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...
Best wishes Phillip!
ReplyDeleteI move Vancouver on June 3. Any chance you'll be having another Open Garden later in the summer?
ReplyDeleteYes, possibly but you can contact me and we can arrange a time!
DeleteLucky visitors!
ReplyDeleteI'm only now finding out about your site - we moved from the Hazel Dell area 4 years ago to the northern Olypmic Peninsula. Very nice to see your garden on the website, I only wish we had paid better attention on one of our countless walks to Safeway, etc. How was the turn-out, this year?
ReplyDeleteSure wish I lived nearby, but glad that I have your “blog” to visit. Hope that it went well, and you had a good turnout.
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