GardenDesignOnline

Bulb Glory in New York

I like my own yard full of daffodils in spring ... but if only I had the advance planning time & skills to create a bulb display that looks like this.

This, of course is the work of renowned Dutch landscape designer & author Piet Oudolf, who collaborated with his Dutch colleague Jacqueline van der Kloet to create this spectacular display at the New York Botanical Garden. The display in the Enid Haupt Conservatory runs through June 7th, and it commemmorates the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage from Amsterdam to New York in 1609.

The design for the show was inspired by the gardens at Keukenhof, near Amsterdam and features the usual tulips, hyacinths, lilies, daffodils, squill, snowflakes, and alliums. However, there is also a display of antique tulip cultivars donated by Holland's famous treasury of historic bulbs, Hortus Bulborum -- and these you won't see anywhere else.

Oudolf and van der Kloet also planted a four-season bulb installation on the garden's Seasonal Walk, which features spring and summer blooming bulbs accompanied by flowering perennials and ornamental grasses, many of which were introduced by Oudolf.

(photos courtesy NYBG)

Best in Garden Show

PHILADELPHIA FLOWER SHOW WINNERS

Well, you've got to remember ... this is a flower show, not a garden show, and flowers is what these people do best.  Although this year's theme was "Bella Italia," and there were some Roman-style "gardens" with columns and fountains and the like, the show stopper was the "Milan" exhibit by the American Institute of Floral Designers, and it's no wonder they walked away with the top prize.

How about this mannequin in the window of a modern Italian boutique -- a lady with bright green floral hair and dressed in a green floral gown? (I know, I know ... but it's difficult to get a single image inside the PA convention center, let alone one with authentic color, so let your imagination do the heavy lifting).  And the shoes ... the shoes ...

 The train on this mannequin's gown was unimaginably exquisite ... hydrangeas of the same uniform color amid clouds of silvery butterflies.

The floral designers simply did not miss a thing ... there were handbags, hats, jewelry and perfumes ... "paintings" on the walls ... and floral design that simply roars and soars with originality and art. 

I guess because the theme was Italy, there were lots of big-leafed and tropical plants on display ... agaves and hostas, acanthus and yuccas, plus the usual candidates that make good forced spring flowers:  pieris and cherries, azaleas and rhodos, hydrangeas, cyclamen, roses, dogwood and serviceberries.

If you're not into Mod design, as noted above, there are plenty of more traditional displays ... and the show runs through this Sunday.

And next year, an international theme, with gardens from India, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil, the Netherlands, and of course, the USA.

(click on images to enlarge)

Orchids, Brazilian Mod, Jungles & Burle Marx

NYBG Orchid Show Feb 28-April 12

When the NY Botanical Garden decided on a "Brazilian Modern" theme for the 7th annual Orchid Show, there was only one designer to call.

Not only is landscape architect Raymond Jungles a master of modernity, he is also steeped in contemporary Brazilian design.  He studied and worked with the late architect, designer and artist Roberto Burle Marx, celebrated as one of the 20th century's foremost modern landscape architects. As Jungles put it in an interview with Garden Design Online,  "To me, Brazilian modern is Burle Marx."

As you walk into the NYBG show, you'll encounter this towering Burle Marx mosaic, circa 1991 (being installed in the show, left).  The work is one of many owned by Jungles, and it was last displayed some years ago at the Sala Mendoza Gallery in Caracas, Venezuela.  It's headed for an eventual home at the Naples Botanical Garden in Naples, Florida.

Jungles said the design for the orchid show includes "strong, bold gestures," akin to something that Burle Marx might have done. He explained that Burle Marx often did shows for Carnival and theater settings.  "He was a master of the theatrical," said Jungles, and the orchid show "is my interpretation of what he might have done in a similar situation."

From the entrance gallery, you pass through a long corridor filled with walls of living orchids, epiphytic orchid sculptures, and signature tropical plants native to Brazil, including bromeliads, staghorn ferns, philodendrons, and many palms. Along the way, you'll encounter thousands of orchids, including Cymbidium (Asian corsage), Phalaenopsis (moth), Oncidium (dancing lady) and many other species.

Finally you enter another gallery at the opposite end of the corridor, with explosions of orchids above and below.  Orchid "chandeliers" (left) are suspended above a 20 x 20' pool, where they are reflected on the water's surface, giving you "a double whammy of color," said Jungles.

A garden designed by Raymond Jungles is one that contains a lot of strength without a lot of busy elements. "I'm not happy," he says, "until I sense there's going to be a peaceful quality, even though it may be a bold space."

When Jungles designed the orchid show, he was well aware that the glass houses would be filled with people.  "I tried to build nooks and crannies," he said, "where people can tuck out of the turbulence into these eddies, look around and enjoy the space, enjoy the sight lines that connect one place to another, and experience a scene that ... gives the entire space a sense of cohesion."

If this design does one thing, it produces a sense of excitement; only a rare few could make it produce a feeling of harmony as well.

Jungles will be at orchid show on Saturday, February 28,and will give a lecture at 1PM in the Arthur & Janet Ross lecture hall, where he'll also sign copies of his new book,
The Colors of Nature: Subtropical Gardens by Raymond Jungles (Monacelli Press, 2008)

(images: NY Botanical Garden - click on images for larger view)

Philadelphia Flower Show Preview

Bella Italia (March 1-8, PA Convention Center)

As you can see, this year's flower show theme is Italy, and it covers the entire landscape, from the formal gardens of ancient Rome to Tuscan landscapes, the canals of Venice, the art of Florence, and much more.

If you like formal gardens, this is the place to be:  walls of boxwood, fountains and statues, arches and columns, along with bougainvilla and wisteria vines, cypress and olive trees.

A modern touch will be provided by the American Institute of Floral Designers, who are sponsoring a Milan boutique filled with high fashion couture, handbags, shoes and other accessories -- all made of flowers.

Among the  main reasons to visit the show are to see the new plant varieties you may not have encountered before, and to admire the hard work and ingenuity that go into the annual competitions, the work of true experts and dedicated die-hards.

Witness Trees Photo Exhibit

US Botanic Garden Exhibit

This majestic white oak, 100 feet high with a crown of 148 feet, has seen a lot of history.  It's believed to be about 200 years old and it resides in Washington DC, at the former home of Frederick Douglass (1818-95), who born a slave and later became a prominent abolitionist, author, educator, statesman and diplomat. Douglass' home sits high on a hill in the Anacostia neighborhood, with a clear view of the US Capitol and much of the city.

Douglass named the property Cedar Hill, and it is now the National Park Service's Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.  Although most of the cedar trees are now gone, the Frederick Douglass White Oak is still intact.  Douglass referred to the tree in his diaries, and scientists say the tree could live another 200 years.  That's a real witness to history.

The current photo exhibition documents 24 trees in the Washington DC area that are historically and biologically significant. Witness trees are silent observers of American history and are identified as such by the National Park Service.

The trees in this exhibit are large and small, old and young, and have either been planted by famous people or established naturally.  This photo depicts an American sycamore captured on film by Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner on the battlefield at Antietam on September 17, 1862.  It was the bloodiest battle day in US history with more than 23 thousand casualties.

The sycamore was just a sapling near Burnside Bridge when photographed by Gardner, but it is now a splendid specimen. Given the heavy fire and the fierce battle on that day, some historians say it is almost a miracle that the tree survived. 

If you're in DC between now and April 19, make sure you see this moving and important exhibition.

(photos courtesy USBG)

African American Gardens of the South

US Botanic Garden Photo Exhibit

Some 20 years ago, photographer Vaughn Sills visited a home in Athens, GA, and noticed the "energy, or magic or spirit" that surrounded her in the garden.  That was the first African American garden she photographed, and she's continued the project every since, traveling throughout the south.  Now, there's a wonderful new exhibit of her garden photos at the US Botanic Garden in Washington DC.

According to Sills, "these gardens speak a certain language, a language, I'm convinced, that is about the earth, about beauty, and about spirit.... It's a language whose sound is so lyrical that, even though I don't know the nuances of all the words, I use it to make these photographs."

Whether she's photographing Pearl Fryer's topiary garden (above) in Bishopville, NC, or Jessie Mae Smith's garden in Thomson, GA (left), Sills says the photos document "a tradition that is a way of using the land that is both historically significant and aesthetically resonant." 

Historians have traced this particular garden style back to West Africa.  Sills says that slaves brought with them both plant seeds and a knowledge of gardening, but they also brought "an aesthetic rich in visual style and ideas, some still in evidence today."

Don't miss this important and unique exhibition ... it runs through April 19th.

(photos: Vaughn Sills courtesy USBG)

Central Park Plan on View

Original Central Park Map on View

It's not every day that you get to see an original landscape plan by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.  Their original three by eight foot map of "Greensward" -- the drawing that won the contest in 1858 for the design of Central Park -- is now on view at the Arsenal in NYC -- but only through June 19th.   According to David Dunlap's NYT article on the exhibit, this may be only the third time the original plan has ever been on exhibit.

The Arsenal is located at 5th Avenue & 64th St -- and it's third floor gallery, which is closed on weekends, will be open June 14th & 15th from 9AM-5PM.  The gallery is open weekdays the same hours.

Definitely worth a trip to the city to see this extraordinary 150-year-old plan.

 

The Big Moores at NYBG

Henry Moore Sculptures at the NY Botanical Garden

Summer is the best time to appreciate outdoor sculptures, so head to NYC before November for this special showing of monumental works by British sculptor Henry Moore.  It's the largest exhibition of his huge pieces ever presented in the United States. 

Twenty of Moore's large sculptures have been placed around the New York Botanical Garden, including "Locking Piece," shown here outside the NYBG Rock Garden.

The show includes several of his famous reclining figures, as well as simple abstract forms, and three of his mother and child sculptures.

Moore was born in a small coal mining town in Yorkshire in 1898, and after serving in World War I, he received an ex-serviceman's grant to attend the Leeds School of Art.  After two years, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London.  His first exhibition was held in 1928, and the rest is history.  Moore, who died in 1986, was one of the 20th century's most prolific and celebrated sculptors.

According to the Henry Moore Foundation, Moore intended his larger works to be displayed in expansive landscapes where they could be seen from different angles, in different kinds of light, and in different seasons.  So there is no more appropriate setting for this show than the NY Botanical Garden.  And check the NYBG calendar for special programs and tours related to this exhibit.

(image © Anita Feldman, Henry Moore Foundation)

Edible Front Yards at Descanco

Architect Fritz Haeg has recently installed one of his edible front yards at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, CA. You can read an article about it in the Pasadena Star News (scroll down for article), or see pictures of the installation here from Descanso itself,  and decide for yourself whether you should try it out on your own landscape.

FYI, I reviewed Haeg's book in a post earlier this year.

Land Art

You have to applaud the hort students at Cornell.
This "turfwork" covers more than one acre and is to be unveiled today, on Mother's Day. "Passengers flying in and out of Ithaca and people flying in to the East Hill Flying Club Mother's Day breakfast will have the best view," says Marcia Eames-Sheavly, Senior Extension Associate in Cornell's Dept. of Horticulture.   

Under the guidance of Eames-Sheavly and artist Jeff de Castro, the hort students "painted" their design onto the landscape using mulch, straw, and black plastic to turn the grass yellow in certain places.  It took them an entire semester, using a field at a hort research facility adjacent to the Robert Trent Jones golf course. Eames-Sheavly said the goal was to "create a simple, powerful, sensory surprise with maternal overtones nestled into the landscape."

I'm not sure about the maternal overtones, but this is pretty spectacular.  Wonder what you could do on a good-sized suburban lawn -- to view from a second or third-story window.

(image: Peter Cadieux)