Gardens, Naturalistic Plantings, and a Meadow in Penfield—June 2025
FCGN members and guests enjoyed a beautiful evening on June 25 in the Penfield gardens of Catherine Fowler and Robert Salmon. Their design is very creative, lush and unusual, and yet favoring native plants. It looks like it grew organically out of the native rock and the changes in grade. The abundance of rock was especially comforting – could we say “grounding”? – all of it from their own property or retrieved by Robert from the surrounding yards. The plants were thriving, many of them unusual and choice natives, and there were sun and shade gardens and a lovely pool to hang out by on a warm summer evening.
Photos contributed by Nita Beck and Jeff Schuetz
Original announcement
FCGN’s next evening soiree will be held at Catherine Fuller and Robert Salmon’s garden in Penfield on Wednesday, June 25, 6:30-8 pm. (Note: This date is a change from the previously announced date.)
Robert and Catherine have been developing their Penfield landscape for the past 15 years. They started with a small flower garden at the end of the driveway. Next, they added a large naturalistic planting of flowering native shrubs and perennials, which screen the house from the road and integrate their landscape with the surrounding woodlands. Projects continued, with a winding path around the house inviting you further into the woods, the design inspired by author Roy Diblik’s concept of plant communities, in a tapestry of coneflowers, salvias, sedges, calaminth and billowy hydrangeas. Behind the house, a clematis-covered fence hides a patio and swimming pool, with hydrangeas, roses, and lush flowering containers. Their most recent project, now in its third year, has been the clearing out of the wild area beyond the pool. Formerly a thicket of undesirables, they created a wide vista, with vegetable gardens and a Diblik-inspired wildflower meadow of annuals, perennials and a variety of native trees, evergreens and shrubs.
Open to FCGN members and guests. Registration is required. To register, either respond to the email you will have received from us (assuming you’re on our email list) or email us at flowercitygardennetwork@gmail.com. Directions will be emailed to registrants at least a week before the event. If you don’t hear from us with directions by a week before, please reach out to us.