Creating the public prairie

The summer conference season was as tightly packed as ever this year and it’s getting tougher and tougher to choose which events to invest in and attend. There are always some heavy hitters such as Cultivate and IGC Show; but tucked between many of the bigtime industry shows, you’ll find some real gems worth attending.

The Perennial Plant Symposium in Baltimore this year was one such event. As the Southern Regional Director for the organization, perhaps I may be a bit biased. Yet, I consistently find it to be one of the most fruitful conferences to attend. The PPA Symposium travels to different destinations each year in order to offer its attendees a unique perspective on design styles, plant palettes and local resources. While there was some initial hand-wringing by potential attendees about the location of the event, Baltimore proved to be a lovely, charming and unique destination and attendance at the event was up from last year.
 

Keeping it natural

One topic that seemed to be thinly represented at some of the larger industry shows this year was perennials. If you’re a perennial grower, garden center retailer or landscape designer, you may have found it tough to locate programs that were plant-centric enough to fit your perennial plant needs. The PPA Symposium balanced a solid lecture schedule with several tours designed to fit each discipline’s needs.

There was a definite focus on sustainability issues at this year’s symposium. Talk of integrating natural plantings in public spaces combined with water-saving and management design strategies was a prevalent theme. Basically, today’s landscape trends are all about creating the new public prairie.

Cassian Schmidt, of Hermannshof Gardens in Wheinheim, Germany, was a highlight at the event. He spoke on the “New German Style” and how his landscape installations are being transformed by his fascination with many North American perennial prairie plants. With a focus on sustainability and low-maintenance strategies, German plantings are aiming to match habitats with plants. The result brings a soft, natural and informal feel to the landscape.

As someone who grew up in Germany in the 80s, I can say Schmidt’s installations are quite the departure from the type of gardening and landscapes I remember. As a current resident of Texas, most of what Schmidt presented in his landscape trials and installations looks like what “Texas Style” has always been in the garden. Informal, native, habitat forming and water-wise. Quite the interesting dynamic.

The research Schmidt presented on his experimentation with measuring maintenance inputs for these prairie style plantings was also fascinating. For the past 15 years, Schmidt has painstakingly measured person-minutes per square meter for his perennial installations, a more than excellent value to any landscape designer, public gardener, municipal manager or maintenance company.
 

Perennials in public

The symposium started out with Patrick Cullina of Patrick Cullina Horticultural Design + Consulting, who examined key roles for herbaceous perennials in transformative public spaces. You may be familiar with Cullina’s innovative work on the New York High Line. Cullina’s talk focused on the potential for perennials to take on a bigger role in public spaces and landscapes, areas traditionally dominated by woody plants and hardscape structures. He showcased some truly dynamic projects utilizing perennials as their primary component. Again, the prairie/habitat garden style dominated.

Plant breeders and growers should be paying very close attention to these landscaping and gardening trends. Landscape professionals and home gardeners want less-formal plants; they want tall plants; and they want water-wise and native or adapted habitat plants.

There were many other inspiring programs throughout the week. But a big part of what makes the annual PPA event special is the intensive tour schedule. With grower, retailer and design tour tracts, there was something for everyone. Quality Greenhouses & Perennial Farm in Dillsburg, Pa. impressed with its ultra-clean and efficient set up; American Plant, a retail garden center in Bethesda, Md., showed off some serious merchandising skills and had us shopping. And we all fell in love with the unique almost-off-the-grid private home near Washington, D.C. that featured multi-layered green spaces built into the home plus a roof-top veggie garden. It was the perfect final stop.

A special highlight of the tour schedule was the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden at the Smithsonian in downtown Washington, D.C. The garden is managed by Horticulturist and PPA Mid-Atlantic Director Janet Draper. You know it’s a cool garden when everyone on the tour has to stop to take photos of every single plant in the garden. Camera batteries were put to the test.
 

PPA symposium 2016

The PPA sponsors student scholarships to attend the symposium each year, so if you have students who would like to attend, be sure they apply for next year. The PPA would also like to ease the cost for more young professionals to attend the symposium and are looking to craft new strategies for companies willing to partner up on such an endeavor.

The 2016 annual symposium will be held starting Aug. 1 near Minneapolis, Minn. It’s a beautiful time of year in that part of the country. There looks to be some excellent events, programs and gardens coming together for the symposium. If you reside in the south, you should check into the PPA Southern Region Symposium in Dallas, Oct. 5, 2015. This regional symposium will be focused on sustainability issues directly facing hot-climate growers, landscapers and retailers.

All-in-all, if your business has a focus on perennials, or is expanding its focus on perennials, the PPA Symposium is chock full of resources, key-person contacts, fresh inspiration and new friends.