By the magic of google adwords, I discovered a new supplier who will be getting a bit of my business.  One Stop Poppy Shoppe has come into my life at a rather serendipitous moment.  Not one to grow flowers and  things (other than vegetables) from seed, I nonetheless experimented with a few things this summer to great success.  Sometime in late June I installed a new bed in my own garden and given that I planted lots of small shrubs (I can be patient for them to become big  for the sake of saving a buck), I have lots of open area where one day shrubs will fill.  So taking advantage of the extra room that will not always be there, I decided to throw in some seeds for plants that I love, have a hard time finding, but have never grown.  The two things I experimented with were Castor Beans (Ricinus communis) and California Poppies.   With a 100% success rate — even with a late planting, I currently have a new flush of orange flowers and the huge beautiful leaves of the Castor Bean are inspiring me for next years container plantings.

So with my growing confidence in growing poppies from seed (in usable quantities for design work), I am urged on to try greater and more interesting varieties.  Poppies are among my favorite flowers and while sadly they kinda suck as cut flowers, there is nothing better than a midsummer field full of poppies and white daisies.

When google somehow took a guess at thinking I might be interested in the One Stop Poppy Shoppe, they found a good match.  With over 50 varieties of annual and Perennial Poppy seeds available, I have added this Wisconsin supplier to my short list for seeds.

When I was in England, there was a big trend for blue poppies.  They were quite the fashion about 6-7 years ago in the UK (perhaps they still are?) – It is a trend that has not quite caught on in the same way here and I wonder if it is yet to come.  I am still quite obsessed with blue and white and I think I will try all the blue varieties that are on offer  (Meconopsis Lingholm, Meconopsis  horridula prattii, Meconopsis Betonicifolia)  as well as the pretty white woodland varieties.  Have you tried to grow blue poppies and do you have any advice to pass along?

Growing Furniture is not a new concept, though I find this one particularly interesting.  I read about it on dornob, and it is a bit short on actual DIY details, but I think that it would be fairly easy to re-construct Michel Bussien’s Growing Chair design with some perspex or Plexiglas.  And when the chair is finished growing, the frame can be kept or removed….though I kind of like the idea of keeping it. What do you think?

All of these living furniture ideas (of which I have seen many over the years)  I think need to be created with the idea that they are more about a message and design challenge or artistic endeavor than truly usable and practical furniture.   Michel Bussien has his own Nature Manifesto that accompanies the idea behind this chair.

Having evolved from nature, we have gradually differentiated ourselves from it. Modern society has come to build itself on the perception that nature and man are separated. This differentiation has come to inhibit us and our way of creating. We have now reached the point when the way forward is going back.

We have to accept that we and everything we create are part of nature.
This mindset is essential for evolution as a whole. When applying this to our way of thinking we will liberate ourselves from stagnated conventions.

To move further we need to incorporate the living matter that surrounds us. Let us use the complexity of living nature and include it in our creations. These creations will then redefine the way we reconstruct nature. Only then will we truly move forward.

It is time for man and nature to reunite.

- Michel Bussien

Read more: Michel Bussien’s Growing Chair is Deep-Seated in Nature | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World

Once again I am enjoying sharing with you the mastery of rees roberts and partners.  This is Boxwood farm and it boggles my mind.  There are so many plants here and we all know, great boxwoods are not cheap plants.  The investment in plants remarkable and exciting in that is relies so heavily in one thing and making it extraordinary.

It is wedding season and for the first time in many years I have been involved in a couple of these events. I think it is a cyclical life thing. When you are younger you spend a lot of time and money on weddings, then you move into babies and now I am finding that I am attending more and more second time around nuptials. Earlier this summer I witnessed a little bit of first time wedding magic and coming up at the end of the summer will be part of my sister’s serendipitous second time around. So I have had weddings on my mind a lot lately. Pulling together a plant inspiration board for the color ‘blush’, I didn’t aim for typical wedding blooms; in fact only a few could be bouquet choices. All however, give that beautiful blushing bride color.

Rosa Mme. Berkeley,  Hydrangea paniculata,   Miscanthus sinensis ‘Huron Blush’, Cotton (which I have never grown but read recently that it is worth planting just for these delicate rumpling blush petals), Hellebore ‘Ivory Prince’ , Coreopsis Autumn Blush, Water Lily.

I never feel like I have many great little gems tucked away in my neck of the woods. But I think I might suffer from a ‘grass is greener’ sort of mentality, because when I sit down to really think about it….there are some very interesting places around here and Bonsai West is one of them.

Not only is it a one stop *huge* shop for all things Bonsai – but the gardens that await when you pass through to relatively uninspiring front are really extraordinary. It is easily an acre or more of Bonsai of all sorts, available for purchase, and interestingly and artistically placed all though the shop’s gardens.

For the bonsai enthusiast it is a must see place but even for the casual gardener it is worth a stop for a little mini tree inspiration. It really is more than a garden shop, it is an art gallery the likes of which rival any bonsai special exhibit I have ever seen.

Bonsai West is located in Littleton, MA.

I am really enjoying the Stepables website.  It it super helpful for picking the right plant for the right place.  I have a couple of projects where I am trying to resolve the best solution for a step-able material.   One is a grass replacement project for a labyrinth and other is my own patio — to use between cobblestone pavers.   I am leaning towards a couple options that I think will be great for both sites. One is Thymus praecox Albiflorus “White Creeping Thyme” and the other is Silene acaulis “Moss Campion”.  Have you ever planted either of these for a walk-on feature ? I would love to hear how they performed.

At the Stepables site, you can choose traffic level, exposure, soil type, zone, color and growth rate among other things.  It leads you directly to a list of plants that will suit your needs.  There are plants for lawn replacement, crevice filling, mulch replacement, pool, kid or pet areas and every other special need you might have.

It is a very handy garden design tool.