The High Line in New York City is one of the most engaging projects we've seen. Community members on Manhattan's West Side organized to convert an obsolete elevated rail line into a public park. Designed by master plantsman Piet Oudolf, the plantings are inspired by the self-seeding landscape that grew up through the rails while the line was vacant. The mix of trees, shrubs, and perennials focuses on natives and emphasizes diversity in bloom time. The plantings include an appealing palette of grasses and sedges. Cool season grasses such as Nassella, Deschampsia, and Sesleria interweave with warm season prairie grasses. Sporobolus heterolepis, one of our favorites, forms dense tufts that blend with other native perennials and burns with deep, rich fall color. Several Carex species lend fine texture to the plantings and create a soft, green backdrop for the showier flowering plants. 

 

What an outstanding public project! The High Line furnishes critical green space in a highly urbanized area while preserving elements from the past. It also demonstrates the pivotal role that grasses and sedges play in mixed and naturalistic plantings. John & Jill Hoffman were in New York this fall and were enchanted by The High Line's innovative design and plant palette. We talked recently with Patrick Cullina, Vice President of Horticulture & Park Operations for The High Line, about the latest happenings in the park. "While section 1 is currently entertaining winter visitors with waves of tawny grasses poking up through the snow and the emerging fragrant flowers of Hamamelis x intermedia and Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn,' we're excited to report that section 2 is fully under construction. When it is completed in a year or so, the park will be 19 blocks and a mile long, and the already exciting plant palette will become even more diverse. Grasses and sedges will continue to play an important role, setting the High Line's landscape in motion as they move through the park's persistent breezes." Interested parties can find the full plant list for section 1 of the park here.

 

The original line, built in the 1930s, raised dangerous rail traffic above street level for safety. It was taken out of service around 1980 and slid into disrepair over the next couple of decades. Self-seeding plants emerged through the rails and created a natural landscape. When the line was threatened with demolition, Friends of the High Line formed to save it. The City eventually became involved, and the project has come to fruition as a unique public park with a profound sense of place. The first section opened in June 2009, and Section 2 is in progress.

 

Finally, if you are interested ongoing news about The High Line, the park's blog is worth following. Great visuals and timely news give a real sense of the life of the Park.