Tall, Purple Spikes of Acanthus

The story of the acanthus leaf as told by Princess Grace of Monaco in her book, “My Book of Flowers” goes like this…”The acanthus was a favored plant of the Greeks, and it grows freely on the Riviera.  When I look at its beautifully sculptured leaves and elegant flowers, I am reminded of the reason why it came to be used so much in Greek decorative arts.  The saying goes that a young girl of Corinth fell ill and died.  At her burial her nurse collected all her trinkets and jewelry and placed them in a basket near her tomb.  To save them from being harmed by the weather, she covered the basket with a tile and placed it on the ground over a root of acanthus.  With the coming of spring the sap rose and the dried roots began to produce leaves, which spread themselves from underneath the basket and then bent back again at the top by the corners of the tile.  It so happened that Callimachus, a sculptor, was delighted with the beauty of the curved leaves and stalks that he conceived the idea for the capital of the Corinthian column.  Whether this story is true, it is the kind of simple folklore that I like to believe.”  ”My Book of Flowers”, as written by Princess Grace of Monaco with Gwen Royns, 1980.

Copenhagen Glass House Credit Jens Astrup

The Copenhagen Botanical Garden and Museum is situated in the heart of Copenhagen. The garden has the largest collection of living plants in Denmark. The museum holds one of the largest herbaria of plants and fungi from all over the world.

Copenhagen Botanical Garden’s Greenhouse design was influenced by The Crystal Palace in London, England.  As part of Copenhagen University’s fourth botanical garden, Vold Garden, it was created on the site of the remains of the earthen fortification that until that time had surrounded the city.

Landscape gardener H. Flindt designed the garden’s layout and terrain, while Head Gardener Tyge Rothe and brewery owner J.C. Jacobsen planned and supervised the greenhouse construction from 1872 to 1874. The architect of the Palmhouse was Peter Christian Bønnecke. The greenhouse complex was quite an impressive structure according to the standards of the day, built of cast iron, wood and glass, enclosing an area measuring 2400 sq. metres. The garden was opened to the public on October 9, 1874, 274 years after the founding of the first botanical garden, Hortus Medicus.

The Botanical Museum originated as a part of the Botanical Garden, which was established by a Royal Decree in 1600. The preserved botanical collections were later separated as a herbarium. Then in the mid-18th century a botanical garden and a botanical library were established by the government independent of the established botanical garden at the University of Copenhagen.

Among the first important collections to be incorporated in the new Royal Museum were the botanical collections made by Pehr Forsskål on the Royal Danish expedition to Egypt and Yemen in 1761-63.

This was a multidisciplinary expedition which made observations and collected scientific material within many fields, including botany, zoology, geography, ethnology, etc. During this period, the collections were used by a number of Copenhagen botanists, for example the well-known cyperologist Christen Friis Rottbøll.

In 1877 a new building was constructed inside the present Botanical Garden just after it was established. The name “Botanical Museum”, rather than simply the Herbarium, originated from ideas of that time. It was the plan to combine the scientific collections with public exhibitions. However, these plans have remained on paper except for one or two annual public exhibitions held in the current museum-building.

The increasing number of collections made by the museum staff, other professional botanists, and numerous skilled amateurs made it necessary to include additional buildings in order to house the collections, but these were mostly temporary storage space.

Today the Botanical Museum is part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen University.

Text compiled from University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden and Museum site.

http://botanik.snm.ku.dk/english/

A Path of Astilbe

A path of Astilbe on a Saturday morning, too early for the sun to shine on these feathery wands of muted pinks and whites. The mass of softness along the square slate path takes the wanderer meandering along.

Courtesy of Hyde Park Homes Tour, Austin, Texas

We  traveled south on the computer this rainy Saturday morning to celebrate Father’s Day weekend in Austin, Texas for the 33rd annual Hyde Park Historic Homes Tour.  Six houses on the tour include an 1890s two-story home that was moved to the neighborhood from the west campus area, an historic landmark home that has been faithfully restored yet modernized for 21st century living, and homes that acknowledge their roots while adding complementary additions that honor the integrity of the house and neighborhood.  The historic Hyde Park neighborhood, Austin’s first suburb “features the inherently green aspects of close community, diversity, access to public transportation, parks, schools and plenty of stores within walking distance.”

http://hydeparkhomestour.org 

Courtesy Hyde Park Homes Tour, Austin, Texas

Denver Botanic Gardens' Green Roof Credit: Scott Dressel-Martin

 The first annual Green Roofs for the West Symposium will take place this Thursday, June 18th at the Denver Botanic Gardens in Denver, Colorado.  Co-hosted by the Gardens, U.S. Green Building Council and Colorado State University, the Symposium will spotlight the innovative ways green roofs are leading us to a future of more sustainable cities.  Leading green roof experts and designers include Edmond Snodgrass, co-author of “Green Roof Plants;” Tom Liptan, pioneer of the innovative green roof program in Portland, Ore.; and Charlie Miller, principal of Roofscapes Inc. will cover the benefits of green roofs, green roof design and making the business case for green roofs. The Gardens’ nationally recognized Senior Curator and Director of Outreach Panayoti Kelaidis will speak on choosing plants for green roof use. The Gardens’ own green roof, which showcases more than 50 species and varieties of drought-tolerant plants, will be open throughout the day for tours. “This conference will revolutionize the way Coloradans view green roofs, and prove that they are a viable and integral component of sustainable development in the arid West,” says Deb Kleinman, executive director of the Colorado chapter of U.S. Green Build Council. 

www.botanicgardens

Black Eyed Poms

You have a budget of under $10 and want to decorate with flowers.  Here is a neat crisp pop of color that provoked enough comments two weeks ago (yes, it is that old) to warrant doing it again.  A topiary of sorts of black-eyed yellow poms - two bunches which adorned our kitchen in a black urn with left- overs to brighten the bathroom.

 The peony season came and went in Baltimore before we could bat an eye.  A picture from the ‘08 album shows these beauties in a flower arrangement where several unseen branches hold the peonies’ heads up making them easier to arrange.  

Here is a great site for planning your peony garden next year from Auburn University.  

www.ag.auburn.edu/hort/landscape and go to Peony Project.