Hanna over at This Garden is Illegal made me do it. More random things!!!
This is the new social networking disease (SND)! This time, they are all garden-related and brief. If you want more long-winded random things, visit here and here, where you can also read the rules.
YOU are now officially tagged. (I can see you!) Please add your random things and your link in the comments section at the top of this posting. I am going off to get my shots.
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Number of rose bushes: 24. Don’t be impressed. My life is not a rose garden. Some are quite small and some are not doing very well.
- Number of pairs of garden gloves: 7. My all-purpose favorites are Foxgloves, of which I have three pair—two lavender pairs and one brown pair.
- Wintertime garden plans: Topiaries, cultivating my office light garden, more research on Colonial gardens.
- Currently reading: Harry Potter. Who isn’t?
- Gave up on: Blueberries. I had three varieties and none did well. I tore them out after three years.
- Favorite garden art: Foo dogs purchased at the New York Botanical Garden Antique Garden Furniture show.
- Always wanted to visit, but never have: White Flower Farm.
Robin
One of the least-trafficked areas of the Chicago Botanic Garden the day I was there were the greenhouses.
Frankly, I found them a welcome relief from the wretched heat and crowds. The air was reasonably cool and there were only a few people to stumble past. And what a fabulous place to hang out…if only they had some benches in the greenhouse. NO BENCHES. NO PLACE TO SIT AND ENJOY the plants. Is that right?
Anyway…
I MOST loved the topiaries. I think I am in love all over again with topiaries.There were these two charming, dancing topiary bunnies–the very best kind of bunnies, I think.
Topiary Bunnies, Chicago Botanic Garden
And right inside the door of one of the greenhouses–the desert greenhouse, I think–was this crazy topiary armadillo, covered with hens and chickens and some other small succulents. Again, the very best type of armadillo. I actually laughed out loud when I saw it!
Topiary Armadillo with Hens and Chickens, Chicago Botanic Garden
There were beautiful, mature palms and even more topiaries. (Someone really loves topiaries.)
Greenhouse at the Chicago Botanic Garden
Greenhouse at the Chicago Botanic Garden
I particularly appreciated the floor at one end of one of the greenhouses–slabs of concrete and grass in a checkerboard pattern that reminded me of that huge chessboard in one of the Harry Potter books. (Can you tell I’m reading Harry Potter?)
(Oooh. I am either cranky tonight or, perhaps, I have just saved some of the less-than-perfect photos for my last post about Chicago.)
Although the Memphis Botanical Garden doesn’t hold a candle to the Chicago Botanic Garden, I did rather like its Japanese garden better. It’s not nearly as expansive. But it does incorporate more color, including the red half-moon bridge, some fabulous yellow sedge and flowers. The Japanese garden in Chicago is so very green, green, green. Unrelieved green. And more green. No flowers in sight…More green…No flowers…More green…(You get the idea.)
Weights on tree limbs in the Japanese Garden create the effect of age
What I did appreciate were the plaques strategically positioned around the garden explaining the Japanese garden philosophy in convenient, easy-to-digest chunks. For example, Japanese gardens strive for an “idealized” notion of beauty, not really a natural landscape. One plaque explained the Japanese veneration for age, even aged trees. They will prune out branches of pines for a more skeletal appearance and weigh some them down to create an architectural illusion of the weight of time. Zig-zag paths are supposed to confuse unlucky spirits and keep them from following you. And the wide roofs of the pagoda-type house ornaments are for collecting the snowflakes, which are prized for their variety and beauty.
Japanese Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden
The rose garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden was HUGE. And disappointing. What is it about roses that gardeners cannot seem to mix other plants with them? Do roses really have to be stand-alone plants? There were wide swaths of roses. Unrelieved roses next to more roses. There were only a few boxwoods as a backdrop. And a weak effort to use catmint. What is it that gardeners think catmint and roses are nicely complimentary? I have mixed them and they don’t really complement each other at all.
There was, however, a fabulous shady arbor at the back of the rose garden. I longed to take a nap there.
Arbor Behind the Rose Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden
I also visited the Dwarf Conifer Garden. Sadly, this seemed a bit of neglected space up the side of a hill. In fact, it was here that I saw the ONLY weeds–and even a feasting bunnie rabbit–in the whole 300+ acres.
Dwarf Conifer Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden – Not the best-maintained part of the gardens there
Okay, that’s it. No more about the Chicago Botanic Garden. Tomorrow–Mount Vernon. I visited there yesterday, where they had a huge thunderstorm. Still, I risked my life and limb to get some photos. Tune in and see…
Ciao!
Robin
To continue with my visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden…With so much to see and only a few short hours, I decided to set some priorities. Since I’m in the throes of my own vegetable garden maintenance, I first headed over to see how the professionals fashion and keep up a vegetable garden in the summer heat.
It seemed that everyone else had the same idea, because the place was packed with people ogling tomatoes, leering at berries and salivating over apples.
The entrance takes you over a foot bridge and past a bed of miniature sunflowers that were in their glory. I couldn’t help myself snapping photos of other people’s children who were entranced by the sunny flowers.
Cute Kid (not mine) at the Entrance to the Vegetable and Fruit Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden
Just beyond the entrance and to the right is one of the most clever combinations of flowers and vegetables that I have ever seen. The fascinating mixture of cabbages, primroses and golden coin (I think) topped a concrete retaining wall that surrounded espaliered apple trees.
Cabbages and Flowers in the Vegetable and Fruit Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden
Mixing vegetables and flowers isn’t at all a new idea. Our Colonial ancestors mixed all sorts of plants into a pleasing and workable jumble. But this combination was, I think, absolutely artful.
Espaliered Apple Trees, Vegetable and Fruit Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden
Whoever planned the vegetable garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden has a real fondness for orderly fruit. There are rows and rows of espaliered apples, espaliered pears and colonnaded apples. They even have whipped rangy raspberry and blackberry plants into submission into orderly rows, climbing obediently up trellises. I envision a jack-booted gardener with a crop patrolling up and down to ensure no one gets out of line.
Collonaded Apple Trees, Vegetable and Fruit Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden
The rest of the vegetable garden is also highly organized and beautiful, if not as inspiring as those cabbages and fruit tree contortionists.
Cold Frames, Vegetable and Fruit Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden
There were beds of basil, which beautifully illustrated the wide variety of plants in the basil world. Tomatoes were grown on iron trellises typically used for vining flowers. And here and there, flowers were mixed in to provide some continuity between the beds and some color. There was a lovely cold frame area connected to a very small, and probably inadequate greenhouse.
Basil Bed, Vegetable and Fruit Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden
Finally, I was most amused with a sign announcing an “under construction” exhibit—FOR WEEDS! Hah! My weed exhibit is flourishing. At least in this area I excel beyond the Chicago Botanic Garden!
There is more to report in the next couple of days. I have also posted a series of photos on the Chicago Botanic Garden in my photo album, where you can see other places I have visited.
Ciao!
Robin
