Perennial Plant Association names award winners

During the Perennial Plant Association’s 2021 Virtual National Symposium, three landscape design companies were recognized for their projects. The entries comprise 11 categories based on residential, commercial, educational, temporary/seasonal designs and price of production.

Initiated in 1992, the Landscape Design Awards program recognizes design projects that are exemplary in use of herbaceous perennials to help create balanced and beautiful landscapes. The “after-market” applications of our growers’ products and the design, installation, and maintenance of plants in gardens and natural settings are of special interest to the Perennial Plant Association. Both experienced and novice designers were invited to participate.

Each year, judges evaluate many outstanding landscape designs and select the most excellent entries based on the effectiveness of herbaceous perennial plant material used through the implantations of new cultivars, color combinations, textures, and seasonal combinations.

This year’s recipients included:

Donald Pell of Donald Pell Gardens received an honor award for his Kempton, Pennsylvania Garden project. Native and cosmopolitan plants of cespitose clumps, and bulbs, stolons and rhizomes and plants that would spread by seed were composed together to create a dynamic sustainable landscape.

Andrew Marrs of Andrew Marrs Garden Design also received an honor award for his University Street Garden project.

“The goal of the University Street Garden was to capture the feeling and ecological function of a wild place but also be legible, artful and have more floral impact than typically found in a naturally occurring wildflower meadow.” An extensive plant palette of over 80 different species and selections was developed," Marrs said. "Each plant was chosen for its role in attracting wildlife, it’s adaptability to the unamended soil conditions on the site, and its ability to fit within a naturalistic aesthetic."   

A merit award was granted to Campion Hruby Landscape Architects for their Bridgeview project. The site focused on an ever-changing collection of plants that emphasized the summer season. Lawns were reduced from large expanses to smaller “outdoor rooms”, large blocks of coastal grasses were filled with drifts of colorful perennials, evergreen structure provided a buffer from wind gusts off the Chesapeake Bay. Going against traditional manicured gardening design, the Campion Hruby team brought the same wild Chesapeake feel out to the roadway with large sweeps of seasonal perennials and ornamental grasses.