Saturday, November 30, 2013




DIRTIER ....The Newsletter
Volume 52  Thanksgiving 2013
Dianne B
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Aaaaaah...
The variety
Oh the shapes
Oooh the smells

I had every intention of getting this to you while bulb planting was at its frenzied peak, but been too busy doing just that as well as Speaking Shakespeare in my much-loved class, seeing extraordinary Shakespeare in NY, feeding the ducks and millions of other things.

So, it’s a little after-the-fact to tell you this new-found tidbit:


WHEN  THE  CRICKETS  CEASE  TO  CHIRP
It’s time to plant tulips!!! Or so they say...
And it proved to be true too

Look at the little green shoots saying
Plant Me Now
Plant Me Now

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Another clue is when the sweet doggies lie in the sun instead of under a tree and, of course, falling leaves is another sure sign.


But for most of us in the Northeast, bulb planting is out of the question once the wind begins to howl and the degrees dip down
to below 30....like right now.
What am I going to do with the few hundred bulbs just arrived? (couldn’t stop myself with 40% off from van Engelen...
and shady lane border desperately needed tulips
and you know,
who can resist a really good deal?)

Well, I am going to wait for those inevitable few nice days, whenever they may be, and take the advice of smart Jack Larsen... who says it’s never too late to plant bulbs

JLL

     
In the meantime......here are a few ravishing images from the last few weeks before Thanksgiving
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The always surprising luminosity and stamina of Monkshood,
Deadly Nightshade that it is,
and the closest I’ll ever get to the elusive delphinium look.



totally white leaf on the Cornus controversa
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The Japanese Rice Paper Plant (Tetrapanax) pushes out
seductive new growth to the very last minute
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Living next door to the 26 acre East Hampton
Nature Trail has its distinct advantages
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AND this is THE HAMPTONS most famous feature
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That extraordinary pink evening sky ...

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Our street (and our leaves)


Oh yes, and on November 12th we had our first dusting of snow...always magical, but not often combined with the
gorgeous range of autumn color
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SO SICK OF THIS

Following is a quote from a recent issue of the
New York Observer describing Carine Roitfeld,
once Vogue
 Paris editor and now one of the Fashion's Big Things


“Sultry.  Decadent.  Dusky.  Unapproachable.
  Not the sort of
person who would wear denim,
even to do gardening.  Not that she would garden.”

What kind of talk is that?


As if gardening is so bad?
The concept here  just despicable:  who is to say that
gardeners are not fashionable.

How dare they?


I, for one, consider myself quite glamorous ....
Here I am last week at a Venezuelan Cultural Gala
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at Lincoln Center accepting an award on behalf of Robert Wilson.
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While Bob himself was very busy being toasted by tout Paris with his image plastered stories high on The Louvre
(look at the people walking
beneath for a nice sense of scale)
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                                   Laurie Lambrecht Photo

There is a fabulous show right now at
The Brooklyn Museum, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier.
In this show there is a big wall placard
describing a little bit of my (very fashionable) career...

CindySherman

translation:
In the New York of the 1980's, Dianne Benson was the first to carry such cutting edge fashion names as Issey Miyake, Comme des Garcons and Jean Paul Gaultier.  In 1983 she commissioned the artist Cindy Sherman to produce a series of photographs using designs sold at Dianne B. boutiques for an ad campaign that ran in Andy Warhol's Interview magazine...
You see, dear gardening friends, when fashion
is in your blood it shows up in everything you do.
That is why my book is called
DIRT, The Lowdown on Growing a Garden with Style.


And don't miss the Gaultier show.
This is its sixth stop on a museum tour that has spanned
America and Europe...
The mannequins walk and talk...among other delights.

It is there through February.

WHAT  CAN  I  SAY...how beautiful is November

The falling leaves accentuate the shapes
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The yellowing maple monumentale against that super blue sky
is just too much, isn’t it?

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the last flowers and changing colors of
Hydrangea arborescens radiata
(this species confirmed by Ken Druse, no less).
Note that the underside of the leaf remains white.


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SIX different colorways on ONE LIMB

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 brilliant gold of that super Sumac, Rhus typhina ‘Tigers Eye'

A  more distant view of it
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And the startling red of the dwarf Japanese maple ‘Shaina’, I think
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EVERYBODY LOVES SHAKESPEARE...

Maybe you just don’t realize it until you see it really well-done.

Don’t miss the fabulous Old Globe production of Twelfth Night.
It is deserved of every dazzling word in every remarkable review.

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The extraordinary actor Mark Rylance as Olivia.

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Lys loved it and laughed through every scene...and she didn’t even particularly want to see it.

Then...when you’ve had the best (of the best) of comedy...

Go to see Macbeth at Lincoln Center.  It is a full-blown electrifying production in which my great friend John Glover
plays a (the) Witch.
Ethan Hawke is Macbeth, but John is the star.
(They even said that in the New York Times)

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John in the middle...


And you might remember that last winter I was a witch in the
Roundtable Production of Macbeth
(therein the extra special spark
when John told me about  Lincoln Center ).

EHWitches

WitchesImage

Both of the Broadway productions are running through January,
but if you shouldn't get to NY or can’t get tickets...
and, actually,  even if you can...

COME  see  US 
next Wednesday night, December 4th
The beautiful theater at Guild Hall, East Hampton
7PM

Roundtable Speaking Shakespeare Scene Night.
And unlike Broadway --- it's Free.

I am particularly excited because I get to play Gertrude
to Tristan Vaughan’s Hamlet in the legendary
‘Good night, Mother’ scene.
That Tristan is the perfect age, a professional, handsome and
our teacher -- makes it that much better.

DianneabdTristanb


You are all invited...

GIFT  TIME
For the gardeners in your life, forget
that dismal-sounding Black Friday
The solution for every gardener on your Christmas list
is right here:

MAKE THEM HAPPY

sale 2

Making this great deal is my present to you.

The tool belt
The clippers
The leather gauntlet
For Only $99

You know, these three greats
can only be had
at diannebbest.com

All this and chic wrapping too

WrappedGiftsImage







HAPPY + BOUNTIFUL
THANKSGIVING WEEKEND
TO ALL


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One last look at the great chimera of color
of the (big) Japanese maple,
Acer japonica
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What could be more fashionable?

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Don’t forget to do your Christmas shopping at Dianne B...there’s never been such a good deal




Monday, October 28, 2013

DIRTIER ....The Newsletter
Volume 51   Late  October, 2013
Dianne B
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Really distinct colorings happen most vividly in Fall,
and this autumn has been a gala of perfect 60 and 70 degree temperatures, gaudily colored skies and gorgeous day
following gorgeous day.

Autumn hues are not only about the usual burnished bronzes
and red and golds...
the blue-green and whites, perhaps my favorites,
are really in their stride.

There is variegated and then, there is the really heightened .
This is the almost-wholly-white leaf of
Cornus controversa, an exceedingly graceful dogwood which grows
in wedding-cake like tiers.
(Yes, the one at Rosemary Verey's Barnsley House)

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While, this is the coloring of its very close cousin
Cornus kousa ‘Wolf Eyes’.
It is somewhat less white
and the leaves
more wavy.

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And this is how this kind of coloring serves as a perfect backdrop
for other sensations,
like the flowerhead of Angelica gigas.

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Calla lily ‘Picasso’ at its peak

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Blue-variegated-white plants make me swoon,
and  though there aren’t so very many of them outside of the Hosta world (and you know, I am not crazy about Hosta),
this Euphorbia ‘Blue Glacier’ gets more distinguished each week

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The painted ferns are whitening

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Contrasts are more distinct

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And the blacks just keep getting blacker

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How can I mention Rosemary Verey, or think about Barnsley House
without paying my due respects to

BOB  DASH

RDashPhotoJonathanBecker
                                                         Jonathan Becker Photo 

She was one of his best friends and his succession of beloved Norwich terriers
were always named Barnsley.
 
We all knew that when he  stopped drinking those Bloody Marys,
it was a bad sign; and as his FABULOUS words appeared less and less frequently in the East Hampton Star --- I grew alarmed, and melancholy,  along with his many friends.
The only existential garden
writer I've ever known.

But for me --- his totally unique personality and talents were such
a part of what drew me to the Hamptons, and to gardening, that I
can hardly believe he is gone and wonder how I might have
appreciated him even more.

I first visited Madoo around 1990 when my early garden passion
was in full throttle.
Except for my big, very big, tawny Briard, I was alone when Bob Dash
appeared in full muster and bellowed ---
"no dogs allowed" ; but then he saw my enthusiasm
and re-regarded
Gorgeous (named so because she was) and became a
puppy dog himself.

A wonderful eccentric --- keen for everything and so so smart.

I will really miss him.


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But his legacy, Madoo, is a wonderful Sagaponack garden
with a strong following and will keep him alive
for us all.
WORTH  THE  WAIT

I know I have been taunting you with a NEW
The Best @ Dianne B. entry ---
a Gardening Glove quite unlike any other;
but it takes a long time to get things right.
And since I have the strictest criteria
about what constitutes the
TWELVE  BEST...
I knew this had to be
just right.

So, finally here it is:

READ MORE ABOUT THEM AND BUY

 The Garden Gauntlet Glove 

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Just in time for the rigors of Fall gardening.
I have been thoroughly trying them out while pruning thorny
things like Aralia, dividing stubborn Trillium and old Hellebores,
and digging up the most precious Colocasias and Callas with
 big and burly tubers and roots.

Well, the gloves have behaved splendidly for me
and now
you
can have them too.

GARDENGAUNTLET02

And because they will make The Perfect Gift for all the
gardeners in your life....
order right now for ever-memorable Christmas presents.
Well, all of the female gardeners that is (I'm sorry I had to leave guys with bigger hands out on this first go round, but it was enough just to get three sizes ).
I have discovered, though, that
Women’s size L is equivalent to Men's size S.

So, in stock (though I don't have too too many)
and ready for you

$45

S- M-L

GARDEN GAUNTLET GLOVE by Dianne B.


 
GARDEN SECRET REVEALED

This is a good trick, and though tricks are not
my usual bailiwick,
 I got away with this one for 2 or 3 months...
Not one person questioned:
Why is there only one?
Does it winter over?
or even
Where did you get it?

This big white Calla lily was so perfect
that all people did was Oooh and Aaaah

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  Fake Calla flower...real Calla leaves
Ha Ha Ha
Notice I even put a ‘plant ring’ around it, as if it might fall over from its heavy beauty. The stem, of course,  couldn't be stronger. 
The living breathing Calla aethiopica plant refused to flower
and I decided to help
Mother Nature along.

I think it was a good, and good-natured, trick.

Notice, too,  that beautiful variegated Callicarpa (beautyberry) behind it...I think it is C. dichotoma ‘Duet’ from Heronswood...
it’s white berries are tiny, but abundant.


COULDN'T RESIST

I never stop on the street to take phone photos of store windows,
never,
but there was something about this Hermes library window
that called to me

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If that gold-dusted figure with the bow and arrow looks familiar,
it’s because it’s a classic one of my namesake,
Diana, the Huntress...


and also, there is a bigger version of the very same at LongHouse

 

UPSIDE DOWN

I love all the upside downiness of certain flowers...
I love their gravity-defying insistence
I love the way they always seem as if they’re about to fly away..
Like meteors...like Shooting stars

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And especially, this one.  Right now it has just waned,
but for the last 6 weeks it has been blooming its head off ---
all from one tuber. (Brent & Becky)
Lilium Glorioso rothschildiana -
the name is rather deific, isn't it?

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And that heart-shaped bud just before it opens is  to die...

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Growing it up through this tiger’s eye pine was not a bad move either
The Tiger’s Eye is another of the fabulous species that revel in    intense variegation as autumn sinks in

Other upside-downers:


Cyclamen
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Some Columbines (Aquilegia)

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Shooting stars (Dodecatheon meadia)

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Even this giant size sunflower on the wane...

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MORE ABOUT CYCLAMEN

15 unabashedly cute upside down Cyclamen flowers in one day..
well – that’s almost a drift if not a meadow.
FIFTEEN

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And it is Cylclamen hederifolium, the one I least expected to prosper, and not Cyclamen coum, which they say is "easier".
  Hederifolium is the  more interesting one with the jagged and highly variegated leaf.

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Hooray for it and Edelweiss Perennials.

When I went on my cyclamen tear last year, I ordered some
C. purpurescens too,
but nothing much seems to have come of that

 

DIANNE'S Dos and Don'ts


DON’T give up on Colchicum. More or less –  I have just ignored the several already planted because the flowers flop over the day after they open and generally look like a mess.
BUT – this year, you see, I decided to try cutting some -
to my surprise because the petals are fragile-looking, they lasted for days and days in a vase

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So now I have a new found appreciation.  The last one to bloom was this perky one with a brilliant pink middle stripe

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DO be inquisitive.
Can anyone identify this charming creature?

Image 10


DO trust the dark.  Arisaema ‘Black Mambo’ has never
been grander (see her dwarfing Magnolia)...or more productive.  Perhaps it looks light in this image, but it is really dark under that Sargent’s hemlock

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DO always be on the lookout for surprises...this Arum pictum fromOdyssey was completely off my radar
when it suddenly appeared last week.

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DO look closely

Image 3

At first glance, you would think this is a staunch tree trunk
with pretty variegated foliage, but if you really look you
will see that it is a mighty old leafy vine that has wound its way around the big old tree trunk.
It sits near the picturesque pond-front home of
Bryan Hunt and Lucy Winton and they don’t know what it is...
not the tree or the vine... but it sure is nice ...

and
DON’T jump to conclusions.
4 or 5 years ago, Jack Larsen gave me a willow tree and though put in a good spot, befitting the giver and its source (the great annual plant sale at Wave Hill), I just wasn’t that crazy about it..didn't get it.  Suddenly, finally, this autumn the branch tips have burst into these charming white catkins and now I get it.  Salix Bockii

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Speaking of Jack, he hosted a glorious
LongHouse Horitcultural Award weekend last month.
Wish you could have all joined.
  The Saturday events began at, of all the wonderful places to choose from in East Hampton, the “elegant St. Luke's Church Hoie Hall."
This is a quote from Martha.
Some of these pix, in fact, came from her blog.



MStewart04
The Church
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Me welcoming everyone
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Topiary at Great Dixter
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Plant tapestry at Great Dixter
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Fergus Garrett, our honoree and guest speaker
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The Luncheon at LongHouse
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Warrie Price of the Battery Park Conservancy
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Jack and Martha


 


“Be the first to not do what nobody has ever thought of not doing before”

Brian Eno...

He is not a garden guy, he is a music guy, but he has a good way with words.






Instead of raking and doing over-necessary tidying – this is a
GREAT TIME to divide your plants to increase your own garden
or GIVE THEM AWAY.

These are the wonderful volunteers of the
Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons.

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 They came to my garden and dug up ONE HUNDRED plants, which they will sell at the the Great May 2014 HAH Plant Fair.

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Can’t believe I gave up all those green and gold
Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’,
But it’s such a good cause.

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That’s Bettina Benson (no relation),
she master-minds the whole thing...
 
 
HOUSEPLANTS


I hate that word, but this is without question
My very favorite of the few
I take the trouble to move in and out
with the season.
It has been with me so long (at least 15 years) that I don’t  really know what it is...a Farfugium of some sort... but I don’t think
they were even called Farfugium in the 90’s
Anyway
I love it.


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Do we dare to eat a FIG!

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Can you believe...

we had a SECOND flush of edible figs!


THE ELEGANT GARDEN

Is a beautiful book. Not merely another pretty  picture book
about unattainable landscapes that can’t we relate to or afford...

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but an interesting take on garden history  as depicted through works of art and architecture...the three totally intertwined.
A great gift for the garden library connoisseur.
It taught me, for one, that there are Reitfeld houses...
thought it was only chairs.
Illuminating
By Johann Kraftner.
 
DON'T STOP TILL YOU GET ENOUGH


But I will never get enough of a precisely not-only-variegated but architecturally bicolored leaf like this

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It's that X plant
Xanothososanum
No, that's not right..

well, it's something like that





MAGNOLIA  KNOWS
 
 A good thing when she sees one

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She is looking at my ever-lasting solid stainless monogrammed shovel...
mine is engraved
DIANNE B
2004

Sometimes I remember to store it in the shed, but it
has spent many winters outside.

If you order yours now ---
It will give Farmer John plenty of time to make the
beautifully eternal steel thing – engrave it exactly to your liking –
and get it to you from Idaho
in plenty of time to put it under the tree.

To urge you to give the gift of a lifetime,

Special CHRISTMAS SHOVEL SPECIAL

From now until November 15 we can promise you
not only on time delivery,
but the great Special Christmas Price of $120 instead of $145
for this engraved heirloom exclusive
(discount appears in Shopping Cart)


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Dog’s eye view on Pet Sunday at our beautiful
St. Luke's Church on the Village Green

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We had a few birds too

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Some dressed to match their pets

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and dogs galore!  Just great

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And everyone benefits from a good blessing

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Order your Christmas present Shovels

Buy your
Garden Gauntlet Gloves

and

Start planting your bulbs

Stay Tuned

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Hope it suddenly doesn't get too too cold...
 
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