TAKING IT PUBLIC: A DUTCH PROGRAM PROVIDES A BLUEPRINT FOR BRINGING PERENNIAL PLANTINGS BACK INTO THE PUBLIC EYE

摘要

(Note to the reader: While a decidedly public project, the pro gram's originator still only wants to be identified as Bart.) As the home of Hortus Botanicus, one of the oldest and most famous botanical gardens in the world, the City of Leiden, in TheNetherlands has a strong and proud horticultural heritage. Nonetheless, along with virtually every other municipality in Europe and North America, municipal greens keepers have been faced with the economic realities of government spending cut backs. It wasn't long before many of the city's coveted perennial gardens were axed in favor of more maintenance-free gar or no gardens at all. Today perennials are making a comeback in Leiden's put spaces thanks to a unique pilot program being undertake cooperative basis between the city's parks department ar local nursery grower concerned with the unkempt appearance of his beloved city.