Upcoming Class and Lectures

Sharee will expand her venues internationally September 18, for “Ten Gardens and a Flower Show” at the Algarve Garden Club, Portugal. After spending three days in members’ gardens, Portugal will be added to her growing list of international design inspiration talks. November 14, she takes Temple-Ambler Arboretum to the opposite side of the globe with a favorite topic “Japanese Garden Design (Stroll Gardens of the Edo Period 1600-1868).

In winter, she will be teaching a session at Morris Arboretum, Tuesday, December 4, “Perennial and Shrub Maintenance for Professionals,” good for 2 ISA CEU’s. She will share some picks that are really different at Delaware Valley University, January 3, 2019, SE PA Green Industry Conference, “New Perennials for 2019.”

This Stokesia in the garden at Penn State’s Landisville trial beds (https://agsci.psu.edu/research/ag-experiment-station/landisville/research/trial-gardens) was looking great to the monarchs and visitors alike.

2018 New Perennials with a Difference

Penn State’s Greenhouse Growers Day, January 18, 7:30-3:00, I will be closing this wonderful day of diverse speakers from Judy Sharpton to Sinclair Adam with a speedy review of new perennials for 2018 from my perspective as a designer/client. Registration is available at the door. 2018 Greenhouse Growers Brochure

My Lecture 2017-18 Schedule

Plenty of space for more. More topics are in my website or send me a note and tell me what you need!

October 16, 2017, Monday, 8:00 pm
Silver Springs Garden Club
Brookside Gardens, Wheaton, MD

From Front Yard to Rock Garden: Step by Step
What happens when you have to take your shade garden into full sun and wish it was easier to maintain? Make it into a rock garden. That is what I did and I’ll show you every step along the way. I have practical advice for the beginner along with some planting failures and successes for the more experienced gardeners. There are plenty of new and unusual plants to enjoy as I show you how my urban rock garden evolves over seasons and years.
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November 7, 2017, Tuesday, 2:00 pm
University of Delaware, Osher Institute
Wilmington, DE

Taiwan: Design Inspiration
PR Listing: “Nov. 7-Sharee Solow, PCH, ASLA, Owner Solow Horticultural Designs-Taiwan: Design Inspiration-An easy place to visit that you might not think of is the subtropical island of Taiwan. Join me as I go shopping for Scholar Rocks, tour the marble-walled Taroko Gorge, muse over the Daan Park reflexology path, and walk around the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. This immersive visual trip will be interesting for garden designers, gardeners, and anyone interested in a photography trip from the big city of Taipei to the honey-combed rocks of Yehliu Geopark through the eyes of a landscape designer.”
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November 27, 2017, Tuesday, 6:00 pm
Women’s National Farm and Garden Association
Temple University, Ambler, PA

Let’s Look at the New Perennials for 2018
Every year I see dozens of new perennials listed in catalogues and I also see some in person at MANTS. All of them aren’t winners, some look just like what we already have, and only time in the ground will tell us how good they will be in our region. I’ll pull out the ones that look the best and tell you what is supposed to set these apart from the crowd.
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December 2017, 11:00 luncheon
DelVal Rock Garden Society
Overbrook Golf Club, Radnor, PA

Italy: The Rest of the Story
Sharee Solow and Charles Cresson
Along with the Scott Associates Tuscany garden tour, they extended their stay by another 14 days, absorbing Italian culture and several gardens along the way. Come hear about their adventures in Venice, Sorrento, Amalfi, and all around Rome.
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January 4, 2018, Thursday, all day
Southeast PA Green Industry Conference
Delaware Valley University, Doylestown, PA

Let’s Look at the New Perennials for 2018
Every year I see dozens of new perennials listed in catalogues and I also see some in person at MANTS. All of them aren’t winners, some look just like what we already have, and only time in the ground will tell us how good they will be in our region. I’ll pull out the ones that look the best and tell you what is supposed to set these apart from the crowd.
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January 25, 2018

Berks County Hort Club
Berks County Penn State Ag. Center

From Front Yard to Rock Garden: Step by Step
What happens when you have to take your shade garden into full sun and wish it was easier to maintain? Make it into a rock garden. That is what I did and I’ll show you every step along the way. I have practical advice for the beginner along with some planting failures and successes for the more experienced gardeners. There are plenty of new and unusual plants to enjoy as I show you how my urban rock garden evolves over seasons and years.
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February 7, 2018
Northern Nurseries
Clinton, New Jersey

Oh Deer, Now What?
Did you look out your window and see someone looking back at you? You may have Odocoileus virginianus. You know, deer! A 150 pound, hosta-eating beast on four legs. They organize mobile feasts with their friends and relatives the day after you go plant shopping so try let’s review how to keep landscapes from looking like grocery stores.
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February 19, 2018
Berks County Hort Club
Berks County Penn State Ag. Center
Lawn Out, Garden In
I didn’t want to mow lawn and I bet I’m not alone. I give you permission to remove all your grass and off we go!
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February 23-24, 2018
Connecticut Flower and Garden Show
Hartford, CT

Stairway to Paradise: Inspired Path Design
Whether you are going up, around, through, into, out-of, across, under, or over outdoor spaces, the road taken can be either unique or mundane. How does the way you move through a garden influence your experience? Give your creativity a boost during this session of design inspiration as we fly around the world considering how we get from one place to another and why the path is so important.
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March 17, 2018
March Into Spring, Mid-Atlantic Hardy Plant Society
Delaware County Community College

Stairway to Paradise: Inspired Path Design
Whether you are going up, around, through, into, out-of, across, under, or over outdoor spaces, the road taken can be either unique or mundane. How does the way you move through a garden influence your experience? Give your creativity a boost during this session of design inspiration as we fly around the world considering how we get from one place to another and why the path is so important.
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April 13, 2018
Lancaster Master Gardeners Symposium, 8:30 am Keynote Speaker
Lancaster, PA

Stairway to Paradise: Inspired Path Design
Whether you are going up, around, through, into, out-of, across, under, or over outdoor spaces, the road taken can be either unique or mundane. How does the way you move through a garden influence your experience? Give your creativity a boost during this session of design inspiration as we fly around the world considering how we get from one place to another and why the path is so important.

The Rose of Saffron

The Rose of Saffron: The World’s Most Expensive Spice

by Sharee Solow

Some spices cut like a knife, but sultry saffron envelopes classic ingredients with an alluring color and scent that can be difficult to describe. Use a blindfold on your keenest gourmand and see if they can identify the taste and aroma of this ancient culinary additive! To this day, the Castilla La Mancha region of Spain, with a unique combination of soil and climate, celebrates a thriving tradition of cultivating the “rose of saffron.” With a little background information, you can savor and grow this revered spice of legendary heroes and gods. Easier to grow than vegetables, anyone with a sunny window or garden spot can have enough of this ancient luxury for cooking those golden fall dishes or perfuming a cup of tea. Sometimes called “red gold,” it shouldn’t be confused with often suggested substitutes like paprika or turmeric, there is no substitute for the real thing.

To see the entire magazine article in the most recent issue of Mediterranean Gardening and Outdoor Living, click the .pdf in my website under the tab “In the News”. Don’t worry, all four pages are in English.

“Paprika – The Red Gold of Kalocsa”

My latest magazine article in Mediterranean Gardening & Outdoor Living

Being half Hungarian, Paprika is a spice I use more often than most other people I know. But what is in those tins and where does it come from? The search turned out to be a fascinating mix of culinary, botanic, and cultural history so let me give you a little taste (pun intended) of what I found out! Although I’ve eaten my share of stuffed peppers, the dish I cook most often, that most speaks to me as a symbol of paprika fare, is Chicken Paprikash. I’m in good company because this happened to be the favorite dish of the lovely Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and Empress of Austria (wife of Franz Josef I) whose photo is below. Earlier, it was added to the menu for the House of Lords in 1844, which established it as the spice that is iconic to Hungarian cuisine today. Decades later, in 1879, Escoffier himself took paprika from Szeged to Monte Carlo for introducing the French to Guylas Hongrois and Pouletau Paprika (Hungarian Goulash, Chicken Paprikash).

That is just a glimpse but you can read the entire article from the October 2014 issue of Mediterranean Gardening & Outdoor Living by going to the tab “In the News” in my website. http://www.solowhorticulturaldesigns.com/news/

Astilbe Angst Averted

The Master Gardeners who host the Springfest Flower and Garden Show in New Jersey have a lovely program with short garden articles. I was so pleased to find mine included.

Sharing Memories

The Master Gardeners who host the Springfest Flower and Garden Show in New Jersey have a lovely program with short garden articles. I was so pleased to find mine included.

Saracennia

They can look so exotic and foreign that I think many shoppers might think they would be impossible to have in the garden. Although they do have some specific growing requirements (consistent moisture, sun) these cool plants aren’t so different from other plants, except, they eat bugs!! I have them at my front door where everyone walking by asks about the strange spring flowers and the bracts continue to look good after the petals fall. By then, the leaves are pushing up with a crazy diversity of colors and forms. They come tall, short, red, yellow, white, fat, skinny and each phase of growth is equally fabulous. A funny thing happened when I first put the plants in the ground. As soon as the empty pots were cleared away a bee flew right down one of the tube-shaped leaves. I happened to have my camera to catch it for my DIY talk on what else: building a raised bog planter at your front door! Since Saracennias never get fertilizer and rain fills the reservoir under the soil line, I consider it a very low maintenance planter. It’s quite pleasant to occasionally sit  on the stone edge and clean it of fallen leaves or spent flowers. The plants look cool and the flowers are unbelievable. What more could you want?

Need Something New? How about a Variegated Hydrangea?

Hydrangea ‘Lemon Wave’

 

Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Lemon Wave’

When you have a chartreuse garden, you tend to look for matching plants. This broken stick in a pot was in the year-end discount area of a nursery with a tag showing a yellow variegated hydrangea so I thought, perfect! My friends said that it wouldn’t bloom and would revert. Neither of those things has happened, in fact, it has been fully fabulously variegated with bright yellow to cream splashes every year and sets pale lilac trusses of flowers.