Bridge of Flowers

The Bridge of Flowers officially closed on October 30, but it will be open for a few more days so people can take the scenic route from Shelburne to Buckland OR Buckland to Shelburne. Last week there was a final exciting event. Note the graceful ironwork on the Bridge sign. It was a collaborative community effort between Bill Austin and Grey Marchese of Austin Design in Colrain, artist/blacksmith Bob Compton of Rising Sun Forge in Conway, and Michael Therrien’s freshmen/sopomore carpentry class at Franklin County Technical School.

Tree of Friendship by Bob Compton

Last week Bob Compton installed this beautiful tree of friendship which will annually record the names of all the Friends of the Bridge who support the plantings and maintenance of the Bridge. As you can see this is a blooming tree and we look forward to the blooming of a strong neighborhood of Friends. Thank you, Bob!

Now that the flowers are gone from the Bridge of Flowers it is easy to see how important foliage is in any garden. Obviously conifers are an anchor in the fall and winter garden. The Bridge has two magnificent weeping hemlocks, one at either end.

Some shrubs have foliage that turns gold.

Others have scarlet foliage. I am not sure what this is, but it is not the invasive burning bush.

Some foliage stays green well into the season, but adds berries.

Some foliage, like this Pieris japonica is very dark.

The foliage of  this azalea is almost black in the fall.

Hakonelochloa 'Aureola'

The crisp dried grass adds a very different note,

As does the annual ornamental kale. There are many ways to have color in the garden after the flowers have gone.

Only Bob Compton’s flowers will bloom all winter.

Smith College Chrysanthemums

Sometimes a chrysanthemum is just a mum, but sometimes a chrysanthemum is Art. Artistically grown chrysanthemums will be on display during Smith College’s annual Fall Chrysanthemum Show which will run November 5-20 in the Lyman Plant House. A $2 donation is suggested. On display will be the stunning chrysanthemum cascades and other skillfully pruned and supported chrysanthemums, some in pillars, and some trained to a single stem with a giant bloom.

Like the spring Bulb Show the Chrysanthemum Show depends on the knowledge of greenhouse staff and students to bring the plants into bloom just in time for opening day by carefully controlling light and temperature. The Japanese style cascades, rarely seen in the U.S., require the patient pinching and arranging of plant shoots through a chicken wire frame to create this stunning effect. The Chrysanthemum Show is a glorious last hurrah to the end of the blooming season.

This year the show will actually begin on Friday, November 4 with A Garden Writer’s Journey, a talk by Paula Dietz, Smith alum, co-founder of the Friends of the Smith Botanic Garden, and author of “On Gardens: Selected Essays.” The talk will be held in the Campus Center Carroll Room at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception where Dietz will sign her book. The Lyman Plant House will also be illuminated for a preview of the show for attendees.

In “On Gardens” Paula Dietz writes of her experiences over decades in all manner of gardens around the world from the U.S. to the serene gardens of Japan, evoking the sense of the culture and personalities that create gardens, and the way they are used. She uses her knowledge of history, art and literature to bring those gardens and gardeners to life for the reader. I was particularly delighted by the section on parks and public spaces, seeing some of the landscapes that are familiar to me through her eyes and sensibility.

Dietz also reminded me of how important chrysanthemums are to Asians. A couple of years ago I attended a rare exhibit of Kiku, Japanese style arrangements of potted chrysanthemums at the New York Botanic Garden. I saw how the artistry of Japanese gardeners reflects ideals of perfect form and mindfulness.

I also thought of the way the Chinese consider chrysanthemums the iconic symbol of autumn and imagined holding a moon viewing party in September on the night of the full moon, when the chrysanthemums are in bloom. We could search for Chang’e, the beautiful lady in the moon with her companion the jade rabbit, and eat sweet mooncakes.

The organizers of the chrysanthemum show must also be thinking about the place mums have in Asian culture. On Saturday, November 12  at 2 p.m. students in the Culture of the Lyric in Traditional China: Plants and Poetry class will read selected poems in the Church Exhibition Gallery. Chrysanthemum tea will be served. I should say this delicate tea is made with the blossoms of a particular chrysanthemum, not any old hardy mum.

Dan Ladd gourd sculpture

The Church Gallery is also hosting a new exhibit Shaping Plants: Fruits, Shoots and Roots. The artist, Dan Ladd, is exhibiting examples of his collaborations with nature, gourds grown inside molds to become sculptures, and photographs of pruning and grafting trees and plants into unique and whimsical structures. His art has grown out of his fascination with the adaptability of plants. Ladd will be on hand Friday, November 18 at 6:30 p.m. for an informal talk in the gallery.

While working with different plants in a totally different way, Ladd has similar patience and skill in his handling of plants as the Lyman House staff takes in preparing for this show which is such a treat for the broader community beyond Smith College.

Smith College is known for the excellent education if offers its enrolled students, but it is also an educational resource for nearby communities. The perennial and rock gardens that surround the Lyman Plant House contain hundred of plants, all carefully labeled. These labels educate local gardeners about what blooms when, and how late into the season they will bloom, and the exact names of the plants so they can be brought into their own personal gardens.

I have always been impressed by the way the campus acts as an arboretum, with each tree tagged and labeled. When it is time for any of us to add a tree to our own domestic landscape we are often handicapped by our limited knowledge of trees in general, and the trees that will thrive in our climate in particular. A stroll around the Smith campus is all it takes to be inspired, and given the information to choose a beautiful and interesting tree for our own gardens. A guide to the trees is on sale.

This is not the place to describe all the gardens at Smith, but many readers may have ambled along the paths by Paradise Pond and found the Wildflower and Woodland Garden or the Japanese Garden for Reflection and Contemplation. The Capen Garden includes a rustic rose arbor and a gazebo. There is a garden for every mood and season, or search for learning.

The Lyman Plant House is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is wheelchair accessible. A special handicapped parking space is just outside the Plant House entry. Full information about the gardens and planning a visit is at www.smith.edu/garden.

One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Homeplace

One Writer's Garden by Susan Haltom and Jane Roy Brown

Eudora Welty has been much on my mind these last months. First there was a performance of the one act opera composed by Alice Parker based on Welty’s The Ponder Heart, and then I read a biography of Elizabeth Lawrence who was a friend of Welty’s, and then my book club read One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty. All of that is topped off with the publication of One Writer’s Garden written by Susan Haltom who researched and oversaw the restoration of the garden, and Conway’s Jane Roy Brown, journalist and garden historian, whose writing is familiar to many of us.

This beautiful book published by the University of Mississippi tells the story not only of Eudora and her mother Chestina who designed the garden, but of the life and culture of the early to mid-twentieth century and how a garden reflected that culture.  Jane Roy Brown will be at Pages in Conway on Sunday, October 23, from noon til 2 pm, talking about the book and signing on request. The book will be available at local bookstores.

I’ll be writing more about Jane Roy Brown and her book soon. Keep watching.

Water and Delight

University Village fountain

Our area suffered flooding from Tropical Storm Irene and the storm that followed a week after causing enormous damage as rivers and streams overflowed their banks. We have recovered on our road so today I prefer to think about the gentler water in our gardens that calms and soothes.  Here are some of the the quiet waters I saw in Seattle this summer at the Garden Bloggers Fling.

Michelle and Christopher Epping's Garden

Kate Farley's fountain and pool

Kathryn Galbraith's fountain

Bloedel Reserve Reflecting Pool

Only a big public garden can have a big water feature like this, but most of us can find a way to bring water, reflections – and quiet reflection into our own gardens.

Little Big House Gallery

Little Big House Gallery

Artist Glenn Ridler says his Little Big House is a major work of his career, playfully and artfully shifting proportions to build his living space and the Little Big House Gallery. The house is set amid beautiful gardens that were the setting for his daughter’s wedding in June.

Little Big House shed

I have known Glenn and his wife Christine Baronas for many years, but I do not often get to visit up on their Shelburne hill.  A shed I had not seen before provides an excellent space for enjoying the garden.

A garden lit by the setting New England sun last Friday is as artful as anyone could desire. But it is a fleeting beauty.

Little Big House Gallery - Bridge of Flowers exhibit

The beauties of the Bridge of Flowers were captured more permanently by a group of artists including Fred Burrington and Walter Cudnohufsky. It is this exhibit that brought me up to Patten Hill, picturesque in its own right, to enjoy the visions that many artists have created of Shelburne Falls’ Bridge of Flowers. Some of the paintings had been sold even before I left the opening. The exhibit will continue until October 28. Gallery Hours are Saturday and Sunday from 1-4 pm. The drive to and from the Little Big House Gallery alone is worth the trip on an autumnal afternoon.

Seeing Trees Contest

I haven’t seen Seeing Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo, but I have seen some of the gorgeous photographs by Robert LLewellyn. This book promises to give many ways of recognizing trees in the most delightful way, through all the tree’s stages.

Timber Press, which publishes some of the most distinguished garden books around is holding a contest.  A signed, 16″×20″ print of a Robert Llewellyn photograph from Seeing Trees, custom matted and framed (see contest site for image) and a signed copy of Seeing Trees could be yours. Go to the contest site by clicking here.  The contest closes on September 9.  winners will be randomly selected and contacted soon after the close of the contest. No purchase is necessary to enter.

“On every page we see the miracle of seeds maturing, leaves unfurling, and flowers emerging. But moreover, this book teaches us what to look for when we slow down and take the time — what we can see in the scars of a leaf, the twig structure, and the pattern of the bark. With profiles of the most familiar and beloved species, including the American Beech, the Red Maple, the Southern Magnolia, and the Tulip Poplar, Seeing Trees opens our eyes to a tree’s shy magnificence, and invites us to deepen our relationship with these earthly treasures.” Timber Press

Fox at the Gate

Entry of Japanese Garden, Bloedel Reserve

For more Wordlessness click here.

Lorene Forkner’s Garden

Lorene Forkner, one of the organizers of the fabulous Seattle Fling, invited us to her own garden which is not large, but filled with enough plants and art of interest to keep me inspired for the next decade.

I cannot help it. It is the roses that catch my eye first.

This rose cluster was so heavy it would have been on the ground in my garden, but Lorene whipped up a support.

My question is – did she have this loopy metal thing hanging around, or did she have someone do the twisting intentionally?

Lorene was very offhand about having this gabion at the entry of her garden whipped up by a welder. I just learned this word ‘gabion’.

She used other gabions to provide the seating around a firepit. And a place for firewood. Many of her ideas will be available for us all to ponder when her book, Handmade Garden Projects comes out soon from Timber Press. Do you think if I gave this to my husband for Christmas he would take it in the proper spirit?

We bloggers swarmed through the garden, oooing and ahhhhing, taking photos, making notes, and sometimes just sitting and taking it all in.

Many Seattle area gardens had succulents in a pot, as did Lorene.

Nobody else had succulents AND a bowling ball.

I love sweet peas which must not have any trouble in the cool climate.

These edible peas certainly got everyone’s attention.  Did anyone get the name written down? Please let me know.

This little deck on  the hill drew a crowd. What a viewing post.

I have dozens of photos but what I felt in this garden was Love. Love of plants, of the garden, of her friends, of the community, and of all of us. She, and the other organizers, made this trip a perfect delight.

Beehive and Worms

If one grandson visits the beehive charcoal kiln in Hawley, others will demand the same opportunity.

Anthony documented everything for his vlog. That’s V for video. He’s way ahead of me. Drew is just astounded.

We stopped at Avery’s General Store to pick up a couple of things for supper, but we could have bought boots, or plumbing fixtures, or paint, or a slow cooker – or anything!

After supper we went out to check the worms. I had to hold them because Anthony and Drew were doing the documenting. Actually, they had no desire to handle the worms. I wore gloves.

Sculpture at Chesterwood

We saw cows on our travels but none of them looked like these at Chesterwood yesterday. The sculpture which is flat actually works better as a photo than in person, especially in this setting.

A New Pair

Its been a busy weekend with our Annual Family Meeting on Sunday. There was so much talk that I never even thought about the camera until we were half way home with a new pair of grandsons, Anthony and birthday boy Drew (13!) from Texas.

Pearl Fryar

Then, yesterday while ‘The Major’ organized the boys to set up the blueberry frame, mow the lawn, and relax in the Cottage Ornee, a friend and I drove over to The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home, in Lenox. It is always a pleasure to visit this beautiful house and restored gardens, but the draw this time was the appearance of Pearl Fryar, the man who sculpts trees. He gave a talk which was not only about how how he creates topiary, but about the advice he give to young people: “Success is work. . . . Use what you’ve got. . . what you were given . . . your talent . . . and contribute that to the community.” I wrote about Pearl earlier here.

A big crowd came to watch Pearl turn four trees into topiary over the course of the day. Those trees and many other items were to be auctioned off to raise money for scholarships.

Pearl did explain that working with a tree this size was different from working with a small tree and pruning it for five years, but he said he would do what he could.

He gave a lecture about using a good chain saw with reciprocating blades. And said that the blade had to be kept at an angle while he tried to make swirl.

Topiary finished

Ta-da!  All done in about 15 minutes.  You can see the beginning of the swirl reveals the multiple stems. This would not happen if he had started with a young tree.

Lilies at The Mount

Of course my friend Cheryl and I had to take a turn around the gardens.  Lots of bloom. Lily season is just starting.

The Secret Garden at the Mount

After touring the house and the wonderful exhibit about Wharton and WWI we cooled ourselves in the shady Secret Garden. And then it was off to our next stop, Chesterwood with its outdoor sculpture exhibit.

Bear Walking 2009 by Richard Rothschild

This sculpture of Walking Bear 2009 by Richard Rothschild was one of my favorites.

When I got home I did cook up a mess of pasta, peas and bacon, ‘The Best Meal Ever’ for the birthday boy.

We closed the evening with a few hands of Hearts, my new favorite game.  That’s Drew with an ace. Both boys are aces with me.