Container Workshop and Guided Tour...

The HSNY has recently partnered with Gracious Home to expose the wonderful people of Manhattan to the world of horticulture. We will be offering a variety of workshops that will be of interest not only to our members, but to the customers of Gracious Home as well.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of bringing a group of guests on a guided tour of the Historic Flower District of New York, where I shared my secrets of how to successfully navigate the maize of store fronts. We then returned to Gracious Home Chelsea, located on 26th street, where I conducted a well-attended workshop on container gardening. We covered the basics of design and plant combinations, which was followed by a hands-on demonstration of designing and planting your own container garden.

Here we are at the Flower District, 28th street, discussing what to look for when you're shopping and purchasing plants at the market.

Some of the attentive audience at Gracious Home seemingly entranced by the lecture.

Discussing the importance of preparing a container and the selection of the proper soil mixture.

In the process of creating a wonderful container garden for a shady area.

Using a silver salad bowl to 'serve-up' a unique container garden of succulents

Check the HSNY or Gracious Home websites for information on the next available workshop .

Green Screen at The HSNY

If you haven't visited The HSNY at our new location in midtown Manhattan, you must put it on your 'to do list' as a wonderful place to spend the afternoon. Our Library boasts an extensive collection on gardens and gardening that includes fascinating horticultural magazines to inform and inspire gardeners, would-be gardeners and anyone interested in plants. The contemporary art Gallery, which is open to the public, combines an innovative curatorial strategy with a unique gallery space to showcase emerging and established contemporary artists in all media who create plant-based art, supported by a series of film screenings and other engaging events.

Along with all this, we have custom designed and built a green screen which adorns the south facing windows in our office. This 'screen' is filled with many wonderful varieties of Cacti, Succulents, Ferns, Begonias, Peperomia, and even Euphorbia. There is a wide range of shapes, textures and colors that are represented in the foliage of our plant selections, along with varied bloom times, to make the display last year round.

If you are an apartment dweller in New York, you are well aware of how limited space is. The green screen is a perfect solution for introducing live plant material into your environment. This screen can actually help conserve energy by providing a layer of insulation, and even act as soundproofing. Plus these plants will grow and fill in the window creating a privacy screen.

I suggest you stop in and see for yourself what a unique and useful addition this green screen has become in our loft space.