WHAT MAKES me happy is talking to landscape architect Thomas Rainer about what makes plants happy. I did just that in a Q&A in “The New York Times,” a story headlined “Understanding What Makes Plants Happy” that’s online now and will appear in print in Thursday’s Design Special Section.
You may recall my previous conversations with Thomas, the co-author with Claudia West of the provocative 2015 book “Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes.” Even though we both have worked around plants for many years, it’s as if Thomas sees them differently from the way I do, in a sort of super-savvy botanical 3-D. He doesn’t see them as mere decorative objects, but astutely reads their body language for clues to who they want…
