Serenity in the Garden

NY Botanical Garden Groundbreakers photo by Ivo Vermeuelen “ A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”  -    Ralph Waldo Emerson  The long-maligned Mullein ( Verbascum bombyciferum ) is considered a weed by some but here its wooly, whitish leaves,  rising four feet high, show off its yellow flowers amidst a glorious flower display at NY  Botanical  Garden... It was NYBG's homage to the great Beatrix Farrand, landscape designer of the Eyrie and Dumbarton Oaks. This is from several years ago.

Plants are always talking - you just have to take the time to listen. Eeyore is very wise. They peek their heads out and say, 'Hey look at me!' They hang over the edge of a planter and look up saying, 'Happy Summer!" And they grow in a bunch holding forth to anyone who hears them.... Thank you, A.A. Milne.

Berries of Viburnum pick up that wonderful red - photo Jan Johnsen. Jack Lenor Larsen transformed his home and 16 acres in East Hampton, NY into the garden paradise called LongHouse Reserve . You can go visit this wonderful garden!  In one area he installed two rows of  Hino Crimson azaleas and then inserted a series of painted cedar posts the same red color as the azaleas that surround them. When the azaleas pass and no longer bloom, he still has the same red accent among the greenery throughout the season. Here, the berries of the Viburnum in back pick up on that wonderful red. I imagine they have to re-paint the posts often......but such a lovely and effective idea! Am ff to buy some Hino Crimson azaleas .... source:  http://cloudmind.info/photography-what-makes-these-garden-photos-amazing/

Garden photo of the Day by Jan Johnsen This is a foliage tapestry to plant in a pot or in a bed or around rocks...Sedum Lidakaense ( purple), Sedum Angelina (yellow) and Cerastium or Snow in Summer (silvery-white). Easy to grow, loves the sun and heat, and needs little root room. Voila!

Japanese Bridge  No words...

Garden - Jan Johnsen   “If you’re too busy to sit still for 10 minutes, you need to sit still for an hour.”  – Zen proverb 

Federico Forquet Garden  - click here  Federico Forquet has spent his long life in the fashion industry and in design of all kinds. Here is his garden in the Tuscan hills in Italy. It is a serene sanctuary. Forquet says that creative fulfillment is a personal quest, not a public endeavor. “If you create an Empire you become an Emperor. But I prefer being a private and happy citizen of the world.”

mediterranean-landscape ken lindsteadt Ken Lindsteadt , architect, includes this in his page on Houzz... So alluring! wish I was there right now.....

photo by  Nick Page This strange ice formation - found in woods in  goes by several names - frost flowers,  ice flowers, ice ribbon, rabbit ice, rabbit frost, ice wool and more.  Photo:  MarkInspex/Flickr Rabbit ice forms when the air hits freezing temperatures and  sap  in the stems of plants expands as it freezes, causing cracks to form along a stem. Water is then drawn out through the cracks, freezing as it hits the air, and forms layer after thin layer as more water is drawn out, eventually creating petals or ribbons of ice. Image Credit Flickr User Cotonis   It looks like a puff-ball of cotton candy made up of clusters of thin, curved ice filaments.  Image Credit Flickr User markinspecx Your best chances of spotting rabbit frost is in the early mornings in wooded, shaded areas when weather conditions are just right.    Image Credit Flickr User slowmoz I have nev...

Cornell Plantations Garden photo by Justin D.Kondrat  The Cornell Plantations gardens in Ithaca, New York are intoxicating in summer!   This is the YOUNG FLOWER GARDEN there.   This garden celebrates our responses to significant plants by revealing how these plants are reflected in  art,  literature, ceremony,  the symbolic meanings they communicate,  and the emotions they evoke .  Cornell Plantations click here The Young Flower Garden is a combination of annuals, perennials, and shrubs hardy to a northern climate.  They have booklets that focus on the lore and cultural uses of 10 common flowers: the rose, carnation, daisy, sunflower, poppy, lily, iris, tulip, peony, and chrysanthemum. Click  here  to download a plant list for this garden   (pdf file, 46 pages).

Lotus Flower - Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, Pa.  The sacred lotus flower at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, Pa. Highly Recommended!  An amazing place to visit.  Click here for their website.

How inviting and simple!  The alternate layout of the narrow stone  pavers  is so elegant and functional. The shrubs along the side create safety and shelter.... the arched window in the distance adds to the allure. This is at the  L'Albereta, the five-star resort in Lombardy. from GQ magazine source :  http://www.thethreef.com/2012/05/mille-miglia-with-acqua-di-parma-albereta-resort-gala-dinner-day-1.html

this is the jardines de la fonte baixa in Asturias, Spain F or a great blog post about this enchanting garden go here: http://www.elblogdelatabla.com/2012/12/jardines-de-la-fonte-baixa-paraiso-de.html

photo by  Kilian Schoenberger  The photo of the day today is not a garden photo - it is of a path in the woods. I urge you to see more exquisite photos on the website of photographer Kilian Schoenberger  (click on his name for more amazing photos.) The photo reminds me of some lines in one of my favorite poems, 'The Road Not Taken ' by Robert Frost: "....I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

design by Fernando Caruncho  Fernando Carunch o, the minimalist landscape designer,  views the garden, not as a landscape, but as a person with its own personality and as a member of the family; a protector of the residence. He first attended the University of Madrid to study philosophy, but learning of the Greek method of teaching in the garden, he transferred to Castillo de Batres School in Madrid where he received a degree in landscape design in 1979.  Fernando saw the importance of the garden to the Greek philosopher Plato, who used the garden as a place of teaching and repose. He follows this idea and his gardens provide every opportunity for meditation and reflection. 'Heaven is a Garden'

Jared Leto knows what is important.. I want all celebrities to photograph themselves hugging a tree... in fact, I  want everyone to photograph themselves hugging a tree. Please send me them to me here in the comments section. Thanks!

Hidden Valley Hibiscus H. ' Compassion' is the result of a cross between H. 'Simple Pleasures' and H. 'Enlightenment'. ..I love that. 

Blue Forest built this tree house The Quiet Mark Treehouse by John Lewis  was designed and built by Blue Forest.   and will be a central feature at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show,  8 th  – 13 th  July 2014. The theme of this year's  RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show  is ‘Grow, Inspire and Escape’. This  stand-alone treehouse  was inspired by the shape of a small copse of Oak trees.  

Myburgh copper poppies   If you want a nice touch in your flower beds try this: Copper Poppies! Stephen Myburgh makes Copper Poppies  in three sizes. They are easy to place – gently push the stem of the flower into the ground.  Buy several and create a simple arrangement with a few of these. And the Poppies collect water for the birds or you can float candles in them. Great idea.

Catalpa tree flowers - source:  Kansas Native Plants   Did you know that the Catalpa Tree drops its flowers, which look like orchids, on the Summer Solstice? Catalpas are the last to leaf out and their flowers tell us when the longest day of the year is. On this day they  fall like snow... The Catawba Indians of Upstate New York, where the Catalpa is native, regarded this tree as sacred.   T here is a great story about how they were seeded all over the midwest:   The Great Catalpa Craze.  I love Christine Agro's messages and mandalas. Here is her 'Catalpa meditation': source: Catalpa: Be In Tune With Nature