well i got one of my hair pots accepted into the Evanston + Vicinity Biennial 2018 Art Show. it's the first show i have attempted to get into and i think it's pretty cool regardless of "little" size that the hair pot is. i am grateful. be well.
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
unsung heroes
so as i visit the Chicago Botanic Gardens weekly, or almost weekly, to be in my temple called, "Mother Nature's Beauty", i always give special attention to a couple groups that i refer to as the Unsung Heroes - conifers/evergreens and roses. yes i know, two very different items.
i say Unsung Heroes because my perception over time as i have watched many folks at the garden is such that they don't really appreciate the true beauty of these two categories. of course you are saying, "marlo, you are so wrong and you have a really distorted perception! everyone loves roses! every garden in my neighborhood has an evergreen tree!"
well. on the contrary. let's start with the first group. when you climb up through the dwarf conifer & evergreen part of the garden, it's magical. you are surrounded by all shades of green, from blue-green to citrus green to deep forest green and many in between. you have the traditional tall stoic evergreens towering up either side of you but the majority of what you are distracted by are the low crawling ones over steps, or the droopy Adams Family-like spindly tree, or the small very compact, keeping to itself shrub pine. each of them with a different texture, color and feel to their needles. i run my hands over almost every one and over every plant or flower to help me remember it and to smell its distinctive scent.
conifers, evergreens and pines are used in gardens to add structure, to help ease erosion and to add color all year long - hence their name ever-green.
this next info from THE SPRUCE website:
"conifer" is an arboricultural term meaning, literally, a cone-bearer (such English words as "refer" and "aquifer" also use the FER Latin root, meaning "to bear"). Trees and shrubs that fall into this category reproduce by forming a cone rather than a flower as a container for their seeds. It is this fact regarding reproduction that points us to the difference between evergreens and conifers (see below). The corresponding adjective is "coniferous." Most conifers are evergreens, but not all of them are.
again, do not confuse "conifer" with "evergreen." While there is overlap between these two botanical classifications, they do not signify the same thing. As you can see from the above, the former pertains to means of reproduction (the cone); the latter, by contrast, pertains to the nature of a tree's leaves (or "needles")...
many people get frustrated with the cones that conifers bear or that they make soil acidic for planting and others just think Christmas trees for evergreens. this group of trees are so very unique with their shapes and colors and feel. when one decides to place them in their home garden, i hope that they do so with the intent to compliment with even more color from spring to winter.
i say Unsung Heroes because my perception over time as i have watched many folks at the garden is such that they don't really appreciate the true beauty of these two categories. of course you are saying, "marlo, you are so wrong and you have a really distorted perception! everyone loves roses! every garden in my neighborhood has an evergreen tree!"
well. on the contrary. let's start with the first group. when you climb up through the dwarf conifer & evergreen part of the garden, it's magical. you are surrounded by all shades of green, from blue-green to citrus green to deep forest green and many in between. you have the traditional tall stoic evergreens towering up either side of you but the majority of what you are distracted by are the low crawling ones over steps, or the droopy Adams Family-like spindly tree, or the small very compact, keeping to itself shrub pine. each of them with a different texture, color and feel to their needles. i run my hands over almost every one and over every plant or flower to help me remember it and to smell its distinctive scent.
conifers, evergreens and pines are used in gardens to add structure, to help ease erosion and to add color all year long - hence their name ever-green.
this next info from THE SPRUCE website:
"conifer" is an arboricultural term meaning, literally, a cone-bearer (such English words as "refer" and "aquifer" also use the FER Latin root, meaning "to bear"). Trees and shrubs that fall into this category reproduce by forming a cone rather than a flower as a container for their seeds. It is this fact regarding reproduction that points us to the difference between evergreens and conifers (see below). The corresponding adjective is "coniferous." Most conifers are evergreens, but not all of them are.
again, do not confuse "conifer" with "evergreen." While there is overlap between these two botanical classifications, they do not signify the same thing. As you can see from the above, the former pertains to means of reproduction (the cone); the latter, by contrast, pertains to the nature of a tree's leaves (or "needles")...
many people get frustrated with the cones that conifers bear or that they make soil acidic for planting and others just think Christmas trees for evergreens. this group of trees are so very unique with their shapes and colors and feel. when one decides to place them in their home garden, i hope that they do so with the intent to compliment with even more color from spring to winter.
I ADDED THE BONSAI EVERGREENS AS THAT IS ALWAYS AN OPTION TO CREATE IN YOUR GARDEN AS WELL.
and now for the roses.
i have enjoyed roses all my life. my mother grew them like it was the easiest thing to do. my grandma, the same. of course i didn't really appreciate them during my childhood because i had to water them and the rest of garden when i would have much rather been playing in the alley with my friends. those were called chores, which is also a topic for another day.
the roses in the stores for a few decades now are bred for color, shape and showmanship. they are not the roses of old which are sturdy, more disease resistant (though new breeding technology is helping with that without sacrificing anything else), and they were full of aroma. beautiful aroma. not every kind and some so subtle, only one with an acute sense of smell would notice. thankfully, i am one such person.
my reason for including them in the Unsung Heroes is that again, I don't feel that there's real appreciation for the variety, depth and subtlety of this group. when i walk through one of two rose gardens that i frequent, one much larger than the other, not one person outside myself, & the person i may be with during that visit, bends down to smell the roses. not one. isn't that a saying from many wise sage folks?? they just stroll on by chatting on their phones or to each other oblivious of the sheer beauty, color and aroma that they are passing. every single time it's the same.
wait. i, apologize. the only other kind of person who is paying attention to the color and shape only (not the scent) are the photographers with their foot long lens trying to capture just the right image, never stepping back long enough to simply look at the beauty that stands right in front of them. remember, this is how i view things, not how anyone else views this scenario.
all i am saying is that, the world of roses is stunning if you really want to include that kind of beauty, patience and commitment into your life. there are so many varieties available to each region and so many colors. talk about the complexity of Mother Natures hand. wow. from the tiniest blossom on a crawling shrub to the tall stems holding the sexiest of buds bursting with voluptuousness, teasing you as they open petal after petal after petal. their scents range from subtle green to light vanilla to citrus with vanilla to the sweetest peach to the grand traditional deep floral that will forever remind me of Lorraine, my grandma, and the rose soaps in her bathroom. always.
think about bringing an Unsung Hero into your life. it's worth it.
be well. marlo.
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