For many, fall is best appreciated for the beautiful display of leaf color and irresistible weather – typically mild, sunny and dry here in central Indiana.  This fall, however, conditions were right for recognizing an old favorite in the landscape – giant puffball mushrooms.  We’ve found many of these delightful specimens throughout the IMA gardens; they keep popping out all over the place!  Giant puffballs are often found in more open woods and grassy areas, which makes them both visible and easily accessible.  Sadly, a good number were kicked apart prematurely by folks attempting to explode the trillions of spores encased inside the ballooning gleba (white mass that houses the spores) and release a puffy cloud of spores into the air.  I realize it’s irresistible, the desire to destroy these alien-looking, spongy bubbles.  How can one deny an urge that so exemplifies the spirit of a child’s delight with nature?  Yet I know that the anticipation was met with a rather anticlimactic squelching; the spores were not yet ripe.  The result was a disappointingly flat pile of flaky white chunks that just doesn’t garner the same reaction as that of a soaring spore cloud.

Result of dropping immature giant puffball mushrooms off the Interurban Bridge.

The mushrooms were fresh and new, with firm white flesh that is at its best for flavor and edibility.  It’s not until the puffball has turned brown, discolored and inedible, when the outer flesh has started to break apart, that they are primed and ready to be sent sailing through the air.  I wish people would wait until the mushrooms are ready, when they aren’t as visually appealing, so other people can enjoy seeing them in the garden and perhaps have the opportunity to share something unfamiliar and intriguing with their kiddos.  Please consider this before acting on perfunctory impulse.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

So another month begins, the temperature a balmy 95 or 99 or 100 or whatever the hell it reaches today. I mean, it is freaking 92 at 8:30 at night as I write this. That is not acceptable, as my friend Avonell would say. And quite frankly it’s more than a bit irritating. But thankfully it is back down to the 70’s for highs by Monday. Nothing odd about that now is there, Kids?

Well, my last blog talked about the upcoming Garden Writers Association (GWA) annual symposium to be held here in Indianapolis. I’m sure you are all dying to know if I won the Gold in 2011. As a matter of fact, no, I did not. GWA did not award the Gold in my category this year. Both my competition and I had to settle for Silver. As my friend Scarlet once said, “As God as my witness, I’ll never go hungry again”. Now, what does that statement have to do with this blog? Frankly my dear, not a damn thing. It’s just what came into my head and I have to get those things out of my head right away sometimes. Anyways, I’m quite proud of my Silver Award in Electronic Media Writing.

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Filed under: Horticulture

It’s been hot. Not oh-my-god-I’m-gonna-die! hot, but hot. Especially on the more humid days. As long as you have a patch of shade to work in during the afternoon, it is quite bearable. If you can wait til evening to do the gardening chores, there is a bit of a cool down as well.

The same can be said of taking time to enjoy the labors of your gardening. Rarely is it not lovely to stroll through your garden in the morning, the earlier the better some days, I admit. Come afternoon it is much lovelier to stroll through your shaded garden – if you have one. And again, come evening the temperature usually moderates so it can be nice to do the daily inspection or sit out in the garden and just relax.

But you need some plants out there or why bother? Something that does well in the shade. Something that shows well in the evening light. Something not too demanding as it is July and hot and humid and you are a little weary of garden chores. How about a shrub? How about a white flowering shrub? How about a tough shrub? How about a native white-flowering tough shrub for shade that also does well in the sun? How about Hydrangea arborescens, smooth hydrangea?

This plant can be seen back home in southern Indiana growing on the cut bank of the gravel road, clinging to the soil, and live no matter what the weather has been. You gotta be tough to grow along a gravel road. Trust me. That’s the ‘hood I grew up in.

Hydrangea arborescens can grow from three to five feet tall and wide, on average. Unlike the more sought after Hydrangea macrophylla (big blue and pink blooms), this hydrangea blooms on new wood so you can cut it back every year if you want and it still blooms (this also reduces the size somewhat). It will even bloom after one of our vicious winters. And yes, I know many new forms of H. macrophylla claim to bloom wondrously every year, but I have yet to see one truly pull that off. I want them to, yet the performance just doesn’t seem to match the promotional literature in my experience. But I will keep trialing them.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

On a recent stroll through the IMA grounds, visitor Stanley D. Abell captured the following image of his son in front of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture.

© Stanley D. Abell, 2011

Later that day he uploaded this image, along with a few others from his time at the IMA, to his personal Facebook page. IMA staff gives a tip of the hat to this photograph and its posting online as a prime example of fair use of an image taken on the grounds and shared through social media – well done sir, well done!

In comparison to this casual moment captured and shared by Stanley D. Abell, Sara Morris details her experience as a professional photographer coming to shoot on the IMA grounds:

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park

This is the time of year I am furiously working on designs for next spring and summer. It helps to surround myself with memories of last summer.

Otherwise, I might only think about the current weather….

Have I grown tired of temperatures 20 degrees below normal? Oh, hell yes. It seems so ridiculous to have so many nights in the single digits and it is only mid-December. I guess it is weather like this that makes those of us living in more northern climates so appreciative when Spring returns. You are just so relieved to not have that Ole’ Blue Northern pummel you anymore. At the same time, the snow makes a very pretty landscape. Here’s the view from my office window.

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Filed under: Horticulture