Border Patrol July 17-22 2009
of The Seasonal Walk Saga
By Tovah Martin
Everything Hopping
In fact, right now, everything is hopping. Once visitors begin the stroll, it’s just one rapture after the next. For plant people, it’s thrilling. For the rest of the world, it’s pretty darn ravishing. In the spring, the Seasonal Walk peaked when the bulbs were all dancing in unison. Now seems like the crescendo for the perennial revue. But still, there’s obviously plenty yet to come. After all, the whole point is prolonging the thrill. So, if I call the garden “Prime!” in multiple chronicles, it’s not that I’m a pushover, it’s just the honest assessment of a savvy design hitting all its bases.
Echinaceas are one of the key features drawing the masses down the wedding walk right now. With all the echinaceas on the market, the selection of cultivars chosen to parade down the wedding walk is perfection itself. But that’s not surprising, considering that all the echinaceas were Piet Oudolf’s own introductions. And, although ‘Green Jewel’ is the crowd pleaser, for a runner-up, visitors are hard-pressed to choose which they like best between ‘Virgin’ (pure white and huge-headed), ‘Vintage Wine’ (faded deep pink), and ‘Fatal Attraction’ (brighter candy pink). All have strong stems, a statuesque demeanor, and have prevailed against more precipitation and less sun than NYC has seen in decades.
