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South American Flower

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Recently I had the opportunity to speak in Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was fortunate to also be able to visit several gardens there as well as tour Machu Picchu in Peru. I want to thank my hosts Pilar de Arteaga de Pereira, who worked diligently with me for 2 years to arrange this lecture, and her fellow members of the Garden Clubs of Uruguay as well as Sonia Blaquier and the members of the  Horticulture Society of Argentina. It was a great honor to speak in both countries to such keen groups of gardeners about mixed garden design and color theory from my book The Well-Designed Mixed Garden. Also what a chance in a lifetime for my husband Jim and I to spend time in our hosts homes and gardens and get to know firsthand the life and culture of these kind, warm and generous people. Machu Picchu is such a sacred, majestic place that words can’t even describe its beauty and impact. Enjoy a few of my images and note the uncanny connections between the design elements of these ancient ruins and the design elements found in S. American gardens today.

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Some Key Points

• The style of the gardens closely match the personality and style of the owners
• Outdoor kitchens were prevalent and expressive of the S. American gardener’s passion for life
• In Uruguay and Argentina form and line were key garden elements
• Incredible the connection between form and line in Peru at the  Inca Ruins in Ollantaytambo  and at Machu Picchu (terracing) and the form and line used in garden settings (steps and terracing)
  

  Machu Picchu

• Note the framing of views at Machu Picchu and the framing of views/entrances in garden settings
• Enjoy the same forms of the mountains and rooftops at Machu Picchu as the shrub and topiary forms in an Argentinean garden
• Design Principles of Order (Balance & Mass Collection), Unity (Dominance, Repetition & Interconnection) and Rhythm (Repetition, Alternation, & Gradation) are prevalent in gardens and ruins.
• Spectacular studies of light and distance and its effect on color, texture and form are possible
• Key Plants: Orchids (over 300 species in Machu Picchu reserve), Bromeliads, succulents (Kalanchoe thyrsiflora, Aeonium arboretum ‘Atropurpurea’), Petrea volubilis (Bluebird Vine), Tea Roses, Eugenia, Photinia, Pittisporum
• Markets and Farming: Epitome of locally grown—everything is used from all parts of plants, to Llama fiber and dung, for dyes, weaving, compost and fuel etc. Crops include numerous beans, potatoes, and corn.

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Some people’s eyes glaze over when the subject of conversation turns to garden design. And you can’t blame them — “design speak” can sound like a lot of highfalutin gobbledygook. So it’s a cause for celebration when you come across a writer who can communicate the elements of garden design clearly and effectively. And if that writer can also instill in the reader a sense of joy and enthusiasm for gardening, it’s time to uncork the champagne.

These admirable qualities can be found on every page of The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs, Tracy DiSabato-Aust’s masterful guide, now available in an affordable paperback edition. In part 1, she discusses the rationale for planting a mixed garden (beauty! variety! a long season of interest!), explains the design process and the principles of good design, and elucidates the complex ways in which color, texture, and form interact. Part 2 provides examples (including both photographs and design plans) of small, medium, and large mixed gardens, and part 3 consists of an encyclopedia of 27 plant combinations.

As if that weren’t enough, the appendices brim with useful information. There are extensive charts that list the design characteristics and cultural needs of 743 plants; 33 lists of plants by specific design traits (for example, blue flowers, variegated foliage, bold leaf texture); and 5 lists of plants by maintenance requirements. By any measure, it’s a very generous package.

So if, in the past, discussions of garden design have made you want to leave the room, it’s time to come back in. Tracy’s talking, and she’s worth listening to.

My garden, Hiddenhaven, functions not only as a constant source of inspiration and enjoyment but it is the living laboratory used to test various cultural techniques as well as aesthetic qualities of plants. Over the years this information has been used as a basis for my work as an international writer, speaker and designer. It’s a garden whose primary function is to educate. For example all of the perennial pruning strategies that are present in my book The Well-Tended Perennial Garden were carried out in the gardens. I did evaluative research studying the flowering times, heights, and quality of the floral display of pruned plants compared to unpruned plants. Other maintenance information in the book is also garnered from the gardens. Such as the effectiveness of various organic soil amendments, staking and division techniques, as well as information on pests and disease. The gardens are cared for with environmentally friendly techniques and are not only occupied by humans but numerous cats, dogs and chickens!

Trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and bulbs are also evaluated at Hiddenhaven for their aesthetic effectiveness in the garden. Color, texture, form, scale and proportion, and effects of light are just a few of the elements observed and used as a basis for my design work as well as my book The Well-Designed Mixed Garden. At just about any time and any day the gardens need to be poised for photography for publication in books or magazines or for speeches. The information in both books has been shared for many years in lectures with audiences from the across the US to S. America, New Zealand, Australia and England. In England I’ve spoke several times at Wisley, The English Gardening School, Brookhill Garden Courses, as well as Kew, Oxford Botanic Garden and for Specialty Plants.

Most recently I completed a new book titled, 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants. All of these high impact low care selections grow in the gardens and I’ll discuss many of them in the following text. The book was inspired by my desire to have dynamic highly ornamental plants that will be low maintenance due to my active lifestyle and the need I saw among other gardeners with hectic lives. Between family, running a business, and extensive training and racing in triathlons at the national and world level, I don’t have the time or the patience to devote to difficult divas! Plants must earn their keep if they are going to be allowed to stay in the gardens. They need to be long-lived, tolerant of cold, heat, and the humidity of the region. They shouldn’t require frequent pruning or division, staking, heavy feeding, and they need to be disease, insect and drought resistant, non-invasive and deer proof.

Due to my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in horticulture and my early work in gardens such as the Kalmthout Arboretum in Belgium and Knighthayes Court in Devon, the garden’s design is plant driven. They are literally gardener’s gardens. Hiddenhaven is located in central Ohio north of Columbus, the capital of the state. It is in the USDA hardiness zone 5a (average minimum temperature of -20 F (-28.8 C), and heat zone 5 which has 30 to 45 days above 86 F (30 C). The gardens receive an average maximum precipitation of 36 inches (91.44 cm) per year. We have difficulty with heavy clay soil and have numerous pests including fourlined plant bug, Japanese beetle, bag worm, pine sawfly and deer. I’ve been asked on numerous occasions “can you actually garden there?” There are numerous states in the Midwest with very similar conditions. And although there are many areas in the US and England where the climate is more suitable to gardening we have embraced our conditions to create artistic, beautiful gardens in spite of it all!

The gardens are comprised of about 8,000 ft. sq. of mixed borders which sit one-third of a mile off the road in the middle of 35 acres of fields, wetland and woodland carved with paths for hiking and cross country skiing. It was originally farmland and is still neighbored by horse and dairy farms. The gardens started as tradition herbaceous borders inspired by the British borders I had visited and worked in as a student. They contained give-away plants that had survived my master’s research on overwintering and cold hardiness of perennials. Many deletions and additions have occurred throughout the years and the gardens are always changing. I’ve been fortunate to have talented women who have helped me in the gardens once a week to gain experience so they can then go on to form their own design and maintenance businesses.

To create a sense of place in accordance with our location and log home, the gardens are designed in an informal style with native and non-native plants creating somewhat of a stylized meadow in many of the areas. Here plants are allowed to seed and colonize. Large drifts of gateway Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum ‘Gateway’), summer sun heliopsis (Heliopsis helianthoides ‘Summer Sun’), Korean angelica (Angelica gigas), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and various ornamental grasses such as bottle-brush grass (Elymus hystrix), wild-oat (Chasmanthium latifolium), cosmopolitan maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis var. condensatus ‘Cosmopolitan’) , and princess fountain grass (Pennisetum purpureum ‘Princess’) mingle to create an explosive display within an envelope of surrounding woods . In another area of the gardens rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), look again phlox (Phlox paniculata ‘Look Again’), Rehbraun switchgrass (Panicum virgatum ‘Rehbraun’), tall purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea ssp. arundinacea ‘Skyracer’) and black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. speciosa) create another meadow-like feel.

Due to my extensive travel abroad the overall style of the garden is extremely eclectic which also conveys my rather obsessive plant and art collecting tendencies. Color is key throughout the gardens. Foliage color, texture and form are currently featured and unusual plants grow alongside more common plants used in uncommon ways. Unusual annuals add needed punch among the hardy plants- Cordyline fruticosa ‘Dr. Brown’, inky pink coleus (Solenostemon ‘Inky Pink’), redbor kale (Brassica olereacea ‘Redbor’),magilla perilla (Perilla frutescens ‘Magilla’) and honey bush (Melianthus major) are few of the favorites. Also containers full of drought loving plants like agaves, manfreda, furcraea and kalanchoe thyrsiflora spend the summer on the back porch as a respite from winter in the conservatory. Many hydrangea grace the gardens due to their high impact and ease of care. One vignette features complementary colors with Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Penny Mac’ and brilliant autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliant’). I use numerous dwarf and intermediate growing conifers such as dwarf corkbark fir (Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica ‘Compacta’), and skylands spruce (Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’) which provide much needed color and form during our long winters.

The front border’s split complementary colors are based on the colors of Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ including violets, blues, blue- greens, and yellows in the spring and they heat up in the summer with Bowles’ golden sedge (Carex elata ‘Aurea’) , dragon’s eye pine (Pinus densiflora ‘Oculus-draconis’), Lilium lancifolium var. splendens, and Lilium henryi, blue fortune agastache (Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’), Issai purple beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Issai’), spiny bear’s breeches (Acanthus spinosus), and plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides). A large vine of Graham Thomas honeysuckle grows on the front of the house up a custom made iron trellis whose style is repeated in an adjacent porch railing and arbor in the back garden. The scent of the honeysuckle permeates the warm summer nights and stirs emotion.

A customized chicken coop that houses 10 different “designer breeds” which lay blue, turquoise and brown eggs reflects the properties heritage. But it sports modern bright colors of yellow, cobalt blue and red which repeat through the garden in benches, pots, glass sculptures and trellises. These colors are also repeated in our home, on our porches and in the conservatory attached to our home to create unification of all the spaces.

I feel that I and my family have grown along with the gardens. After years of working in cooperation with it in an attempt to make it into the way I’d like it and accepting that it will also teach me the way it’s going to be I’ll have to say that I’m content with it. And I’m extremely appreciative of all that it has given to me, both in my career as well as personal life. I think that’s a good place to be.

What’s next: For the next year I’ll tour promoting my new book and high impact low care plants. I’m taking on design commissions again and currently I’m working on the details to speak in Uruguay and Argentina in September 2009.

Pruning Perennials: 5 quick tips

1. Many spring flowering perennials such as Iberis, Arabis, Aubrietia, Phlox subulata, and Dianthus gratianopolitanus should be cut back by one-half after flowering to maintain a dense mound and prevent an unsightly hole in the center of the clump.
2. Multi-branched summer and autumn flowering plants such as Heliopsis, Echinacea, Phlox paniculata, and asters can be cut back by one-half prior to flowering when the plants are 16-24 inches (40.64-60.96 centimeters) in height to delay flowering (in an attempt to time bloom for a special event or combination), and reduce plant height to eliminate staking. Flowering can be delayed by 10-14 days in most cases.
3. Mounded perennials like Baptisia and Amsonia respond to being sheared by one-third after flowering to form an attractive full shrub-like plant rather than a leggy irregular form.
4. Plants that may have had pests or disease during the season should be pruned for the winter and debris should be removed from the gardens to prevent further spread of the pest. Plants that are slightly tender for the area should not be pruned for the winter as they may overwinter more successfully if protected by the foliage. Prune in the spring after all danger of cold has passed.
5. Select the right tool for the job. By-pass pruners (secateurs), never-dull or bonsai/grape shears, as well as hedge shears are used for various pruning jobs in the gardens throughout the year.

Learn how to effectively paint your garden in plants, the second of our two-part series of using color in the garden.

Click here to view the article (~15mb pdf)

Tracy’s back with more advice on: What is garden ’staking’? | What is ‘pea staking’? | When is the best time to stake my flowering plants? | What should I use to stake my plants? | How do I stake a plant with a single upright stem? | How do I stake full bushy plants? | How do I stake perennials that have fallen?

Gardening Basics: Garden Staking

Learn how to effectively paint your garden in plants, the first of our two-part series of using color in the garden.

Click here to view the article (~15mb pdf)

Tracy DiSabato-Aust (Garden Designer and Author) gives expert video advice on: What is ‘pruning’? | What variables are involved in pruning? | How much pruning does a plant need? and more…

The exciting process of mixing and matching an endless variety of colors can become overwhelming. One way to simplify the design process is to reduce the number of variables. I’ve found that using a limited color palette, even a monochromatic scheme, is an effective and rewarding way to design combinations.

You can read the complete article at this link:
Planting with a Limited Color Palette
(765kb, PDF)

Reprinted with permission from Fine Gardening Magazine.

In a well-designed border, we often notice the beauty of the combinations of plants more than the individual plants themselves. To achieve this sense of interplay, it’s useful to think about visual texture: the patterns created by the lines and forms of combined leaves, branches, and flowers. Instead of using threads or yarns to weave texture, gardeners can stitch together the varied patterns of plants to create living tapestries. This can be accomplished in a number of ways.

You can read the complete article at this link:
Designing for Visual Texture
(1.45mb, PDF)

Reprinted with permission from Fine Gardening Magazine.

Photo by David A. Ziser (c) 2009

My first impression when I saw the Lindner garden, on my initial consultation, was simply that the garden had no soul. It appeared lifeless, stagnant, and without joy. It was designed in a formal, masculine, style with huge clouds of boxwood weighing down the whole scene and a few token perennials and roses planted haphazardly for what I’m sure was meant to be “seasonal color”. Todd MacFarland the estate manager who had brought me into the project assured me there was interest in a change from this style.

When I later met the vivacious, active, and grounded Martha Lindner, I knew there must have been a “misread” between the current garden style and the client. Here was a woman, full of life, who loved flowers, color, fragrance and had memories and emotional attachments to plants from her childhood and from her children’s childhood. We needed to bring this space to life and more in line with the personality of the woman who owned it.

The goal was to create an, intimate, secluded and elegant garden that would embrace and rejuvenate body, mind, and spirit. The home was built in the 1920’s and the garden was walled. So to create a sense of time and place I felt the style of the garden should be reminiscent of the romantic 1920’s estate walled flower gardens similar to that designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman for the walled garden at Stan Hywet Hall, Akron, Ohio during that time period (see sidebar). I also thought it would be interesting to have this historical connection with another female designer and with another Ohio garden.

The garden was to be used mainly in the mornings for Martha’s prayer time and in the evenings for entertaining. Hot afternoon sun and extreme heat during the mid-day would reduce activity in the space at that time. The garden was to peak in May and June as well as again in September and October. May was most important due to a traditional Mother’s Day dinner Martha hosts annually as well as for her daughters wedding to be held in the garden in late May the year following planting. The clients travel schedule and golfing would reduce the use during the summer months.

PICKING THE COLOR PALETTE AND CHOOSING THE PLANTS

The client’s kitchen looks out into the garden and is designed in a French country style and color theme. Consequently colors for the garden were selected that would coincide with this color palette. A polychromatic scheme (a blend of most colors) was incorporated using predominately cooler yellows, blues, pinks (the client’s favorite color), violets and some creams. Mostly pastels or tints (high values of hues) were selected to be visible in the soft early morning and early evening light when the garden would be most enjoyed by the client. No pure reds or oranges were used but pinks and peaches—tints of red and orange were suitable. Shades of red and red-violet were used in the maroon foliage of smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’) to add weight and depth to the otherwise light colors and numerous airy fine textures. For good proportion 2/3rd tints to 1/3 shades were utilized. Color is used in blocks and a mosaic, impressionistic approach, is accomplished through interplanting similar to Biddle Shipman’s style but not quiet as mixed—to keep maintenance within reason.

The textures in the garden are mostly fine and light and the forms are predominantly rounded, creating a soft feminine mood which the client preferred to bolder textures and forms. The fine textures are particularly visible in the soft morning and evening light when the garden is used. Bold textures and vertical forms are used as focal points.

Classic plants such as foxgloves (Digitalis), candytuft (Iberis), lily- of –the-valley (Convallaria), pinks (Dianthus), lavender (Lavandula), poppies (Papaver), red buds (Cercis), columbine (Aquilegia) and sweet peas (Lathyrus) were top on the clients list of desirable species. These plants fit perfectly into style and theme for the garden and many would also provide a musky fragrance. To create a garden that was practical to maintain, without the usual large gardening staff present on the estates of the past, newer disease and insect resistant cultivars of heirloom plants were often utilized along with outstanding heirlooms. Sometimes new cultivars were used for a desirable color and in limited cases non-heirlooms were incorporated if fitting. (see plant list) Dr. Denise Adam’s book Restoring American Gardens (Timber Press) was referenced to help determine plant selection for the period and for Ohio. Heirloom annuals are custom grown from seed every season by Baker’s Acres Greenhouse especially for the garden.

Every garden has it’s “issues” and unfortunately this garden is no exception. The high heat that builds up in the garden can be a problem for some of the cool season old-fashioned annuals. There was also a drainage problem along one wall which needed corrected. It can be hard to moderate moisture with such a diverse cross section of planting and invariably some areas are too dry while others are too wet. But by far the biggest obstacles we deal with are deer. They have become immune to the repellent that we had been using and we are experimenting now with others.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

When designing to pull everything together, from color to texture to form one must consider the principles of design such as Order, Unity and Rhythm. We can achieve

Order through balance and mass collection—Symmetrical balance is accomplished through the pairing of Weeping Red Buds (Cercis canadensis ‘Covey’) at two main entrances into the garden. Hydrangea macrophylla’Endless Summer’ are also paired on either side of all the entrances. The two long borders mirror one another with smokebush, nearly wild roses, and peonies repeating through the center which also creates balance. Mass collection is accomplished through the drift of plants and particularly the mass of Rozanne geranium which creates a low edging around all the beds and spill onto the walks.

Unity is accomplished through dominance, repetition and interconnection. Dominance of vertical form, and bold texture with hollyhocks, foxglove, and delphinium punctuate the otherwise rounded forms and fine airy texture of the majority of other plants. The smokebush also are dominant due to their color which punctuates the borders. All species are repeated in a regular fashion around the garden. Interplanting and a plant intensive design creates beautiful natural interconnection of the plants including melding of nasturtiums, sweet peas and flax.

Rhythm can be set through repetition, alternation and gradation. This is accomplished through the steady repeating of all the species at regular intervals including Rozanne geranium, snow fountain cherries on the walls and numerous poppies—both annual and perennial. Undulation is accomplished with the diverse cross section through the design and low plants moving into tall plants and then back down to low plants. Gradation is noticeable as the plants build from the front to the back of the border and the colors gradually get slightly warmer as we move from season to season creating a rhythmic gradation.

Individual combinations are also designed with consideration to a balance of form, texture and color as well as season of interest for both flowers and foliage. I’m always considering the Golden Mean and 1/3 to 2/3rd rule with color, texture and form. For example 1/3 saturated colors to 2/3 unsaturated or grayed color, 1/3 fine texture to 2/3 bold texture.

Even though there were many design principles followed and there was a keen approach to color, texture, form and plant selection the most important thing is that the garden now reflects who the client is and it is in line with the sense of the place. And happily it now has a soul.

SIDEBAR: PLANT LIST OF NEW CULTIVARS OF (AND??) OLD FAVORITES

Trees & Shrubs

Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’ (flowers on old and new wood)

Prunus x ‘Hally Jolivette’ espalier (introduced 1940)

Cotinus ‘Royal Purple’ (purple-red leaves)

Philadelphus lewisii ‘Snow Velvet’

Rosa rugosa ‘Hansa’

Wisteria frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls’

Lonicera ‘Graham Thomas’

Clematis Montana var. rubens

Cercis canadensis ‘Covey’

Symphoricarpos ‘Amethyst’

Rosa ‘Nearly Wild’

HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS

Geranium Rozanne

Iris ‘Perfume Counter’

Paeonia ‘Extra Sweet Pink’

Digitalis ambigua

Digitalis purpurea ‘Excelsior Hybrids’

Anemone ‘September Charm’ , ‘Honorine Jobert’

Aquilegia alpine

Papaver ‘Princess Victoria Louise’ , ‘Patty’s Plum’, ‘Lighthouse’, ‘Royal Wedding’, ‘Helen Elizabeth’, ‘Pink Ruffles’

Phlox ‘Tracy’s Treasure’

Delphinium belladonna ‘Bellamosum’

Lilium ‘Casa Blanca’, ‘Stargazer’

Lilium formosana

Leucanthemum ‘Becky’

Miscanthus ‘Cosmopolitan’

Aster ‘Raydon’s Favorite’

Aster ‘Purple Dome’

Iris ‘Caesar’s Brother’

Valeriana officianlis

Chrysanthemum ‘Cambodian Queen’

Delphinium ‘Summer Blues’

Platycodon ‘Komachi’

Coreopsis ‘Crème Brulee’

Phlox paniculata ‘Fesselballon’ ‘Blue Paradise’, ‘David’

Centrantus ruber

Lavandula ‘Provence’

Baptisia australis

Convallaria albostricta

Dianthus ‘Bath’s Pink’

Dianthus barbatus ‘Nigricans’

Thymus ‘Pink Chintz’

Dicentra ‘Gold Heart’

Linum perenne ‘Saphire’

Echinacea purpurea ‘Sunrise’

Hibiscus ‘Plum Crazy’

Alcea rugosa

Alcea ‘Watchman’

Leucanthemum ‘Sunshine’

Iberis ‘Autumn Snow’

Delphinium ‘Royal Aspirations’

Campanula rotundifolia ‘Olympica’

ANNUALS

Lathyrus ‘Matucana’, ‘Painted Lady’, ‘Chatsworth’, Fragrant Ripples’

Tropaeolum ‘Moonlight’

Verbena bonariensis

Verbena ‘Imagination’

Consolida ‘Blue Cloud’

Dahlia ‘Bonne Esperance’, ‘Thomas Edison’, ‘Jersey Beauty’

Antirrhinum ‘Royal Bride’, ‘Black Prince’

Centaurea cyanus ‘Black Bell’, mauve

Gomphrena –pink, purple, mauve

Mirabilis ‘Custard and Cream’

Scabiosa ‘Summer Sundae’

Dianthus ‘Grenadin Yellow’, ‘Elegance Pink’

Salvia ‘Evolution’

Papaver ‘Angel’s Choir’

Papaver somniferum ‘Lauren’s Grape’, ‘Heirloom’, ‘Pink Peony’,

Mathiola incana ‘Lucinda Dark Rose’, ‘Tudor Tapestry’

Heliotrope ‘Fragrant Delight’

Godetia ‘Fruit Punch’

Phlox drumondii ‘Phlox of Sheep’

SPRING BULBS (numerous species and cultivars of below)

Allium

Anemone

Camassia

Fritillaria

Dutch Iris

SIDEBAR: ELLEN BIDDLE SHIPMAN

Years ago while lecturing at Stan Hywet in Akron Ohio my mother and I walked the grounds and “stumbled” upon the partially sunken walled English Garden. We fell in love with the space and learned it had been designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman. I acquired the plans for the garden not knowing that numerous years later I would come back to them and the important woman who created them.

Once I saw the Lindner garden I thought the similarity between it and Ellen Biddle Shipman’s work at Stan Hywet was uncanny. I started reading the excellent book, The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman by Judith B. Tankard (Sagapress) and it confirmed this connection. According to Tankard, Shipman was known as the “dean of American women landscape architects”. She designed over 650 gardens nationally between 1914 and 1946. And more important to me (a female garden designer known for creating colorful gardens with predominately perennials and annuals) she was not only and advocate for women in the profession, but was also considered “one of the best if not the very best, flower garden maker in America”.

This title was bestowed on her by Warren Manning when he suggested to his client Mrs. Seiberling, in 1928, who was a painter and the owner of Stan Hywet, that she use Ellen Shipman, to create perhaps a new plan for the English Garden using a lighter palette of color and greater variety of flowering plants perhaps more in tune with Mrs. Seiberling’s desires. Mrs. Seiberling used the English garden as a place for refuge, reflection and inspiration.

There were so many interesting parallels between the Lindner garden and Shipman’s design for Stan Hywet for Mrs. Seiberling (and dare I say between myself and Shipman) that it would be the main inspiration for my design work for Mrs. Lindner.