White Day-After Christmas

November 04, 2025

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...

Although we did not get a white Christmas, it did snow sometime during the early morning hours and we woke up to a heavy dusting (I would say under 1"). There have been on-and-off flurries all day but the ground is clear this afternoon. Tonight we get the coldest temperatures of the year with the low predicted at 19. That is about as cold as it got all last winter so we may be in for a colder season this year.

Oddly, I have not bothered to cover any plants up yet but I may drop a cloth over a few before heading to bed tonight.