And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold

"Whoa - It snowed!"

So read my housemate's Facebook status after last weekend's storm. Then, just days later, another blizzard hit leaving a record-breaking snow fall. I find snow storms fascinating - one day everything is the same shade of hazy whitish-gray and the next dawns glittering and blinding. The sun was brighter, the sky was bluer, and the landscape around The Row definitely took on a Dept. 56 feel with snow clinging to the branches of trees, piled up on eaves like marzipan, and magically turning our vehicles into humped snow dwelling beasts! The picnic benches made me think of iced snack cakes! Yum!

Lots of folks have been posting photos of snow on Facebook and their blogs and I suspect there are many reasons for this. For one thing, there's nothing else to do during a white-out and for another, these storms were history-making. Not since the days of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who both recorded blizzard conditions in their diaries in 1772, has this region seen so much snow. These days instead of diaries we have blogs to chronicle such things but I think the need to capture history as we see it - or to be part of it in some way - is still ingrained in us. I do keep a diary and pondered for a brief moment, pen suspended over the blank page as I gazed out my window at the vision of whiteness beyond, how I would draw a snowstorm (leave the page blank, silly!) then decided to put down the pen and pick up my camera. This is what it captured:

A snowflake is one of God's most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together! The view out my bedroom window during the first storm Saturday morning.

The storm was relentless that day, and by noon the snow had risen to cover the front porch steps!

Then it had the nerve to encroach onto the porch!

Inside I was cheered by the rosy blooms of this Begonia 'Barkos' from the Christmas display, still blooming like mad, and some forced branches from the Lilac outside the back door.

Everything is a hazy shade of winter.

By Monday morning the snow had settled somewhat and the little kid in me was thrilled to be the first to leave tracks in the untouched snow.

Looking up and down the Row, the view was tranquil and white.

By the time the next storm came on Thursday, crews were hard at work keeping the major roads and paths to the Conservatory clear.

Walking back to the Row from the Hort. building Thursday after class - in a blizzard - was definitely a new adventure! While taking this picture of the Production Houses I heard what sounded like a gun shot and wondered what the heck....

I heard the muffled wumpf! and turned in time to see this branch fall from one of the White Pines outside the Potting Shed then thought, "Time to go!"

They say neither rain nor sleet nor snow will keep a postman from his rounds. I didn't check.

Safely ensconced in the warm shelter of my humble abode, a quick peek out the back door made me cringe. The snow was still falling and gave every appearance of intending to fall for quite some time, which means I would have quite a chore digging my poor truck out when it was over! (a heartfelt thanks to my housemate Gavin who dug it out Monday when I was sick! You rock, Gav!).

This poor drooping tree just seemed to epitomize the popular sentiment of 'enough already'!

Adding to the adventure was holding class in the student greenhouse where my awesome classmates Hudson and Gavin spent their lunch hour shoveling a path through thigh-high snow so we could get to it! As I headed back home after lab, I stopped to consider my garden in winter.

And the view down The Row by this time had become even more romantic and the road not a little bit treacherous.

All the trees were delicately festooned in winter's lace!


And no sooner had Gavin dug a path to the front door than it was buried again. The 24" pots of the two container plantings out there were completely buried. Did I mention the power went out about this time? At least we didn't have to worry about the food in the fridge going bad!

And then, a new day dawned! With the sun comes icicles!


All is bright down The Row.

The houses are all covered in icing.


'Icing' is probably what made me think of delectable pastries when I saw these picnic benches.



A clearer view of my garden, 3' under snow!

Giving the term 'cold frame' a new meaning...

I decided to brave the cold (in more ways than one, seeing as I've been battling a tenacious cough for the last week) and see how the gardens had been transformed. This is the walk through the Boiler Room Woods south of the houses.

At the entrance to the restaurant the Hamamelis was covered with festive party favor blossoms! If you live in the Eastern half of the country and do not have this sensational plant in your garden, you are to be wondered at and whispered about in a censorious manner. What gardener wouldn't want such a flamboyant floral display in their garden in the dead of winter? In a sea of white, the Witch Hazel is the only color around. Why, this plant is virtually sticking out its fiery tongues giving the snow a defiant botanical "Pppphhhhhbbbbbtttt"! Even though it only blooms in winter and is just a nice green shrub the rest of the season, the way it defies even a history-making snow storm and puts on a party makes this plant one of my new all-time favorites!

So there. Nyah.

Over at the construction site that is to become the new East Conservatory Plaza, there was no activity and the machinery was in danger of becoming part of the blanketed landscape!


I bet kids were just itching to dive into the snow at the Topiary Garden!



Interesting, the Main Fountain Garden covered with so much water...how cool would it have been had the jets been on and the fountains froze - the ultimate in ice sculptures!

Looking out across the Cow Lot.


I loved the textures in the snow drifts made by both man and nature.


As the snow blew from the branches of these trees, the sunlight in the background gave everything an ephemeral look. Unfortunately these branches are prone to snap so in the interest of self-preservation my admiration of the scene was brief.

With even a short walk around the gardens I was puffing like a steam engine because of the sniffle and decided it was time to return home and treat myself to a steaming cup of tea (thank heavens for a gas stove in a power outage! I could still brew tea!). At least I can say I have joined my fellows and recorded my bit of history, my views of "Snowmageddon 2010". With the temps hovering in the 30s all week and more snow showers coming in a few days, it looks like this Winter Wonderland will be around for a bit, until warmer temperatures and snow plows transform it once again.

Picking up my pen once more, I think I will leave that page in my diary blank after all!

"A Scents of Place"

'Guinea pig' is the term some people use when they are the first to be subject to a new plan or process that has never been done before. I prefer the term 'ground breaker', for what could be more appropriate than that to describe what the PG Class of December 2010 will become when the newest garden project here at Longwood is realized? We will literally be breaking ground - with more than shovels and spades, I might add - when we install the very first public display gardens at Longwood designed solely by students in the Professional Gardener Program!

Throughout the history of the program students have been required to design and maintain both a vegetable garden and an ornamental garden. The allotted space measures 15' x 50' with two-thirds dedicated to veg and the rest to ornamentals. You can read about my garden adventures from last year here, here, and here. Oh, and here! The blogs of my esteemed classmates are linked over on the right if you want to see what they did with their gardens and, really, why wouldn't you?

Our gardens on the Row gave each of us an outlet for creativity and serious hands-on learning but only we students and the other tenants on the Row were able to enjoy them since they're located far away from the public eye (which, in the case of my garden, was a good thing I think!).
Somewhere along the line the idea germinated that the students' talents should be showcased in the gardens proper, for all the world to see (gulp!). What better way to show Longwood's guests some of the things that students learn and do in the PG Program? And so it happened that a PG alum named Danilo Maffei, who is now a Landscape Designer at W.D. Wells and Associates, Inc., was called upon to design the space that would one day become what I like to think of as the PG students' version of the Festival des Jardins de Chaumont-sur-Loire.

The most logical place to put the new gardens turned out to be the Example Garden, which is part of the Idea Garden (see map). See the tiny space to the left of the label for the Special Events Pavilion? That's where our gardens will be. Until a few short months ago the Example Garden was, well, an example of how a typical suburban backyard could be planted with ornamentals and vegetables both in a unique and creative way. Here's what the space looked like last July:

Now, grab hold of something, because I'm sure you'll be shocked and will clutch your heart, gasping in astonishment, when I tell you that this entire space has been gutted. Yup, none of this is there now (only the brick patio and the water feature were given a reprieve from the backhoe!). If you were to peer over the temporary plastic construction fence, what you see today would probably not be too impressive since it's mostly mud and gravel punctuated by a few pieces of heavy equipment. Were you privy to the behind-the-scenes workings of this project - as you soon shall be, you fortunate reader - you would be rather impressed at the progress made in such a seemingly short amount of time. I know I am, coming as I do from a design/build background in a climate where a project can safely commence without threat of postponement due to blizzards or hurricanes! Even with the amount of Weather the contractor has had to deal with, they've done a pretty nifty job of whipping this space into shape!

So let me regale you with the process thus far: when it was decided that this was going to pass from Concept to Reality, the process of designing the gardens was incorporated into the curriculum by becoming a major focus of our Landscape Design class, which took place last summer. The very same Danilo Maffei who designed the space for the display gardens was our instructor and guiding hand throughout the beginning of the project. Keep in mind some of us had had design classes or first-hand experience before, some hadn't. We were teamed up in such a way that those who had never worked on a landscape design project were paired with someone who has then each team was assigned one of the four plots to design. Four gardens, four teams (three teams of 2, one team of 3). And we were off!

The first step was to interview the client - in this case, Longwood Gardens, personified by head designer Rodney Eason. We all peppered him with specific questions about what he wanted for the gardens and came away with three main things for our design programs: "Wow!", "Fragrance", and "Safety". Easy, right? Right. Try interpreting what someone means when they say they want to be "wowed". Since our gardens are intended to be temporary display gardens, they will only exist for three seasons (spring through fall) and also have to conform to the overall theme of the gardens for 2010 which is Fragrance. Also not as easy as it sounds...er...smells? In the end, we were encouraged to let our creativity run rampant. So we did!

Here we are conducting the site evaluation:

From there we began to draw concept diagrams, running through several iterations before deciding which one we would pursue as a final design. My partner in design, Shannon, and I decided on a modern rectilinear design that mimics a cityscape. Our design theme (with much coaching and hinting from Dan) became "A Scents of Place" (which trumped the silly yet catchy "Smellapalooza"). This is one of the drafts of our concept design:


It was really fascinating to see how differently each team approached the process and the designs that each ultimately came up with! Team A designed a garden based on a concept of "The Four Corners of the World". Their garden is divided into sections representing the four corners of the globe, with fragrant plants from each continent, as it were, divided by an ocean of plant material.


Team B is Shannon and me! Here's our final concept drawing showing our city scape and an elevation detail.


Team C went all out and designed this funky garden with fragrant mounds of varying sizes aligned along a central curving path. I can't wait to see this one when it's finished!

Team D's concept centered around water wheels or, in this case, wheels of fragrance. Their path curves around three herbaceous 'wheels', around and within which are planted different kinds of fragrant plants flowing from one wheel to the next.


This drawing shows you the entire space and how the plots are divided. A circular patio is set in the center touching just a corner of each plot. One side of the patio is outlined by a curved seat wall with two plots behind, these separated by a hedge. Opposite the seat wall is a screen of the same hedge plant with the other two plots behind, also separated by a hedge. A gravel path runs the perimeter of the entire space and up the middle through the circular patio. The space is screened from the Idea Garden beyond by a slight rise to the north, planted with trees and shrubs, a small structure to the west, existing plantings to the south, and the existing wall to east.

And here are Shannon and I hard at work in the concept development phase (that's my housemate Gavin back there, contemplating his next move. Or maybe he's just gnawing on his pen?).
The fun part of this whole development was presenting our design concepts to a committee consisting of Longwood staff from such departments as Horticulture, Guest Services, Design, etc. Not to mention our supportive and attentive classmates (grin)!


("This is where the new PG spa will go...")

Wait, did I say fun? It was absolutely nerve-wracking because the committee members were severe in their critiques and suggestions (I mean that in a good way - they brought up many good points and keen observations). After that it was back to the drawing board to refine our designs and investigate ways to incorporate some of the suggestions that were made. Compared to the two committee presentations, our final presentation to the Board of Directors was actually quite easy. They all loved our ideas and expressed great eagerness to see the finished gardens! Afterward Dan escorted us into the adjoining room for a debriefing and proceeded to do happy dance! I guess he liked what we did, too!

That was last summer. Fast forward to now: we're in the Landscape Construction class (also taught by Dan) learning all about how to take a design and translate it to the ground. Construction on the Example Garden is nearing completion and now that we have our budgets, we'll finalize plant lists and start procuring materials. The average last frost date is estimated to be April 17, so we anticipate a late spring installation. As part of the mentoring process, the newest PGs (Class of 2011) will lend a hand in the installation and maintenance of the gardens. They get to design their gardens when they have class with Dan this summer then they will mentor the next class (Class of 2012) when the process starts all over again!

And now you can see why we're nothing if not ground breakers! We are the first class in the history of the PG Program to have gardens on display to the public. As with any new venture, there are some wrinkles to iron out but one thing we've learned since coming to Longwood is that - somehow - things always work themselves out (I think it has to do with the staff here being horticultural magicians. Seriously! I like to think of this place as a sort of Hogwarts for Horticulturists!). Come back in the spring to see how the installations went and see pictures of the finished gardens! In the meantime, enjoy the progress photos:

Early January 2010: the space under construction and a blanket of snow!

A border of new trees and shrubs along the north edge of the space. As they mature the trees will help mask the employee parking lot on the level above.

Late January 2010: the central circular patio is laid out and marked for excavation, grading, and installation of the gravel base layer. This is Plot A, the only plot fully completed with soil amended and tilled so far (I'd like to know who Team A bribed for that!?)

Plot C with the existing patio terrace and new retaining wall. The gravel path will extend around the perimeter of all the plots and through the circular patio in the center.

Plots C and D still under construction. In the left background is Plot B (Shannon's and mine) which turned out to be the narrowest of all the plots so we will undoubtedly need to tweak our design as we lay out the plants. We just love a good challenge!

*Special thanks to Danilo Maffei of W.D. Wells and Associates, Inc. (and our fabulous instructor) for the classroom photos.