While we are fortunate that our grounds and gardens at Elm Bank suffered only minor damages - the loss of four large white pines - many parks and gardens in New York and New Jersey, particularly those along the Hudson River, did not fare well.

How can we help? I thought the most direct way would be to contact a New Yorker at the ground level, Lynden B. Miller.

As some of you may recall, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society honored Lynden in 2011 with our highest honor: The George Robert White Medal of Honor.  Lynden is a public garden designer in New York and Director of The Conservatory Garden in Central Park. She is the author of "Parks, Plants, and People, Beautifying the Urban Landscape".

As the keynote speaker at the 2011 Honorary Medals Dinner, Lynden spoke eloquently about the importance of parks in communities, and the role of horticulture in improving the quality of life. These words resonated with me as I reflected on how we could help in the wake of this storm, so I thought I should reach out to Lynden directly. This is her note back to me about the state of parks in New York, and on one park very much in need:

"It is lovely and touching of the Mass Hort to think of the parks of NYC which are in great need of help.  I thank you and all of New York will thank you for your generosity.  There are 1700 parks in New York and many have sustained damage - especially those that are situated right on the waterfront.

"Hudson River Park is a large much-loved and well-used park which runs along the Hudson River for many blocks.  They are organizing staff and volunteers to try to replace the 1000 cubic yards of mulch that floated away in the storm, leaving irrigation lines exposed and making the plants, which are already in trouble, very vulnerable with winter storms coming.  They will start this effort this Saturday and go as long as they have funds to buy the mulch.

"They also lost $10,000 worth of trees and shrubs, but I understand that they feel replacing the mulch is the highest priority for them right now."

The park is run by The Hudson River Park Trust (a  501(c)(3) organization).  Any donations to this organization will provide hands-on horticultural help to a park that was especially vulnerable because of its waterfront location. 

Contributions for this special effort should be sent to the HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUST, Attention: Madelyn Wils, President, 353 West Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014.  Note: Special rescue effort, Massachusetts Cares.

At Mass Hort, we know the horticultural community extends beyond our borders, and we hope you will join us in reaching out to friends in need. 

Kathy

By Neal Sanders

Sometimes it takes a hurricane to focus a gardener's attention.  Until Sandy's arrival became a question of 'when' rather than 'whether', I had been following a diligent schedule regarding end-of-season garden clean-up:  I emptied pots or cut down perennials only when I couldn't come up with an excuse not to do so.

Sandy pushed me into a very different and infinitely more productive gear.  The fence around our 1200-square-foot community vegetable garden plot came down in about three hours versus the full day I had previously thought it would take.  The final dozen containers were emptied of annuals, potting mix and filler in a single morning.  The hosta walk was cut down in an hour.  I was a veritable beehive of activity.

There is a word here that I have tried to avoid using, but which there is no way around.  The word is 'procrastination'.  As people who know me will attest, I am not by nature someone who puts off things.  Yet, every October, I let drag an important task that needs to be done.  Why is the closing up of the garden so different?

I suspect the reason is that, through the garden, I can cling to the notion that winter isn't really on our doorstep.  Yes, there was an overnight freeze in early October that turned unprotected annuals and vegetables to so much limp mush.  But in anticipation of that frost I began parking a number of containers into our garage on cool evenings, including one containing an enormous coleus called 'Big Red Judy'.  The sight of a four-foot-high tropical plant along the driveway brightened my day, even as the perennials around it turned yellow and brown and the maples faded from their brilliant reds and oranges to muddy yellows.

 One day before Sandy's arrival, 'Big Red Judy' went ignominiously into the compost pile.  I did not even save a clipping.  By the time the winds picked up and the first rain bands arrived Sunday morning, the garden, like Big Red Judy, was no more.

This is written on Tuesday; quite literally the 'morning after'.  From my office window I can survey the post-Sandy landscape.  The first things I notice is that a month's worth of oak leaves fell in a day and now carpet the lawn and the maples and other deciduous trees have been stripped of the last of their leaves.  But the second thing I see is that our cercis canadensis - forest pansy redbud - not only still has leaves, but has turned a majestic gold.  The ornamental plum that I routinely ignore has a riot of leaves in the red-yellow spectrum, dancing not five feet from my window.  In short, what was lost in the storm has been gained in the emergence of individual specimen plants. 

We have also regained our view of the pond at least two weeks early.  We are less than 200 feet from its shore, but two-thirds of that distance is town conservation land and, for six months of the year, trees that we are not permitted to thin obscure our view of a picturesque body of water.  From now until the end of May, we'll have a panoramic vista just outside the banks of windows on the back side of our home.

Hurricane Sandy did put an emphatic 'period' to the 2012 gardening season.  But it didn't mean the end of autumn or of our enjoyment of the season. Autumn in New England is a wonderful time of year, as well as a great state of mind.  We ought to make it linger as long as possible.

Reviewed by Patrice Todisco

Books about women gardeners and landscape designers, once very rare, have become a serious topic of scholarship in recent years.  The success of Jane Brown's 1982 study of Gertrude Jekyll, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon: The Story of a Partnership: Edward Lutyens & Gertrude Jekyll began a trend that continues today.  Now, Catherine Horwood, a social historian and keen gardener, has provided an approachable and well-written survey, Women and Their Gardens: A History from the Elizabethan Era to Today, which celebrates the collective legacy of women gardeners in Great Britain. 

Women have always gardened and gardens have always played an important role in the interior lives of women.  From "collectors of once rare plants .... to the pioneers of design whose individual genius can be traced in landed estates, city parks and suburban patios," Horwood introduces the reader to over 200 gardeners, plant collectors, artists, naturalists, educators and landscape architects whose efforts paved the way for today's generation of women. 

And what an amazing, dedicated, under-appreciated group of women they are.

The obstacles to their success were overwhelming and challenges abounded at every turn.  Horwood includes many examples of the difficulties these women endured while providing insight into the delicate balance between their professional and personal lives, which were often complicated by intrigue, drama and the occasional scandal.   

While the story of Beatrix Potter being denied review of her work on fungi by the Linnaean Society, who later honored her as a mycologist, is well known, Horwood provides other examples of just how challenging it was.  I was amazed to learn that the public reaction to the first women being employed at Kew Gardens was "as though a new species of animal were on display at the zoo" and that they were labeled "London's Kewriosities." 

Another anecdote involves Rev. William Wilkes, secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society.  When asked to recommend a female head gardener, Wilkes was unable to do so and replied that no woman gardener had the all-around knowledge and skill to direct the foremen of the departments proclaiming, "I do not believe such a person exists.  Miss Jekyll herself would not be able to take such a post - she could not direct melon growing or early grape forcing, & so on." Horwood acknowledges the tension between supervisory and manual labor and includes Wilkes' concluding sentence, which he underlined in red, "to put women to [such work] is to go back a big step in the emancipation of your sex."

The book is organized thematically and includes sections on plant collecting and exploration, shaping the landscape, the floral arts (including embroidery and collage), literature, and horticultural education.  At four hundred pages, Women and Their Gardens: A History from the Elizabethan Era to Today is a book to be savored in multiple installments. It is thoroughly researched and includes an appendix of gardens by women, list of Royal Horticultural Society Medal winners and an extensive bibliography.      

I do wish that more attention had been lavished on the book's layout and design, which is quite basic with mostly black and white illustrations.  While this would have increased the cost, for me, the expense would be justifiable. The talented women profiled by Horwood discovered and created beautiful plants, gardens, landscapes, botanical art and textiles and I wished for more compelling illustrations of their handiwork.   

Women and Their Gardens: A History from the Elizabethan Era to Today was published in the United Kingdom in 2010 as Gardening Women and made available in the United States this past spring.  

The author maintains a site, http://www.gardeningwomen.com/2012/05/women-and-their-gardens-us-edition.html, that includes information about her research as well as links to additional information about women gardeners, horticulturalists and landscape designers.

Patrice Todisco writes about parks, gardens and the public realm at www.landscapenotes.com.