Blooms, Blossoms, Bosoms & Education

2014 symposium poster by Brantley Snipes Landscape + Design 

Garden Clubs. In the South, they are one of our many societal institutions; institutions that have been in place since the days when people actually spent time in their garden. (I use the word institution not lightly, as southern institutions are the "norms" in our culture.)  Ladies would gather over finger sandwiches and compare notes on blooms, blossoms, and well, sometimes their neighbor's new bosoms... if chardonnay was added to the mix at 11 am then so be it...the meeting then becomes THE social afternoon of the month.  

Decades later, the tradition remains strong in the Delta...finger sandwiches, cheese straws and the occasional chardonnay still accompany the meetings. The recipes may vary, but the staples remain. A southern lady, more than likely, is a part of a garden club, whether or not she knows what type of shrub is in her front yard. Not only that, but she has been since the days of "Pretty Planters" in grade school...minus the brief hiatus throughout college where the sorority takes precedent over the garden club. 

Yet, despite their notorious social nature, a Delta garden club can take on more and can accomplish more than some of our most dedicated SEC football players. I mean that with 100% truth. My dad and I joke that if you could channel all the hostessing efforts of a garden club meeting into science research...one could, in fact, find a cure for one of our deadliest world epidemics. When these ladies set their minds to something, come hell or high water it will happen, it will be beautiful, and it will be done better than the previous year or the neighboring town's efforts on the same event. When a garden club in the Delta hosts something...make it a point to be there... 

That being said, make it a point to be at the Greenville Higher Education Center, what we refer to as The GHEC on April 3. This is the date of the Greenville Garden Club's Horticulture Symposium, which is held every other year. This free event is open to the public and features a different landscape professional each time. Not only will there be a speaker, but the event will feature garden and interior vendors. The symposium takes what garden clubs do best, hostessing and community outreach, and compiles them into an educational lunch. 

This year's speaker is Carol Reese of the University of Tennessee. Carol works to keep the horticulture industry up to date, and attuned to the needs of an increasingly savvy gardening clientele. She writes a weekly gardening and nature column for the Jackson Sun, has served as the Q&A columnist for Horticulture Magazine, and contributes to many other gardening magazines.

Although I am a member of The Greenwood Garden Club, I am the first born of an active member of The Greenville Garden Club and had the great honor of creating their poster this year. 

If you intend to be in the Delta on April 3, mark your calendars for this event! Not only will there be a speaker, but the event will feature garden and interior vendors. Although you have to bring your own finger sandwich, you won't have to bring your imagination, as you will be treated with the most gracious Southern hospitality in the most gracious of settings...and hey, you may learn something in the process...even if you're already in a garden club. 

A Closer Look at Winter Color...

a sweetgum grove of winter shades 

It's  January, the month where everyone seems to have self diagnosed themselves with Seasonal Affective Disorder; we're all just SAD. It's no wonder we are because for every month leading up to January, we have experienced such visual sensations in the landscape that we cannot help but feel a bit more invigorated. There has been the bright blooms of spring, summer greens, and a decadence of yellows and reds in the fall. Yet, come January and our fall landscape colors are now brown leaves crunching below our winter boots, the glorious lights of the holidays have faded and we simply seem to be holding our breath for Spring.

Despite its reputation as a hum drum, dull month January actually offers a wide palette of shades, tints and hues of all colors....you just have to look a bit closer. In fact, set amidst the browns and grays of winter, January's colors are quite vibrant, quite spectacular, and quite invigorating.

a january blue sky 

"Good luck with that." I heard my dad voice as I announced we were off to photograph the colors of January.  It was the weekend following the polar vortex, which took everyone's SAD to the next level by a touch of frost bite and bipolar disorder. This particular Saturday offered a day of temps in the 50's and a sky so blue that the lyrics to The Allman Brother's Blue Sky come alive. I decided to get outside and challenge myself and see if we (the Pegs and I) could discover a sample complete of every color on the color wheel....a ROY G. BIV sample if you will.

commons.wikimedia.org 

If you recall the color lessons of elementary school, ROY G. BIV stands for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. Variances in these hues (original color) are value (brightness), tints (white added) shades (black added), and saturation (color's intensity).

shades and tints demonstrated on this fence post

So without further adieu, here are the hues of January, brought to you by Carroll County. 

Red: 

berries of a sumac

a lingering red maple leaf 

 Orange: 

an oak stump 

some fungi 

some orange moss

Yellow: 

a yellow bamboo leaf 

yellow/green moss

Green: 

green lichen

green honeysuckle leaf 

green and white fungi

green needles on a bed of leaves

eastern red cedar

Blue: 

blue lichen

blue lichen

Indigo: (a bit of a stretch, but again...a different shade)

a leaf with indigo variegation

Violet:

purple branch with peg's purple boots

bamboo 

purple leaves

purple leaves

Each season offers us different variations in hues in/on/around different parts of our plants. Although winter doesn't offer the brightness or intensity of leaves and blooms on plant material, it portrays the softer tints and shades of plant components that often get overlooked. Winter allows the overlooked parts of plants to shine, the bark, berries, and smaller details that are overshadowed by the bold a beautiful flowers and leaves. 

More than likely, you're not going to have stumps, lichen or a few colorful leaves scattered about your landscape during the winter...but if you do, fantastic. If not, look a bit closer to what our most common landscape plants can offer during the winter months.

 berries of a nandina

Our most common landscape plants can offer some of the greatest visual treats in the winter. Consider the red berries of Hollies (Ilex) and Nandinas (Nandina domestica) or the bluish black ones of Ligustrums (Ligustrum japonicum, not Ligustrum sinense) or Indian hawthorns (Rhapiolepis indica). 

ligustrum

indian hawthorn

Set a midst a deep evergreen backdrop, these berries have a chance to add a much needed color pop in the winter. 

gold brown foliage of a miscanthus spp. 

Continue to look past our evergreens and bright berries to the features of deciduous and perennial plants. The golden brown foliage of our ornamental grasses glistens in the winter sun. The bark of our beloved Crepe Myrtles and Oakleaf Hydrangeas offers not only deep red and brown color, but varying textures as well. 

When it comes to our landscape designs, it's critical for one to not forget about the potential the winter has for visual interest in  our landscapes. Just because the intensity may be less, doesn't mean that winter lacks in color in our landscapes. Color is a major component of our landscapes and should be closely looked at throughout all seasons of design. 

mass of nandinas

When it comes to winter color, the components of color are often smaller (berries, bark, leaves) and should be massed to create an impact. 

Hang in there, although there's another mini-vortex with no chance of snow...which is a redeeming feature of winter, there is still beauty to be found in your landscape....just look a bit closer! 

Why not come home?

Since coming home to the Mississippi Delta (almost one year ago), people meet me with the same, sincere question, “so how are you adjusting”? Time and again, Deltans ask the question with a hint of hesitation in the voice, as if there is an apprehension of what my response maybe. As if the question may trigger me to freak out, pack up and leave, because I am not having smooth adjustment. The only time the question has varied was when I was asked if I was hiding out in Greenwood because I had murdered someone. I guess they assumed I had no other option, but to adjust to life in the Delta. While my move back to the Delta has been met with questions of apprehension and disbelief from friends, family and colleagues, I have yet to share in this sentiment, not even for a moment.

It has begun to concern me, though, after receiving this question a dozen or more times, that we Deltans fear what we cannot offer a newcomer versus reveling in what we can offer. Sure we do not have the big city amenities, but the Delta offers more than generic attractions found all over the country. It offers the unique opportunity to live, work and thrive in a place where history can be experienced everyday, where you truly know your neighbor, the only traffic jams are caused by farm equipment and where the night sky and surrounding landscapes offer more of a show than any Cineplex can. Not to even mention our laid back cultural love of fine food, live music, and a good time.

The fact of the matter is that we live in one of the most geographically and culturally unique places on earth; a place and way of life that is threatened by younger generations being lured to the big city. Sure we experience our history on a daily basis,but what about the future of the Delta? Will future generations be able to experience the same Delta that we love today, tomorrow? Instead of bewilderment at people returning to the Delta, shouldn’t there be a fear of it not being here for people to return to?

A few years ago, some landscape architecture colleagues and I were approached by a group of community leaders to initiate a preservation project for the community of Idlewild, Michigan. Idlewild, like the Delta, has a rich history but had fallen victim to some economic hardships over the past few decades. Like so many small towns in the Delta, the Idlewild community existed as shells of what used to be. There were historic markers of where the Four Tops had first played, but nothing else. We spent a week, in the freezing Michigan woods, working with the community to develop a landscape redevelopment plan that would help re-generate economic growth and stimulate more tourism to the area.

It was in the middle of this frozen tundra, thousands of miles from my home town where my own Delta roots took hold and I had a life changing “ah-ha” moment... if I could travel to the middle-of-nowhere Michigan to pursue a passion for landscape preservation, why not pursue this type of preservation work in my own home region where it was also needed?

The thought was fleeting at the time, but as time progressed and I began to decide on a career path in landscape architecture, I kept returning to that moment in those Michigan woods. Gradually, my questions of why would I return to the Delta became, why not return to the Delta?

As it turns out, much to my grandmother’s perplexity, landscape architecture is more than mowing lawns and choosing the right shrubs. It is the charge to design and plan for the health, safety and welfare of people within our landscapes. The beauty of landscape architecture lies in the opportunities of study within the field. Preservation work in the Delta just happened to be one such opportunity, an opportunity to work towards the welfare of a community and a region within a landscape setting, which has molded a culture and a way of life for centuries.

While it may seem like a strange fit to have a landscape architect as a Main Street Director, quite the opposite rings true. In my case, Main Street Greenwood is the vehicle for great strides in preservation within in the landscape of Downtown Greenwood and the overall landscape of the Delta. It is not everyday in which you can pursue daily design in regards to the past, in consideration of the present, and for visions of the future.

The mission of Main Street Greenwood is to “promote and celebrate Downtown Greenwood through the preservation of our historic resources and through projects, events, and activities that make downtown a viable place to live, work, and visit.” Through this mission, we not only work to make our historic downtown a viable place to live, work and visit right now, but we preserve its integrity for our future generations. This landscape of historical and cultural integrity will separate us from the generic attributes of life in other towns and allow Greenwood to be a beacon of preservation, culture and economic vitality for the entire Delta. 

My response to the “adjustment question” is always the same, “I have come back home, so there really was no adjustment necessary…and no, I did not murder anyone.” I can’t tell if it’s a look of shock, disbelief or relief when I give this simple response, but it should be no shock that there are those of us returning, moving or staying in the Delta. There should be urgency and excitement when greeting newcomers (or returners) because what we have to offer, as a community, is a way of life and a landscape to be celebrated, showcased and above all else, preserved.
(Seen in Leflore Illustrated, October 2012)