Olmstead is often called the father of landscape architecture. Bella mentions him in this thread about whether landscape can be art. Yet, Olmstead's work was anything but bagel gardens and whimsy. It was very subtle - much like the maple canopy over the road. I think that once again we find that some people affix specific things to terms such as "art", "function", "creativity", and logic to name a few, while others have a broader interpretation of what those things are. Bella obviously sees the whole landscape as a piece of art while others will look for art objects within the landscape. Olmstead is a great example when you think of the "art" of large scale that is put into Central Park. A year or two ago some artist (shoot me for not knowing or caring) tossed up a whole lot of orange banners in Central Park and so many people ooohed and ahhhhed at this "masterpiece" while Central Park was considered the canvas. It is something to think about. I wonder if anyone looked at it as spray paint on a nice building? Would someone be a great artist if they added a small detail such as a nose ring to The Mona Lisa and stood up to take a bow? It is much like a thread in the last year where someone designed and installed a garden only to have the homeowner add her "garden art" junk into it.

We used to have a poster that went by HGSB. He lectured someone from NY about that horrible Chastetree. That was the first time I heard about invasive.org website. My problem was and still is that they lump everything together. MA-EPPC page lists Northern Catalpa, Crape Myrtle,Osage Orange, along with incredibly noxious weeds like Multiflora Rose, Autumn Olive, and Privets. They paint with a broad brush. Those last three cover countless acres of natural areas, we schedule invasive removals to combat them but its like swimming against the tide. I'll swear EVERY flower of Autumn Olive makes a berry. What's the criteria for the listings at invasive.org? Can any volunteer with a camera creat a fact sheet? When a list is watered down like this, it becomes meaningless. Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas is a much more targeted, user-friendly list. It zeros in on the worst offenders. BTW, where was esh_ga, rhizo_1, and dibbit on that never-ending Viburnum dilitatum group thread? p.23 We schedule removals in Virginia's Turkey Run Park to remove it. I was the lone voice to protest promotion of that weed on this forum. That's a genuine, invasive pest. Elaeagnus pungens makes an occasional fruit here, it's benign. I've never seen one volunteer, I can't speak for further south. On my way to Baltimore this morning I know I saw 10,000 Callery Pears blooming along the road. E. pungens shouldn't be put in the same category. Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas

To repeat what has been said a number of times before, there are Red Maples (Acer rubrum) in varying cultivars and then there are other cultivars of maples whose leaves turn red in the fall. There are also maples, mostly Japanese maples but other species as well, whose leaves come in red or reddish, some of whose leaves stay red and some turn green. The TRUE Red Maple is the A. rubrum, so called, as far as I know, because the flowers, which are very early before the leaves, are very red, as are the early stages of the samaras. Any other tree, if of another variety of maple (Norway, silver, etc.) MAY have the word red somewhere in its name, or have red leaves all summer or in the fall, but it will NOT BE a Red Maple, although it may be a red-colored maple, for example, the above mentioned Crimson King Norway Maple. Sorry for the lecture, but it's a pet peeve, and so you got the rant....

Hello- The best part of the New England Grows! trade show (not a flower show) was meeting Cady - first time I have ever met a cyber friend in person, too - what a delight! Next best were the lectures - a couple of which might be of interest to posters here. In terms of the "room" thread Tony has going ("Come into the garden, Maude" thread), P. Allen Smith of cable TV fame took the concept of the garden room to the limit. IMO he was obnoxious and commercial. Advised having your clients bring in paint chips and fabric swatches to match flower colors to the other decorative elements of the outdoor rooms and also to match to any indoor rooms looking out on the garden - all needs to match and look well together. . . the garden designer as exterior designer, based on the interior designer model. He sells books to keep all of your swatches, paint chips, and plant labels in order. A shameless promoter of his shows, books, and other paraphinalia. He heavily promoted his "recipe cards" for creating the "perfect containers." A paint-by -number approach to gardening which makes "the public", as he kept saying, seem really stupid. Enough of P. Allen. Lucinda Brockway, the garden historian and restoration expert mentioned at the beginning of this thread, gave an excellent presentation on the practical aspects of garden restoration. She is known for her authentic museum-quality restorations of historical properties like Strawberry Bank in NH and Fort Ticonderoga in NY. For this presentation, she showed many slides of work she has done in the restoration of historical homes. In this work her efforts were not to create historically correct garden landscapes down to the last detail, but rather to meld the old with the new into livable landscape gardens for her clients. Although she herself did not use these terms, I felt she was in effect saying she sometimes uses authentic plants in a new gardening style(such as colonial plants in island beds in the lawn) and sometimes uses new plants in an authentic gardening style("Proven Winner" annuals in Victorian carpet beds). She showed slides of a Colonial home with a modern swimming pool in the back yard and Colonial-style plantings; also a Colonial reproduction housing development for the elderly with complimentary plantings done in the style of the times. The gist of the presentation was to understand that a garden will have a lot of lives and that your work in it is probably not its last. In other words, don't take yourself so seriously when trying to be historically correct in reproducing gardens from the past in homes being lived in; remember they are not historic, museum properties with paid staff to keep them up. She had a good handout plus a flyer for a new book she has co-authored on the restoration of several Newburyport, MA gardens. I have extras if anyone would like them. E-mail me and I will send them off. Lots more, but no more time to post . . . Ginger