Goa Beach Mandala

 Last weekend, on an early morning beach walk at low tide, I came across this sand mandala.  It's kind of spooky as there are no obvious footprints, however, the sand was very hard.  How was it made?  Is this the tropic's answer to crop circles?

Cannonball tree outside my office

I was not surprised to discover the common name of this wacky and beautiful tree --- and you don't want to be under it when one of these nuts lets loose.  They are larger than a coconut and much heavier.

Apparently the force of impact causes the fruit to burst open scattering the seeds inside.  

The Bench at the Bottom of the Garden, Wimbledon

From Tony Pinkney, Morris Scholar:  "In her 1886 essay 'A Day in Surrey with William Morris' Emma Lazarus is very conscious of being an American in England. She writes: "to American eyes no bit of rural England can be devoid of interest and charm; the most ordinary objects seem under a spell to bewitch us back into the dream-world of a previous existence".

How true this is!!  How do you, the Brits, do it?!  Over a century later, I was pondering this exact question and decided that trees must have something important to do with it.  Americans don't really pay any attention to their trees.   I think the British realize they are the "foundation" upon which the entire landscape builds.

The Many Uses of Bamboo in the Garden....

Holding up tree limbs.....I'm wondering, does the added support lead to the tree growing in a more sprawling pleasing way?  "Tree"spalier?

Fashioned into various shapes to contain plants -- the bamboo is held together at corners with wrapped wire.  This would be so easy to do in your own garden.

A simple trellis for climbing.....

A rustic arbor.....this one was 3 posts x 5 posts, quite large, with triple layer open "mat" of bamboo laid on top.  Crossovers wrapped with twine.

Another extremely simple arbor, a two-post lean-to against side of building with a climbing vine going up far post.

Cool geometric grids which seemed to be most common under weeping willowy-like trees.  Not sure exactly what the point is but nice to walk under (maybe that is the point).

.....on a zen like path.

Ed Mezitt's PJM Rhododendron

The first spring rhododendron that blooms in New England flowered this past week.  It is a hydrid called PJM that is everywhere, its popularity entrenched by the fact that it blooms weeks before most other azaleas and rhododendrons -- an easy hardy plant.  The PJM was hybridized by Ed Mezitt in Weston, Massachusetts, in the fall of 1945.  Ed named the new plant PJM in honor of his father, Peter J. Mezitt, the following spring.

The father Peter had received a plant specimen (believed to be R. dauricum) collected by missionaries in the mountainous region between Mongolia and Kazakhstan (the 19th century was the heyday of missionary/botanist collecting in Asia).   Ed crossed this plant with R. minus Carolinianum.  The American Rhododendron Society speculates that the PJM Group is probably the most widely planted rhododendron in the United States today.

With all the forsythia and daffodils blooming at the same time, pink and yellow never looked so good together.

Wall Envy

Inspiration from Naumkeag

If it is spring it must be time to start thinking about gardens and an amazing one can be found at Naumkeag, another over-the-top summer retreat designed in the Shingle Style by McKim, Mead, and White.  Here are a few pictures I took at the Stockbridge, Massachusetts, estate --- I am feeling the inspiration.

I love the elegance of simple green plants in simple pots and irregularly cut stone pavers.  Fletcher Steele, a noted American landscape designer designed this "Afternoon Garden" in 1926 (the house was originally built in 1885).  It included the carved and painted gondola piers the owner brought back from Venice.

I also love the nonsensical squiggly pathways in the Rose Garden....

(photo from Kim Knox Beckius)

And this peaceful rill of water leads to Fletcher Steele's most famous creation.....

(photo by Felice Frankel) 

...the Blue Steps (1938) which lead to the cutting garden.  The water channel reminds me of this even more spectacular channel photographed many years ago in Hawaii (I can't remember where but it was in a botanical garden on Kauai).

An earlier pot post from Alhambra, Spain....

Plants for Sale....some quite old....

Many shops try to be "precious" and "retro-cool" and then some just are.....

 

 The center koi pond....with fountain and reeds in rear...

 

  

The brick arch originally connected the Lyman Estate pleasure gardens with the kitchen gardens.  Now it connects the older and the less old wings of the greenhouse.

 

 

the all important info sheet drawers....

Two hundred years of mid-winter bliss...

Last weekend I stopped by the historic Lyman Estate Greenhouses in Waltham, Massachusetts. This is one of the oldest greenhouses in the nation, built by Boston merchant Theodore Lyman in 1793. It is a working greenhouse maintained by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and every February and March their famous camellias, among the first ever imported to the U.S., bloom in profusion in a special wing built by Lyman in the 1820s.

 

 

  

Other parts of the greenhouse complex include the Grape Houses, where exotic flowers and fruits were grown for the winter table.  In the background below you can see the vines of the  Black Hamburg and Green Muscat of Alexandria grapes that are grown from 19th century cuttings from the royal greenhouse at Hampton Court in England.

 

 

  

 

Another room houses the extensive collection (thousands) of orchids and epiphytes....

I love the cranks and pipes and valves everywhere....

There is another wing that serves as a garden store.  I'll post those pics tomorrow.