Archive for August 2008
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
While enjoying a glass of wine in Becky Robert’s garden one evening last week, I spotted a small shrub with dark maroon, almost purple, leaves. I was excited to realize upon further inspection that it was a newer cultivar of one of my favorite native shrubs, Physocarpus opulifolius Summer Wine™. This compact shrub is a hybrid between Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Nana’ and Diablo™ and so has a denser habit than the straight species along with deep, cleanly cut, wine-colored foliage.
Here at the Scott Arboretum, we are growing this shrub in the Terry Shane Teaching garden where its foliage provides a wonderful contrast of…
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Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Yesterday I had the chance to bend the ear of Peter Philippi, the designer of the Alice Paul and Kemp Hall green roofs. Peter Philippi of Green Roof Service discussed how the design of Kemp Hall’s green roof is different from the Alice Paul design. Kemp Hall green roof will be an extensive and semi-intensive green roof.
Extensive green roofs, like Alice Paul and the majority of Kemp Hall, usually include a thin layer of soil media and a vegetative cover over a synthetic membrane that will protect the roof. The vegetation needs to be adapted to moisture and drought and…
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Friday, August 15th, 2008
Today, we began the process of installing Swarthmore College and Scott Arboretum’s third green roof on the newly built Kemp Hall. This green roof will cover over 7000 sq. ft. and 5 different levels.
With this roof, tour participants will be able to view a portion of the roof from a lobby instead of through a student dorm room as currently done with the Alice Paul Hall green roof. Another advantage for educational proposes of this green roof are participants will not have to climb an awkward ladder to gain access to the roof. A small door with a simple step…
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