From the Archive: Chihuly Glass at Fairchild

Chihuly Glass at Fairchild

Just to keep the July streak going here are a couple of old pictures. At the time it seemed I was bitchin’ about how much Chihuly glass I was seeing but now I kind of miss it. The big yellow piece was truly amazing and well set in it’s position. After blogging for several years I think this might be the latest daily update ever.

Garden Phlox

Garden Phlox
Phlox paniculata 'Nicky'
(floks) (pan-ick-yoo-LAY-tuh)

This is a tall Phlox that has a deep color. The flowers are nicely fragrant and form big trusses. A nice plant for the summer garden.

The last couple of nights have been a little uneasy for us as we made a big planting of Pansies and Andromeda last week. The temperatures just haven’t been cooperating over night. I knew it was risky but since the flowers are for a memorial service next week the work had to be done. I guess I will see if there is any cold damage to the stuff this morning.


This is a picture of some left over Chihuly glass from Fairchild Gardens.

Chihuly Glass at the NYBG

Chihuly Glass at the NYBG
Wordless Wednesday


One from the archives, 2007
Dale Chihuly

Chihuly Glass at Fairchild Gardens, Miami

Chihuly Glass at Fairchild Gardens, Miami

Since I stayed out late last night here are some archive Chihuly Glass shots from Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami. I have recently been going through my hard drives trying to get rid of some old pictures and came across these two. The first one is from the 2007 exhibit and the second one is from 2006.



I went to the Foreigner concert last night. It was great. Even though it isn’t my favorite band they really put on a good show. I got a couple of pictures. The first two are Mick Jones the lead guitarist and songwriter. The other one is Kelly Hansen the lead singer with Jason Bonham (drums, his dad was in Led Zeppelin) and Jeff Jacobs. They played a lot of the ‘hits’ and a couple I didn’t recognize. Somehow I had bought front row, dead center tickets. I was sitting next to the mayor and his wife.






Here are some other posts I have made on Chihuly Glass:

2007 Fairchild

More 2007 Fairchild

Gardens and Glass, 2006, NYBG

More Chihuly Glass at Fairchild

More Chihuly Glass at Fairchild

Here are a few more pictures from the Chihuly exhibit.
This was the piece in front of the Jean duPont Shehan Visitor Center. The building has a beautiful limestone exterior (this is what they call ‘coral’ rock).



I had lunch on a bench in the shade of this Money Tree (Pachira aquatica). How cool was that. I didn’t see any flowers or fruit on this one. This tree is also known as the Guiana chestnut and is in the bombax or baobab Family (Bombacaceae).






This piece is in the Conservatory and will be on permanent display at Fairchild. They told me it was made up of different pieces from all the displays.

Chihuly at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens 2007

Chihuly at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens 2007

This is my third Chihuly show in the last year. I also saw a lot of his pieces in one of the hotels in Las Vegas (forget which one). I like this show the best because it was low-key and seemed to fit into the landscape better. One thing I don’t like about the exhibits is the large crowds they bring. I have been to Fairchild before and practically been the only person there. I think the Glass fits in much better at Fairchild then it did at the NYBG. The colors, shapes and patterns are good match for Miami. Overall I enjoyed my visit to the Chihuly exhibit and had a great day at the garden. I am going to have another post on some of the great flowers and plants I saw at Fairchild soon.

Golden Lotus Banana at Fairchild

Golden Lotus Banana
Musella lasiocarpa
(mew-SEL-uh) (las-ee-oh-KAR-puh)

This was taken at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Miami, Florida. It was quite odd looking but charming and captivating. It was growing out of a kind of nasty looking stump with a lot of ratty leaves. It is the kind of flower I think a dinosaur would love as it looks a bit prehistoric. It shares the genus Musella with one other species, M. splendida. The naming has some controversy surrounding it and at first glance I thought the tag said Musa. It is native to Southeast Asia and is thought to be extinct in the wild. Apparently, and I found this information poking around the net, it is a wonderful very cold hardy (USDA Zone 7, maybe lower) plant for the garden.

If you are ever in the Miami area and want to visit a garden go to Fairchild. It is one of my all-time favorites. It has almost fully recovered its old glory after a devastating blow from Hurricane Andrew. The collection of Palms is amazing, and that is just one part of the garden. It is set on 83 acres in a very nice area of Coral Gables. This February they are again having a Chihuly exhibit. I am going to go with an open mind and hope to visit at least twice on my upcoming trip. Stay tuned for a ‘live’ report from Fairchild. I read on Wikipedia that they have an African Baobab Tree. I have been 10 times and never seen it! If I find it I will definitely write about it.

(Synonym: Chinese Yellow Banana)

Floribunda Rose ‘Chihuly’

Floribunda Rose ‘Chihuly’

While visiting the Chihuly exhibit, Gardens and Glass, at the New York Botanical garden, I photographed some roses. I have been looking through some old files and doing some housekeeping and remembered what a nice rose I thought this was. It was really fragrant and of course it is a blend of some of my favorite rose colors. The bush itself was short and stout with nice coverage of flowers. I think this was good choice to name after Mr. Chihuly because like his work this rose is a complex representation of color.

The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is one of my favorite places at the garden. Often times I have it all to myself or only have share it with a couple of other people. One thing I like is the plantings are large enough of each rose that you can often see several stages of the roses color. Now more than ever roses seem to have multi-stages of color to their blooms. ‘Chihuly’ is a rose like that. It starts off almost all orange and then gets the yellow middle parts and the delicate shading that makes it so nice. The old-fashioned double style flowers have a petal count of about 35. This rose was introduced in 2006 and seems to go by several names, which I have listed below. I often like to look up the parentage of the roses I photograph and this one is a bit convoluted. Here it is:

[(Sweet Chariot x Blue Nile) x Stephen's Big Purple] x [(International Herald Tribune x R. soulieanna derivative) x (Sweet Chariot x Blue Nile)

I am not sure how to read that one but I am going to find out. That is probably going to take some digging. Some of the names this rose goes by are:

cv. WEKsmopur
Ebb Tide™
Chihuly®

I am loading the Ipod I got for Christmas. Since I have about 3,000 songs on my computer it is going to be awhile. The amazing thing is the Ipod didn’t even come with any instructions; you have to get them from the Internet. I guess that is a sign of the future. Since I use Mac computers I have Itunes already so it was easy to get going. Later this afternoon I have to help Karen get set up with downloading the pictures from her new Nikon D80. Since she has a Dell I am going to have to find a totally different workflow than what I am used to.

Birch Bark Cherry (Prunus serrula)

Birch Bark Cherry
Prunus serrula
(PROO-nus)

Yesterday I had to clear out of here. There was some construction going on at the house and thankfully I wasn’t involved in any of the decisions so I slipped down to the Bronx and the New York Botanical Garden. I went in the afternoon, which was totally different, then my usual morning visits. The gardens were beautiful and I always get a special feeling when I go into the garden. They still had a lot of foliage left compared to Connecticut. I guess that 50 miles makes a big difference. I visited the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory and they were still tearing down some of the Chihuly show. I pretty much had the place to myself. I got a couple of nice pictures of the tropical before moving on to the Ladies Border and garden in front of the Conservatory. There were still quite a few flowers left. I then headed over to the Rock Garden.

The Rock Garden is a truly amazing place. I am always in awe of the stuff I see in there. The Birch Bark Cherry was nicely highlighted by the setting sun. The bark is outstanding on this tree. I am not sure why you don’t see more often. It stays small (for a Cherry) and the white flowers are outstanding. It is has good fall color also. The bark has a metallic appearance when the sun is shining on it.

I saw one scene in the Rock Garden that pretty much struck me dumb when I came around the corner. It certainly was some of the best fall foliage I saw this year. I took this picture but it didn’t come out very well. As I was standing there with my puny digital camera I knew it could never capture all the color, especially without a tripod. It is one of the few times recently that I longed for a film camera. I ran this photo through the watercolor filter in PS because it was a little soft. The multi-layering of the different colors and the touch of evergreen were just right. The Rock Garden is always full of surprises and it didn’t disappoint.

(Syn.: Paper-bark Cherry, Tibetan Cherry)

Chihuly at The New York Botanical Garden
Gardens and Glass
June 25 to October 29, 2006

I visited the Chihuly exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden on Sunday. It was fairly crowded compared to my usual Sunday mornings at the garden. I must admit to being fairly ignorant of Mr. Chihuly’s work until, in February, I stumbled upon the show at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami. So now I have now seen two major installations in six months! I must admit that I have mixed emotions about the art. My favorite pieces are generally the smaller pieces. The glass also looks good in the water gardens. The larger pieces are amazing but for some reason I don’t like them as much. The bowls are very interesting though I thought they could have used a better setting than the Nolen Greenhouses. In general I thought the colors and shapes fit the Miami garden better. The sheer undertaking of the exhibits is amazing in their own right. Much to their credit there was only a few pieces that were similar in the two shows. Each had been designed with the surroundings in mind.

I could go on about an hour about my thoughts on the exhibit. Even though I didn’t like some of it the art it did make me think about it. Which is what good art does to me. Mr. Chihuly brings some important elements to the garden, fantastic color, and structure. I would recommend that everybody attend at least one show. It’s stimulating.

I am going to try and upload two pictures today. Hey, it worked ;-)