Home

Newsletter: the Dodecatheon
Current issue as a PDF file

Officers & Appointees

DVC-NARGS at the Philadelphia Flower Show

Members: sign up to help with our display at the Philadelphia Flower Show!
See the Volunteer page.

Our 2011 Exhibit: Pompidou Rocks

List of plants in our exhibit

The Centre Pompidou is a large cultural center for the arts located a few blocks from Paris's Cathedral of Notre Dame. Built in the 1970s, the flamboyant and colorful design was highly controversial at the time but has become a popular and affectionately embraced part of the Parisian built landscape.

The DVC-NARGS exhibit, our homage to the Centre Pompidou, represented a rooftop public garden. A contemporary outdoor leisure seating area provided a protected zone where one could relax and enjoy the city views and the immediate garden surroundings. The space was shaped by exposed mechanical systems evocative of the iconic Centre Pompidou features.

The exhibit included current "green roof" technology along with compatible but more traditional rock garden construction and ornamental horticultural treatment. The design demonstrated sustainability through reuse of materials and educated with practical suggestions for roof gardens in the mid-Atlantic area. The plant material was compatible with USDA zones 7-8 (Philadelphia-Paris), was compatible with an urban roof location, and was sun and drought tolerant in addition to having a reasonable projected mature size/weight.

Centre Pompidou. Image: photoeverywhere.co.uk.

Our 2010 Exhibit: A Traveler's Rockery

The list of plants used in the exhibit is available for download (Word format).

The design evoked, with contemporary container garden sensibility, the playful sculpted home rockery of a well-traveled Delaware Valley gardener/collector from another era.

Using an irregular overall form, typical rock garden elements (screes, rectangular containers and raised stone beds) were filled with plant material from around the world. Well-chosen plants, hardy and tender, diminutive and standard, can together support a lush design to thrive in our hot, humid summer environment.

The exhibit took Best in Show for plant societies!