FALL 2004 MEETING
Saturday, November 6th, 1pm
Michael Patrie
"Gardening Design and the Creative Process"
Tredyffrin Public Library
582 Upper Gulph Road
Strafford PA 19087
610-688-7092
A native Philadelphian from Delaware County, Michael Petrie is clearly the star of the Pennsylvania Horticulurical Society�s Philadelphia Flower Show. Vice President of one of the most prestigious garden centers in the area, J. Franklin Styer Nurseries in Concordville, Pa., Michael originally trained to be an artist. In need of work to pay the bills, he signed up with a nursery and apparently never looked back.
His willingness to break the mold, or in this case, the pot, put
Michael on the gardening celebrity map with a garden made almost entirely of
clay pots for the 1994 Flower Show. People took notice: here was something
different � fun and exciting at the same time. Since then, he has gone on to
create a number of memorable and highly original exhibits: sculptures built of
hundreds of used tires (�Tyers by Styers� won 1997 Best in Show); brightly
painted rakes and shovels by the bushel loads (�Tooleries,� 1998); a towering
wind man of hundreds of CDs shimmering in the theatrical lighting of the plant
show; and on it goes. Whimsical, innovative and above all entertaining,
Michael�s exhibits are the ones everyone remembers long after each Flower Show.
In person, Michael is just as entertaining as his exhibits with a wry sense of
humor and a willingness to question the standard approaches to designing a
garden. With a strong desire to own every new plant � �I want stuff so new it
doesn�t even have a name,� Michael is also an extremely well informed garden
designer. Those of you who have occasion to drive past Styers on U.S. 1 have no
doubt noticed the exciting long borders he creates each year using both exotics
and more traditional plant materials.