Weekend pix

Some images from the weekend, which included a very short tour of Cornell Plantations with some old family friends in town for a visit. Plantations is worth a visit if only to see the container collections right off the parking lot.

weekend pix

Some hot hibiscus blooms at Plantations.
weekend pix

And some nice lilies.
weekend pix

Every year this border right outside the education building is a little different. And every time I marvel at the skill that goes into its design and execution.
weekend pix

A favorite vignette from the border, including ricinus and beets.
weekend pix

Another view of the containers.
weekend pix

Some scenes from around the home garden. Red astilbe.
weekend pix

The back sunny border.
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Allium, artemisia and jewelweed.
weekend pix

Some blooms. Ligularia.
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A hybrid hazelnut I got from Phil Rutter close to 20 years ago.
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A bunch of filipendula closeups. Cotton candy.
weekend pix

weekend pix

weekend pix

weekend pix

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Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop – Garden Whimsy

whimsy
Blue bottle ‘flower’ (with boat augers and lamp fixture). Blue bottle tree in background.

A couple weeks after Nan announced this round of the Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop, Steve Orr’s New York Times Q&A column in The New York Times (Picking Accessories for the Plants) offered good advice on garden ornamentation that applies equally to whimsy. His advice:

  • Don’t go overboard.
  • Use found objects.
  • Use surprise.
  • Make ornaments focal points, but don’t distract too much from the plants.

Even in a very lushly planted yard, a visitor’s eye usually will go straight to any nonplant feature. It’s best not to have several ornaments visible at a glance, competing with each other, since the most interesting landscapes have a little mystery. Place one object half-hidden in a leafy shrub and position another around a corner, so that its discovery is a surprise.

Did I mention don’t go overboard? If I have a problem with whimsy in the garden, it’s probably that my eye gets too accustomed to whimsical elements. Before you know it, my yard will be filled with crap. Hopefully I’ll notice before the neighbors.

For those of you who aren’t in the neigborhood, here’s what I’ve got scattered around. (The camera exercise once again reveals to me I’ve got way more than I thought.) I’ll also include some shots from other gardens at the end.

Floating bowling ball on bent rebar. Long story of the midnight bowling ball accident of 2003 from a previous design workshop post.
whimsy

Sugar and flower canisters make great pots. So do olive oil cans.
whimsy

How could I not buy a bottle of Chilean brandy when the bottle looks like an Easter Island statue? It was all I could do to drink the brandy. But I earned a container ornament for my efforts.
whimsy

Jade checks out the happy turtle. Not so visible in the pot is an ancient hand-made Chia head that I remember from childhood. It split a few years ago so now I have two profiles looking up at me from the pot.
whimsy

Someday I’ll make a pilgrimage to the local pink flamingo factory and get a real one. But for now I like the one I have with its spinning wings.
whimsy

Sloggers still work as hanging container for succulents. Back story and my infamous garden footwear review.
whimsy

Spilled trough with hypertufa balls.
whimsy

Glow-in-the-dark tree guy.
whimsy

My mini-water-garden probably counts more as ornamentation than it does as whimsy.
whimsy

I float blossoms in this old cattle waterer.
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My friend Marcia has a pretty whimsical garden. She does it with a lot more class than I do. More pictures of her garden here.
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Shirley G. has the best whimsical garden in these parts. Shirley is a member of our local Adirondack Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. The group toured her garden back in 2005, when I took these pictures.

A salvaged canopy bed that I picture now covered with vines.
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The family.
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Best shoe garden I’ve seen.
whimsy

Shirley also had a cool heart-shaped water garden tub, a Wizard of Oz garden and lots of other cools stuff punctuated by some great plants.

Have at it. Just don’t overdo it.

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Geese playing king of the hill …

… and other doings this last weekend in April.

I’m no goose expert. But I think that what we have going on here is a couple of young geese who fly in to the beaver pond daily and honk in hopes of attracting a female. They play king of the hill on the beaver lodge. But so far, no domestic activities that I can see. The prime territory (and the big loud goose fights) are to be had out in the main body of the wetland to our west.

geese

The marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris) are probably at peak. Here are two views below the beaver dam.

Caltha palustris

The reddish blotches are leftovers from ferns from last year.

Caltha palustris

Hank mentioned that — based on the pix I’ve been posting — that my garden must be looking good. Well the past couple weeks are the time of the year when they really look like crap, or more kindly they’re going through that awkward phase where you have to get down on your knees and look very closely to find the beauty. But I am to the point where I’m starting to step back a little, with this image of a variegated albutilon friends sent as a get well greeting for Elly and containers waiting to be filled with tropicals in the coming weeks.

albutilon

Alchemilla mollis is back. Dew on lady’s mantle is pretty trite as images go, I know. But I’ll keep shooting it until I get it right.

albutilon

One of those fancy primulas nearly in full flower.

albutilon

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Plants in motion

Some people are drawn to birding over gardening because ‘birds move, plants don’t.’ Au contraire. I am acutely aware of motion in the garden, and enjoy many plants for the mere fact that they start quivering in the slightest breeze.

For example, I’ve heard folks disparage Calamagrostis because most of the time it just looks like dead grass. But it’s the first plant that starts in motion when there’s not even enough wind to get the wind chimes playing. Here it is with a white-flowered artemisia in the foreground:

Ornamental grasses are generally the best for turning wind into motion. There are several here, with Calamagrostis (left) wavering again, Miscanthis (several, center) flying its flag, and Panicum (right) reacting en masse.

[A technical note: I’m very unhappy about the loss of quality when video files are uploaded and compressed by both GoogleVideo and YouTube. It helped to cut back to 15 fps when filming, but still the raw avi files or edited wmv files look much better viewed locally. If you squint viewing these, you’ll probably get the idea. Anyone have tips for maintaining quality when uploading to either of these sites?]

Floppers — those top-heavy plants that most people stake (I sure don’t have the time) — are fascinating in a light breeze. (All of these videos were shot on days when there were only intermittent breezes topping out at about 10 mph.) Here is Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Hortensis’ (the outhouse plant I blogged about recently) bobbing and weaving in a slight breeze.

Here’s Sanguisorba tenuifolia (also the subject of a recent post) which really gets going with just a whisper of a wind. And if you squint, you can see another great top-heavy flopper bobbing around, Joy-pye weed (Eupatorium spp) left background.

Here’s a close-up of the same Sanguisorba, which will give you a good idea of just how much this plant moves in just a very light breeze.

Big leaves are also good at catching a breeze. Tropical plants like elephant ears (left) and bananas (right) start quivering with the slightest breeze.

Mixed plantings give interesting effects. (Hey, you choose plant combinations based on color. Why not on how they move?) There are tall, top-heavy ironweed (Vernonia) in the center of this planting and goldenrod to the left. More Calamagrostis waving down low, left-center with a bluish Panicum behind it. Various shrubs, trees and weeds add to the effects.

Dappled shade can heighten the effects of motion as the overstory moves along with (or counter to) the plants below, which move in and out of light and shade, like these coneflowers.

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