Awards
The American Horticultural Society Book Award 2009
Synopses & Reviews
For too long, garden design has given pride of place to architecture, artifice, and arbitrary principles. The results? Soulless landscapes where plants play subordinate roles.
With passion and eloquence, Scott Ogden and Lauren Springer Ogden argue that only when plants are given the respect they deserve does a garden become emotionally resonant. Plant-Driven Design shows designers how to work more confidently with plants, and gives gardeners more confidence to design. The Ogdens boldly challenge design orthodoxy and current trends by examining how to marry plantsmanship and design without sacrificing one to the other.
Supported by extensive lists of plants adapted to specific purposes and sites, Plant-Driven Design explores how plants interact with place. In addition, the authors' experience gardening and designing in a wide variety of climates gives their perspective a unique depth. In ideas, scope, and detail, this book both embraces and transcends regionality. By reclaiming gardens as a home to plants, this groundbreaking work will restore life-affirming vitality to garden design and profoundly affect how we understand and experience gardens.
Review
". . . gives plants room to flourish. . . the new book is packed with [Lauren Springer Ogden's] lush photographs. . . ." Susan Clotfelter
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"The book pushes toward the sensual and involved part of gardening, toward pleasure and intimacy. Gardens ought to be places of change: hourly, daily, seasonally and over the years. It's heartening to see a great big glossy design book championing our urges to get out and touch our plants." Denver Post
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"[In] their fascinating book... the Ogdens explore how a garden can engage the senses, and seduce and enchant one with a sense of arrival and discovery. Through it all, they aim to help gardeners create gardens that play to their plant's strengths." San Francisco Chronicle
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"The must-have (old school) garden book of the season."
--Hartford Courant
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"A powerful argument for letting the plants lead the design.... Don't try to digest this book all at once. It is meant to be dipped into, savored, consulted for advice and lived with, like an old friend." Hartford Courant
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"This could be one of the best garden books of the first decade of the 21st century. Combining an ecological approach to plant selection with a strong sense of the aesthetic possibilities of plants, it adds an element that is all too rarely considered--that of how plant and gardens fit into and complement their surrounding landscape, and celebrate regional distinctiveness." New York Times
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"No matter what part of the country you (or the gardener on your gift list) may call home, this book is sure to offer plenty of inspiration." Gardens Illustrated
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"An excellent book to add to your library...great advice for gardeners of all levels." Albany Democrat-Herald
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"Plant-Driven Design champions the "plant-it-instead-of-pave-it" point of view better than any book to date." Greenwich Time
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"The first chapter sets out to secure a thought process that puts plants first in any approach to design. It then flows effortlessly into a gallery of gardens and plant portraits interspersed with useful listings of plants for every situation...a great source of inspiration for anyone serious about designing a garden." American Gardener
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"A treasure trove of photographs and ideas for ecological and glorious home landscaping." --The English Garden
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"What the opinionated authors think doesn't work is described as fully as what they like, and they don't pull punches. ... [T]he strong point of view makes the book a better read than most of its coffee-table-worthy brethren." Evansville Courier and Press
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"[The book] focuses on how to bridge the gap between designers who can't garden and gardeners who can't design." Landscape Architecture
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"In ideas, scope and detail, Plant-Driven Design embraces and transcends regional differences. By reclaiming gardens as a home to plants, this groundbreaking work will restore vitality to garden design and profoundly affect how we experience gardens." Washington Gardener
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"This book places plants at the heart of the garden instead as afterthoughts of the design." Sierra Heritage Magazine
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"The Ogdens have produced a terrific book ... one that is going to be a welcome addition to my library of well-used garden references." Deseret News
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"Brimming with more than 300 of Lauren's lush photographs, the thought behind this book is that landscapes are emotionally successful only when plants are given the respect they deserve." Journal Enquirer
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"Lauren's photography, alone, will inspire readers to a healthier and more stimulating approach to garden-making, where plants and nature take the lead." Corvallis Gazette-Times
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"The must-have (old school) garden book of the season."
The English Garden
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"A treasure trove of photographs and ideas for ecological and glorious home landscaping." New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
This book is nothing short of revolutionary.
About the Author
Scott Ogden has prospected for new, garden-adaptable bulbs as well as proven, heirloom varieties in Texas (his home state), the South, Mexico, and beyond. As a horticulturist and designer he consults for and creates public and private gardens across the country. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. Garden designers Scott Ogden and Lauren Springer Ogden lecture internationally, emphasizing plant diversity and ecological attunement. Their rich plant palette draws its inspiration from their studies of plants in the wild in the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Europe, and South Africa. They have spoken at most major botanic gardens, public gardens, and arboreta in the United States.
This husband-and-wife team's horticultural experience spans USDA zones 4-10. They have designed gardens and/or gardened professionally in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming as well as England, Ireland, and Austria. Public projects include gardens at Naples Botanical Garden, Denver Botanic Gardens, Callaway Gardens, and San Antonio Botanical Gardens.
Scott and Lauren have written several books in which they pioneer new plants and garden aesthetics. Their latest book, Plant-Driven Design, takes a bold look at garden design from a plant perspective, marrying site, region, plants, and people while both embracing and transcending regionality. Other books include Garden Bulbs for the South (Timber Press 2007), Passionate Gardening (Fulcrum Publishing 2000), The Moonlit Garden (Taylor Publishing 1998), The Undaunted Garden (Fulcrum Publishing 1994), Waterwise Gardening (PrenticeHall 1994), and Gardening Success With Difficult Soils (Taylor Publishing 1992.)
The Ogdens and their work have been featured on several television shows and in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Nature, Martha Stewart Living, Sunset, and Horticulture. Awards include two American Horticultural Society book awards and a landscape design award from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers.
Before making horticulture and garden design their life's work, Scott studied geology and paleontology at