Oct 29 2020 - From May Till September

 

How long does it take to grow the Chrysanthemum tree at Longwood Gardens.  Longer than from May till September.  It is a year-long process.  The tree this year has 1,100 blooms and took 1,800 hours of labour.   The art of creating the cascading mums is outlined HERE on the Longwood site.   They have grown them into shield, fan, tree, spiral, and cloud forms as well.  How do they train such brittle stems? "Often, the branches coming off the main stem need to be bent sharply in order to conform to the spiral frame, so our staff must first allow the plants to wilt and then break the internal part of the plant. The resulting flexibility allows us to get the branch going in the right direction and set the plant to the frame with wire." And what about the bonsai chrysanthemum trees on display? Longwood says they start training in May. The Niagara Falls Showcase Greenhouse, Hamilton's Gage Park and Toronto's conservatories have all travelled to Longwood to learn the art of Chrysanthemum growing and training.  So while I can't get to Longwood's display this year,  the smaller shows nearby will have equally beautiful displays. The Chrysanthemum is beloved here for late Autumn display.  We in the Northern Hemisphere experience the season progression to winter.  So Thomas Hardy's Chrysanthemum poem sentiment might apply to us:   Why should this flower delay so long     To show its tremulous plumes?  Now is the time of plaintive robin-song,     When flowers are in their tombs. Our pictures of Chrysanthemums  come from a previous visit to Longwood.  They use the Flaming Pear flexibly to create the mirror balls of flowers.

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May 12 2020 - In Such Times

I am pleased to report that there is no rock or punk or rapper group named "In Such Times".  There is no song.  There is no movie, no television series, no game series.  There is no Wikipedia entry.  There are no YouTubes with Performances of 'In such Times'. No People also ask What does in such times mean? Who wrote in such times? In such times gif In such times saying The emptiness of the social chatter is both a pleasure and a great relief. Only this entry to galvanize our attention: J.R.R. Tolkien — 'I wish it need not have happened in my time, said Frodo. So do I, said Gandalf, and so do all who live to see such times.' The weeping Japanese Maple tree out front provides the content for today's image.  There's a square version so that it fits perfectly on a pillow.

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RBG Rock Garden

I finally got to the Royal Botanical Garden's newly renovated Rock Garden yesterday on a beautiful November day with the sun lowering in the afternoon sky. It took a few years, and quite a bit of money to renovate the gardens.  It boasts a grand modern entrance building, and accessible walkways down to the rock garden.  It is significantly revamped.  As I looked at various areas, I could see how different it is now.  Even with the mature trees still in their places, the renovation is profound.   The water was emptied from the ponds so the full effect is missing in the late fall.  Still the autumn colours are showing in the Japanese maples, dogwoods, viburnums and the grasses. The landscape architect firm was Janet Rosenberg Studio.  I looked for reviews by the professional trade to see what the verdict is.  I found one article in Canadian Architecture covering the basic overview of what was accomplished. Nothing else so far.  I wanted to know if the result has elevated the rock garden to star status. A sunken garden has the potential to be pure magic. So it was great to see the re-do of the ponds and paths as they were in poor shape.  The new ponds and waterways are the major features and they are empty now, so I may have to wait till spring to get the full effect of the fountains, waterfalls and bridges.  It might be possible to capture some snow images - I checked to see if the Rock Garden is open in winter and daily hours are posted, so we'll see what happens.

The Crystal Ball

These water reflections were taken a few years go at the Missouri Botanical Garden.  This is a vast botanical garden and research centre with many interesting gardens.  This centre court water garden had Chihuly glass balls amongst the lily pads.

A Bit of Darwin

I was looking through the pictures from our 2009 trip to Australia for some garden images to enter in a contest.  I found this image of a sculpture in the Sydney Botanical Garden that is inscribed with Darwin's words.  Darwin visited this garden on his travels.  This was a celebration in 2009 with the mirrored sculptures forming the name Darwin, and were a celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, On the Origin of Species. 

Charles Darwin's observations of Australian floral and fauna during his visit in 1836 formed a key part in the development of his theory of evolution through natural selection and his subsequent publishing of Origin of Species.

Spring Experience

I am looking forward to the beautiful cherry trees at Royal Botanical Gardens.  This tree is in the Arboretum and is an ancient Japanese Cherry.  I used Topaz Lens Effects to get the motion blur in the second image.