If gardening, like fashion, is about aspiration as much as reality, there is no bigger delight than to see how the designers do it. Are they going Zen this year? Minimal? Artisanal? According to Raquel Penalosa, the designer of this year's Flora International outdoor garden exhibit in Montreal, it isn't about labels any more. "There was confusion before, about the Japanese, the English or the French style. It's not a style but a personal expression we see here. We're not selling kits, you can't copy them -- but you can get inspiration."
Inspiration such as that found in Janet Rosenberg's astounding silver ball screen and ancient artifacts, which seem to be quoting Shelley's poem: "My name is Ozymandias." Or Hortus Urbanis by Jasmin Corbeil and Stephane Bertrand, which encases an urban setting in the midst of what looks like a woodlot. If our imprint on the landscape is heavy, it can also be beautiful. But inspiration finds its level in our home soil, where we can all make small changes in our own gardenly way. Herewith, the top takeaway trends from the show, which continues in Montreal's Old Port until Oct. 9.
SUSTAINABLE GARDENINGIn these days when heat and water are uppermost on our minds, sustainability is a brand new aesthetic. It's a leitmotif through the whole show: the use of native plants, xeriscaping (choosing plants that are largely self-sustaining) and reusing water in ways that are inventive and attractive. It's most obvious in the Artist's Garden by Lucie Normandeau and Marlene Sanscartier, in how they connect all the elements to the reuse of materials such as rubber and reclaimed wood without losing an iota of design.
Green-roof gardening is another trend that is coming home, and Flora has a section devoted to showing you how it's done: With reinforced roofs, lightweight growing materials and hardy plants, you can create a meadow in the midst of the city. The effects are so beneficial for air quality and heat control it makes you wonder why all new buildings are not required to include a green roof.
GOING ELEMENTALFire and Water is a garden meditation on a central hearth by Peter Owen and Stephen Aikenhead. The stonework is gorgeous and the cedar structures have a Zen look, but this is definitely channelling a cabin somewhere in Northern Ontario. Its delicacy reminds me of an artist's sketch, and all the plants are perfectly in scale with the space allotted to them. Even the gorgeous waterfall behind the fire pit is something you would love to do in your own backyard (circulating the water, of course).
Nature in the raw is everywhere in the show: slabs of rock form comfortable chairs; chunks of recycled wood are used as benches.
HUMOURWe always expect dynamic work from Toronto's Janet Rosenberg and Associates (i.e. her partner, Glenn Hermann). Their installation combines humour (a screen of 190 silver-painted exercise balls) and elegance (oversized containers and a tranquil reflecting pool), two elements that show up throughout the exhibition.
Given the Old Port's backdrop of a row of gigantic crumbling grain silos, it makes you understand how incredibly important scale is to the garden. A huge upright like these old buildings demands something eye-popping, and that's what this firm has done.
VEGGIE POWERWith the movement to preserve heirloom varieties, vegetables have a new cachet. And this time, they are being integrated with the rest of the plants, a trend that is crucial to city gardens. They are used everywhere at Flora, to retain slopes, as an integral part of a landscape design, or mixed up with perennials in a very standard border.
