On the Roadside: A Great North American Field Trip

I’m packing my bags, setting the water-timer on my perennial holding bed, updating my passport, and getting the oil checked on my trusty yellow Subaru.

There’s travel in the works.

Next week, I set off for my first Perennial Plant Association (PPA) Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland – said to be a mega-flock of plant nerds. Shortly upon my return, I’m heading east to Québec on a pilgrimage to visit the much fabled Les Quatre Vents gardens in Charlevoix.

(This picture is not it!)

I plan to see a lot of roadside on the way. All the better to see the wildflowers of the moment (as well as endless tracts of invasive species like the fearsome Phragmites australis.)

For visual interest in this post, let’s skip the ocean to see what’s in bloom at Piet Oudolf’s private home garden in Hummelo – as well as his stellar project at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery in Somerset, England, now in its second season. All images by kind permission of Piet, whose masterful lens is well worth following on Instagram.

Gathering of the Flock

Anyone reading The New Perennialist may have noticed my pet theory that plants and people are inextricably intertwined. I’m going to Baltimore next week for four days to learn a lot more about both.

This year’s symposium sounds right up my alley with keynote speaker Cassian Schmidt, Director of Hermannshof in Germany. I’ve written about his work in this seminal naturalistic botanical garden here.

I’m also looking forward to hearing from down-to-earth designer and nurseryman, Roy Diblik from Wisconsin as he riffs upon his recent book, The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden.

In the up and coming category, I’m curious to catch speaker Claudia West of vanguard North Creek Nurseries who has a much-anticipated new book coming out this fall, Planting in a Post Wild World co-authored with the erudite designer/blogger Thomas Rainer.

I imagine the topic of creating designed plant communities based on how they thrive in natural habitats, will be a constant theme. In Germany, they’re seriously pushing the frontiers of aesthetics + ecology – and there’s a definite link between the work of Cassian and Roy (who in their spare time may also be taming tigers in Vegas.)

I’ll catch you up on how my theory flies in reality.

I’m also super looking forward to connecting again with garden and designer friends and a host of Facebook friends I have yet to meet in so-called real life. We’ll be doing a designer road-trip out of Baltimore to see local garden making and drinking a lot of coffee to stay alert in the marathon speaker sessions.

I may hit the streets in Baltimore to try and catch a glimpse of McNulty, Omar, or any other ghosts from TV highpoint, ‘The Wire’.

Follow me on Facebook at ‘Dutch Dreams’ for the daily play-by-play or on Instagram where I keep a lo-fi presence.

The Frank Cabot Trail

This is one of those gardens of which dreams are made. Les Quatre Vents is the story of one man’s towering obsession to create a garden kingdom on the North shore of the St. Lawrence in Charlevoix Quebec.

But I haven’t got there yet. These shots are of Hummelo.

It’s the subject of rare volume, The Greater Perfection, a coffee table book written the by author and creator of both – Frank Cabot. I’ve been poring through a borrowed copy relentlessly over the past year.

Since Mr. Cabot’s passing, the garden is open on only certain weekends in the season and you have to plan months in advance to book the tour.

I’ll be thrilled to return to Charlevoix, which I’ve only seen before in the thick blanket of winter.

Speaking of Plants

Here at home, I’ll be speaking this fall at the The Toronto Botanical Garden and the Parkdale Hort Society on the subject of ‘Designing with Grasses’.

And I’m eagerly awaiting the results of a soil sample test with a university lab to see what I have in the ground at my future garden in Mono.

That’s it for now. Let’s roll down a window and may the roadside rise with you.