The Meadow Path upon Entering Bloedel Reserve, Photo CarlisleFlowers

The pathways of Bloedel Reserve lead the visitor first through a meadow, then a forest, from forest to a marsh.  As you approach the grand home, the gardens are manicured, moss, Japanese, reflection pool, rhododendron garden and a bluff walk overlooking Port Madison Bay near Agate Point on Bainbridge Island, a 35 minute ferry ride from Seattle across the Puget Sound.  Prentice Bloedel designed the Reserve “to inspire and refresh” all the while experimenting with planting and conservation techniques under the guidance of several landscape architects.  The Collins purchased the property prior to the Bloedels and divided it amongst three family members. In 1932 J. Lister Holmes, a prominent Seattle architect, was commissioned by the Collins to build a French three- story villa overlooking the bluff as a year round residence.  100 years earlier the island had been occupied by the Soquamis Indians, land valuable for its timber.

Bird Marsh, Bloedel Reserve, Photo CarlisleFlowers

Prentice and Virginia Bloedel, bought the property in 1951. The two  approached the land from different perspectives.  Virginia developed the Rhododendron Glen, the Ravine, the candelabra primulas, the ginger, cyclamen, oxalis and other wildflowers. (The Bloedel Reserve, Gardens in the Forest by Lawrence Kreisman, published by The Arbor Fund)  Prentice wanted ” to understand and explore and develop the land similar to an artist having a canvas.  He found this was a real opportunity that realized a lot of imagination and creativity in him.” (his daughter)

View from the Bluff, Bloedel Reserve, Photo CarlisleFlowers

Virginia and Prentice explored the plant diversity with its own color and form.  They “discovered that there is grandeur in decay.” (University of Washington Arboretum Bulletin, 1980)  Mr. Bloedel charts the course of insight - respect for trees and plants replaces indifference.  He believed that in the Divine Order of things, man is part of nature, a nature that he can not do without.  These emotions compelled Mr. and Mrs. Bloedel to choose a path, a path which leads each visitor to the Reserve “to enjoy plants both arranged by man and as they arrange themselves - to broaden their world.” (University of Washington Arboretum Bulletin, 1980.)

www.bloedelreserve.org

The Seattle Japanese Garden, located in the Arboretum adjacent to the University of Washington is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.  The landscape architectural firm, the Olmsted Brothers, designed the Arboretum.  Soon thereafter a foundation conceived the idea to create a Japanese garden within the Arboretum.  Twenty some years later a large gift from an anonymous Foundation donor set in motion the hiring of Juki lida who employed six other prominent designers including K. Inoshita to draw 34 pages of blueprints for the 3 1/2 acres site.

Boulders from the Cascade Mountains were hand-picked and rolled in bamboo matting, their size ranging from 1,000 pounds to 11 tons, for Mr. lida to specifically place amongst the azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias in the Japanese Tea Garden. Its tea house, named “Shoseian” (Arbor of the Murmuring Pines) offers Chado, the art of tea presentations with advanced reservations.  A maple pruning workshop will be presented on August 28th by Barb Engram, landscape designer and consultant.

more information:   www.seattle.gov/parks/parkspaces/gardens.htm

Seattle Japanese Garden, Photo CarlisleFlowers

Bouquet of Sweet Peas, Gardens in Seattle

Pike Place Market is the starting point for a trip to Seattle, Washington.  It’s the hub of fresh flowers, bouquets of them - from $5 for a big bunch of sweet peas, to a whopping $20 for a hand-held arrangement.  The first thing someone asks if you’ve been to Pike Place Market is, “Is that where they throw the fish?”  The caught fish and seafood gleam with their silvers, yellows, reds and whites, and yes they do smell good in a fishy kind of way.  But can you take fish home and glory in their shape, their composition, their fragrance, the garden memories that flowers evoke.

Lavender Fields in Seattle

Day One was adjusting to the time zone and going back again to the Pike Market and its flowers.  We met a lavender lady, from the fields of lavender, selling creams, soaps and sachets of long-lasting, dried lavender. She let us crush the French lavender leaves so we could smell how much stronger their smell than their English counterpart.  Our eyes opened to lavender, to the visions of fields of lavender, and with each visit we made to the Gardens in Seattle, we looked for the billows, the clouds of lavender tilting toward the sun.

Italian Villas and Their Gardens, a novel by Edith Wharton, 1904, Picture courtesy C.T. Haydock

Edith Wharton, author of “Ethan Frome,” “The Age of Innocence,” and “The House of Mirth” studied high society of New York.  She also studied the villas of Rome and was the first to write about Italian gardens in English.  Constance T. Haydock recently gave a talk on “Edith Wharton and the Villas of Rome,” at Planting Fields Arboretum and State Park in Oyster Bay, New York.  Haydock’s presentation included scenes of Italian villas: Medici, Casino Bel Respiro, Giulia, Nymphaeum and Casina Pia.  ”Symmetrical, a balanced design, and architectural elements such as fountains, decorative walks, statues, clipped formal hedges and shrubs” are all indicative of an Italian garden,” Ms. Haydock pointed out.

Wharton's Home in France, Picture Courtesy C.T. Haydock

Edith Wharton’s niece, Beatrix Ferrand, a landscape architect ten years Ms. Wharton’s junior, greatly influenced her aunt.  Edith was also friends with Lawrence Johnston, the American expatriate, who gardened in England and South of France.  Constance Haydock noted that of her favorite gardens, “Ms. Wharton liked her St. Claire garden the best because its plants had so many associations with others.”

Edith Wharton’s home and garden, “The Mount,” in Lenox, Massachusetts, “embodies French, English and Italian gardens she visited,” said CeCe Haydock, a graduate of Princeton University (BA English) and a masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the SUNY School of Environmental Science and Forestry.

After working for the New York City Parks

Department, she worked for the firm, Innocenti and Webel in Locust Valley, NY,

before starting her own practice, Constance T. Haydock, Landscape Architect, P.C.

For the past 25 years, she has been working on predominately residential projects,

as well as municipal parks and commercial sites. After completing her research

on Wharton and Roman villas in 2007 at the American Academy in Rome, she

has lectured and written on the topic for Old Westbury Gardens, Ladew Topiary

Gardens in Maryland, Temple Ambler University, Princeton University, and the

Edith Wharton Society.

Currently, CeCe is LEED certified, and is enlarging her practice to focus on

sustainability and “green” building. She is a national and chapter member of

the US Green Building Council, as well as a member of the American Society

of Landscape Architects, the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical

America, the Edith Wharton Society and The Mount.

The Mount, Lenox, MA, Courtesy C.T. Haydock

constancehaydock.com

For more information about the Mount:  www.edithwharton.org

Mrs. King, Courtesy of Clarke Historical Library

“Give this house, oh traveler, Pray
A blessing as you pass this way
And if you’ve time, I beg your pardon
While you’re at it, bless this garden”

Inscription over the entrance
to Mrs. King’s Alma garden

Between World War I and World War II, Louisa Yeomans King was one of the nation’s most prominent authors of gardening books. “Mrs. King,” as she was known to the many readers of her publications, dedicated most of her life to gardening. House and Garden magazine declared her the “fairy godmother of gardening.” She was also called “the best-beloved and best-known American woman gardener” of her era.   Courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan

http://clarke.cmich.edu/KingsGarden/King2.htm

The preface to her book, “The Little Garden” (Fourth printing in March, 1926 by Boston, Little Brown and Company) quotes an artist in his letter to his landscape architect pupil (which Mrs. King likens to Abraham Lincoln’s shout from the watchtower of history.  The artist’s shout is from the watchtower of gardening…

“Surely there is much that can be done in garden designing, especially when, as you say, there are people who have gardens and think that color has no important place in the development of beautiful flower gardening.  I doubt if I should care to see the flower garden of one who does not consider color that first essential.  And for those who do value color there is always room for advancement.  We live in an age that is gray through want of color.  The negation of color indicates cold and unspiritual existence.  There is now coming to life a reawakening as regards color; and, as this new spirit grows, humanity becomes warmer, kindlier and emotion plays its part in our constructions.  The combination of emotions and science, expressing through color and form, will give great results.  The day will come when people seeing beautiful flowers, grown in abundance and in order, not only something to please, but a medium for the expression of the best in them and an inspiration to a truer and fuller life.  Whoever works to inspire the growth and the love of flowers - not in private enclosures only, but broadcast, everywhere - will do a great and valuable work for humanity.

I am deeply interested in the growth everywhere of plants, however common, that are beautiful, and in the organization of the various plants so that the orchestration of colors will be to the best advantage of the whole and each part.  I like flowers, all kinds, whether the most common or the most rare, because of their color and their form, and I want to see them anywhere, in my garden, in yours, in the rich man’s, the poor man’s, on the road, anywhere - all the world my garden, everybody my gardener, and everybody to enjoy them as I.  A world full of flowers, rich and kind and forgiving in their colors; valiant and strong; full of promise.  Make me a garden like that and cover all the world with it.  It will kill crime and it will kill poverty, for it will kill selfishness and it will prove that Mother Nature is right.  If you can warm up the hearts of your clients to a real love of flowers so that they will find in them their significance, you will do a great work.”  Mr. Robert Henri, the Bulletin of the Woman’s National Farm and Garden Association.

The Clarke Historical Library was founded in 1954 through a gift from Dr. Norman E. Clarke, Sr. to his alma mater. Dr. Clarke was a book collector of unusual insight and breadth. His collection was created, in his own words, to “portray the lives, the thoughts, and the culture of the pioneer people to whom we owe so much.”
The institution bearing Dr. Clarke’s name has become one of Michigan’s leading research libraries. The material found in the library honors the spirit of Dr. Clarke’s initial charge, his subsequent interests, and the ongoing needs of the CMU community.

Flower Carpet, Courtesy The Biltmore Company

Jewel-tone colors of stained glass are the inspiration for this year’s Flower Carpet event at Biltmore, set for Aug. 20 through Sept. 12, on the South Terrace of Biltmore House.

Biltmore’s third annual Flower Carpet – made up of more than 100,000 plants – takes its shape and color from a set of 1880s stained glass windows created by innovative artist and interior designer John La Farge. These windows, part of George Vanderbilt’s vast art collection, are now on display at Biltmore’s new Antler Hill Village.

Unlike traditional stained glass artists whose works were flat and conservative, La Farge incorporated three-dimensional elements and layers of complex plating to provide depth. This revolutionary style allowed for the rounded and faceted glass to form sparkle-like jewels. Biltmore’s Travis Murray, crew leader of the Walled Garden, created the magnificent design for this year’s Flower Carpet.

Plant selections have been chosen to glow in shades of red, orange, blue, yellow and grey throughout the 14,400 square-foot design. These include Iresine Purple Lady; Marigold Janie Tangerine; Coleus Dark Star fading into Angelonia’s from dark purple, lavender to white; Marigold Janie Bright Yellow; Zinnia Profusion White; Euphorbia Diamond Frost and Zinnia Angustifolia Star White; Begonia Prelude Rose and Harmony Scarlet.

The Flower Carpet, Courtesy The Biltmore Company

On select evenings, the estate will be open for Flower Carpet Evenings. Soft lighting, beautiful sunset views and live jazz music create a special ambiance for viewing the carpet. Picnic options will be available by reservation online or by phone when purchasing tickets. Wine, beer and non-alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase on site. A dining concierge will be stationed at the event to assist with dinner reservations at Bistro, Arbor Grill or The Dining Room.

The Biltmore is George Vanderbilt’s 8,000-acre estate. Mr. Vanderbilt created Biltmore as an escape from everyday life. Now, his descendants invite you to enjoy his legacy of hospitality. Your admission includes self-guided tours of the breathtaking Biltmore House & Gardens and the new Antler Hill Village—featuring theWinery, The Biltmore Legacy, and  Village Green.

For additional information on the Flower Carpet event, please call 877-BILTMORE or visit www.biltmore.com.

How Does Your Garden Grow by Shannon Young, Photo: Carlisle V. Hashim

The Evergreen Museum and Library are celebrating their 20th anniversary as a museum and their 6th biennial outdoor sculpture exhibition with ten site-specific works this summer - Simultaneous Presence.

Sculpture 6 at Evergreen uses site specific installations  by individuals and teams of artists and architects to embrace and challenge the historical and cultural grounds of the museum. Abundance and absence, sustenance and sustainability, fantasy and pleasure, wealth and its source and the contrasting realities of Baltimore are displayed.

Artists and their works:

Yoland Daniels, “Tea Cozy,” Matter Practice, “Fallen Fruit,” Myeongheom Kim, “Bridge,” Eric Leshinsky, C. Ryan Patterson &  Fred Scharmen, “Evergreen Commons,” Yukiko Nakashima, “Filling In the Void: Witness to the Bird’s Death, Hide and Hide, In The Bird’s House, Passage Workers,” Taeg Nishimoto, “A,” Shannon Young, “How Does Your Garden Grow?” Joel Lamere + Cynthia Gunadi, “25 Arch Folium,” Meredith Nickie, “Everything Will be Taken Away,” David Page, “Skip.”

Evergreen Museum and Library website: http://www.museums.jhu.edu/evergreen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXgMU59CCQY YouTube video slide show of Sulpture 6

Joel Lamere and Cynthia Gunadi, 25 Arch Folium, Photo: Carlisle V. Hashim