Turning Toward the Light

Japanese Friendship Garden, San Jose CA

A few weeks ago I had the chance to escape cold and snowy Boston to spend a few days in warm, sunny, San Jose, California. One of the gardens we visited there was the Japanese Friendship Garden, in Kelley Park on the east side of town. It was such a pleasure to visit this beautiful spot with beautiful ponds, green grass, and blooming cherry trees.

The lower koi pond and the Japanese tea house near the entrance.

The garden had several different types of footbridges. This one featured discontinuous wooden planks. In other places, stepping stones were used.

There were fountains and islands in the pond, and huge fat healthy-looking koi. Signs were up explaining that the visitors should not feed the fish in the winter, but people were doing it anyway.

We found this waterfall early on. Later we made our way up to a higher pond that the waterfall was coming from. Then we found another pond - that one had a rushing stream running down to the lower pond. It was the kind of garden that always had something new to see around the next bend in the path.

On the right is an arching bridge in the upper koi pond. It leads to a small island planted with evergreens.

One of the plants in bloom was this Mahonia, also known as Oregon Grape-Holly. We have these in the Western garden at Garden in the Woods, but they never grow so lush and don't bloom until summertime. There were lots of benches in the garden. Some were near the ponds; others were placed on small mounds with a view of the garden or in groves of trees.

One of the interesting sculpted trees and a view of the cherry grove across a sweep of lawn.

Here's a short video of the lower pond.

Touring the Garden

A few weeks ago, I took some friends on a tour of Garden in the Woods. One of the visitors took some great pictures, and I've uploaded them into my first .Mac photo album. It was particularly interesting for me to see a garden tour from a visitor's point of view. She took some of the same views I've taken in the past, but also some pictures from a new angle.

Here are a few of her pictures:

An amazing closeup of dragonflies mating near the pond. The pond just teems with dragonflies in the summer. I love dragonflies because they eat mosquitos. The dragonfly larvae eat the mosquito larvae in the water, and the adult dragonflies eat adult mosquitos. Their front legs form a sort of basket, which the they use entrap mosquitos in mid-air. Yeah, dragonflies!

These Mountain holly berries are almost glowing with a rich velvety sheen.

Thoreau, a keen naturalist, wrote of this berry in Wild Fruits:

Wild holly, the imp-eyed, red, velvety-looking berry of the swamps, begins by the fourteenth of July. This is perhaps the most beautiful of our berries, hanging by slender threads from its light and open bushes amid its delicate leaves.

Mountain holly is not a real holly, although it is related. The current botanical name is Nemopanthus mucronatus, although it has also been called Ilex canadensis, Nemopanthus canadensis, and Vaccinium mucronatum. It is a good-sized shrub, and grows in Garden of the Woods just across from the cranberry bog. Unfortunately, the berries only last for a week or two, so I'm always happy when I have the chance to show them to visitors.

Please go to Tour of Garden in the Woods, July 2007 to see the rest of the pictures. (Login: gardenphotos/gitw)

Great new "Pollination" stamps

I went to the Post Office today and found these great new Pollination stamps.

From the press release:

Depicted on the Pollination stamps are four wildflowers and four pollinators. The common and scientific names of the featured flowers are purple nightshade, also known as chaparral nightshade (Solanum xanti); hummingbird trumpet (Epilobium canum); saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) and prairie ironweed, also known as common ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata). The common and scientific names of the featured animal pollinators are Morrison’s bumblebee (Bombus morrisoni); calliope hummingbird (Stellula calliope); lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) and Southern dogface butterfly (Colias cesonia).

Snapshots of Colorado

I recently spent about a week in Colorado, so I'd like to share some pictures of the various types of Colorado flora I encountered.

Colorado Springs Xeriscape Garden

One of the issues of gardening in Colorado is the low level of rainfall and the need to conserve water. I knew the term xeriscape means "dry gardening", but I hadn't been aware that the term is actually trademarked by the City of Denver Water Department. Xeriscape gardening is promoted by utilities throughout the state, and there are several xeriscape demonstration gardens. I visited one in Colorado Springs, in a beautiful location overlooking Garden of the Gods and Pike's Peak. This garden guide gives some of the principles of xeriscape gardening.

Florissant Fossil Beds

The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is an amazing remnant of the great redwood forests that once existed in Colorado. These forests were destroyed in a great volcanic eruption in the Eocene, and the fossilized remains were found all over the ground when the first European settlers arrived. In addition to being a great resource for the discovery of fossils, this is also a great place to view Colorado wildflowers. Many of the wildflowers are labeled, and the visitor's center has a guide they hand out on request.

The flowers below include Indian Paintbrush (Castillega integra), a very common flower in the high meadows, some type of thistle, yellow Potentilla, and Milk Vetch.

Locoweed is in the legume family and often stores selenium from the soil which can be poison to horses and cattle. I believe the second photo shows Sneezeweed and Fleabane.

Another view of vetch, both closeup and in a mass.

Okay, this picture is just for fun. We went on a trail ride on Mount Princeton, and my friend's horse showed us that he liked wildflowers too!

Spruce, Pine, and Aspens

Here's a typical upland scene with spruce and pine. On the right is a stand of ancient stunted bristlecone pines near the treeline on Pike's Peak.

The main type of deciduous tree in the mountains is the aspen. Aspens send up sprouts from their roots, so all the aspens in a large grove may all be genetic clones. In the fall, the aspens turn a beautiful shade of bright gold, which makes a great contrast with the dark green spruce and pines. On the right, you can see large black splotches up to a certain point on the aspen trunks. This shows where the elk have eaten the bark in the winter, when everything else is covered with snow.

The ponderosa pine has the unique feature that it grows in spirals, as you can see from these dead trunks.

Watch (and listen to) the wind blowing through these aspen trees near St. Elmo Colorado

Mountain Towns

In the old mining town of Leadville (altitutde about 10,000 feet), I saw a number of small street-corner plantings that featured mountain wildflowers and aspen groves.

Breckinridge is a beautiful town built around promenades along the Blue River. In the summer there are lots of trees and flowers, although you're aware of how short the flowering season is when you see tulips and lilacs blooming in late June. In the winter, skiing is king, as you can tell by this bench and planters made of skis and ski boots.

Garden of the Gods

Rocks are everwhere in Colorado - it was the red rocks that gave Colorado its name. So I'll end this post with another type of garden - this fantastic rock formation outside Colorado Springs known as The Garden of the Gods.

Baby ducks!

In my previous posts about the Art Goes Wild exhibit at Garden in the Woods, I mentioned that a mother duck was nesting on one of the floating islands. I even tried to take a video of her, but she was pretty elusive. In this video you can just barely make out her head, as she nervously picks at the foliage surrounding her nest.

Today we got some good news. Scott LaFleur, of the horticulture staff, reported that the eggs have hatched and we now have four baby ducklings living in the pond! He sent out these photos of the new family:

Through the garden with Rolf

A few days ago, the Garden in the Woods guides were treated to a tour through the garden with Horticulturalist Rolf Schilling. He gave us a torrent of information about the Art Goes Wild exhibit and some of the new plants in the garden, so this is just a brief overview of some of the highlights.

At the entrance to the garden it was already clear that we had made the transition from spring to summer. Here are the the fiery blooms of the Flame Azalea and the seed stalks of the Bottlebrush Buckeye.

The Idea Garden (these photos are from May) includes plants that grow in dappled shade, with predominantly blue and white flowers. Rolf highlighted a few of his favorites.

The yellow birch trees (in the background of the left-hand picture) were field grown before being moved into the site, so they still hold most of their lower branches. Yellow birches grown in the open will keep that form, but when grown in the shade, they will grow taller with few lower branches, like the tree in the right-hand picture, where you see only a trunk reaching up to the canopy.

The Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica) used in the small patch of lawn will grow in full sun to almost full shade, and will tolerate some traffic. It can either be mown like grass, or can be allowed to grow and will reach a maximum height of about 8 inches. According to Rolf, it outperforms most grass mixes across this range without irrigation.

Another sedge used in the mixed borders was broadleaf sedge (Carex platyphylla) with seersucker-like foliage.

There is an American Styrax near the entrance, a small understory tree that stays lacy in form, so makes a nice tree to put in front of a window, for example.

Aster 'October Skies" is a late-blooming aster that will bloom in both sun or shade.

Other blue plants were tall larkspur (Delphinium exaltatum) and Allegheny skullcap (Scutellaria serrata). Heuchera 'Amethyst Mist' was used for its dark purple foliage, and Umbrella leaf (Diphylleia cymosa) also added bold green foliage. (If you visit the garden, you can get a full list of plants at the Visitor Center.)

One plant that was new to me, but I'd like to try, is creeping wood mint (Meehania cordata). It's a low-growing ground-cover plant that spreads and has violet flowers in May/June. Browsing the web, I see comments that it will grow in very shady situations. It also seems to be hard to find on a retail basis.

We continued on and stopped briefly by the Woodland Parterre, where the American holly hedge is filling in nicely. Rolf commented that American holly is a great plant for a screen, as it will grow quite densely. In its natural form it will grown into a pyramidal shape, but it is quite tolerant to shearing and shaping, and can even be used for topiary. You need only one male plant in the vicinity to suport pollination and the production of berries.

We also took a minute to sit in the Council Ring, which has now been shaped and furnished with a ring of tree-stump seats. I missed my timing on this shot, so Rolf's face is obscured by his water bottle, unfortunately.

The pond was looking great, at the peak of summer bloom. Here are closeups of the water lilies and blue flag iris. The mama duck is still nesting on one of the floating islands.

Rolf explained that the floating islands were originally developed in the midwest as a method of environomental remediation for reduce nitrogen and algae levels in ponds. They are made from recycled plastic, with a loose structure that allows the roots to grow through and directly into the water. Marine styrofoam is used to make them float, and specialized rich soil is used in the planting pockets. Some of the plants on the islands include marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), pink and white turtlehead (Cheloni glabra and lyonii), various types of gentians, cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), and heartleaf scullcap (Scutellaria ovata).

As expected, the Yin-Yang piece is greatly improved now that the hayscented fern has matured.

The flying saucer gardens in the meadow and wester garden were starting to bloom. One subtlety that observers might not appreciate is that the dish gardens are planted with regional plants, going from east to west. So the meadow garden saucers have midwestern prarie plants, the next section uses Rocky Mountain plants, and the final group uses California plants. The color scheme used is purple, pink, yellow, and blue, and all the plants are adapted to somewhat dry conditions so they can grown in the shallow bowls. Some of the plants in bloom now include the pink showy evening primrose, sundrops (Oenothera berlandieri), sky-pilot beard-tongue (Pennstemon serrulatus), and wine cups (Callirhoe involucrata)

In the wildlife garden, we got a good look at a hummingbird hawk moth that was hovering over the phlox blossoms. Rolf also noted that it was unusual for our Yucca x intermedia to bloom, but this year we see some flower stalks. (Other Yuccas, like Adam’s Needle and Arkansas yucca do bloom here.) Rolf speculated that it might have had something to do with the odd winter weather. Although the abrupt cold harmed a lot of plants, there were others that were stimulated by the warmth into January. For example, the green and gold (Chrysoganum virginianum) is unusually floriferous this year.

I wish I'd taken better notes, as Rolf was just a font of botanical information, but this is what I was able to remember.

Mother's Day at Tower Hill

These are photos from the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, taken by my friend Alexis Layton during our visit there on Mother's Day, 2007. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, so there were quite a number of people there, many of them sunbathing on the Great Lawn.

At the end of the Great Lawn is a large pergola and a set of curved steps that lead down to a sunken Hidden Garden with a fountain.

The next set of pictures show some of the plantings in the borders enclosing the Great Lawn.

At the top end of the garden, you can walk a short trail past an interesting sunken fountain and up to the top of the hill for this wonderful view of Wachusett Reservoir and Wachusett Mountain.

The Systematic Garden, which arranges plants by botanical families, was not yet in full bloom, but had these lovely narcissus borders. The fountain in the Systematic Garden is called the "Primordial Pool" and is intended to illustrate the most primitive plants: algaes and mosses.

Below the Systematic Garden, there was a sweep of meadow filled with daffodils leading down to the Wildlife Pond.

On either side of the Wildlife Pond, there are woodland walks.

The wooded areas are dotted with interesting sculptural elements, like this decaying Greek temple. The figure in front is surrounded by clumps of trilliums.

More woodland features, including a "temple of peace".

These moss steps are intended to be a re-creation of the famous moss steps created by landscape architect Fletcher Steele in a private garden in the Worcester area. (I actually visited that garden once while the owner was still alive. I thought I had some non-digital photos from that trip, but I haven't been able to track them down, unfortunately.) The Tower Hill moss steps are a bit odd because they are located in the middle of the woodland and don't really lead anywhere.

And, finally, here's a picture of me that Alex managed to sneak in.

You Lose Some, Part 2

This is a picture of me taking a picture of the Sweet Autumn Clematis that was happily climbing up the side of my garden shed last fall. This spring, not so much. The woody vines are totally bare without a green shoot anywhere. Sigh. I've had this plant for years and years, and it's sad to have it disappear without a trace, or even any hint of what the problem was.

Art Goes Wild: Innovation With Native Plants (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of my tour through the Art Goes Wild exhibit at Garden in the Woods, designed by W. Gary Smith. (Part 1 is here.)

Floating Gardens

In this display, floating islands of native wetland plants are arrayed like stepping stones among the lily pads. I'm really looking forward to seeing how these look later in the season when the plants are in bloom.

The islands are made of a porous recycled plastic and filled with soil. The plants' roots will grow through the plastic and down into the water, helping to clean the pond by absorbing excess nutrients. Gary was thrilled to see the wildlife enjoying the islands. In fact, a duck has already built a nest and laid her eggs on the third island, so we will be looking forward to having ducklings in the pond.

Yin-Yang

This piece is intended to evoke the form of yin-yang, a form which symbolizes opposing forces in nature. On one side of the path, a dark circle of pine branches is imposed on a light green field of hayscented fern, and on the other side of the path, a light circle of fern is imposed on a dark background of pine branches and mulch. (This one will look much better when the ferns completely fill in the light areas.)

Flying Saucers

This is another example of the use of repetition to unify spaces. These raised container gardens weave through the western garden and on through the meadow to bring the areas together. The plants are xeric plants which are adapted to dry environments. Again, I'm looking forward to seeing these in late summer, when the meadow will be in bloom and reaching up to touch the bottoms of the saucers.

The "saucers" are actually fire pit liners with drainage holes drilled into the bottom.

Hidden Valley

After walking through the landscaped areas of the garden, the trail curves back through a natural woodland area. People usually walk through this area without paying much attention to their surroundings, so it's fun to watch them come upon Hidden Valley, with its very understated serpentine arrangement of fallen logs. The line of logs actually goes up the valley quite a ways past what is shown here, so it's a continuing discovery as you walk back along the path. (Gary has carefully positioned the information sign well after you first come upon the piece, so visitors are able to discover it on their own.) On the other side of the path, they can see the natural dispersal of fallen logs on the forest floor, and hear the babbling sound of Hop Brook as it runs in a similar serpentine course through another valley.

This arrangement was made by 6 people working for 3 hours and uses only logs and branches that were found within the valley.

Gathering of Grass

These upright bundles, made from several different native grasses, are arranged in serpentine and natural drift patterns. These bundles are easy to make and can be used as accents in a home garden. They are long lasting and will provide food and shelter for birds and animals.

Gary was still making last minute adjustments to the display as we continued our tour.

So that's Art Goes Wild. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll be returning to the exhibit later in the season to see how it changes as the plants mature and bloom.

Art Goes Wild: Innovation With Native Plants (Part 1)

Art Goes Wild, a new exhibit at the Garden in the Woods, celebrates the 75th anniversary of the garden. Landscape Architect W. Gary Smith has designed a series of installations that use native plants in new and different ways. The exhibits will be in place until the garden closes at the end of October, and many of them will grow and change as the season progresses.

Last week, Gary was kind enough to conduct a tour for the volunteer guides to explain his thoughts about the exhibit and answer some of the questions we thought visitors might have. Here is Gary with marketing director Debra Strick and volunteer coordinator Bonnie Drexler.

Gary has done a lot of design work with native plants, most notably Pierces Woods at Longwood Gardens. He explained that in his work he tries to go beyond the traditional naturalistic design and create artistic works that are creative, abstract, or formal. He likes to play off the basic shapes of nature, such as radial, spiral, serpentine, scatter, mosaic, and natural drift. One goal of the exhibit is to show people that they can use native plants in innovative ways while still maintaining the ecological benefits of native plants.

He explained that many of the ideas had started with rough sketches, which were brought to life by the collaborative work of the garden staff and volunteers. In some cases, the final form of the piece changed as it was implemented.

This quote from Gary is on the opening sign: "Looking at the native landscape as inspiration for art and design, I like to find the intrinsic shapes, patterns, and forms created by basic natural processes - the dispersal of seeds by wind and birds, the deposition and erosion of soils in a streambed, the push and pull of different plants finding space where they can coexist."

The exhibit has some really great signage. On each sign, there are pictures of the plants which inspired the design concept, along with pictures taken during the construction. There's a quote from Gary Smith and a reproduction of his original concept sketch, a list of the plant materials, an ecological note, and a variety of other information. There's also an accompanying take-home plant list, listing all the plants used in each segment.

So let's walk through the exhibit now. (Click on any picture for a larger view.)

Beech Colonnade

The Beech Colonnade is a strong architectural form that frames the entry to the garden. It is in contrast with a natural beech grove just off to the right of this picture. The colonnade uses repetition and forced perspective to frame the views of the natural woodland beds of spring ephemerals on each side.

The original concept was to have more formal upright columns. But when assembling the bundles, it seemed better to leave some of the upper branches that now form a sort of archway over the path.

Idea Garden

The Idea Garden is an illustration of how native plants can be used in the home garden. This section will become a permanent part of the Garden in the Woods in future years. The centerpiece is a sedge lawn of Carex pensylvania, which is recommended as a low maintenance feature where shade makes it difficult to grow a traditional grass lawn. The sedge lawn is enclosed by belgian blocks and a low woven fence made of red- and yellow-twig dogwood branches. This illustrates another theme of Art Goes Wild, which is the reuse of natural garden materials to make garden features.

The patio shows the use of native plants in clustered containers (hanging plants will also be added soon), and behind the sedge lawn is a mixed border of white- and blue-flowering native plants within an enclosing curve of birch trees. It really shows that you can have an amazing native plant garden, even if you only have a very small area.

At the back left in the last picture, you can catch a glimpse of a creative serpentine privacy wall made from fallen leaves stacked within wire-mesh cylinders.

Fiddlehead Labyrinth

The Fiddlehead Labyrinth evokes the spiral form of the fiddlehead fern. The sides of the labyrinth are made from woven dogwood and beech branches, meant to copy the natural forms of tree branches. When you reach the center of the labyrinth, a sign will tell you to look up, where you will see this:

Woodland Parterre

Best to quote Gary on this one: "My vision here is to call attention to the organic mosaic of woodland wildflowers by inserting a simple square frame". In this case, the frame is a hedge of American holly (Ilex opaca) lined with horizontal garland of beech twigs. The square form of the hedge is carried across the path by inlaid stone blocks.

(This was a little hard to capture in a photograph because it is newly planted and the hedge is not yet densely filled in. The square shape is much more obvious when you see it in person.)

Council Ring

This piece is not completed yet. The idea is to form a garden room, a simple circular space, within the grove of rhododendrons. A circular bench will be installed.

End of Part 1. See Part 2 for more, including Floating Gardens, Yin-Yang, Flying Saucers, Hidden Valley, and Gathering of Grass.