Gardening for the First
Season of 2010
This week’s podcast and
radio show guest is Marco Polo Stufano, the former director of horticulture at
Wave Hill, a public garden in the Bronx, NY, which has been called the best
garden in America. And Marco has been called America’s greatest gardener. He
lives across the street from Wave Hill, where he has a small (30’ x 70’)
garden. If anyone knows plants, and what plants might be of interest at this
time of year, it is Marco. Even in his little garden, there is a lot to see.
There are evergreens with colorful needles like Cryptomeria and Chamaecyparis in pots by the house. Vertical accents come from
broad leaf evergreens like boxwood ‘Graham Blandy’ and the narrow holly ‘Sky
Pencil.’
More leafy evergreens
include cherry laurel, a Japanese Mahonia, fragrant Sarcococca and Aucuba japonica. There are some surprises, as well, such as
Epimedium varieties. Aside from the foliage of
winter, special and unusual color comes from twiggy dogwoods, especially one
that grows in Marco’s garden and at Wave Hill. It is the amazing shrub dogwood Cornus
sanguinea ‘Winter Fire’ (above), with
flaming branches in shades of peach, apricot, and burnt orange.
Hear about more wonderful
plants that shine at the quietest time of year to add to your list of plants to
consider acquiring for next year’s garden in winter.
Click on the small black arrow at the left on the bar below to start
listening, or click on the MP3 link to download the show into Windows
Media Player or iTunes: