Book Review: Parks, Plants, and People
Posted in Shop/Book Reviews on September 29 2009, by Plant Talk
The Art and Impact of Lynden B. Miller’s Public Gardens
John Suskewich is Book Manager for Shop in the Garden.
New York City, famous around the world for its great art, is the site of more masterpieces than you can shake a stick at. The Metropolitan Museum has Monet’s Terrasse a Ste.-Addresse; the modernist icon Lever House graces Park Avenue; you can ponder Louise Nevelson’s Sky Cathedral at MOMA. Here at The New York Botanical Garden there is a masterpiece of garden design, the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden designed by Lynden B. Miller. It is a work of art.
For flower power alone it is astonishing, especially during its current late-summer and fall climax of anemones, astilbes, asters, and mums; of kniphofias, hydrangeas, phlox, and lilies. But like all great gardens it combines its inspired planting with strong design. There are axes and cross axes, themed rooms, grace notes, structural elements, repeated elements, and even whimsical elements like the three banana trees that have appeared this year in the “Hot Color Room.”
It’s all a painting really, a painting made of plants (I believe Ms. Miller was indeed trained as a painter). Look closely and it dissolves into its component plants, but step back and all the parts resolve themselves into one unambiguous image: a classic but unique mixed border that would be at home in the Cotswolds if it weren’t for its very American insistence on being individualistic, eclectic, almost impromptu, and diverse, ready to encompass the whole world with its exotic elements.
In a new book that is a summation of her long career as a public garden designer, Lynden Miller spells out the ethos of this garden and of her whole body of work, without which living in New York City in the 21st century would probably be unendurable.
Parks, Plants, and People is about the importance of gardens in our lives, even about the way they can give meaning to them. It illustrates the relationships between people and the green world of nature with examples from her many projects, including the Irwin garden here at NYBG, the Conservatory Garden in Central Park, the plantings in Bryant Park. It is a long list and just try to imagine New York without any of them. You might as well move to Topeka.
Parks, Plants, and People develops a philosophy of gardens, but it is practical as well. Ms. Miller has written a how-to guide for anyone who wants to develop public gardens in their own community, with been-there, tried-that, done-that, rethought-that advice on lobbying, fund-raising, designing, and implementing.
Finally, this book is a gardener’s guide for anyone and everyone who wants their own home ground to achieve the well-maintained splendor of these gems. It has been written by a professional who can tell you all you need to know about planting, designing, pruning, dividing, and all the other fine points of garden technique, practice, and design.
