Field Trip: Denver Botanic Gardens

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Denver Botanic Gardens. I have been to a bunch of botanic gardens, but the Denver Gardens is a standout.

Display of bee houses at the DBG

Why is it a stand out?  There were three characteristic that I noted.  First, the planting beds in the garden were full, there was no space for weeds to invade and no real empty spots.  Second, someone has paid a great deal of attention to the plant architecture, that is, the height, spacing, color, texture and form were perfect, sometimes in total harmony, other times pleasant surprises.  Third, there were some real show-stopping plantings, for example huge pots full of flowering brugmansia (Angels' trumpet) and towering castor bean plants:

The garden has many, themed garden rooms and a great conservatory.  If you go, plan to stay all day!

Some more "eye candy" for you:

From top left: Chihuly glass "tree," perennial walk, tropical bromeliads, desert garden and the brugmansia.

From top left: colorful flowers, the stunning staghorn sumac, potted sedum, 2 photos of Chihuly glass on the lake.

Boat on the lake with Chihuly glass

And, for the veg gardeners, nice chard! 

Hudson Valley Seed Library

This past weekend I went to Accord, NY, to the Hudson Valley Seed Library, 

a farm that specializes in growing organic and open-pollinated heirloom seeds 

( http://www.seedlibrary.org/about-us-hvsl/ ) that was started at the site of old 

camp resort in 2004.  This is the time of year when plants are harvested for seed

or have already been harvested.  It was odd, from a gardener's perspective to see

so many of these plants gone to seed! It is always an embarrassment to me to see

lettuce, for example, gone to seed in my garden!  And, of course, I try to pick 

my veggies at the best point for eating, which is usually far earlier than the seed

production stage!

In the photo collage above: red zinnias going to seed, center top (counter clock-

wise): red lettuce seed heads, de-seeded squash in the compost pile, onions drying and

eggplants being allowed to mature to form seeds.

This company also sponsors a yearly contest for artists to design some of their seed

packs: 

This might inspire me to use more open-pollinated plants and save my own seed!

Happy gardening!

Field Trip: Lily Pons Water Gardens

Lily Pons

Top left clockwise:  Formal display garden, lotus pond, water lilies for sale, 

lotus bloom, slender cattails.

The lotus pond and garden store in the background

From:  http://www.lilypons.com/our-garden-store

I have been purchasing from Lily Pons Water Gardens (named for an opera star born in 1898) since I had my pond built 4 years ago.  I was pleased with the plants and materials I purchased and, on a recent trip up north, I took a short detour to visit.  Lily Ponds is situated on 250 acres in Adamstown, MD. The garden center is in a colonial building on the property (see second photo from top) and is full of practical and ornamental items for the water garden. Immediately outside the garden you will find long, narrow ponds from which you can select plants for purchase.  Immediately behind the building, under shade of a lean-to, are the tanks holding koi and other aquatic creature for sale (Lily Pons started under another name to sell ornamental fish).  Surrounding the building are production ponds stuffed to the gills (pun?) with water lilies, lotuses, large and dwarf cattails and other amazing plants.  Their large koi pond is home to koi of all sizes, and you can buy a bag of fish food to feed them in the garden center building.  In addition to production ponds large and small with beautiful flowers and plants, there are many display gardens scattered around the property, plus picnic spots in sun and shade.  If you are in the area, or are a water garden fan, pack a picnic lunch and visit!

Field Trip Report: Philly Flower Show

I just got back from a quick trip to Philly for my first visit to the flower show. I had been to
smaller shows before, but this was huge! Held in the convention center, the show had
so many displays it is hard to describe. There were organic and "green" gardening
displays, full gardens and, of course, many vendors. This year's theme was Articukture,
the blending of art and horticulture. There were floral arrangements and displays
depicting works of art. I saw beautiful Ikebana, bonsai, terrariums and plants entered
into competition. There was artwork made from dried flowers and, of course, botanical
illustrations. Many of the displays were very clever and creative, for example, a sushi
bar with all the "ingredients" made of flowers and plant parts and a saguaro cactus
made of succulents! Some scenes from the show are below.

Top left, clockwise: Ikebana, desert plants, hanging floral screen, floral arrangement
interpreting art, "sushi" bar.

Clockwise from top left: creative display, mini-landscape of flowers and plant parts,
100-year old bonsai, Hudson Valley Seed Library original seed pack art, and large,
hanging, floral spheres.

Clockwise from top left: an interpretation of Christo's "The Gates" art installation in
Central Park, Wardian cases, true Philly art: a brick wall covered in a Philly tile and
mirror mural, complete with car tire ornamental planters and graffiti, an amazing and
subtle display of dried grasses and seed heads, a cactus made of succulents.

If you can get to this show, go! This weekend was crowded, so, if you can, try a weekday visit!

OK, really...A Tale of Four Gardens!

OK, on our recent trip to Florida,we went to four gardens (five, if you count the lovely garden at the butterfly aviary), not two.  So here is a "field trip" report on garden number three:

This garden, obviously located at the art museum in Ormond Beach, Fl., is a small garden amidst a commercial area of small and moderately-sized shops on a busy road.  It provides a nice respite from the noise and bustle of the street.  At the entrance is a pretty waterfall (man made waterfalls and water features seem to abound in flat Florida). 

 

 The garden hosts semi- tropical flowers, the ubitiquous palmetto and palms and a huge Bird-of-Paradise against the museum building:

The paths are shady and cool.  There are benches and a gazebo, both would be nice places to kick back and read.

The garden had a few seasonal decorations and my favorite was: 

I'll call him Smiley!

Happy gardening!

A Tale of Two Gardens, Part II

This is garden  two, the Tuscawilla Preserve at the (slightly odd) Museun of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Fl.  The preserve is not truly a garden, but is a preserved area of a hydric hammock, that is, not quite wet enough to be a wetland, but the soil is mostly saturated.  Trees growing in saturated soil must have some adaptations to live in these environments, like roots close to the surface, aerial roots, or these: 

Buttress Roots, to increase stability in high winds.

After driving around the asphalt, concrete, strip-malled area around the preserve, I found it to be a refreshing echo of what interior Florida must have been in the pre-development era (the garden is 7-8 miles inland). From the boardwalk (which makes walking possible) you get a sense of the dense nature of palmetto scrub:

You can hear the world around you (traffic noises), but once you are in the scrub, you cannot see very far at all.

At the entry to the garden is a small water garden and planted area.  It has a few small ponds and, of course:

An orange tree or three.

If you are in the area, it is a pleasant walk!

Happy garden visits!

A Tale of Three Gardens: Part I

We recently visited the Jacksonville Aboreteum and Botanical Gardens in Florida.  For some reason, the two labels below exemplify this park for me: 

The name of this park is misleading (at least in winter: it might be nicer in other seasons).  It is basically a city park, a sort of nature preserve, in an area of light industry (and the park is bisected by a power line easement). There are few labels, and seemingly few interesting plants to label.   At the entrance, you are greeted by signs warning of thefts to cars in the parking lot.  There is a pond and some lightly marked trails.  It would be a fine park in which to walk your dog, as we saw several people doing, but it is not (yet) a botanical garden.   If you are in the area during other seasons, it might be worth a quick visit.

Next time: Florida garden number two!

Happy gardening!  Get those seed catalogs out and start dreaming!

Field Trip: The Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, PA

The Phipps Conservatory

A visit to a conservatory or botanical garden is not complete without a camera (though one should not let the camera interfere with the experience of just being there, but that is another story).  I was recently in Pittsburgh, PA and had the opportunity to visit the Phipps Conservatory.  The original glass house of the Phipps was built in 1893, and the new, LEED-certified expansion added over several years and completed in 2006. When they were planning their expansion, the Phipps went as "green" as they could ("green" as in environmentally friendly, not just in adding more plants!), with sustainable building methods and management practices. For example, the Phipps staff seek the least toxic alternative to dealing with pests and disease, incorporating beneficial insects as part of integrated pest management.  They also use mechanical removal (I call is picking and squashing) to remove pests. Even the lawn outside the conservatory is low maintenance: it is infected with a fungus that causes the roots to grow deeply (resulting in a need for less water) and the blades to grow shorter (meaning less frequent mowing).  The new construction is designed to minimize inputs and minimize energy loss to the outside.  In another example, you might see these beneficial insect feeling stations aroud the conservatory:

But the Phipps is also beautiful, strange and exotic, from the bizarre Buddha's hand (Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis):

To the Bat Wing plant (Taca integrifolia):

The conservatory has several rooms, complete with lovely art glass pieces by many artisans:

Doorways into exotic places:

And charming surprises, like a sedum "tree":

Of course there are exotic orchids (some orchid plants were quite large!):

And water gardens (with more glass sculptures):

And Pittsburgh itself is full of art, from the Warhol Museum, to the Carnegie Museum of Art.  I will leave with one Pittsburgh community art project, "Locks of Love!"

The Phipps combines the old and new, with the original 1896 glass houses and the 2006 "Green" conservatory.  If you are in the area, it is well worth the visit!  Oh, the cafe, whihc uses locally-sources, mostly organic ingredients, is pretty good too!

Happy garden visiting!

Winterthur Field Trip

Fairy garden at Winterthur

I recently visited Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Wilmington, DE, and was really impressed.  I am only going to review the garden (this is a garden blog and we did not have time for the museum anyway!).  We visited in early May, so got to see many early spring ephemerals, like Virginia bluebells and woodland trillium (as a matter of fact, the place was stuffed with a variety of trillums):

There was an amazing collection of highly fragrant lilacs: light to deep purple, white and cream.  You could smell the lilacs a long way away!

In addition, the garden was stuffed with azaleas, dogwoods, white and lilac redbuds, bluebells, and primrose.

The most charming feature of the garden was the Enchanted Forest.  You do not have to go with a child to enjoy it, from the woodsman's cottage, the witch's hut, the large birds nest, story- telling circles and foot bridge.  This is the way a children's garden should be: it is a creatively designed, woodland space, that enhances a child's imagination.  As you walk through, the path twists and turns, exposing unexpected areas hidden behind a screening of plants.  It is delightful!

You can get information on the garden and museum at:
http://www.winterthur.org/
The admission was a bit steep, at $18 per person, but this also includes the museum. If you have membership at a reciprocal garden, as we did, it is free as a member benefit.
Happy garden visiting!

Field Trip: Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo NC

When we travel, we look for two things: brew pubs and botanical gardens.  About a 15 minute drive from Nags Head, NC, we found the Elizabethan Gardens, and enjoyed it greatly, despite drizzling rain.  The garden is themed to match the era in which the "Lost Colony" at Roanoke Island was ever-so-temporarily settled, but it also necessarily  includes elements of the New World in which the doomed colonists found themselves.  Started in the 1950's by the Garden Club of North Carolina, the garden expanded to 10 acres and was designed to mimic a pleasure garden, like those created for Queen Elizabeth the First (see second photo above of a contemporary statue of the Queen, located on the main garden walk).

This is a charming garden.  You are greeted at the entrance with a small scale, crenellated castle wall entrance (top photo), and meander down brick and unpaved paths to encounter both antique and whimsical statuary (find the gnomes!  And see a depiction of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World). (By the way, the name of my current home state, Virginia, is derived from Queen Elizabeth, known as "the Virgin Queen").  My favorite part of the garden was the sunken garden (third photo).  This garden is enclosed in a hedge, so you cannot fully see it until you enter it, a "surprise" effect I enjoyed.  This garden is actually ringed with a double hedge- you can walk the paver path in the middle of the two hedges, and come to cleverly designed opening in the hedge, maintained by an arched trellis-very lovely.  An ancient Italian fountain is at the center, and it is ringed by statuary.

Admission is $8 and well worth it to support this lovely garden.  One more note: it is advised that visitors bring mosquito repellent.  We did not have much trouble with bugs, perhaps due to the weather, but were also sprayed up (soon I will be posting on effective herbal mosquito repellents, so stay tuned!)

Happy Gardening!

Field Trip Reprt: Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens

On a recent trip to north central Florida, we visited a small botanical garden, the Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens, in Port Orange: go to: http://www.dunlawtonsugarmillgardens.org/
It is a little gem of a tropical garden, even in the winter! The most interesting plant to me was a very old live oak tree, called the Confederate Oak (see recent blog entry on live oaks). These can be huge trees, and in the right conditions, harbor many other plants on their large, near horizontal branches, from Spanish moss, to ferns, epiphytes, orchids, bromeliads and other plants, making them a plant nursery of sorts...and stunningly beautiful. This garden, started as a sugar, rice and cotton plantation, is rich in ferns, palms, and tropical flowering plants. Another memorable feature is an old stone and concrete wall that has been converted to a fern grotto. The garden also contains the sheltered ruins of the pre-Civil War era sugar mill.
Particulars:
The garden is free, though they do request a donation. It is on Old Sugar Mill Road in Port Orange, right in the middle of a neighborhood. iI opens at 8AM, but call for seasonally adjusted closing hours: 386-767-1735
If you are in the area, I recommend this lovely garden!

By the way, Wikipedia, source of all knowledge, has a listing of "significant" botanic gardens and arboreta in the US at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_botanical_gardens_in_the_United_States
Happy gardening!

Live Oak Trees

I recently visited family in Florida. Though the state is very developed, I do enjoy the flora there. Most people probably associate Florida with palm trees, but there is nothing more majestic than an old, southern live oak tree (Quercus virginiana) which also grows in other regions of the deep south. These huge trees develop horizontal branches that become host to all sorts of other plants, including ferns, lichens, and mosses. I tried to upload a video of a 200 year old Confederate live oak at Dunlawton Sugar Mill Botanical Gardens in Port Orange, FL but I could not, so the above photos are still shots we got of another tree in South Carolina:

The Dunlawton garden is lovely, and unexpected, right in the middle of a neighborhood. It has a nice collection of palms, a Florida hammock trail, lovely gingers and orchids, among other sub-tropical plants. It is free and open to the public, but they ask for donations. It is the former home of the Dunlawton sugar mill, the curated ruins of which are on site.
For more info on this garden, visit:

http://www.dunlawtonsugarmillgardens.org/


Happy New Year! Happy gardening!

5th Annual GoGreen VA Festival: 9//11/2010

GO GREEN Virginia!

I went to the 5th annual GoGreen Virginia festival today. Though it was a small festival, it will hopefully grow to fill the space behind the Science Museum of Virginia on Broad Street in Richmond http://www.smv.org/mapanddirections.html As you may know the SMV is in the former train station and the train platforms are still behind the museum- this is where the festival was held. The site offered a nice flat concrete surface for tables and displays and overhead awnings for shade- very nice.
One of the pleasures of going to a festival like this is meeting people who are enthusiastic about a specific area of interest. I had conversations about LEED (green) building certification, fire blight in pears, the difficulties posed by this hot and dry season for gardeners, herbs and something new to me: the Virginia Certified Master Naturalist Program (www.virginiamasternaturalist.org). The latter certifies interested individuals to be "volunteer educators, citizen scientists and stewards" of Virginia lands. Set up like the Master Gardener program, it requires 48 hours in the classroom and 40 hours of volunteer service. The website lists chapters that are forming in Virginia.
Another favorite discovery was the "How to Kill a Tree" poster from the arborists' association.
I had to laugh aloud at it- it is so true! Mulching up the sides of the tree, planting too near the house, topping the tree, failing to remove support wires until they cut and girdle the tree, using herbicides too near the tree, mower cuts on the bark...all are typical, and harmful, practices that I see all too often. If you have a tree, learn about the proper care to have years of shade and beauty! (I feel another blog entry coming on!)

The festival also had nurseries, garden design firms, plant vendors and other types of vendors you find at plant sales- garden hats, recycled garden tools and the like. Organizers thoughtfully included kids' activities (paint a flower pot, planting seeds and extracting DNA from a strawberry) and several booths where you could ask garden questions (like the extension service booth).

As I wrote at the start, the festival was small, but I hope it grows.

Happy gardening! And GoGreen Virginia...and the east coast...and the US!