What's Blooming at the Polasek Museum

Looking for a wonderful day of sculpture, Russian icons, sunshine, and a beautiful lakefront garden? Visit the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Garden in Winter Park.

The Risen Christ, Resurrection of our Savior
1963, Albin Polasek

The museum is currently hosting The Holy Art of Imperial Russia, showcasing 17th - 19th century Russian icons and tryptchs. The artwork was impressive and inspiring, considering that nearly all Russian religious art were either voluntarily given up or taken physically and destroyed by the government during the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Despite coming out of winter, the day we visited sunshine and the museum gardens created a wonderful backdrop for Albin Polasek's bronze sculptures.  Here are some of my favorite annuals, flowers, ornamental shrubs, and succulents.

Abutilon

Abutilon 'Orange-Red'

Abutilon

Bromeliads

Agave Angustafolia marginata

                           

Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia reginae

Aechmea 'Burgandy'

Camellia japonica

Chinese Hat Plant,
 Holmskioldia sanguinea

Clerondendrum quadriloculare 'Starburst'

                           

 

Crown of Thorns, Euphorbia milli

Crown of Thorns, Euphorbia milli

Prickly Cycad, Encephalartos ferox

Firecracker, Russelia equisetiformis

Camellia in background, firecracker in front

Fishtail Fern, Nephrolepsis biserrata

Dianella, Geranium, and Lobelia

Gerbera Daisies

Honeysuckle vine, Lonicera spp.

Iochroma cyaneum

Lakefront tuteur

Loropetalum chinense 'Ever Red'

Loropetalum chinense 'Ever Red'

Medinilla

Pentas

Purple Firespikes,
Odontonema callistachyum

Snapdragons, annuals

Stromanthe sanguineas

Princess Flowers, Tibouchina grandiflora

Variegated ginger, Alpina zerumbet

Yellow rose

Polasek Museum landscape bed

Take time to go by and visit the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens.  The Holy Art of Imperial Russia will be available for viewing until April 13th.                                 

Pretty in Pink - Pentas and Caladiums

Great summer and fall combination. For full and partial sun areas, especially in parking lots with hot asphalt.  Would like to see more caladiums planted among the pentas.  Great for butterfly gardens, too. 

 

Pentas and caladiums take the heat.

#gardenchat

But Where Are The Gardens?

Garden Design magazine and American Society of Landscape Architects have announced their contest winners in their 2010 Residential Landscapes of the Year. I love reading the Garden Design magazine and looking at the lovely gardens. So I was excited to see the winners. But I found them disappointing. When I think residential, I think of homes, families, communities. When I hear landscapes I think of scenery and views from different angles, times of day, and at different seasons. But when I think of gardens, I think of life evolving right before our eyes, a place to meander, enjoy colors, fragrances, butterflies. Gardens thrive with the encourgagement of physical human touch; planting, picking flowers, fruit, and vegetables, hoeing, weeding, and deadheading. In doing so we encourage ourselves and defuse our tensions. We thrive, too.

But I didn't see any residential gardens. The thirteen winning entries are mainly hardscapes of rock, stone, cement, screens, water pools, evergreens, turf, and grasses, with a few restorations that include valley wildflowers, natural coastlines, and a Japanese styled portico. Where were the gardens?

I get that incorporating landscapes with architectural design and new construction requires the engineering process, straight lines, and hardscapes, but did the winning landscapes have to be stark with "no maintenance" required, or quiet meditation sanctuaries, or coastlines viewed from inside? Maybe its what the resident wanted and more power to them. But the title of the contest should have been 2010's Residential Exteriors of the Year.

In writing this I think I answered my own argument of garden vs residential landscaping. The future of landscape architecture design seems to be going towards the misnomers of sustainable, no maintenance, sterile, no dirty hands, no touching.

Now these are gardens...

Fritham Farm is a residence and Plant Delights Nursery is a combination of residence and private wholesale nursery.



Fritham Farm



Plant Delights Nursery - May 2009

You can energize yourself by meandering through these gardens. The views are thoughtful and inspiring. The maintenance is physical and stress-relieving. More gardens like these would be good for the world's soul.

Rock Solid Gardens

© Stonehenge 2006 Teresa Watkins

Stones are magical. The stillness of majestic stone gardens created by man thousands of years ago is awe-inspiring. Ancient people worshipped, honored the earth, and left untold stories among the impressive pillars at Stonehenge. They feel as if they have a life of their own. Who knows? Maybe stones hold the secret to our universe? One of my favorite metaphysical books is The Nature of Thing: The Secret Life of Inaminate Objects explains their spectral powers. WebEcoist has more mystical ancient stone circles here.

I love stones in my Florida garden because we don't find many rocks in our sandy soils. That's probably a good thing when we have to dig but trying to create height with flat topographies needs imagination.

History of Rock Gardens

Reginald Ferrer, botanist, plant hunter and world traveler, (1880 - 1920) changed gardening with his rock bed creations. Ferrer was responsible for sparking interest in alpine and Japanese rock gardens. Frequently referred to as the "shotgun" gardener for his one-time seed-sowing experiment (eccentric stunt?) of loading a shotgun with alpine seeds from his travels and shooting them into crevices of the Yorkshire cliffs.

Read a downloadable version of The English Rock Garden by Reginald Ferrer.

Japanese Rock Gardens

“In order to comprehend the beauty of a Japanese garden, it is necessary to understand -- or at least to learn to understand -- the beauty of stones. Not of stones quarried by the hand of man, but of stones shaped by nature only. Until you can feel, and keenly feel, that stones have character, that stones have tones and values, the whole artistic meaning of a Japanese garden cannot be revealed to you. Not only is every stone chosen with a view to its particular expressiveness of form, but every stone in the garden or about the premises has its separate and individual name, indicating its purpose or its decorative duty.”

~Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904)

My Garden

From Loch Lomand to Gooseberry Island near Cape Cod, to Franklin, NC to Seattle,WA, we bring home a rock from each adventure. Our friends bring us rocks, pebbles, even singular bricks, from their globe-trotting. I even understood completely when I heard a puzzled newscaster question why someone getting on a plane (post-911) had a brick confiscated from their bag. It wasn't going to be a weapon but a memory that could be held. Cheap souvenirs, the unknowing may think, but to me, stones are deeply personal.

© Gooseberry Island beach stones 2009 Teresa Watkins

Now this is a great rock garden at the Canadian Pavilion during 2008 International Flower and Garden Festival at EPCOT. You can imagine reducing the creviced ridges and interspersing plantings of dwarf junipers, slow-growing cypresses, and draping succulents behind a bed of golden marigolds you can create the same effect in your landscape.

© EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival 2008 Teresa Watkins

Water conserving succulent rock container garden with blue rubber mulch.

© EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival 2007 Teresa Watkins

How Not To Design A Rock Garden:

The landscape company that put this parking lot obstacle in needs to be stoned.

Let your garden show its' rock-solid strength by adding a few natural stones. It can take the rough edges off an otherwise flat touch. Grounding yourself with stones in a garden can be very healing. Rock on!

More resources on rock gardens:

• How to design rock gardens.




• Free rock garden plans




• Rock garden plants




• Alpine Gardening - great links




• The Alpine Garden **Excellent**




• The Rock Garden




• Famous Japanese Rock Gardens




• Japanese Rock Gardens




• Creating miniature Japanese rock garden




• The North American Rock Garden Society

UPDATE: Had a reader send in this neo-modern circular formation called Puppyhenge.