Skip to main content

Featured

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...

Frosty Mornings



I think this was the fifth morning in a row that we've had a heavy frost. The lows have been getting down around 25, much lower than the local forecasters have been predicting. 

'Dublin Bay' (above and below) has a few blooms lingering...


And so has 'Tequila Sunrise'...



It has been a dry week but rain returns tonight.

Pennisetum 'Karley Rose'


Beauty Berry (Callicarpa 'Profusion')


Coralberry (Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii 'Kolmcan' 'Candy')



Ferns

Lydia Broom (Genista lydia)


A Japanese Maple 'Bloodgood' leaf on the Hebe


Juniper 'Daub's Frosted', Barberry 'Rose Glow' and Clematis montana 'Freda'



Phlomis ‘Quilted Leaf’ (Jerusalem Sage)


Phormium 'Rainbow Queen'



Silver Lotus Clover (Hairy Canary Lotus Shrub) (Dorycnium hirsutum)


Euphorbia 'Miner's Merlot'






Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Even frozen in place, your garden contains a lot of beauty, Phillip. I love the beautyberry and coralberry shrubs. Do they hold up in repetitive frosts like those you've been dealing with?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kris, yes, they both hold onto the berries usually well into January.

      Delete

Post a Comment