A Wandering Botanist

 I visited the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska MN (website), at the end of April. I had heard about it for years and I had traveled with them on several excellent garden tours, so I was eager to see it. I found it was much more than I had expected. 

a magnolia in flower

This spring I've been gardening daily. My current Garden Concept is a space of native plants, that welcomes the insects that eat them and the birds that consume the insects. But I like plants, so I have no intention of digging out the peonies or lilacs, even though they support very few native insects. With that complex approach, I took a look at my garden and discovered it was even more complicated.

The Alnwick Poison Garden is a very famous collection of poisonous plants. On my recent trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, we made a day trip south to Alnwick, on the coast in northernmost England. 

The Poison Garden is part of Alnwick Castle's gardens, all of which had a recent make-over and are quite lovely. I was there in a drizzle with not much time, so I focused on the Poison Garden. 

bittersweet nightshade, Solanum dulcamara

Facebook gardening groups post pictures of plants found in their yards and ask "Is this a plant or a weed?" Botanically that is a terrible statement because all weeds are plants, though not all plants are weeds. But what the writer meant was, "Is this a desirable or undesirable plant?" 

We can identify the plant, and if the property owner didn't plant it, then it will likely be called a weed.

But that is so limited! I'd like at least a third category. 

The radish is an ancient vegetable that has been mainly reduced to a garnish. 

radishes, Raphanus sativus

Calling the radish just a condiment is a little excessive, since in Asia radishes are important foods, but in my life, mostly little radishes are sliced into a salad for a little color. Yet they have been grown by Europeans for 5,000 years, and in Asia for at least 2,000. They were an important vegetable in Egypt 4,000 years ago. Greeks and Romans ate radishes, cooked and raw. The Romans spread them all over Europe But we don't seriously consider eating a dish of radishes...

In February I visited south Florida. Lots of it looks like this:


Which is very different from the look of the native vegetation:

Putting art displays in public gardens is trendy. It adds novelty to familiar vistas. I like both plants and art, but often it seems to me that the relationship between garden and art is strained. But I was delighted by J.A. Cobb's fanciful statues, "Ribbit the Exhibit" seen at the Mounts Botanical Garden of Palm Beach County, Florida.

I decided to make 2020 "the Year of 2020 Vision," reviewing my activities and all my stuff, asking if each is an active interest or something I think I might, maybe, do or use, sometime in the future. My possessions and surroundings should reflect my current self. The trick will be honest answers.

When I dial up 2020 Vision beyond the junk drawer, looking at my yard I find lots of ideas that I have carried over for years, to dust off and reconsider.

The Garden Bloggers Fling, a conference of people who blog about gardens, was in Denver in June 2019. What do garden bloggers do at a conference? Look at gardens! The Denver area is hot in summer, cold in winter, and dry all the time. Most standard East Coast garden plants do not do well, unless protected and watered. Plants native to the region do not need the same care. Here is a gallery of beautiful natives I saw in gardens in northern Colorado during the Fling.

blanket flower, Gaillardia

North of Taipei, Taiwan, nearly to the north coast of the island, is the Juming Museum. Sculptor Ju Ming created the museum and it is a piece of art itself.

Initially a woodcarver, Ju Ming (see biography at art net) works in media from styrofoam to ceramics to stainless steel.

I visited recently with San Francisco's Society for Asian Art.

Whenever I visit outdoor art installations I ask both "Does the location enhance the art?" but also "does the art enhance the location?"  For Ju Ming's art, often the answer to both was "yes!"

I took a garden tour in northern Japan this past June (blog). Not only did it make me see my plants as poorly trimmed (see earlier blog), there were lots of useful ideas.

No plant enthusiast passing through Steamboat Springs, Colorado should miss the Yampa River Botanic Park. Website

The Painter's Garden

This gem is snuggled along the Yampa River on the north side of the city of Steamboat Springs. The six acres are divided into dozens of individual gardens, tended or supported by the Steamboat Springs community. Some have themes--the Blue Garden, the Butterfly Garden, the Painter's Garden--some just feature plants the gardener loves.

The Garden Bloggers Fling is an annual conference of people who regularly write about gardens and gardening online. Hosted by an enthusiastic team of garden bloggers link it moves around between cities. Flings have been held for a decade, but this year was the first time I went.

What do garden bloggers do at a conference? Visit gardens!

All the shrines were decorated.


All the streets were decorated.

On a Road Scholar tour of gardens of the Philadelphia area, we visited Mount Cuba Center. Located in Hockessin, Delaware, the site was the home and gardens of Mr. and Mrs. Lamott du Pont Copeland. Purchased over 70 years ago, the Copelands gradually transformed their home on the top of Mt. Cuba into sweeping vistas, beautiful woods and meadows and luscious gardens. Not only devoted to beauty, the Mt. Cuba Center has become dedicated to promoting gardening and landscaping with native plants. 

Hills of Mallorca

The island of Mallorca has beautiful beaches (earlier post), but the hills are lovely too. In the hill town of Valldemossa we visited a former monastery which was rich in plants and history.
















A rambling old building, of which I have no exterior photograph (so see link), it was begun as a royal residence, then, between 1399 and 1835, served as a Carthusian monastery. After that it was a private guest house and today it is a museum.