The Gardens of Mien Ruys - a book review
I don't know how I missed her, but I was totally unfamiliar with Mien Ruys. A beautiful new book The Gardens of Mien Ruys details her life and work. Born in the Netherlands in 1904, she was the daughter of Bonne Ruys, who founded Moerheim Nursery in 1888. She grew up in a liberal atmosphere and encouraged to learn and study. She found great comfort in the natural world around her and learned all the plants in her father's nursery at a young age. After leaving school at the age of 19, she knew that she wanted to work in the garden center. The Moerheim Nursery, in addition to selling plants, had an on-site design studio where they published a detailed catalog and sold landscape design plans to customers. It was in the design studio where Ruys first began to work and she was soon encouraged to venture beyond her country and study abroad. Her father's connections helped her secure a traineeship with Wallace & Sons Nursery in Tunbridge Wells in England. There, she met Gertr...
OMG, Phillip. So sorry. As a tree and shrub expert I always told my potential Bradford Pear buyers that they had a tendency to split or break in high winds. BTW, love your header photo.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to meeting you here in my new neck of the woods at Springfling Asheville in May. Just started up my new blog at http://www.sweethomeand garden carolina.blogspot.com
Hi Carolyn, this wasn't my tree. I don't have any Bradford Pears. I saw several in town that wound up like this after the storms on Friday. I will check out your blog!
ReplyDeletePhillip,
ReplyDeleteI'm no fan of them either. I'd plant an American Plum instead, the butterflies and bees love the flowers and critters like the fruit, no brainer to me.
Yup there's always some around here like that too after severe storms.
ReplyDeleteThey have mostly been blown out of our area too.
ReplyDeleteAmen. In Connecticut we lost every single Bradford pear in town when heavy wet snow hit in October. Some fell over, some imploded in a flat circle, and the few left standing had more than half their canopies broken at odd angles and cracked up in total confusion. It will be interesting to see if malls and municipalities replant the same pears!
ReplyDeleteoh Dear! Love your new header Phillip!
ReplyDeleteI never miss an opportunity to trash talk this tree.
ReplyDeleteThe Bradfords are so pretty, but about three years ago a gentleman from Auburn spoke here about them. Not only did he enumerate all that could happen to them, he mentioned financial liability. Nuff said on that one.
ReplyDeleteI love fringe trees. I need to continue with my series "bradford pears not" on my blog. Spring flowers started blooming & I got side track. Mom called me after the April tornado's at 4 in the morning and the only thing she was worried about was the big limb which fell off of hers. I told her well they do that. When the neighbor came to cut the limb up I told her to get him to cut the whole thing down as it will continue. The next storm she called & every limb had broken in a circle. I told her again well they do that. She got mad at me for my lack of sympathy. Mary
ReplyDeleteWell, this is crap, huh?! Glad its not yours. It could have at least had the manners to fully make it through its bloom season before keeling over.
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