It’s finally here!  Perennial Premiere is this weekend, and I can hardly wait.  In the four years since I started working at the IMA, the perennial plant sale has grown into an event for the whole family, and it’s something I always look forward to.  Every year on this Saturday morning as I’m walking out the door for a day of work inundated with exciting plants my husband always reminds me exactly how much is remaining in my plant budget.  Well, I suppose the next best thing to buying plants for your own garden is sharing your knowledge and excitement with someone else who can grow it in theirs!  There will be many tempting plants this weekend, but I get to share just a few with you that I think are worth getting really excited about.

Japanese sweet flag (Acorus gramineus ‘Ogon’) is a great option for getting a little bit of chartreuse into the landscape without going overboard.  It is a grass-like perennial, similar to a Siberian iris, which prefers a bit of moisture, even having the ability to grow in boggy conditions. If you site this in sun to part shade and in consistently moist soil, it will be a fairly low-maintenance perennial that will spread slowly.  The flowers are pretty insignificant, so grow this one for the lovely, tufted, gold-variegated foliage that will reach about a foot tall and provide a fine-textured accent for bold-leafed perennials.  It could also be quite effective as a groundcover for a smaller area, such as next to a water feature, or used as an accent in a container.  In any garden, Acorus ‘Ogon’ is a very graceful, versatile plant.

Acorus gramineus ‘Ogon’ (in front)

There are many bugelweeds to choose from; all have that great blue flower in the spring and are effective and quick-growing groundcovers.  The one that I’ve been the most impressed with for looking great even after it has finished blooming is Ajuga ’Chocolate Chip,’ and I’m going to be sure to nab a few of these for my own home garden this year!  ‘Chocolate Chip’ is shorter than other bugleweeds at only 2” tall (3-4” with the flower spike), with lovely bronze to deep green foliage that retains its healthy vigor throughout the growing season.  Some of the other Ajugas have flowers that tend to look a bit weedy after blooming, but it has been my observation that ‘Chocolate Chip’ maintains its neat appearance throughout the growing season.  Site this little guy in a sunny or fairly shaded location between stepping stones or as a border edge; it won’t let you down!

Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’, photo courtesy of Classy Groundcovers

Dwarf goat’s beard, Aruncus aethusifolius, is another lovely, compact perennial only reaching about 12” tall.  It has an overall appearance similar to that of Astilbe, but its ferny foliage will not shrivel up and turn crispy brown in the drier spells of summer, allowing the opportunity for a nice yellow-orange leaf color to develop in the fall.  It has white flower plumes in early to mid-summer, and would be a great, underused alternative in shady conditions for those who are looking for a good companion with Hosta, Epimedium or Brunnera.

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Filed under: Greenhouse, Horticulture, Uncategorized

It’s coming! You better be ready. Are you practicing balancing 5 plants in your hands at once? Are you ready to fight for the plant you want? Here’s a good way to get in condition. Go to the grocery store when you know the produce section will be extra busy. This is an excellent place to practice elbowing people out of the way. When Misty Mae tries to grab your bunch of asparagus find that tender spot in the rib cage with your elbow and show her how the pros shop. She won’t mess with you at the table of sale strawberries either. And she won’t get the last Baptisia ‘Screamin’ Yellow’ as you reach for it. Shopping for new plants should be fun but sometimes it’s a battle. Are you ready to battle, people?

Next weekend will be Perennial Premiere again. Seems only a moment has occurred since last year’s plant extravaganza but soon April 21 and 22, 2012 will be here. My good friends at Pink Glitter Farms agreed to demonstrate three important shopping strategies.

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Filed under: Current Events, Horticulture, Local

Join us tonight for a lecture by New York-based artists Anthony Aziz and Sammy Cucher about their new body of work for the exhibition Some People.  For Some People, the artists have filled the IMA’s McCormack Forefront Galleries with four expansive video installations that, together, confront the artists’ complex feelings in relation to conflict in the Middle East. Aziz + Cucher have distilled years of research and travel into these videos, which take recent and current conflicts out of a specific place and time to speak about the seemingly never-ending cycle of senseless destruction.

Here’s a sneak peek into the galleries, where Aziz + Cucher have been fine-tuning their work:

Sammy Cucher, in front of "By Aporia, Pure and Simple"

Anthony Aziz, in front of "By Aporia, Pure and Simple"

Anthony Aziz and Sammy Cucher of Aziz + Cucher

Filed under: Uncategorized

You come to the Perennial Premiere Plant Sale for the plants…well, duh! But this year, you’ll be staying for the wonderful, exciting festival atmosphere.

In addition to some of the most beautiful and unusual plants (perennials, annuals, tropicals, herbs and houseplants) this event also boasts a gathering of some of the most knowledgeable horticulturists in the Midwest. Nowhere else will you find such a well-informed assemblage to answer all your gardening questions…and all anxious to help you!

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Filed under: Greenhouse, Horticulture

Last month I went to Paris. I didn’t go to do research at the Louvre, or to attend a special exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, I went to the POPArt Conference, an international symposium on the conservation of plastic materials.  The conference was the culmination of a European Union funded initiative, and like Contemporary Art: Who Cares?, it is another example of the way that European governments are supporting the conservation of contemporary cultural heritage in a way that the U.S. government does not.  The goal of POPArt was to improve the conservation of plastic objects in European museums and to establish recommended practices for exhibiting, cleaning, and restoring these artifacts .

Tara Donovan, "Untitled (Mylar)," 2010. Commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Frank Curtis Springer & Irving Moxley Springer Purchase Fund, Anonymous IV Art Fund, Deaccessioned Contemporary Art Fund. 2010.218A-D. Courtesy of the Pace Gallery.

When people think about plastics, their minds don’t typically jump to museum collections.  But in reality museums are filled with plastic artifacts and artworks made with plastic components.  Artists and designers choose them for their working properties and aesthetic qualities that cannot be achieved with other materials.  Some works in the IMA’s collection that are made with plastics include Tara Donovan’s Untitled (Mylar), Valentine Typewriter designed by Ettore Sottsass II and Perry King, and Rudi Gernreich’s wool and vinyl Dress.  These are just a few examples and our holdings are only growing as we are rapidly acquiring many new objects in our Design Arts, Textile and Fashion Arts, and Contemporary Art departments.

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Filed under: Conservation, Contemporary, Road Trip