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Keep in mind, I was 13 years old when I worked my first summer full time in the business. 1988. Concrete pavers - Unilock - was the latest. I might title a further work "Coming of Age During the Rise of Concrete Pavers." Everything was new. The "business" which once was based on rakes, spades, sodcutters, and a grading tractor became intensified and muscularized - big trucks, tampers, diamond tip blades, and fork lifts. The "intensities" of being a 13,14,15...year old boy/man in this space is another story. The dominant products went in waves. There is a pre-history for me of old materials - "Unidecor," "Slope Block." Then came "Classico" which was fading out by '88 or '89. "Hollandstone" followed. This was the "wheel house" of my paver installation years. It was primarily used in two colors, "Rustic Red" and "Terra Cotta." By the mid-nineties, tumbled pavers and "Brussells Block" began a move towards an ever higher and higher technology, price, and aesthetic. Through the early 2000s, material advances were limited but there were movements towards more sophisticated patterns and textures. And now, in the past 10 years, technologies have been developed intensifying colors and finishes to where we have almost hyper-real simulations of anitque paving materials, as well as 'architectural' grade pavers maintaining pace, if not driving what is comtemporary.  Point - this morning I was thumbing through the 2014 Unilock catalog looking for design inspirations to help reduce the budget on an upcoming project. And, there it was, instantly provoking a small welling tear (I don't know why I'm so emotional lately!) - pg89, "Rustic Red Hollandstone." I'm pretty sure that will be our solution. 1988 was twenty-eight years ago. 5/9/2016 The Territory: New MaterialsA quick update on our constant work and development of the garden titled "Territoy of Collaboration" at 47 Bidwell, Buffalo, NY 14222. Not often enough I'll stop by Tina & Angelo's to answer some garden questions. There's always a beer in the refrigerator, so, a service call somehow is always much easier to schedule.  I'm not sure of the botanical nomenclature on this one but here is green leaf Heuchera. (The colored leaf varieties are so old hat) Actually. Like. I see "Green Leaved Heuchera" so infrequently, I'm not 100% confident I'm identifying this accurately. But. Here's to the authority of media ?.  Amelanchier canandensis. Serviceberry. Once thought of as under used, the Serviceberry is everywhere now. I will not plant any this year. It has some qualities, but up close the flowers...well...let's say they don't have any value as a cut flower  Making this post to be about everything I don't know...well...this is a White Tulip. Named variety? Check a catalog.  This image does the Flowering Quince no justice. For me to even suggest it catches my eye...oh!...I feel like I'm giving away a trade secret. The Quince is complicated for me emotionally. As a teenager, when I got my certification (I'm pretty sure I was the youngest Certified Nursery Person ever - being certified at 19) my dad taught the review class and said "you will know this because of its thorns which make it very difficult to tear out." And then Ferncroft gave me some branches to force this past Valentines Day... Ferncroft didn't actually give me Quince (a thorny flowering shrub) on Valentines. But. It was close to February. 5/2/2016 An Image or Two. My runs are how I map this city. And out on some intervals late Sunday morning I came across this Crabapple which I recognized as the first buds of Crab opening this season.  The emergence of Norway Maples is overlooked. I don't believe I have gone three days without a mention of the tree's blooms but now we are in the first day or two following flower as the leaves emerge. Shortly these leaves will be fully expanded, casting a dominant shadow below. By mid-July, the margins of these leaves will be a crispy brown from the drought and heat of the summer and the rest of the leaf will most likely be covered in black tar like spots - a fungal disease.  Containers are a challenge for me. My aim with flowers not being to be a great florist but to engage in a process that allows me to learn camera skills and develop plant awareness - I feel very limited by my containers. Here, I had an idea of form, structure, color, and composition for an arrangement, but I feel the containers I had did not allow idea's articulation. I believe I subverted this in some way by using two separate container and staging the material as I did for the camera. This works for me as It still presents my ideas. As a "florist," I may not be satisfied by this.  Larix laricina. American Larch. Again looking to emergence, this specimen is growing up on top of the roof at Savarino Properties' building at 95 Perry Street. A simple container garden on a rooftop, we used the Larch for its needled texture and its tolerance of deeply cold temperatures. We believed that in an unprotected container planting, on a roof, rapid temperature fluctuations would be an issue. |
Matthew DoreLandscape designer and Proprietor of Buffalo Horticulture Archives
April 2020
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