Aralia elata 'Silver Umbrella' at Brookside Gardens

Walked about awhile today at Brookside Gardens. It rained a bit but not too much. Their bananas are hail shredded like mine. Their's in a storm a couple weeks later than ours. Most of the bananas we saw had two undamaged leaves while ours have three or four. I heard about that storm but we had only heavy rain.

This aralia is a beautiful plant but we likely won't plant it in the Asian Collections. The seeds are produced in numbers and disbursed generously by birds. It's a great plant though. This one is part of the recent redesign of the area surrounding the Conservatory. The plantings have been in a few years now and are coming into their own. We were only there an hour or so but I didn't see a great deal of damage from hurricane Irene.

Sustainable horticulture: three of Brad's sustainable containers

I like them all but the top pot with the large Leptospermum polygalifolium 'Copper Glow', the golden Crinum, and the lantana is a wonderful mix of textures and colors plus the lantana flowers non-stop attracting butterflies and other interesting pollinators. The large Euphorbia cotinifolia in the middle pot makes quite a statement, again with lantana and an assortment of curiosities. The dominant plant in the bottom container is Euphorbia tirucallii 'Firesticks'. Crinum 'Sangria' is flowering. All of these containers were composed with exlusively xeric plants so that they don't require watering more than once or twice a week even in the height of summer.

I have heard talk here and there that we, as an Institution, may take a position where we will actively advocate for sustainable horticulture. That would be a great thing and I hope it comes to pass. It is clear that as things tighten up monetarily it will become more important to make choices that minimize the requirements for regular inputs of water, fertilizer, pesticide, fungicide, pruning, or even regular replacement. If we can create good landscapes, good gardens, even good containers with fewer demands we'll be better off. That's only common sense and many of us in the horticultural community have been headed in this direction for years. It probably is time to broadcast the idea to the outside world.