Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Emily Dickinson's Garden: The Poetry of Flowers

Emily Dickinson's Garden: The Poetry of Flowers
At The New York Botanical Garden
April 30–June 13, 2010
Bronx, New York

Going into the show I really didn’t have high expectations. The mixture of words and gardens is a powerful one for me but a whole show devoted to poetry and flowers just didn’t seem like it was going to be interesting. After walking into the Conservatory it revealed a perfect period garden with a great assortment of plants and flowers. Most of the plants were what I would call common but they were nicely presented and for a few seconds I forgot that I was in a building that I have been in hundreds of times. The flowers and plants were arranged as a border and I could imagine myself walking around at Emily’s garden admiring the various types of Hollyhocks, Larkspurs and Delphiniums. Throughout the displays were little, what I call Plant trivia, signs about the language of flowers and the plants themselves both of which were interesting.

There were couple of building mock ups at the intersections of the greenhouses. Again these were well done and looked like the fit right in.

Here are a few of the featured flowers:


Poor Man's Orchid
Schizanthus pinnatus
(ski-ZAN-thus) (pin-NAY-tus)


Rocket Larkspur
Consolida ‘Sydney Light Blue’
(kon-SO-lih-duh)


Dame's Rocket
Hesperis matronalis
(HES-per-iss)
Synonyms: Sweet Rocket

I realize now that a few full pictures showing the why the exhibit was laid out would have been helpful. All I had for lenses was the 105mm macro and in a relatively small space it isn’t going to give much of a landscape shot. You will just have to use your imagination and take my word that the show is worth visiting.

10 comments:

jams o donnell said...

Beautiful! I am glad to see the first of our sweet rocket in bloom

Rose said...

I wish I were nearer to New York, because this is one exhibit I would love to see. I've always been a big fan of Emily's poetry, and seeing a simulation of her gardens would be a true delight. Thank you for sharing these photos with us!

DrillerAA said...

As always, very nicely done.

caite said...

love, love, love the Dame's Rocket.

Sukhmandir Kaur said...

They are so very pretty, the top one looks as though it has a monkey face and waving hands.

catsynth said...

Interesting to see some of the period flowers. Were they displayed in the context of the poetry?

I also read the previous past. Glad to hear the good medical news.

Mommie On Top said...

Lovely flowers. Great shot!

Here's my WW entry for this week.

Happy WW!

Ann Flower said...

Stunning picture of the flowers, will definitely make my day. Keep posting.

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Hi cat synth,

The poetry was displayed on various placards throughout the garden outside and indoors. It blended together well. There was some personal information on Emily and her family I found interesting.

modeflowers said...

Perfect shots. It enhances more the beauty of the flowers.