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John Cullen, originally of Grosse Ile Township, and his nephew, Michael Cullen of Wyandotte, will build a garden much like the one they built at the 2007 Philadelphia Flower Show. Cullen is the designer who has been selected to represent the United States in the Singapore Garden Festival.
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A former Grosse Ile Township resident and his nephew have been selected to represent the United States in the Singapore Garden Festival.
John Cullen, originally from the island, and his nephew, Michael Cullen of Wyandotte, with the help of a team from Nyee Phoe Flower Garden of Singapore, will build a garden named Rose of Glendalough.
Designers from all over the world will participate in the event in the Asian island nation, John Cullen said.
Cullen, 41, said they will leave Sunday for the Singapore Garden Festival, which he describes as a "garden Olympics."
The principal architectural feature in their exhibit will be a replica of St. Kevin's Chapel in Glendalough, Ireland, he said.
The chapel ruin will be nestled among a grove of keropok trees, which will have a couple of dozen volunteer trees, little saplings that will appear to have sprouted up naturally within the garden.
Cullen, who now lives in Dexter, said there will be volumes of Oncidium "Golden Shower" as a groundcover, and creeping up from the side of the chapel.
They will build the chapel with Pennsylvania fieldstone in a style unique to the 11th century. It will look authentically old, he said.
He said they will have a little more than a week to physically build the garden at the show venue, but they have been designing and planning it for more than a year.
Another Rose of Glendalough they created won Best in Show and the People's Choice award every day of the nine-day 2007 Philadelphia Flower Show.
The Cullens have their own business, Celtic Gardens in Dexter.
While growing up, John Cullen received some of his inspiration from Westcroft Gardens on Grosse Ile, the gardens that were the life's work of the late Ernie Stanton.
As a youth, he said he would spend many hours weeding those gardens.
"Though I have on occasion suggested I apprenticed under Mr. Stanton (a slight exaggeration perhaps), my greatest teacher at Westcroft was actually a stone," he said.
More than a decade had passed since he worked at Westcroft when his father suggested visiting the gardens again.
"There, lying next to a small reflecting pool, we found a memorial stone honoring the late Ernie Stanton with four words on it — the four words that would become my company motto: 'God makes; man shapes.'
"It struck me then that at the heart of gardening there is always a collaborative effort. I take what God has created — be it soil, stone, plant or water — and from them I try to weave both nature and inspiration until I feel the desired effect has been achieved."
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