Seasonal Border Chronicle #1
November, 2008
By Tovah Martin
A Cold Day for Planting
We’ve all gleefully planted bulbs on days when the word “picnic” would come to mind. But New York City’s reception weatherwise could only be called chilly on the mid-November day slated for the bulb planting of Piet Oudolf and Jacqueline van der Kloet’s design of The New York Botanical Garden’s Seasonal Border. Fortunately, the gripping cold in no way dampened the sense that something momentous was in the air.Sure, Piet’s face was beet-colored and Jacqueline had to hack at the frozen soil, but horticultural history was happening. Approximately 30,000 bulbs were being added as part of the newly installed American version of Piet Oudolf’s signature New Wave composition created specifically for the site. Jacqueline’s hardy bulb mixtures were being installed to waltz with the perennial plants – making spring pop, early summer sizzle, as well as adding to the autumn extravaganza.
Not only is Piet’s artistic vision momentous, but teaming his interwoven Impressionistic perennials with Jacqueline van der Kloet’s complementary bulb tapestry expands the texture while turning up the novelty a further notch. The installation has the promise and potential to seed this country’s creative types with infinite inspiration. So the show had to go on. Anyway, the anemones had been pre-soaked, the colchicum bulbs couldn’t wait a day longer, and the mixtures were poised for planting. The only solution was to keep moving.
And move we did, because there was 2,356 square feet to plant. Energetic digging in was the only way to go, faced with a long, straight border that is 10 feet wide and 184 feet long running across the walkway from a shorter, complementary 6 foot wide and 86 foot long expanse just begging for bulbs. Bulbs were part of the picture in the past. But for the first time, the bulbs weren’t going to go on stage alone. Formerly, when tulips and various other spring bulbs were a facet of the ever-changing Seasonal Walk at the NYBG, they were planted in the tried-and-true 
Victorian ribbon border method, featuring masses of each cultivar and color. Traditionally, they were whisked off stage immediately upon fading, and the venue was changed annually. Because the scene was forever in flux, the NYBG recently began welcoming famed guest talent to compose its plan. Now, two superstars are in collaboration. And it’s only the second time that New York City has witnessed Piet Oudolf’s dappled blocks of perennials and ornamental grasses performing on the same stage with Jacqueline van der Kloet’s confetti-style bulb plantings.