to go.