Pangaea Woodland: The "Natives" are Getting Restless

The Woodland Garden in Progress

Native plants are currently in vogue and planting them is politically correct. As I am planning my woodland garden, I keep trying define what is a native plant? In my mind, that classification is contingent on both distance and time. What is native plant for a woodland garden in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire? How many miles away from my garden does the plant need to be found in nature in order to be considered a native in my garden? Fifty miles? Five hundred miles? Is it defined by growing in North America? How recently must that plant have grown in my region in order to be considered native? One hundred years ago ? One thousand years ago? One hundred thousand years ago?

Fothergilla 'Mt. Airy' is lovely native American shrub that is an excellent edge-of-the-woodland plant. Michael Dirr selected it at the Mt. Airy Arboretum in Cincinnati for it vigorous habit, fragrant white flowers in late April and outstanding claret fall foliage. Dirr believes it may be a cross of Fothergilla major and Fothergilla gardenii. Fothergilla. major, although hardy to Zone 4, is native to the Allegheny Mountains from northern North Carolina and Tennessee to northern Alabama. Yes, it is a native American plant, but what business does it have being grown in a New Hampshire garden claiming to contain only native plants? Native to where?

A plant that I currently have in my garden is Acer pectinatum ssp. forrestii, a rare Asian snake bark maple with handsome butter-yellow fall foliage and white-striped bark and the smaller branches which become a dark red color in winter. I chose it because it is proported to be more tolerant to difficult growing conditions than the other striped bark maples. Even the most educated snake bark connoisseur would be hard pressed to distinguish it from Acer pensylvanicum, the so-called moosewood maple, another striped bark maple which thrives in the moist shady woodlands throughout the Monadnock Region in New Hampshire. Acer pensylvanicum is closely related to Acer pectinatum ssp. forrestii, yet the live on seperate continents.

Millions of years ago, before plate tectonics moved the continents apart as they are now, the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and North America shared numerous plant and animal species. Genetically, Acer pectinatum ssp. forrestii and Acer pensylvanicum are nearly an identical plant. If one looked at plants from that perspective, perhaps Acer pectinatum ssp. forrestii could be considered a native in my garden.

Calling my developing woodland garden the Wild Garden doesn't really fit what I am trying to accomplish there. The Pangaea Woodland is a better way to describe my intention. I am going to take a cue from Chanticleer's Asian Woods by attempting to emulate an American woodland garden but not limiting myself to plants native to New Hampshire or even North America. The garden must feel naturalistic. The stone steps will feel like a hike in the White Mountains and I am going restrain myself from planting anything with too much variegation or oddly colored foliage. There will be no invasive species from any continent. It will be a New Hampshire woodland garden that have plants that feel right in New Hampshire.

Yes, I wil create a Pangaea Woodland.

Chanticleer's Asian Woods: Another Woodland Inspiration

Chanticleer's Asian Woods. Photo from "What's in Bloom" on their website.

The Asian Woods at Chanticleer, the magical pleasure garden in Wayne, PA, is another inspiration for the Wild Garden I am developing. The Asian Woods is the most collection-oriented garden at Chanticleer. The woodland has unusual plants native to Korea, Japan, and China in a setting that tries to emulate an American woodland garden. The winding paths with unique paving materials lead the visitor to special seating areas with distinctive benches that add to the atmosphere. Best of all, there is an comprehensive plant list on line that is an excellent resource for the dedicated plants-person.

Garden in the Woods: An Inspiration for my Wild Garden

Sone Steps in the Woodland Garden

Gravel Pathway

A Fork on the Pathway

A Rustic Bench

A garden that I have repeatedly visited for inspiration and education is the Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA. The Garden in the Woods was entrusted to the New England Wildflower Society in 1965 by owners Will C. Curtis and Howard Stiles. Curtis bought the property and began to create a naturalistic garden in 1931. His wanted the garden be "a Wild Flower Sanctuary in which wild plants will be grown, their likes and dislikes discovered and the knowledge so gained eventually passed on in an effort to curb the wholesale destruction of our most beautiful natives."

The Woodland Garden is my favorite section of the garden. It has a maturity to it that feels tranquil and inviting. Part of the garden is on a slope which offers much inspiration for my Wild Garden. I admire the stone steps and the way the pathways wind and coax the visitor along. There is a great diversity of native trees, shrubs and perennials. The plants form a tapestry of texture even when they are not in bloom. Many of the woodlanders are spring ephemerals but the autumn colors can not be easily rivaled. It is an captivating place to observe plants in an environment where they flourish. There are many native American plants that are still unknown to me so I always bring back a new treasure from the nursery.

Intention and Restraint

Lisa Brooks' drawing for the Gardening on Slopes chapter of Joe Eck's book, Elements of Garden Design

My garden is terraced on a hill and has three distinct sections, each on a different level. I am working on the design of the lowest third of the garden, a woodland garden under development, which I call the Wild Garden in honor of Irish writer William Robinson's legendary garden Gravetye Manor in West Sussex, England. The two upper levels are designed formally with hedges and axes but this lower garden, I want to feel much more naturalistic. There is a newly installed 5-foot-tall granite post that is as a focal point calling the visitor to the next room, but once entered, I want it to feel very different from the other parts of the garden.

As I am planning my Wild Garden, the garden's intention is at the forefront of my thought process. I first heard of a garden having an intention in Joe Eck's book, Elements of Garden Design. In the first chapter, he calls intention "the clearest idea of what one wishes to create." I think of intention as a sort of mission statement for the garden.

The intention of my Wild Garden is based on a compilation of gardens I have visited and read about over the years. Robinson's classic book, The Wild Garden inspires me as does the more contemporary writings of European designers Dan Pearson, Noel Kingsbury and the late Henk Gerritsen. The American, author, Rick Darke's book The American Woodland Garden is another influence. My garden is also inspired by the hikes I have taken here in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire and the great White Mountains of my home state.

Eck writes that a garden's "success will lie in its concrete realization, in the arrangement of treasured plants within a framework of less transitory elements of trees, shrubs, hedges, pavement, architecture." That success is dependent on restraint. For every decision made about the garden needs to be consistent with the plan. Anything that strays from the plan will weaken the final overall effect and therefore the success of the garden.

Peterborough Parks and Gardens: An Overview

The first year anniversary of this blog has come and gone and it seems like a good time (better late than never) to give an overview of the parks and public gardens that I work on here in Peterborough, New Hampshire. There are three main parks in Peterborough, each with their own distinct character: Putnam Park, Depot Park and Teixeira Park. Adjacent to Putnam Park on Grove Street, there are two smaller parks, Putnam Park II (Boccelli Garden) and Nubanusit Terrace.

The Entrance Garden at Putnam Park on Grove Street

Tulips Blooming at Putnam Park

Putnam Park II, across the street from Putnam Park, with Seating and the Boccelli Garden Behind

The Boccelli Garden in Putnam Park II on Grove Street

Nubanusit Terrace across the bridge from Putnam Park on Grove Street

Nubanusit Terrace in the Late Summer; Russian Sage replaces White Bulbs

The Pavilion Garden at Depot Park in Downtown Peterborough near the Depot Square Shops

The Pavilion Garden in Late Summer

Peter's Gate at Depot Park

The Ruin Garden at Teixeira Park on Union Street in West Peterborough

Granite Bench along the Nubanusit River in Teixeira Park in West Peterborough

Putnam Park is the oldest Park in Peterborough. The two acre parcel on Grove Street was deeded to the town in 1862 by Cathryn Putnam. Miss Putnam was a resident of Peterborough and loved this piece of land which had a stand of hemlock, maple and beech trees along the Nubanusit River. When she was 84 years old, she wanted to see it protected and bought the land and deeded it to the town two weeks before she died. In the late 1950's the neglected park was professionally redesigned and paths and new plantings were added.

Little was done to the park until the late 1990's. It had become tired, dark and the trees and shrubs were overgrown. The Parks Committee opened up the park and created more light by removing and replacing overgrown shrubs and having tree work done to the mature trees. Delapidated benches were replaced with signature granite benches and Adirondack chair seating areas were added. The entrance garden was renovated and an invasive Euomymus alata hedge was replaced with Fothergilla major 'Mt Airy'. Most recently, a rain garden was added in 2010 to help drain the storm water from an adjacent parking lot that often flooded the park and eroded the paths.

Putnam Park II is a small half acre piece of land across the street from Putnam Park which was acquired by the town in 1983. A house was on the site which was in state of disrepair and was removed. The Parks Committee created a 60 foot x 16 foot mixed border, named Boccelli Garden, in 1999 along a granite wall abutting the GAR Hall. The garden has a combination of vibrant shrubs, perennials, annuals and bulbs planted for seasonal interest throughout the year. The garden was named in honor of Michael and Maria "Ma" Boccelli, Italian immigrants who lived in the house in the first half of the twentieth century. Michael planted the horse chestnut and apple trees that continue to grace the park.

Nubanusit Terrace is a pocket park across the Nubanusit River from Putnam Park on Grove Street. Nubanusit Terrace was once the site of a building that burned to the ground in 1941 revealing an exceptional view of the Nubanusit River and waterfalls. The lot was bought by a group of concerned citizens and deeded to the town. A tree lilac , Syringa reticulata, was planted in 1989. In 2002, the Parks Committee added the formal hedged garden which has a white-flowered bulb show in the spring and Russian sage in bloom throughout the summer. It is a very simple and elegant garden.

Depot Park is the newest and most widely used park in Peterborough. A group called Downtown 2000 raised money to buy the land, a former parking lot, to form a park at confluence of the of the Nubanusit and Contoocook Rivers. Gordon Hayward, the VT based garden designer and writer, was commissioned to lay out the park which was installed in the lated 1990's. I think of Depot Park as the "in town" park and it correspondingly has the most urban feel to it. The final act of Downtown 2000 was to erect the pavilion which was meant to recall the feeling of the former train depot building that once stood near the site. The Parks Committee added the the entrance garden at the path leading to the pavilion in 2000. The yew hedges have been clipped into waves to create a more whimsical feel.

Teixeira Park was donated to the town by Pearl Teixeira, wife of former selectman, Louis Teixeira, in his honor in 1971. The one-and-a-half acre plot between Union Street and the Nubanusit River in West Peterborough was recently developed in the last five years. The Ruin Garden and a dozen Malus ' Prairiefire' were installed in 2006. A walkway was added in 2010.

The intention of Teixeira Park is for the park to have a wild feel and attract birds and butterflies. Slowly we are revealing views of the river for the passerby.

Two Terraces and Some Snow

The Main Terrace: A Pair of Chairs and Boxwood Hedges

The Blue Bench Terrace

After our recent snow, I took a look out the windows at the two terraces covered in snow. I thought they made beautiful compositions.

A Prized Tree Gets a New Name

My favorite maple (AA#124-67) at the Arnold Arboretum

Once Acer maximowiczianum x griseum now Acer maximowiczianum

An Acer griseum specimen at the Arnold Arboretum

Acer griseum x 'Gingerbread' in my garden

On Sunday, I took a drawing class at the Eliot School in Jamaica Plain, MA. The class started at 1:30 PM and that gave me an opportunity to visit the Arnold Arboretum which is located about three blocks away from the school. I spent many hours in the late 90's searching for and studying interesting trees and shrubs that I hoped to use in my garden. One of the most beautiful trees that I discovered was called Acer maximowiczianum x griseum, hybrid of the paperbark and nikko maples. In June, 1998, I made a note in my garden journal describing this tree, accession #124-67, which was acquired by the Arboretum, as a seed, in 1967. Several months later, I found a cross of these two maples, a cultivar called Acer griseum x 'Gingerbread' and planted it in my garden near the terrace.

I was surprised, when I located the tree again on Sunday, to see it labeled as a pure nikko maple, Acer maximowiczianum. When I returned home, I confirmed that this was indeed my beloved tree but with a new name. Monday, I called the Arnold Arboretum and the puzzle was solved by Kyle Port, the Plant Records Manager. After conferring with Arboretum Curator, Kyle reported that "AA#124-67, has been determined to be Acer maximowiczianum by three different researchers/plantsmen in 1986, 1987, 1999. That said, one individual in 1988 applied the hybrid name A. maximowiczianum x griseum. The weighted evidence suggests the current name (A. maximowiczianum) applied to the Acer in question is correct. Determinations are ultimately hypotheses so perhaps the name applied to the Acer in question will change yet again!?"

Mystery solved. But for me, that tree will always be Acer maximowiczianum x griseum.