Those of us who attended the September 2008 Garden Writers Association annual symposium in Portland were in for a big treat when we boarded the coach buses (seven or eight in all) and took a ride to Boring, Oregon, home of Iseli Nursery.

We were introduced to a world of ornamental conifers, in every shape and size. Even though Washington is called the “Evergreen State,” in the nursery trade, it seems, the folks in Oregon claim the title. 

Iseli Nursery grows all sorts of amazing woody plant specimens – trees, shrubs and more. They sent us home with a gift bag packed with five delightful little conifer specimens – perfect for a container planting, rock garden or tablescape. You can see the incredible variety in Iseli’s “Fanciful Gardens” collection depicted above (including some dwarf broadleaf evergreens in the front row). My photos, from left: A colorful “knot garden” of mostly dwarf conifers mixed with barberry, Iseli entrance; tiny, just-propagated woody cuttings of mugo pine.

The next day, I found myself sitting on yet another the bus ride/garden tour with with Sandy Dittmar, a horticulturist at Iseli. We talked about how many gardeners are only now discovering conifers, and how dwarf conifers are so versatile for smaller landscapes. She planted a seed of insight and got me thinking.

So when I saw my local Trader Joe’s stocked with miniature Leyland cypress and Lawson cypress (we’re talking 4-inch pots for $4.29 or so), I called Sandy and said: Remember when we talked about dwarf conifers? Are those Trader Joe’s mini-trees yours?

It turns out, the tiny live trees in shiny pots are supplied by BloomRite Nursery, a wholesale grower in Half Moon Bay, California. But Iseli’s tiny Alberta spruces, mugo pines, and blue-star junipers, and countless other dwarf conifers are showing up in specialty nurseries and retail florists around the country. Cute, they are. Versatile, too. And perfect for a scaled-back Christmas!

In this cost-conscious holiday season, it was a fitting “tiny tree story” for the Los Angeles Times’  Home section, page F2 (December 13th).

Here is the piece I wrote under the “Seen” heading, in its entirety:

A pint-sized forest at home

Looking for evergreen decor – something that can last long past Christmas? Turn tiny potted conifers into a miniature forest across a fireplace mantle, or create a tabletop landscape with dwarf pines. Tiny trees are “a cheap luxury,” says Lisa Tsui, a product manager at BloomRite, a wholesale grower in Half Moon Bay, Calif., that supplies potted pines and Leyland cypress to Trader Joe’s. “In this economic environment, people are using them to supplement decorations they already have,” she says.

Iseli Nursery in Boring, Ore., ships tens of thousands of dwarf conifers to garden centers during the holidays. Even though some customers treat the evergreens as throwaway décor, they can be transplanted in the garden or an outdoor container, Iseli sales manager Jock Demme says. The challenge is to keep the plants alive indoors. “The home setting has drier and warmer air than these plants require,” he says. “I suggest submerging the pot in a larger container of water and soaking the roots every day.” The trees at Trader Joe’s sell for $4.29 to $5.99 each; you’ll find variations for $9.95 at the Empty Vase in West Hollywood, (310) 278-1988, www.emptyvase.com. Also try Red Envelope, (877) 733-3683, www.redenvelope.com.

Here’s a little gallery of dwarf and miniature tree photographs, shared by Iseli and Nurserymen’s Exchange (which is the company behind BloomRite).

Last Friday, I enjoyed a wonderful “field trip” to Church Estates Vineyard in Malibu, owned by Robert Church Haggstrom. This was one of those magical behind-the-gates visits that reminds me how very fortunate I am to be a writer in this town.

I was invited by publicist Dienna D’Olimpio, with whom I’ve been corresponding for a few months. She originally contacted me to share photographs and background info about Church Estates Vineyard, its chateau and garden settings. I haven’t even tasted the wine yet (the winery’s first Chardonnay will be bottled soon and its Pinot will be ready this fall), but the beauty of the setting appealed to me immediately.

A tiny building, situated at the edge of a pond, captured my imagination. I later learned that Bob calls it his “boathouse,” and to me, it is the most beautiful, romantic boathouse I’d ever seen. Truly an elegant hideaway. (see interior, right).

Once I saw photographs of the gardens (not to mention the boathouse), all of which share the nine acres with 3,000 grapevines, I knew I wanted to visit and develop a story.

The estate is available for weddings, corporate events, and other private parties. Robert Church Haggstrom’s personable daughter, Maja, is the go-to gal for brides, corporate event planners, and anyone else who wants to rent the lovely haven for an unforgettable day.

As impressive as are the vineyards and well-appointed chateau, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Bob’s little getaway by a pond. The boathouse photos – seen above – are courtesy of Church Estate Vineyards.

Dienna arranged for me to visit and I managed to persuade my husband, Bruce, to come along for the tour. He’s not really into gardens, but he is into real estate. We drove to Malibu, about 30 minutes from home, and arrived at Church Estates in time to meet Maja just inside the entrance. Thank goodness she was driving a golf cart because the elevation change from the parking area (near a sunken clay tennis court and horse stables) to the upper gardens and chateau would have required sturdy shoes and perhaps a walking stick to navigate on foot.

We hopped onto her golf cart and made our way up the winding drive, through the garden, to the grand French-style chateau. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied the pond and boathouse. The table on the dock was set for lunch! Oh, goodie, we were going to end up there at the water’s edge for our meal.

Maja narrated our tour: She grew up in Malibu and knows the ins and outs of every square inch of Church Estate Vineyards. To listen to Maja describe the gardens here, you can tell she still has that childlike wonder and curiosity about nature’s beauty. It is infectious.

The story of Church Estate Vineyards is one that I will tell in a future article, after I spend a proper amount of time with “Malibu Bob,” as Mr. Haggstrom is affectionately called around here.

But in the meantime, I will touch on highlights of his boathouse.

• It was the first thing he built here after purchasing the property five years ago
• Bob wisely situated the structure at the bottom of the hill, nestled under a stand of mature sycamore trees – facing the man-made pond, which he has since landscaped and stocked with swans.
• The boathouse measures about 20-by-20 feet in size; the exterior is finished in weathered wood and the standing-seam metal roof is aging nicely.
• The interior features a lovely fireplace and comfy furniture (but not a bed, darn it! Bob said he figured if there was a bed, all of his guests would argue over who would get to sleep here)
• The floor is made from antique boards, and when one of Bob’s friends accidentally knocked over a container of oil (after a fondue party), Bob decided to have the entire floor rubbed with oil – which adds a soft, aged patina to the space. 

Thank you Bob, Maja, Marie and Dienna – we had a wonderful visit, enjoyable conversation, delicious food — and were thoroughly enchanted with the magical setting you’ve created at Church Estate Vineyards. I can’t wait to return!

[photo above, from left: me, Maja, my husband Bruce Brooks, and Robert Church Haggstrom].

It was 74 degrees and sunny here today in Southern California, but I have wintry visions dancing in my head.

To get into the holiday spirit (even though the leftover turkey and stuffing is still packed in the fridge), I picked up the December issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine, out on newsstands now. That’s where my pal Susan Appleget Hurst serves as the talented senior associate editor for gardens and outdoor living. She blogs as The Everyday Gardener (with colleague Eric Liskey).

When we were last together in September, Susan mentioned that she had worked on a wintry design for iced botanical containers to hold votive candles. (Photo at right: Mary Ann Newcomer aka Idahogardener.com; Susan, and me, taken while gallivanting around Portland in September).

The idea Susan described sounded gorgeous and sparkly, a creative new way to use favorite ingredients from the garden — leaves, berries, colorful branches and conifer sprays — for holiday decorations. Her twist on the traditional luminaria even found a new use for poinsettias, which are rarely successful as cut flowers.

I spoke with Susan today and congratulated her on the alluring designs, which are splashed across five pages of the magazine. She sent me a web link to a BH&G video demonstration, which makes the project easy-to-understand and replicate.

All you need are a few ingredients and space in the freezer to transform a watery concoction into frozen floral luminarias. Susan’s article begins on page 58 of BH&G. It’s titled “Icy Hot: Bright flowers, twigs, and berries suspended in sparkling ice make naturally beautiful luminarias.”

Susan has a culinary and herb-gardening background, so it didn’t come as a surprise to learn that she has used a similar technique to freeze blooms and herbs into ice rings to float in punch bowls. That handy trick, combined with the editorial challenge of showing readers new ideas for using their garden during the depths of winter, added up to the holiday-on-ice project. The frozen floral ring, best employed for a summery brunch, also taught her that distilled (rather than tap) water is preferred because it freezes clear rather than cloudy.

Susan first captured ruby red poinsettia bracts in a flexible plastic container, arranging each leaf so it’s evenly spaced (see finished project, above). Pour in a little bit of water, say 1/2-way to the top. Then insert a smaller plastic cup, sinking it with a few stones. Pop the entire vessel into the freezer until it’s frozen solid. There are tips in Susan’s article for choosing the right containers and for slightly thawing your creation in order to remove the finished product from the plastic molds.

The poinsettia votive holder was so successful that Susan experimented with colorful cut branches, arranged to stick out around the top of a luminaria like a beautiful nest for an exotic winged creature.

“How on earth did you fit that into the freezer?” I asked.

She laughed and pointed out that the water-and-branch-filled mold (actually a big plastic cake carrier) froze in the outdoor environment of her Des Moines, Iowa, backyard.

“I just needed sustained, freezing temperatures,” she added (assuring me that these conditions do not occur every winter in Des Moines, but they did last year when Susan played around with this project).

Um, okay. Well, since we don’t have an open-air freezer here in my SoCal yard, perhaps I’ll stick to Susan’s smaller projects. Like the ones that use 1-litre and 2-litre pop bottles with the tops cut off.

The Icy Hot story illustrates Susan’s gifted floral design skills. She’s got more tricks up her sleeve and you can find them in future editions of Better Homes & Gardens. Here’s what I managed to get out of her: The February 2009 issue will feature Susan’s inspired new way to design with forced branches and fresh flowers. In April 2009, look for her egg story. I don’t want to give away the details, but suffice it to say she is NOT cooking an omelet or quiche with her eggs!

Happy December. I hope it’s filled with joy and peace for everyone.

Our friend Linda Lehmusvirta, producer of the very popular Central Texas Gardener, has begun to post her segments on You Tube. Bill Wright and I appeared on the show a few months ago with host Tom Spencer and we had a lively conversation about our favorite subject: Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways.

Here is the segment:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMpbg8Cg2dg

Here it is, already October 3rd and Halloween is upon us. Thanksgiving will soon follow.

I’m the type of mom who has always been grateful (relieved?) when the college-aged nanny offered to take my boys costume-shopping. That’s because I subscribe to the “use what’s available; look for stuff in the garage, sewing room, or attic,” school of Halloween costume-making. None of this molded rubber mask or fire-hazard printed-on-acetate superman kind of stuff. But my boys, on the other hand think a brand-new costume is de rigeur.

The organic, agricultural Halloween appeals to me. You know, the old-fashioned fall celebration that gets its thrills from a full moon rather than a mountain of Mars bars. Oh, for those cellophane-wrapped caramel apples of our youth (remember the ones we were warned might have razor blades in them, back in the 1970s?). Yup, those very ones.

In search of awesome produce for the fall holidays, I drove over the hill this afternoon into Simi Valley to visit Underwood Family Farms. An organic, U-pick farm, Underwood is a refreshing haven just a mile beyond fast-food row (What can I say? We do live in the suburbs).

I wanted to scout out cool, fashionable vegetables, worthy of centerpieces and front porches, for an upcoming November story called “Thanksgiving, A to Z.”

READ MORE…

Photographer extraordinaire Bill Wright and I just met up in Portland over the weekend to attend and lecture at the annual Garden Writers Association symposium.

In addition to schmoozing with fellow creative types, editors, art directors, bloggers, twitterers and long-time friends, we gave a talk on Sunday morning called “Anatomy of a Book: How Two Friends Collaborated Without Killing One Another.”

Bill illustrated the 45-minute lecture with a cool powerpoint slide show revealing the good, the bad and the ugly of our year-plus-long odyssey to produce Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways. His opening slide tells it all:

A year on the road with Debra and Bill

34 airline flights

Hundreds of emails

30,000 words

6,300 camera frames

300 finished photos

Getting up at 4:00 AM, either to shoot or to go to the airport, way too many times

We hope to post the audio online in the future, but thanks to Maryellen (aka Yogacowgirls), one of our fellow GWA members who blogs and twitters like mad, two video clips of the talk are already posted on YouTube.

The first one is called “Debra Prinzing, William Wright discuss Stylish Sheds.”

“Debra Prinzing, William Wright discuss Stylish Sheds.”

It”s followed immediately by “Pictures from Shed Style by Debra Prinzing and William Wright.”

“Debra Prinzing, William Wright discuss Stylish Sheds.

 I’m standing with Richard Turner, editor-in-chief of Pacific Horticulture magazine. We’re volunteering at the 2008 NWFGS in Seattle, visiting with Dawn Chaplin, formerly a fellow board member of Northwest Horticultural Society and a great garden-touring pal (she’s now a Whatcom Co. Hort. Society board member).

The press release just arrived in my in-box, and it announced the 2009 Northwest Flower & Garden Show’s theme. It’s only six months away – and I’m already excited! The theme: SUSTAINABLE SPACES. BEAUTIFUL PLACES. I like it! A lot!

The Northwest Flower & Garden Show, created by my pal, the talented and visionary Duane Kelly, today announced its 2009 theme:

“. . . (the) show will place a major focus on gardening materials and techniques that are good for the environment,” said Duane Kelly, chairman and founder of the annual event, now in its twenty-first year. “Show goers can expect to come away with a number of great ideas that conserve resources such as water and soil while, at the same time, making their gardens more self-sustaining and easier to care for.

“During the past year, organic gardening and vegetable gardening have grown in popularity thanks to the public’s keen interest in doing what’s best for the environment.  The movement has also gained traction with consumers seeking homegrown fruits and vegetables that not only taste better but reduce ever increasing grocery bills.”

READ MORE…

Thanks to a connection made by my Seattle-based PR whiz-friend Cindy Combs, I was invited to be a guest on “Living Today,” the daily afternoon show on Martha Stewart Living Radio. The segment originally aired on April 28th, the day before Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways was published.

I had a delightful 25-minute conversation with gregarious host Mario Bosquez.  We discussed the ideas and inspiration for one of my very favorite subjects: Creating Your Dream Shed.

The “Living Today” team (from left to right): associate producer Lauren Gould, producer Naomi Gabay, host Mario Bosquez, and engineer Chris Hauselt [MSL Radio photo]

The interview was completely enjoyable, enhanced by Mario’s enthusiasm and constant affirmation, which gave the impression that talking about “elegant hideaways” was to him the most exciting topic on earth!

Obtaining an audio copy of the interview was nothing short of a miracle, however. It involved (a), signing up for a free 3-day subscription to Sirius Radio; (b) setting up my crappy little cassette recorder next to the computer so I could tape the show as it streamed live on the net; and (c) racing into the other room to do the interview by phone with Mario.

Once my segment of the show was finished, I returned to my office and rewound the recording of the interview. Not only was it kind of scratchy and there were all sorts of pinging sounds from my computer (probably some kind of AOL affectation that lets you know if a new message has arrived), I also discovered that the tape ran out before the interview was over. I begged my publisher to try and obtain a professional recording from some kind of media monitoring service, but that request went nowhere.

So, finally, thanks to my wonderful collaborator Bill Wright, who figured out how to convert a cassette recording into a digital file (and who, I’m sure, devoted many hours to clean up the poor quality sound captured by my amateurish recording), we have a reasonable facsimile of the interview. Thanks, too, to Bob Meador, aka the web guru, for further enhancing and editing the file, filtering out background noises where possible, and posting the audio to my web site.

Thanks to the support of my friends, I actually have the interview to share, albeit more than a month after it originally aired. Click here to listen: Debra on MSL Radio.

I’m joined by my friend and party hostess Kathy Fries. We’re standing in front of her rustic shack-turned-Doge’s Palace, built by John Akers

The Seattle sun was shining, perhaps a little too brightly, on Saturday, May 17th. In fact, I heard later that temperatures reached close to 90 degrees, a record high for that date in history.

Kathy Fries, aka Shed Diva (she owns four of them!) and her cast of talented gardener helpers, nannies and caterers, threw an unforgettable garden party to celebrate the launch of Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways. Scheduled as an open-garden, which encouraged guests to stroll the peaceful, shady paths through the Fries property, the party paid homage to the fanciful little buildings we captured in the book. The man of the hour, shed-builder John Akers, was “missing,” but we know he likes to avoid crowds. His artistry was well received, oohed and aah-ed over, and festooned with bouquets and champagne. Good job, John! Wish you had come!

The menu included plump strawberries with brown sugar and Devonshire cream, meringue cookies, little sandwiches, iced tea, champagne . . . all served on Kathy’s potting bench-buffet

With more than 120 in attendance, the three-hour event was a bit of a whirlwind. Bill Wright and I felt like we signed books nonstop, greeted friends, hugged and thanked the owners of no fewer than 10 of the sheds featured in our book, and then signed more books. Gillian Mathews of Ravenna Gardens was our cheerful bookseller. She figured out how to get a copy of Stylish Sheds into the hands of anyone who wanted one, even if that meant raiding Kathy’s personal stash or taking orders once she ran out of inventory. We were truly touched with her support. You can find signed copies of Stylish Sheds at her stores.

Xander Fries, collecting eggs for the pages of our book [William Wright photo]

Thank you, Kathy and Ed: you threw a doozie of a party. I have spent many fond hours in this magical landscape, but honestly, it has never looked more beautiful. The flowers bloomed larger and brighter, the vines threw out new, spring-green tendrils, the ferns glistened in the dappled light. Our guest-signer, Xander Fries, who is featured on page 73 collecting eggs from the Palais de Poulets, charmed guests by autographing “his page” of the book.

A highlight for me was seeing so many dear friends in my (former) Seattle gardening community. It has been nearly two years since I left for LA, and it was a treat to return for this celebration. Owners of all nine Washington sheds featured in our pages came to help celebrate. Without them, we wouldn’t have completed this awesome project and we are honored they came and helped mark the publication!

Bill, Steven and Sylvia Williams, and me

But the prize goes to Sylvia and Steven Williams, who traveled from Texas to attend the party! Only two weeks after throwing a party for us at Stonebridge, their garden in Bertram, Syliva and Steven flew to Seattle to join us. They represented their home state in Texas style, dazzling everyone with their out-sized friendship, not to mention cowboy hats.

The party treats were simply fabulous, including Kathy’s elegant version of my amateurish “shed cookies.” She gets the “Martha Prize” for decorating with a piping tube and marbling the frosting. Really, Kathy. You are amazing.