by Meg Lynch, Editor

My fiancé and I went to a wedding in the Des Moines area over the weekend. We had some spare time, so we checked out the Des Moines Botanical Center. It was a great break from the frigid weather! Even John, who is not exactly a “plant person,” enjoyed the colorful bulb display blooming inside the entrance. (He took these photos with his cell phone.)

The main part of the Botanical Center is a Plexiglass and aluminum dome, 150 feet wide and 80 feet tall at its highest point. The collection of plants growing in the dome includes unusual tropical plants, familiar houseplants, shrubs, and fruit and nut trees. Some of the palm trees there are quite large, and you follow winding paths through the dome, heading up and down to different levels, so you really get the feeling of being in a lush tropical garden. And it is always fun to see the plants you grow as houseplants in their natural state (big!).  

The Botanical Center also has an annex called the Gardener’s Showcase, where volunteers design exhibits demonstrating design ideas or certain groups of plants, and classes and events take place in the center’s classrooms.

The temperature was -2 when we left Des Moines on Sunday, heading for the airport in Omaha. I spotted a billboard for Omaha’s Botanical Center (or Lauritzen Gardens) and remembered writing a little box on an event there when I first started working at Horticulture. Too bad we had flights to catch. (Right, John?) I’d like to get there someday. Preferably a warm one!

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2/12/2008 3:17:54 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

by Meghan Lynch, Editor

Recently I visited the new Botanical Center at Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island. The main attraction, which opened this past spring, is a 6,000 square foot conservatory full of tropical plants, arranged in long borders and around a few pools and fountains. There's also a slightly smaller connected greenhouse with plants from temperate and desert regions. Even though I'm a cactus-nut I have to say I enjoyed the tropicals best.

Here's one border, with a silver bismark palm.

And one of the pools, with truly giant elephant ears.

Located within Roger Williams Park (on Elmwood Ave. in Providence), the conservatory is open Tuesday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Adult admission is $3; children ages 6 to 12, $1; kids under 6, free.

7/18/2007 4:56:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] 

Long Hill

When I was growing up my father planned all our family vacations to include a visit to some historically significant site, usually a fort. Sometimes he threw in a tour of an estate for good measure. I generally viewed these “old places” as speed bumps on the way to the hotel pool, which, to me, was the main point of our journey.

Lately I’ve realized that somewhere along the way I picked up an interest in seeing “old places,” especially if they have a preserved or restored garden. This past weekend I visited Long Hill in Beverly, Massachusetts. Between 1916 and 1979 it was the summer home of Ellery Sedgwick, an editor and publisher of the Atlantic Monthly magazine (whose offices, coincidentally, used to sit right around the corner from Horticulture’s). Sedgwick’s first wife, Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, designed and planted beautiful gardens there. After her death, Sedgwick married Marjorie Russell, also a great gardener. She added her own touch to the gardens (including many unusual trees) while maintaining what Mabel had begun.

The gardens include formal elements, such as geometric terraces, a croquet lawn, and framed long views. At the same time, they fit wonderfully in their deciduous forest setting; they truly blend with nature. I don’t know how much I can blend my own garden with its surroundings, which includes a wooden fence and a chain link fence, too, but we’ll see what I come up with. Besides the inspiration to improve my design, I came away from the Sedgwick gardens with a list of plants to look up and maybe grow myself. I'll write more on those soon.

If you are making any changes in your garden this year, I recommend visiting a historic garden (Long Hill itself, if you are anywhere nearby!).

As for me, maybe it's time for a return to Fort Ticonderoga.

A couple photos I took at Long Hill, looking up at the house and down from it. Those huge flowering cherry trees are 75 years old.

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5/8/2007 5:00:35 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]