New York landscape firm Harrison Green is the name behind some of the city’s most interesting public and private gardens—on rooftops and terraces, and tiny, hidden backyards. Longstanding members of the Gardenista Architect/Designer directory, the team, run by husband-and-wife duo Damien and Jacqueline Harrison, is full service: they specialize in not only designing, but planting and maintaining their work year-round (The Row and Mark Jacobs are clients).
The Harrisons now stand ready to furnish and accessorize outdoor spaces: Galerie Green, their new online-only emporium, presents hard-to-find antique and vintage garden elements, from 1920s carved wooden mushrooms to carefully refinished French sunburst chairs and stone tables. Their offerings, they say, are about “craftsmanship, proportion, and patina” and the case for “longevity and authenticity over the new and disposable.” Caveat: this is a weighty collection in every sense of the word and prices are steep. Join us for a look at the initial offerings presented in Harrison Green’s own Brooklyn studio garden.
While Guy describes his work as “historical fiction” loosely inspired by the pottery from the past, with no two pots identical, Ben says he wanted to make simple, classic forms, and strives for almost machine-like consistency in his handmade pots; his signature clay hues are a minimalist gray and pure white.
Above: Ben Wolff’s grey clay pots on display.
Through an open door at the back of the original 18th-century building, customers will glimpse the studio, where the Wolffs’ pots are thrown and fired. While Ben maintains his own studio in nearby Goshen, he comes to the Bantam shop and studio most days to throw pots there. “Otherwise, we’d never see each other,” he jokes. (The senior Wolff’s home sits just up the hill from the studio, so his commute is minimal.)
Above: Father and son, Ben Wolff (left) and Guy Wolff (right), stand outside their shop.
If you want to buy a pot thrown by Guy Wolff, you’ll have to purchase one in the shop on your visit, but as younger generations are wont to do, Ben has expanded his horizons, selling wholesale to over thirty shops, including Milton Market in Litchfield, CT, up the road and John Derian in New York City, and he also offers ready-to-ship pots directly to consumers (a pastime that bewilders his father). Ben and his wife, who is also a potter, have also experimented with casting in concrete, and customers will find whimsical concrete garden ornaments and minimalist votives for sale. Tucked on a shelf behind the register, you’ll even find small clay bowls thrown by one of Guy Wolff’s grandchildren, a third-generation potter in the making.
Wolff Pottery, 1249 Bantam Rd Bantam, CT is open 12:00-5:00 Tuesday to Sunday.
If you’re searching for tiles for an interior design project, the hard part is choosing from the gazillion options out there. Sourcing for tiles and materials for an outdoor space, though? Even if you’re working with a landscape architect, you may find yourself frustrated by the limited options.
That’s why Sausalito-based clé tile launched OUTERclé last month, a sister site for outdoor tile, materials, and sculpture. “We wanted to launch not just a collection of exterior forms and surfaces, but a destination that could inspire designers, architects, and their clients to consider that their outdoor spaces should be as compelling as, if not more than, their interior ones,” says Deborah Osborn, founder of the Sausalito-based brands.
“People have been asking our team at clé for outdoor tile for years now, but one of the biggest challenges is that selling tile and materials for the outdoors is far more technical,” she continues. “We wanted to be able to not only offer beautiful materials, but also to help address issues such as freeze thaw, UV, heat absorption, slippage/DCOF, submerged material issues (pools and fountains), and driveway usage etc.”
And lest you assume that clé has simply relocated some of its tiles over to OUTERclé, “95% of the products on OUTERclé are new (not the same as on clé),” says Osborn. “And for those surfaces that are similar to those found on clé, we have taken the opportunity to push these materials into a more exterior realm by either reconfiguring them through the use of color (either bolder or more in keeping with nature) and/or form (larger or thicker formats that better suit spaces without walls).”
Here’s a peek at a small sampling of the many (hallelujah!) outdoor materials offered on OUTERclé:
Above: The site offers several ways to browse, including: by area (patio, pool, driveway, etc.); by material (e.g., ceramic, brick, terracotta); and by collection (the tiles above fall under the Belgian Reproduction: Privé collection).
Aside from its rich history, Clement Nursery is also known for its inventory of particularly resilient and tough plants. The nursery sits just a few blocks from Baker Beach, basically in the harshest of city environments. “We specialize in plant material best suited for the Richmond District—species not minding the coastal winds and extra frigid temperatures. Fortunately for us, if a plant can survive here, it will thrive anywhere in the Bay Area.”
Above: Clement Nursery at times feels like someone’s private garden. Here, the blurry line between the nursery and a neighboring cottage.
Focusing on sustainability, the nursery offers a selection of California native plants that have low-water needs once established. The nursery also carries drought-tolerant species from South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand—places that have a similar climate to California. “We use large soaking trays to water as much of the inventory as possible, so that there’s no water wasted in the process,” shares Phillip.
Above: Clement Nursery is a resource for native California grasses.
What plants are trending at the nursery? Not surprisingly, houseplants are popular. Roughly 30 percent of their space is dedicated to tropical houseplants, with a huge greenhouse for climate control. Top sellers: the families of Dracaena and Ficus, including Dracaena Massangeana, Dracaena Janet Craig Compacta, Ficus lyrata, and Ficus decora.
Above: The indoor spaces at the nursery are filled to the brim with popular houseplants. Photograph by Kier Holmes.
In landscape plants, hardy hellebores for winter color and colorful fuchsias sell well in the shade section of the store. In the fern section, staghorn ferns are always trending, plus all varieties of maidenhair ferns. In their full sun section, phormiums and cordylines are very popular due to brilliant colors and low-water needs. “A favorite Cordyline is a newer introduction: ‘Charlie Boy’, which sports leaves striped with red and pinks,” says Phillip. And both California native and non-native Salvias are constantly desired due to their ability to attract pollinators.
Above: The exterior of Clement Nursery. Photograph by Kier Holmes.
Their best sellers, though? “Our top selling plant, year over year, in sheer quantity, are succulents.”
When a former student at Great Dixter in East Sussex moves to North Carolina and recommends a remote nursery in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we take note. “Fairman and Kate’s nursery has an amazing selection of plants: herbs, natives, pelargoniums, salvias, et cetera,” reports Ben Pick of nearby Saturnia Farm. “It reminds me a lot of some of the old nurseries in England.” It is called Sandy Mush Herbs, another reason to investigate. Established in 1977, the nursery produces collectible handbooks designed and embellished with calligraphy and line drawings. The catalog begins, “Dear Herb Friends, We continue to expand our collection of handmade plants…”.
Above: Sandy Mush Nursery, near Leicester, North Carolina, was established over four decades ago and is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Talking to Kate Jayne and her son, Christopher, it quickly becomes apparent that here is a nursery that is focused on growing things properly, and offering advice on how to do that—in other words, real customer service rather than a chatty bot in a pop-up window. Christopher maintains that Kate, who is the person answering the phone, recognizes all of her older customers before they have a chance to identify themselves. Plants are sent out all over the country but mainly in the eastern half. Kate discourages people from ordering plants from Sandy Mush when they could be had closer to home.
Above: Fairman Jayne, applying skills in propagating seeds learned at least 60 years ago when he studied in London at Kew’s famous horticulture school.
Kate and her husband, Fairman Jayne, met at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where he was assisting the director of the arboretum and she was a student. Fairman already had a degree in horticulture from Kew, having been one of the first overseas students admitted to the renowned school. Says Kate: “Fairman’s been working with plants his entire life, and I’ve been involved with plants ever since I went to college.” With a shared interest in hard-find-plants, they knew early on that they wanted to run a plant nursery together.
Above: Bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) growing around the Sandy Mush gardens in spring.
The couple moved to Asheville, North Carolina, before heading further out to the surrounding mountains. With herbs and aromatic plants high on their list, the couple realized that if they couldn’t find them locally, they should be supplying them. “We put an ad in Organic Gardening magazine and had a very enthusiastic response, and that generated publicity on a national scale,” Kate recalls. This was 1977, proving that Kate and Fairman’s interest in “handmade plants” struck a chord back then, and is today ever more relevant.
Of their specialisms, Kate says: “Our collection reflects our interest in fragrant plants and herbs, then going on to trees and shrubs, and then moving on to more wildflowers and native plants as interest has grown in that field.”
A note on the nursery’s name, as related by Christopher Jayne (who photographs the nursery for the website and social media): “Sandy Mush is the name of the community we are in. The oral history is that in the early days of European settlement, animal drovers would stop in the valley. When they went to get water for their mush (think oatmeal, cornmeal, or porridge) it would always have sand in the water. So it became Sandy Mush Valley. We have fast-moving streams coming off the mountains, and the sand never completely settles.” And the soil is well-drained.
“We’re kind of a speakeasy shop,” says Todd Carr, describing Hort & Pott, the store he co-owns with his partner Carter Harrington. It’s an apt description for their unique, appointment-only shopping destination located in Freehold, New York, about 20 minutes west of Hudson. Filled primarily with handmade and vintage finds for the home and garden, the botanically focused shop is currently dressed up for the holidays. “It’s more like an event when people come. We have candles lit in the shop, there’s music playing and incense burning, and we have the fires going,” Carr says.
Carr and Harrington came to retail after careers as a garden editor and an interior/window display designer, respectively, when they moved out of New York City in 2016. Hort & Pott’s current location is the latest iteration of a business that has evolved over several years. Hort & Pott, short for horticulture and pottery, began as a series of pop-ups and later a more permanent installation in a barn in Oak Hill, New York. The newest shop is situated in a 1920 boarding house on a former dairy farm that the couple purchased in early 2020 and are slowly fixing up.
Above: Carr and Harrington hand-make many of items carried in the store, including seasonal wreaths and artful cement planters. Photograph by Mia Allen, courtesy of Hort & Pott.
Hort & Pott’s business model is to open for four consecutive weekends during the Hudson Valley’s peak tourism seasons; then Carr and Harrington close up shop for a few weeks before the next four-week stretch. This unusual calendar is necessary because so much of their inventory is handmade and vintage that they need time to both source and make the products, like the seasonal wreaths ($100 to $200) and ornaments ($10 to $30) currently for sale. “We shut down and basically create new pieces and new displays for the next openings,” says Carr. The couple also stock items from other Hudson Valley artisans, like Laurel and Ash maple syrup, which is made by friends.
For 2023, Hort & Pott has also opened an online shop, which Harrington is gradually building up. “It’s a distilled version of what we have in the shop,” he says. But for the full experience—which in December includes hot apple cider, a fire in the outdoor firepit, and more candles than you can count—you’ll want to book a time slot to see the shop in-person (this weekend is the last one they’ll be open in 2023). Reservations are booked online on the half hour. “It’s very loose, too. It’s just meant to kind of help space people out, so it doesn’t become too crazy in the shop,” says Carter.
Taking a moment amongst the flowers is something that Rebecca O’Donnell mentions often when talking about the inspiration and mood of her transportive store, The Quiet Botanist in Hudson, New York. Before she and her family relocated from the city, looking for a slower-paced life, the Australian creative director’s days were a whirl of work and travel. “At the time I was struggling with Lyme disease and I needed to slow down,” she says. “The idea was to create a space where I could heal, surrounded by what I love. It was developed out of a desire to slow down and listen.”
Tucked away down an alley, her exquisite store is a hidden treasure box with wooden panelling, stained glass windows, plasterwork ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling flowers. “Others were not so convinced,” she says of the off-the-beaten-track location. “But I loved the fact that it was a store to be discovered and experienced. A hidden gem of sorts where the scent of the flowers lures you in from the street.”
Photography courtesy of The Quiet Botanist.
Above: The beautiful entrance to the store.
The scent of those blooms wafts out the door and down the street, too; interior walls are covered with bunches of everlasting wildflowers, foliage, and ethereal dried wreaths ($220) that will last for three years or more. Tables are bordered with mini dried flower bouquets or sage bundles that combine foliage and flowers with a sage smudge stick ($30).
Rebecca describes herself as a constant gardener but also works closely with local growers in Stuyvesant, including Farmstead and Damsel Garden, who supply almost all the flowers except for some specimens, like banksia, that will not grow locally. Going forward, she plans to return to growing organic crops herself, at her farm nearby along the Hudson River.
Above: Rebecca creates bespoke arrangements presented in handmade vessels such as this Signe Vase made by Brooklyn-based ceramicist, Sarah Donato; $320.
