GARDENSYou Can't See

New York City Gardens
Horticulture Society of New York

An Illustrated talk with Betsy Pinover Schiff

Monday, March 14, 2011

I admit to being a garden snob.  Any chance I have to be a voyeur, I jump on.  And any book that turns me into a nosy parker is worth writing about. 

On Monday night, I went to hear Betsy Pinover Schiff talk about her new book, New York City Gardens.  What to choose? Schiff gave us a glimpse into how she limited her choices:
  1.  Include Public and Private Gardens from all boroughs, not just Manhattan
  2. Since the audience was European, all the gardens should have views of New York City
      landmarks or iconic vistas.
  3.  There had to be surprises and unknowns.
  4.  There had to examples from landscape architects and homeowners/designers.

This book was commissioned by a German publisher and at the time, was going to be distributed to a European audience. Subsequently, the book has been published in French and English.

It's always interesting when you live anywhere to see what you cannot see.  Besides the public gardens selected for this book (New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, The Conservatory Garden in Central Park, The Heather Garden in Fort Tryon Park, The Rockefeller Rooftop Gardens, Wave Hill, etc., etc.) Schiff's choice glimpses a world those of us who pound the pavement and ride the subway rarely see and for me that is the value of the book.  The photographs are well-done, the text is illuminating, but 5,000 sq. ft. of terrace with elaborate lace-work wrought iron pergola the length of the building makes you gasp.  

In addition to the traditional, Schiff includes two landscape architects who are as far away from a Italiante terra-cotta pot filled with papyrus as you can get:  Ken Smith and Topher Delaney.  Ken's camouflage garden for MoMA, which can only be seen from above and Topher's garden for a private residence, which is totally empty except for mirrors were the stars of the "show." 

At the end of the talk, Schiff was asked about her next book.  In the 1950's, Ruth Orkin took hundreds of pictures of Central Park from her window.  Schiff has taken up the baton, and decided to photograph the Park from windows on all four sides.  Let's wait and see if she can top Ruth Orkin.

Parisin Philadelphia

Philadelphia Flower Show
Springtime in Paris

THIS YEAR IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT.  Instead of bemoaning artificiality; I am going to embrace the fake, the contrived, the manipulated.  I will celebrate hyacinths next to phlox, crab apples underplanted with lettuce, lilacs and marigolds blooming together.

There is something masterful in the recreation of Parisian scenes in plants.  One of my favorite places in the whole world...The Palais Royal is referenced...

An allee of plastic tree trunks with a vertical green wall of pleached foliage.

A toy boat from a pond in the Luxemborg Gardens is set in a "lake" of pansies.

A "typical" French interior of the fin de siecle with Sevre vase and mirror.
And some departures from the literal...

some good advertising.

Inspired by a topiary Rodin, I started thinking ...

the show this year concentrated on floral arrangements; just a few mini-environments.  Elbowing my way to the front of each extravaganza, camera in hand, excited, why?

After three months of gray weather; the point was color and the fresh smell of Spring flowers.

As Dorothy said to Toto,
"We are not in Kansas anymore"
and we are not in Paris. 
We are transported to a sensual world for part of a day.
I guess, I'll take it!

POWERto the plants

Desert Botanical Garden, Scottsdale, AZ
DESIGN and PLANNING
SYMPOSIUM
American Public Garden Association

Dale Chihuly Desert Towers at the entrance to Desert Botanical Garden

March 2-4, 2011
Hosted by the Desert Botanical Garden

Normally, I like to save the best for last, but not today.  The most radical talk at the APGA symposium was given by two scientists from the Desert Botanical Garden:  Dr. Joseph R. McAuliffe (Associate Director of Research) and Dr. Kimberlie A. McCue (Program Director, Conservation of Threatened Species and Habitats).    They posed the following question:  How do you keep a species from becoming extinct?

The answer:  A plant in every yard.

To spice things up a bit, Dr. McAuliffe was wearing his Che Guevara beret.  We know that seed banks (Kew Millennium Seed Bank in the UK) and seed vaults (Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway) are trying to preserve our biodiversity, however, seeds, even under the best circumstances, are only viable for a certain amount of time. 

Both McAuliffe and McCue look at this potential disaster and think about ways we can make an ecological difference.  The way to change a plant's status from threatened to common is to put it in the hands of the people. For example, the Key Largo Tree Cactus is a threatened plant.  The way to preserve this plant is to make it available to people who live in the region where that plant is native.   If you "release"this plant to the public, you have to keep it in its native habitat.

The Key Largo Tree Cactus in bloom.

"Marshall the power of the people,"  this is not the kind of speak you hear from scientists.  For McCue and McAuliffe, to keep our biodiversity, we need to think outside the box, challenge conventional paradigms.  One-third of all plant species are threatened with extinction, this kind of creative, innovative thinking may be the solution.  And it's definitely the reason I go to these conferences. 

"I am a generalist"
Clare Sawyers
Director
Scott Arboretum, Swarthmore College

Authors want to sell books, I get it.  Clare Sawyers is a thoughtful thinker, advocate for public gardens and author of The Authentic Garden.

Her talk at the at the symposium went over the 5 principles in her book:
1.  Work with what you have been given
2.  Derive beauty from function
3.  Use humble materials and honor those materials
4.  Marry the inside with the outside
5.  Involve the visitor

That wasn't enough for me.  I want to recommend two gardens Clare showed in her presentation. I have put them on my list:  Oaxaca Ethnobotanical Garden in Mexico, and Spring Preserve in Nevada.

Levels of Richness

Lauren and Scott Ogden

This conference brought together some of the really important names in the garden world.  Lauren and Scott Ogden are authors of  Plant Driven Design:  Creating Gardens That Honor Plants, Place and Spirit.   

I appreciate the Ogdens.  They have blazed a trail away from the glossy gardens of perfection found in magazines.  They are not plant divas, but great plantsmen.  After listening to their talk, I put their book at the top of my pile.

"I have zone envy."

Scott A. Scarofone

I don't like rules, especially in horticulture.  When you are going to school you take a lot of courses, where instructors try to lay a foundation for design and color.  Scott Scarfone of Oasis Design Group gave us the 10 steps to creating a good design.  I turned off my "hearing" aid.    This type of approach reduces design to simplistic understanding of complicated intentions and that is why I object to it.

"Show Girls and Drag Queens"

Tres Fromme, Studio Outside

After nearly 12 hours of presentations, finally, a guy with a sense of humor.  Tres Fromme is a principal at Studio Outside in Texas.

Atlanta Botanical Garden, Edible Garden
"I do SHOCK AND AWE
for public horticulture."

Tres Fromme's presentation focused on branding, a word not often heard in the hushed hallways of public horticulture.  He and Mildred Pinnell Foekele, Director of Horticulture at the Atlanta Botanical Garden gave a joint presentation.  Cosmos and Cosmopolitans, Hydrangeas and Highballs...getting people into the garden is Tres' mission.  How to create a sense of urgency among visitors  are some of the topics Fromme addressed.  He specializes in the WOW factor.  And that WOW factor is taking an institutions assumptions and turning them on their head. 

Sunset at the Desert Botanical Garden, opening night.

This symposium is one of APGA's  professional development events.  For me, one of the most valuable aspects was talking with the participants, exchanging ideas, sharing information, commiserating on problems and getting refreshed for the work week staring tomorrow.  I am ready to go with a few new coping strategies. 

Fictitious Plants

PLANT FICTION, 2010
Series of 5 Photographs and Texts

Troika's Plant Facts, Plant Fiction (2010) was included in The Art Institute of Chicago's  show "Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design".  
"Troika is widely known for their experiential artworks and its practice is positioned at the junction where art, architecture, and technical inventions intersect.  Notable in their formal simplicity and sense of humour, Troika's installations and sculptures engage the viewer in an often playful, sometimes contemplative manner." from Troika's website

Reading about LeNotre and Versaille lately, Troika's work caught my eye.  It's about a different kind of control over nature.  Developing GMO and the like, modern science believes in its ability to change nature, develop disease resistant species and improve our overall well-being.  Troika questions this assumption.

"Plant Fiction" turns genetically modified plants on their head. In this futuristic senario, Troika imagines... plants that would self-decompose in gain of biofuels, plants that excrete unique pigments to be implemented in security devices, creepers that can sense air-borne viruses and plants that reclain gold from electronic circuits found in landfills". from Art Institute introduction to the show Hyperlinks.

It's reassuring to know, that this troika of three are thinking about the future of our plants, not just those of us with dirt under our fingernails.

_____________________________________________
Troika has authored two books to date:  Digital by Design and Moscow Style.
http://troika.uk.com/plantfiction

NecessaireOui ou Non?

SET IN STYLE
Van Cleef and Arpels
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Having a strong fantasy life is essential to enjoying the Van Cleef and Arpels show at the Cooper-Hewitt. The section entitled "Transformations" is a case where the sum of the parts are much greater than the whole. 

   To celebrate an expectant mother, a husband commissions Van Cleef to design a "stork" brooch composed of a yellow diamond briolette of 95 carats.  As astonishing as this is, it is only the beginning. The piece transforms in a variety of ways:  the wings come off to form earrings, the tail comes off to form a brooch, and the pendant can be detached and worn separately.  Maybe, that is the ultimate in getting your money's worth.

Thinking Outside the Box
European Cabinets, Caskets, and Cases
from the Permanent Collection
(1500-1900)
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Feeling in a rarefied mood, I skipped down to the Met to see Thinking Outside The Box: European Cabinets, Caskets and Cases.  Lucky for me, Danielle Kisluk-Grosheide, Curator of the show was giving a talk about the boxes, followed by Jukeboxes of Old:  Music from Past Centuries.

For me these boxes are simply beautiful: for curators like Kisluk-Groshide they tell a story about the social life of the people who used them.  There was a box made from precious materials for every possible aspect of life:  strongboxes, bonbonnieres (sweet boxes) root boxes (toothbrushes) tea boxes, sugar boxes, shaving boxes, spice boxes, snuff boxes, gaming boxes, cosmetic boxes, wig boxes, and of course, the Necessaire (small boxes for a host of miniature objects).  The history behind these boxes cannot found by googling:  it's in paintings, etchings, diaries, and letters.

Duval de l'Epinoy with snuff box.

Reproduction of 16th century harpsichord

Part II:  a program of 17th and 18th century music played on vintage or reproductions of vintage instruments.  The flute player told us his flute was made from BOXwood, the tenor was introduced as the human voice-BOX and Kisluk-Grosheide linked the two programs together: the harpsichord is simply a large decorated BOX with strings inside.

No one I know uses a jeweled encrusted gold box for their knickknacks.  But there is one box that almost everyone owns, finds indispensable and contains all their daily routines.

"I think boxes still appeal to us today, and I really like to think that the combination box of choice today is the modern Blackberry or iPhone, which offers us all we need, just like the necessaires of the past did to the eighteenth century men and women. " Danielle Kisluk-Grosheide