Art – Page 39 – Ellis Hollow

Garden blogger bloom day scan

Many thanks for Carol at May Dreams Garden for organizing the bloom day.

Still not happy with winter scans. But may still do a calendar for 2010.

jan scan
Larger image | supersized

Steve Silk’s post on plume poppies at Gardening Gone Wild made me realize how much I take this great plant for granted. Evidence of that: I had to search high and low on my hard drive to find even one picture, the PhotoShop filtered image above of an allium with the plume poppy foliage in the background.

Echoing Steve, I love the leaves with their cut edges. My main patch is across the living room from my desk, where that foliage is framed in a window and helps block the busy road out front.

On the north side of the house, it’s maybe not as aggressive as it might be in a spot with better sun and soil. I pluck a few stray runners early in the season to keep it in bounds. It’s not the rampant hog some told me it would be when I first planted it. (I like a plant that can hold its own.) But the plumes do rise up about 7 feet.

I’ve got a real hell strip about 2 feet wide between the driveway and house with the worst soil on the place where it tops off at about 4 feet. It has a totally different character there.

If anyone wants a start, stop by.

Japanese rice field art

Hat tip to Matt Mattus for his post about rice field art near the village of Inakadate. Designs are ‘painted’ into fields using rice varieties with different leaf colors. (Here’s what the plants look like up close.)

I was pleased to see one inspired by one of my favorite woodblock prints of Mt. Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai.

More rice field art images here. Or google image search.

Online botanical illustration course

[Full disclosure: I work in Cornelly University’s Department of Horticulture.]

If one of your new year’s resolutions is to become more creative and perhaps unleash that artist hidden within, consider:

Introduction to Botanical Illustration
Course starts Jan. 19.

If you’ve ever wanted to become proficient at illustrating what you see in your garden, this 6-week online course will teach you the basics of rendering plants in pencil and ink.

The instructor, my friend and co-worker Marcia Eames Sheavly, is an accomplished artist who also teaches our popular Art of Horticulture course, recently featured by Julie over at The Human Flower Project.

More info about the course. | View the full syllabus.

There’s also an online organic gardening course that starts tomorrow, Jan. 5. You can still register if you hurry.

2008 Year in review (Part 2)

You might want to start with Part 1.

July

July started with a rare vacation away from home, to my brother’s lake house to celebrate my Dad’s 80th. On the boat with my sister Cheryl and wife Elly …

cheryl, craig, elly

With Cheryl and Alex after a good morning of striper fishing.

Back home, it’s midsummer and there are lots of great serendipitous plant combos to enjoy, in the wet garden …

… and front garden.

Enough plant material to do bloom day scans in four different color schemes.

Out in the garden, lilies …

The rusty favorite, Digitalis ferruginea

Exploring backlighting.

Lots of gaudy flowers to shoot. Hibsicus at Cornell Plantations …

Filipendula.

Lily

Plus my 15 minutes of fame in USA Weekend.

August

Jade rolling under a double rainbow ’bout sums up my feelings about August.

Larger image.

They say things start slowing down in the garden in August. Can’t say I’ve noticed that. There’s lots growing around the patio, but still not much time to sit.