You can see her work featured in Garden Gate magazine, New England Home magazine, Wellesley Weston Magazine, Gardenista, and many more.
She writes on garden-related topics in her Substack, Thistle - the Garden Edit, and has also been published in Fine Gardening Magazine. A frequent presenter on container gardening, Susan has been a featured speaker at the New England Flower Show and has presented and taught workshops to the Cape Cod Landscape Association, the Stevens-Coolidge House (Trustees of Reservations), and multiple garden clubs and horticulture organizations.
About You:
Tell us a little bit more about yourself and how Thistle began?
I have been a lifelong gardener. My parents, who are avid gardeners, along with my grandparents, immersed me in beautiful gardens and instilled in me a love for all things plant-related. While my first career was as an attorney, I spent my free time gardening.
After 15 years practicing the law, I transitioned to practicing garden design and container gardening so that I could pursue my love of gardening as a career and not just an avocation. I have now owned my company, Thistle, for nine years. We provide garden design, container gardening, and garden education in the New England area.
How would you describe your design philosophy or style?
My design style is bountiful but with structure. I want the gardens I design and the pots I plant to be immersive. I love an overflowing garden, full of flowers and plants. At the same time, I like to incorporate structure as a counterpoint. I love a neatly trimmed hedge in the midst of the wildness to provide a sense of order.
What has been your big challenge so far?
My biggest challenge, which I share with most other gardeners, is the weather. We can have a planting schedule or a garden installation date, but if it is storming or the temperature is 100 degrees, we
need to reschedule. Wind can damage plants, early frosts can nip plants, and unexpected snow can wreak havoc with plantings. Having so much of our schedule be out of our control is something that we all live with in the garden industry, but it is always a challenge.
Garden Inspiration:
Where does your inspiration for each garden design start from?
My inspiration always starts with the location and setting of the home and property itself. I want the garden to sit within the context of its surroundings. Is the home a formal colonial, a quaint
cottage, or a contemporary structure? Are we in the city or by the coast? Is there a wonderful borrowed view? I always start with the sense of place and then move on from there.
What’s your favorite Agriframes product, and how would you display it in a garden?
I love the Agriframe obelisks! They are so versatile and can provide an easy solution to many garden quandaries. If I need height in a garden bed but we don’t want to add a tree or a large woody plant, a beautiful obelisk provides that sense of height without the visual weight or shading the surrounding plants. Also, the Agriframe obelisks let us use a stunning climbing plant in the middle of a garden bed, such as a climbing rose.
I also love using an obelisk in a container garden. There are so many interesting climbing plants that need structure, and an obelisk adds interest and a place to climb for those plants.
What's your strategy for plant selection in containers to ensure continuous interest, texture, and color?
At Thistle, we spend a lot of time planning our plant choices. I like to concentrate on having a mix of leaf sizes and shapes so that there is always contrast. I usually start with strong foliage plants.
They can also provide not just interesting leaves but also color and height to containers. From there, I layer in flowering plants and lovely spillers, keeping an eye to making sure the different flowering plants and spillers also have texture and contrast between themselves and the other plants in the container.
Garden Design & Advice:
What advice would you give to someone wanting to create a stylish container display – for all year round?
When I plant a container for all four seasons, I like to start with an evergreen as the foundation and then add in flowers and spilling plants for each season. Boxwood is always a classic choice, but if you need more height, a smaller thuja is a nice option. Ivy can work for three seasons and then depending on the location of your planter (sun, shade or a mix), we include flowers.
How do you find daily inspiration?
Getting outside and observing nature is my best source of daily inspiration.
Whether it is just a walk through my neighborhood, running errands in the city (Boston has great gardens and container gardens) or a short hike, I’m always looking for how plants are combined by people or nature. I am constantly snapping pictures of plant combinations or plants I want to remember.
My camera roll is 80% plants!
