Show #06/7506. A Beautiful Conifer Garden Three Years After Planting
Summary of Show
From The Start
The Inspiration Garden at Gibbs Garden is a true masterpiece, and we've been fortunate enough to have been there FROM THE VERY START, as Jim first conceived of what this amazing ridge would become. It has been a rare look into the mind of a garden designer and an opportunity to learn how a seasoned horticulturalist approaches a new site.
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Why Dwarf Conifers
Eric meets Jim and comments the backbone of this garden is the amazing collection of DWARF CONIFERS. They really are what sets this space off. Today we feel like we're now in a completely new and unusual space. Eric knows that Jim is very passionate about conifers, but why the dwarf conifers for this garden? Well of course, the dwarf conifers are evergreen, thus they're four season plants. Especially in the winter when all the leaves drop, you could come here and see just the conifer garden and enjoy your visit. And, it is worth a visit to see just the conifers in the wintertime.
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What To Put In A Conifer Collection Garden
Eric knows for Jim as a gardener he is drawing on decades of experience. When it comes to the individual plants selected, what would be his advice for our viewers in thinking about what they want to PUT IN A CONIFER COLLECTION GARDEN. What type of resources did Jim draw on to make those selections? Jim suggests selecting four to six plants that will work in various sun situations. Full sun is six hours or more per day, part sun is four to six hours of sun and part shade is usually four to six hours of filtered high shade areas.
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Why Use Dwarf Plants
Eric loves the USE OF DWARF PLANTS and uses them all the time in his gardening. One of the most obvious practical reasons to use dwarf plants is that one can have a lot more plants in a given space.
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Tom Cox
Jim Gibbs has many close friends in the industry who are experts in their field and have brought their vast knowledge to bear on this project. Brent Markus was most helpful in the selection of dwarf maples and some of the conifers.TOM COX is one of the foremost authorities on conifers in the world and the Cox Arboretum boasts the largest collection of gymnosperms in North America. For this particular area Jim wanted to go to a person he knew had planted a lot of conifers and knew conifers. Tom is a conifer expert. He's a dendrologist. He's the authority on conifers for this area.
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Brent Markus
Eric knows that Jim worked with BRENT MARKUS, who we've had on the show, and is a wonderful conifer expert. And Brent was instrumental, in some ways, in selecting the plants that were used here. Jim explains, the dwarf Japanese maples all came from Brent’s company, which is in Oregon, near the Portland area. Jim thinks everyone needs to consult with people that have needed information.
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Ideal Soil Conditions For Conifers
Eric would like to talk about SOIL CONDITIONS because that's very important for conifers. Some like to be grown on the edge of a mountain where there's great drainage. But others are wonderful in bogs or even nearly submerged. Some of the conifers that prefer wet sites would be bald cypress or dawn redwood. In addition, some pines like wet sites. Pinus virginiana, the Virginia pine, really likes a moist site. Other species, like firs in general, detest being wet. What you need to do is make sure that your soil is loose enough so that the roots can penetrate the soil.
For More Information Click here
Design Approach To Inspiration Garden
Designing a garden on the scale of the Inspiration Garden is a daunting task, to say the least. Hundreds of hours are poured into the dreaming phase of the garden, then the time has come to bring it to life. Eric loves Jim's APPROACH TO DESIGN. He considers each angle that a visitor will encounter, and creates small vistas of four to six different types of plants that work well together. Each plant is like a different color of paint designed for the canvas that is his garden. Jim explains, when he started this garden with the dwarf conifers, they had 200 varieties come in on two big trailers from Portland, Oregon.
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Topography Of Inspiration Garden
The hillside where they’re planted goes down. So, you're overlooking the conifers in one part of the walkway, then looking up at them when walking from the other side. So you have a view over the tops, or from below, looking up. So the space itself, the TOPOGRAPHY, lends itself to a wonderful dwarf conifer collection. Of course, the conifers are the bones of the garden.
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Ginkos And Japanese Maples
The GiNKOS AND JAPANESE MAPLES find themselves right at home in the conifer garden and provide additional layers of color and texture. They do a wonderful job of framing the collections of conifers. The splashes of vibrant reds and deep green, along with the stunning fall color of the ginkos pop like fireworks throughout the garden. They have a way of drawing the eye through the space, and creating points of interest at every turn in the path. One thing Eric has noticed in the conifer garden and it's one of his favorite garden plants is the dwarf ginko.
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The Project Comes Together
Eric feels that by incorporating these veterans into the process it greatly expands the pallet the designer can paint with and makes the finished product more beautiful and interesting than it otherwise would have been. Seeing this PROJECT COME TOGETHER has been an immensely satisfying experience. And, it wasn't always easy to see how this masterpiece would come together. Gardening is truly a marriage of art and science.
For More Information Click here
Show #06/7506. A Beautiful Conifer Garden Three Years After Planting
Transcript of Show
This Episode of GardenSMART is the second in the series in which we visit the Inspiration Garden at Gibbs Gardens three years after we chronicled the planting of this amazing garden and see how it has matured. This Episode focuses more on the dwarf conifers. Eric feels that watching a new garden take form and come into its own is a fascinating process.
The Inspiration Garden at Gibbs Garden is a true masterpiece, and we've been fortunate enough to have been there FROM THE VERY START, as Jim first conceived of what this amazing ridge would become. It has been a rare look into the mind of a garden designer and an opportunity to learn how a seasoned horticulturalist approaches a new site. The mission was clear: put together a world-class selection of conifers, ginkos, Japanese maples and azaleas that would allow visitors to experience the vastness of the categories, while also building a display garden that was immensely beautiful. He succeeded on all fronts, and today we catch up with Jim to discuss what it took to make all this happen.
Eric meets Jim and comments the backbone of this garden is the amazing collection of DWARF CONIFERS. They really are what sets this space off. Today we feel like we're now in a completely new and unusual space. Eric knows that Jim is very passionate about conifers, but why the dwarf conifers for this garden? Well of course, the dwarf conifers are evergreen, thus they're four season plants. Especially in the winter when all the leaves drop, you could come here and see just the conifer garden and enjoy your visit. And, it is worth a visit to see just the conifers in the wintertime. When designing with conifers, Jim wanted the evergreen interest, but also wanted to think about the varying forms, the textures and the colors of conifers. He is mixing over 200 varieties of plants in an acre and a half conifer garden. His thought was, if he could create three or four levels in this area that it would look like a natural hillside of conifers. The conifer area would occupy one space, then additionally include dwarf maples. And he has a beautiful area with rare, unusual dwarf maples, 100 varieties of those in this garden. Plus this garden has a great collection of dwarf ginkos.
Eric knows for Jim as a gardener he is drawing on decades of experience. When it comes to the individual plants selected, what would be his advice for our viewers in thinking about what they want to PUT IN A CONIFER COLLECTION GARDEN. What type of resources did Jim draw on to make those selections? Jim suggests selecting four to six plants that will work in various sun situations. Full sun is six hours or more per day, part sun is four to six hours of sun and part shade is usually four to six hours of filtered high shade areas. Jim doesn’t have to worry about them freezing in this area because they'll go to temperatures of minus 20, 30 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, meaning he doesn’t have freeze problems here. But they worry about the summer heat. So, that must be taken into consideration because if you don't select the right plants for your zone, you're in trouble right away and you’ll plant plants that won’t succeed, you'll lose them as well as your invested money. It's a total loss.
Eric loves the USE OF DWARF PLANTS and uses them all the time in his gardening. One of the most obvious practical reasons to use dwarf plants is that one can have a lot more plants in a given space. And, importantly then don't have to worry about something like a Deodar cedar that at some point in time will grow to 40 feet wide and 70 feet tall. That, of course, limits the way one can use a space. Plus for a visitor to a garden it's wonderful to be able to walk through smaller gardens and actually see hundreds of different plants.
Jim Gibbs has many close friends in the industry who are experts in their field and have brought their vast knowledge to bear on this project. Brent Markus was most helpful in the selection of dwarf maples and some of the conifers.TOM COX is one of the foremost authorities on conifers in the world and the Cox Arboretum boasts the largest collection of gymnosperms in North America. For this particular area Jim wanted to go to a person he knew had planted a lot of conifers and knew conifers. Tom is a conifer expert. He's a dendrologist. He's the authority on conifers for this area. Jim asked Tom for help in selection of plants, to come up with a selection of conifers that would live in zone seven and eight. Eric knows Tom has dispelled the myth that conifers are only for northern provenances. And through decades of trial and error, has proven that there are excellent selections for every garden. Who better to do the species selection for the Inspiration Garden than the legendary Tom Cox?
So, next we visit with Tom. Tom explains, he started collecting conifers just for evergreen interest. He didn't really think about the subtlety of it being a conifer. It was more of a plant that was green in the winter. Then over time, he began to study them and become fascinated with this group. They're ancient plants. They were around long before modern flowering plants. So their lineage is and was very, very exciting and interesting to Tom. And over time, he began to plant them. The dogma in the beginning was conifers won't live in the South. Conifers are the domain of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Maine. So he started playing with them. If you look latitudinally, where we sit in Atlanta versus areas where like Hunan, Hunan, Sichuan, Taiwan, they're right at home here.
Eric would like to talk about the role of conifers in the garden and the way that home gardeners should look at that whole category of plants and all the many amazing uses for conifers in the garden. Behind Tom is an example of some dwarf conifers that people could use in smaller landscapes. Importantly conifers have many uses. We can use them for screening, as weeping accent plants, we can even use them in the house. People oftentimes don't realize, conifers make great houseplants, with all their various colors. There's no plant group that provides the colors, textures and forms that conifers can provide. Tom even uses them in containers. They're great container plants, or a great filler plant around water and rocks. There's something about rocks and conifers that just go together. Another area is upright narrow plants, plants like junipers. Juniper where we garden, gets a bad name. They're over utilized and often not the best form. But Tom points out a real tall weeping juniper from the Himalayas. But wherever one goes in the garden there are conifers that will work - plants for shade, plants for full sun, plants for wet. They're just so versatile.
Eric knows that Jim worked with BRENT MARKUS, who we've had on the show, and is a wonderful conifer expert. And Brent was instrumental, in some ways, in selecting the plants that were used here. Jim explains, the dwarf Japanese maples all came from Brent’s company, which is in Oregon, near the Portland area. Jim thinks everyone needs to consult with people that have needed information. Jim has been in this business for over 50 years yet there's no question, he needed Tom Cox for selection of plants and he needed Brent Markus for the selection of the dwarf maples as well as some of the conifers.
Eric next talks with Brent Markus. Brent has been passionate about plants his entire life, and has paired his vast knowledge of conifers, Japanese maples and ginkos, with his skills as a plant propagator and a grower. Much of the plant material for this garden came from Brent's nursery, Conifer Kingdom, in Oregon. Brent is a consummate collector, and one of the best sources for rare and unusual plants. Brent is an expert in conifers, and ornamental conifers all across the US. We often tend to think of New England and the West Coast as being places they proliferate. But they can be grown everywhere, but there are certain considerations that we need to keep in mind when we're thinking about what is the right fir, spruce, pine, et cetera, for our garden. What suggestions can Brent provide? Brent explains they ship plant material throughout the United States. He and Eric are standing in front of a beautiful assortment that includes pines, spruce, some false cypress, some junipers and some mews as well. Most of these plants would be as at home in the Midwest or New England as they are in the southeast. For gardens in the southeast, there are a number of considerations. The first step in selecting any conifers for your garden would be to look at the hardiness. If your plant is not hardy for your particular zone, you can cross it off right off the bat. Then look at native range and where plants generally thrive. Look to your local botanic gardens. Universities have excellent lists of plants and varieties, as well as arboreta. But for people further up north the first thing would be to consider hardiness. What hardiness zone are you? And you can just look that up using dozens of different sources online. They will provide a general guideline for plant material that one should select. After that, how hot or humid is the area you're in? Some conifers thrive in those environments, others, struggle.
Eric would like to talk about SOIL CONDITIONS because that's very important for conifers. Some like to be grown on the edge of a mountain where there's great drainage. But others are wonderful in bogs or even nearly submerged. Some of the conifers that prefer wet sites would be bald cypress or dawn redwood. In addition, some pines like wet sites. Pinus virginiana, the Virginia pine, really likes a moist site. Other species, like firs in general, detest being wet. What you need to do is make sure that your soil is loose enough so that the roots can penetrate the soil. If in heavy clay soil, you really need to modify your soil for any of these conifers to thrive. It’s very important to look at what the soil conditions are, add a bunch of mulch or compost, and then a layer of mulch over the top just to lock the moisture in and also make sure there's plenty there for the roots.
Designing a garden on the scale of the Inspiration Garden is a daunting task, to say the least. Hundreds of hours are poured into the dreaming phase of the garden, then the time has come to bring it to life. Eric loves Jim's APPROACH TO DESIGN. He considers each angle that a visitor will encounter, and creates small vistas of four to six different types of plants that work well together. Each plant is like a different color of paint designed for the canvas that is his garden. Jim explains, when he started this garden with the dwarf conifers, they had 200 varieties come in on two big trailers from Portland, Oregon. Once they were unloaded Jim put them in an open space fairly close to the conifer garden. He then would group four to six individual plants based on their form, their texture and their color and if they needed sun or not. He put all the sun-loving groupings in one area for sun. Then took the ones that needed part sun and grouped them together with four to six plants and put them in little sections in an area for part sun. Then he grouped the ones that needed part shade.
As you go through a garden, your line of vision only picks up about four to six plants at one time. So if those four to six plants have great form, great texture and great color, and you put another grouping that's totally different next to them, you're creating more interest. If you then take another grouping of four to six plants and put those next to those you've already placed, it works well. If you were going to a garden center and you were going to select some plants for your garden, let's say you were selecting dwarf conifers, you could stay there at the garden center and just take some plants out, four to six plants, and you know if they're going to be for sun, then group them in one little place in the parking lot. And then you get another group of four to six plants, and you pull them around and play with them and put them in a little grouping. And then go on to another grouping. But when you put them all together, you have this magnificent grouping of maybe 24 plants instead of four to six. Your mind can think easier about four to six plants, even if in a corner of your garden. Then place the taller plants in the background, then the intermediate plants in front of those, then put lower plants in front of those. That way you get these step levels.
Remember, conifers are the lowest maintenance of all plants. Maintenance can be very expensive, so the homeowner needs to think about cost. You don't have to prune them, or very, very little pruning. And they always stay within their space. If you look at the tag it will tell you exactly what spacing you’ll need, how large they will get in 10 years. You know everything when you start. But maintenance is a big consideration.
All of these plants have varying colors of greens. Jim has all different shades of green. Chartreuse green adds lots of excitement here and there, scatter them so that you see it all around. They have grays in the plant colors, blue-grays. It’s great to mix them. Jim has all the various colors. And even in the winter, those colors are evident and you see them.
The hillside where they’re planted goes down. So, you're overlooking the conifers in one part of the walkway, then looking up at them when walking from the other side. So you have a view over the tops, or from below, looking up. So the space itself, the TOPOGRAPHY, lends itself to a wonderful dwarf conifer collection. Of course, the conifers are the bones of the garden. They hold the structure of the garden together. But remember full sized conifers can grow to 60, 80, almost 100 feet tall. If one put three of those in an area that's all you could get in the space.
The GINKOS AND JAPANESE MAPLES find themselves right at home in the conifer garden and provide additional layers of color and texture. They do a wonderful job of framing the collections of conifers. The splashes of vibrant reds and deep green, along with the stunning fall color of the ginkos pop like fireworks throughout the garden. They have a way of drawing the eye through the space, and creating points of interest at every turn in the path. One thing Eric has noticed in the conifer garden and it's one of his favorite garden plants is the dwarf ginko. Many people may not know that ginkos are gymnosperms, thus are related to all of the conifers in the garden, thus it makes it a wonderful companion. Plus there's no beating the fall color of ginkos. That color against the blue foliage of the spruce really pops in the garden. It’s a wonderful companion plant that actually belongs with this family.
Jim comments they have found 200 million year old fossils of the ginkgo leaf in China.Thus ginkos date back to pre-historic times. And, it’s a beautiful leaf, fan-shaped with a bright yellow color. In the fall of the year, it turns a golden yellow. It's fabulous. Brent Markus has quite a collection of dwarf conifers, but he also has quite a collection of dwarf ginkos. So for this garden Jim bought one of every cultivar variety dwarf ginko that Brent grows and has spaced those all through the conifer garden. Brent also has all of the rare dwarf, Japanese cut-leaf maples. So you mix the dwarf ginko collection, the dwarf collection of dwarf Japanese cut-leaf maples with the conifers, you create a lot more interest because you have the fall color of those plants added to the evergreens. They make a much nicer conifer garden.
Eric feels that by incorporating these veterans into the process it greatly expands the pallet the designer can paint with and makes the finished product more beautiful and interesting than it otherwise would have been. Seeing this PROJECT COME TOGETHER has been an immensely satisfying experience. And, it wasn't always easy to see how this masterpiece would come together. Gardening is truly a marriage of art and science. The creative process is often as rewarding as the finished product. The aptly named Inspiration Garden, where visitors can enjoy its broad views as it gracefully unfurls its beauty and colors across the hillside down to the valley is a place that will continue to excite visitors for generations. With every visit Eric’s appreciation for conifers grows deeper and in many ways feels as if he is growing with this garden. Eric feels lucky to have seen it all come to fruition.
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