Studiology

The New Studio

After three months without a real working space, I can finally say it's done! Lessons learned from having a wonderful studio before gave me some valuable lessons in creating this one. Limited windows so that there was more wall space was important. Electrical outlets all over plus one for outside work was a must. Bright lights with daylight bulbs in important areas...done. The floor is cement but has an epoxy coating to cut down on dust. I didn't mind the paint spills or irregularities, there will be more paint spills and messy mishaps. Three rolling racks hold my assemblage collection. 

It will never be this clean again, or this organized! 

The first piece of art to hang on the wall was a piece from Linda Berman of New Orleans. I'm so happy to have such a special place to put it.

And with fond memories of "The Wizard of Oz" and my costume for New Orleans, a member of the Lollipop Guild, I have a little collection on the windowsill. The next online class with Michael DeMeng is "Altered Alice and Down the Rabbit Hole Theater", so it seemed appropriate to add the Mad Hatter.

Now to get to work!

Making it Better

Triumphs and challenges abound for the gardener. The vegetable gardener, flower gardener, even the gardener of containers suffers from periods of dissatisfaction. When these low points arrive, it's  wise to write them in your garden journal and take a photograph. A valuable lesson can be gained by doing both, there's time to reflect and view the offense, corrections can always be made at a future date. In my paid position as an estate gardener, I find areas of a garden that might be lack luster can become successful with this trial and error approach. 

At home, in my own garden, it's an entirely different story. Experimentation rules! I don't plan for success, at least not the kind that involves designing for the far future. The idea is to try something new, and in this space annuals find a home every year, lots of them. If anything, I hope for that glorious mayhem, I have seen it done well, the gaudy blends of orange and pink, something that is much harder to accomplish that you would think. 

For spring of 2017, I planned for things to be a bit different (of course). When buying seeds this spring, I purchased all three colors of purple 'Benary' zinnias. With that I also bought oodles of purple Gladiolus 'Violetta'. My usual zinnia 'Benary' colors were also bought, but to a lesser degree, salmon, green, and white are scrumptious. Gloriosa lilies, six each of two colors were added, a blue climbing snail vine, and some coleus for cutting. This whole plan was actually hatched by a desire to try all of these plants as cut flowers. Things like alternanthera, tuberose, salvias, well these are a given, and they cut well too.

As June and July passed, the zinnias grew, so tough and reliable, if only all plants behaved this way. The gloriosa lilies were a failure; well one grew and flowered very early, too early. The snail vine hasn't flowered yet and the gladiolus are okay, but the oddest color of purple, not a match for the lavender/purple zinnias. But luck would have it that I already have Hydrangea 'Endless Summer' and Allium 'Millenium', one of the greatest new perennials that flowers for at least two months in summer. So bountiful were these established plants, that it was easy to create a pleasant floral bouquet, enhanced of course by my purple zinnias. In my book, this was a triumph, although achieved serendipitously. 

If there's a lesson to be learned, gardening is good for you. Emotionally we leap and fall. The more you plan and the more you work at it, the better it might be. It's a humbling experience.

And So They Grow

Today is Felicity's 6th birthday. My first grandchild, the smart, outgoing, love of animals, little person that will pull a prank in a heartbeat. She is the insistent big sister that begs her younger brother to do more, adventure more, romp harder, yet she is the loving big sister to Juniper, who is just two months old.

I hope she becomes a gardener.

The Plants from the Fling

During the Fling or the garden bloggers gathering of June 22 to 25, daily bus rides delivered us to 16 stops. The largest collection of gardens on our agenda were those on the National Mall. For this we were allotted a 3 hour window to walk in and out of gardens and museums. I stuck to the gardens, discovering Echinacea laevigata at the United States Botanic Gardens and had to pause as it certainly looked like Echinacea pallida. 

This coneflower is rare and has been so ever since it was first discovered. So rare is this particular species that it's listed as federally endangered in all 4 states that it grows, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. It spreads by rhizomes, which makes it the odd one in the world of coneflowers. 

As the group toured, traveling to gardens north and south, it became evident to me that echinacea was the common denominator in all but one of the sunny gardens we toured. Not just Echinacea purpurea and its hybrids but also Echinacea tennesseensis, which was listed as federally endangered until September of 2011. 

From Echinacea 'Tiki Torch' at Brookside Gardens to great drifts in the garden of Ed and Pat Peters of Hamilton, Virginia, where this entire site was designed by John Magee of John Magee Design and all of his garden installations are designed with native plants. 

There were other native plants coming into flower, monarda or bee balm was splendid in this mix at the Botanic Gardens:

or these random views in the public gardens of Meadowlark Botanical Gardens and Brookside Gardens:

If native plants weren't enough, there were plenty of exotics, mostly tropical exotics, and many on the National Mall, particularly in the gardens maintained by Janet Draper; the Mary Livingston Ripley Gardens. 

Here is the most marvelous Dutchman's pipe from Peru, Aristilochia peruviana.

Aristilochia are the food source for the pipevine swallowtail larvae.

Although there is one Dutchman's pipe that is poisonous to the pipevine swallowtail, Aristilochia gigantea from Brazil (the flowers are 8" across). Employees at the Mary Livingston Ripley Gardens move the caterpillars to safer species.

I swooned when I saw Stropanthus prussia, a plant that is very special to me as I used to grow it in my tropical greenhouse.

And of course there were orchids, like this stunning Brassia Rex 'Sakata' in the greenhouse at Hillwood;

If you think about it, the 4 day event was like traveling around the world in plants. And I was ready to go for 4 more days!