Advice from Wave Hill: In my quest for a wider plant palette and for ideas on how to put plants together with confidence and a bolder hand, I asked Director of Horticulture Louis Bauer of Wave Hill, the renown garden in New York City that has been long praised for its dramatic plantsmanship, for advice. Whenever I visit a public garden, I see irresistible plants that are new to me and wonder how the horticulturists behind such designs, like Louis and his team, find all these goodies and figure out how to use them so spectacularly. 

We talked about the advantages of growing from seed; about extra-cooperative little “filler” plants like certain sedges and Erigeron (fleabane) that can beautify even tough spots like at the roots of trees; about using pots to announce garden areas, and the signature plants of each of the distinct gardens at Wave Hill, too. 

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