IRT Facade

I recently got the chance to go see Crowns at the Indiana Repertory Theatre. It was great- the actors had good voices, the hats were compelling and fun and funny, the set was interesting and transitioned well for the actors from scene to scene. Most importantly, the audience loved it and really got into the story. To my surprise, there were a lot of kids there who enjoyed it, too. Way to go, Indy people, for taking your kids to the theatre.

But, I’m not actually interested in making this a theatre review. I have been thinking lately, spurned on by the recent culture rally Indy Culture Matters, about the large amount of cultural offerings we have available to us here in Indy. I have also been thinking about how much this defines the city as a thriving, important global community with an invested, artistic population. Most of our residents care about culture, and support it. But, I think the part that some people forget about is that fact that the institutions and organizations that comprise the local arts scene all actually support Indianapolis residents. Jobs, tourism, revenue- and more than our sports teams bring in, too.

So, get out and see the newest show at IRT, Interpreting William (which is based on the story of the founder of Conner Prairie.) If you aren’t into theatre, try something else.  Some events have shockingly cheap tickets. Indianapolis has countless offerings: Museums, gallery walks, historical houses, gardens, the zoo, the symphony. We have so much going on all the time, and it’s a shame to let all that amazing culture be wasted on JUST the tourists.

Feel free to comment and let me know of all the cool Indianapolis hot spots I left out!

image from trendhunter.com

image from trendhunter.com

More often however designers are only inspired by plants when they are creating fabric for their work. That fact is the focus for the exhibition Fashion in Bloom put together by Niloo Imami-Paydar, IMA’s Curator of Textile and Fashion Arts. The exhibition opens Saturday April 4 and runs through January 30, 2010. The items in this exhibition go all the way back to the 1700’s, but the four I’m blogging about are from the late 1950’s to the 70’s.Mind you, as IMA Horticulturist Geoff Von Burg discovered when he developed a guide connecting flowers on the dresses with their botanical counterparts, the flowers are not always exact replicas of their living inspirations. Sometimes you just have to guess what the designer was thinking.

Is that a geranium? Or a rose? An anemone. No, maybe a cosmos?
Some however, are as obvious as a drag queen in size 14 stilettos. The bright flowers on this dress by James Galanos leave no doubt that it’s a field of hibiscus.

With the near-perfect shape of the petals and the large yellow protruding stamens, it’s practically a botanical print. Remember there are both tropical and hardy hibiscus plants. I’m sure the tropical variety inspired this fabric’s design.

image from phoenixplants.com

The tropical hibiscus comes in about every color but true blue and is Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. They make great summer plants here in the Midwest blooming constantly whether in containers or in the ground. They are easy to overwinter indoors and will even bloom if happy. The hardy ones, generally Hibiscus moscheutos and its hybrids, range from white to pink to red with the pinks and reds coming in palest pink to near burgundy. Some are now available with dark burgundy foliage as well. They die back completely each winter but come back up in late spring to bloom by mid-summer. In our gardens we have ‘Ruby Dot’ at the 42nd Street Bridge, ‘Intense Pink’ in the Dick Wood Formal Garden, and ‘Plum Crazy’ in front of the Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse.

The flowers on this dress by Indiana’s own Norman Norell must be zinnias …. or dahlias ….  or mums.

image from howstuffworks.com

I like to think of them as zinnias since they are the quintessential summer flower in the Midwest and this dress just screams summer. And they can be found in all the bright colors shown on the fabric. Zinnias are one of the easiest of summer annuals to grow, full sun and decent drainage and they are happy. You can choose from shorter varieties such as the Zahara series I’m using this year around the Sutphin Fountain or the taller more traditional types I used to use in the cutting garden like the Benary’s Giant Series or the hot ‘Uproar Rose’.
I have to include the psychedelic influenced Bill Blass design in the show because the leaves make me think of coleus.

image from gardenguides.com

And really, why even get up in the morning if you aren’t going to think of coleus? Coleus are fabulous in the ground and in containers plus they can be used in the shade and the sun. There are precious few colors not included in their leaves. All you have to do is shop around for the one that fits best with your other plant colors. That’s color from flowers or foliage. Other flowers I see in this fabric are Gazania and Salpiglossis (painted tongue).

The last dress I want to mention is this 1970’s velvet number by Hanae Mori.

The beautiful pink cherry blossoms made me instantly think of the flowering almond (Prunus triloba var. multiplex) ready to bloom right now in the Southwest Border Garden.

Flowering Almond

Long time gardeners may recognize its similarity to the dwarf flowering almond (Prunus glandulosa), a much smaller spring blooming shrub that has fallen out of favor. The flowering almond is one of the earliest spring blooming shrubs, well before its leaves unfurl. It gets rather large, 12 to 15 feet, but can be pruned to maintain a slightly smaller stature. It is another of the woody plants that are great for forcing into bloom in late winter. You just cut a few branches, put ‘em in a vase, and in a few days you have gorgeous double pink flowers brightening the gray winter days. Like most Prunus species it prefers lots of sun.

I suggest you take some time to see Fashion in Bloom then take a stroll through our gardens to see how many similar flowers you find there. Or take a walk in the gardens first then see the show. Just do both and make yourself happy for awhile ( and Niloo, and me, and all the other horticulturists).

By the way, the redbuds (Cercis canadensis, C. reniformis, and C. chinenesis) are in very heavy bud just ready to burst into full bloom. Get your butt over here in the next couple weeks and check them all out.

So how do we go about making the gardens more accessible? How about curb cuts and crosswalks to start? All the new construction when the museum expanded five years ago is compliant with ADA standards. This includes around the Sutphin Fountain and all the way down the Sutphin Mall. The ramps and steps also have handrails to aid in moving about.

When you get near the end of the mall you reach the Garden for Everyone (GFE). A garden designed to be especially accessible to those with physical disabilities. It is made possible by a gift from the late Irving Moxley Springer who was inspired by her son Michael. This garden unlike the others is specifically geared to people that may have mobility, sight, or hearing issues. The beds are raised to make it easier for a person in a wheelchair to enjoy the fragrance and texture of the plants. In the middle is a sculpture (La Hermana del Hombre Boveda) and a fountain.

Not only can a visitor enjoy the sounds of trickling water but this is the one piece of art in the gardens we want you to touch. Feel free to play in the water. Explore the sculpture with dry hands and wet. Circle through GFE and head back toward the Deer-Zink Pavillion and you will see the newly installed emergency egress from the Toby just before you reach the bridge leading to Oldfields. The exit is fully ADA compliant but integrated into the landscape as much as possible.

The gardens in the historic section of the IMA campus admittedly require a bit more work to enjoy when a person is using any sort of mobility aid. Please remember when on the road you share it with motor vehicles. Paths in this section can be fine gravel, limestone slabs, bluestone pavers, or turf.

In the Rapp Family Ravine Garden you will find some of our most challenging terrain. Steps and sloping paths abound, many without handrails. For those not interested in or unable to make the trek down into the ravine, a view of this garden from above offers many glorious/breathtaking/stunning vistas to be appreciated.

Throughout the gardens you will find signage to aid in understanding the history, design and plants involved. The labels tell you the scientific and common names of the plants. It includes an accession number that usually gives you a fairly accurate age for the plant. For instance, 2004-26 means that plant was purchased in 2004 and was the 26th plant accessioned that year. If the label says 2004E-26 then the plant already was in the gardens (E = extant) but was not given an accession number until 2004. It was the 26th extant plant accessioned in 2004.

Garden maps are available in multiple locations. Special signage may explain historical facts or special walks (Flowering Tree, Conifer).

Note the cell phone audio tour. Just call the number for more information. Also, always feel free to ask any of the Horticulturists working in the gardens questions. We love to talk plants (and good gossip is always welcome too).

I may be a touch prejudiced but I think truly all can access the gardens emotionally. Whether strolling through on a cold winter day in new-fallen snow or bouncing from blooming plant to blooming plant on a hot July evening one can always connect with some aspect of the gardens. They can be a place to heal a bruised soul, capture a child’s imagination, assist us in expressing love, or laugh ourselves silly…

So everyone, and I do mean everyone, come visit the gardens of the IMA. And this month of Disability Awareness is also a great time to begin to DISABLE the LABEL.

Stone Mason, courtesy of old-picture.com

This fall the folks in Horticulture, led by Geoff Von Burg, proved once again they know more than plants by completing two important hardscape projects. The first came about when The Toby was renovated and the handicap emergency egress ramp had to be added into the existing landscape.  This left a 2-3 foot grade change along the path. To prevent erosion and save as many trees as possible a beautiful stacked limestone wall was installed. This project required Geoff’s considerable skills and the handy work of several other garden staff to cut and lay the stone.  The area will be planted in the spring and will make a nice transition between the building and the gardens.

The second project was in the historic Oldfields area of the IMA. When the Border Gardens were installed nearly 80 years ago the trees and shrubs were small and there was plenty of sun light thus allowing grass paths. As the gardens have matured the now large trees cast great amounts of shade – wonderful for strolling the gardens in summer but terrible for growing grass. Add to this mix some drainage problems and thankfully more foot traffic because of more visitors and things get worse. In the Southwest Border Garden some stones had been put in over 15 years ago. These were removed, a new sand base put down, and the stone re-laid. At the same time we extended the area covered by stone so nearly half the path is now paved.

Geoff's stone wall handywork

Lovely stone pathway

Where to get stone in this time of tight budgets? Do the green thing and recycle and reuse. The area on the backside of the museum known as Hilltop has been a depository for excess stone from past building expansions or construction projects. With an edict from above to get this area cleaned up it gave us a chance to use the limestone that once was clad to the outside of the building.  These large 3’x 6’slabs of limestone were cut done to various sizes and used for the path and the wall. We will also be improving paths in the Northeast Border Garden. Its paths are bluestone but again we are incorporating the reuse of materials when possible.

If you get a chance to wander the gardens take a look at the upgrades. It might even inspire you to add or improve an existing hardscape element to your garden. And you thought you would never use those pavers you pulled out of the neighbor’s trash. Here’s a little tribute to all those that helped on these two projects.

Speaking of laughing, this made me laugh out loud – for a good while.

Anyway, back to the gardens.

The Hellebores are probably less than thrilled with the temps but they are stalwarts of the winter garden. They will be vital for that touch of green in January and their late winter blooms save us from despair after weeks of gray skies. Helleborus x hybridus foliage is still deep green and unblemished at this early date.

Underground are the flower buds that will emerge with the first warm weather in February. H. foetidous is in bud right now and if it doesn’t turn too bad could be in full bloom in December. Otherwise it will be mid to late winter. Here’s H. f. ‘Gold Bullion’ on Oak Island.

This will be its first winter here. The blooms are definitely yellow, not green like the species, and the foliage is chartreuse. It comes true from seed so I am hopeful it will be happy and self-sow profusely. Italian arum – Arum italicum (see why I prefer you learn scientific names?) is in its foliage glory right now. If the weather doesn’t get too severe it will remain good for many weeks.

Earlier these plants had a beautiful display of red-orange berries. There are other cultivars available, just a little hard to find.

Crabapples are loaded with fruit right now. Actually many of the newer cultivars hold their fruit until late Spring. They come with yellow fruit as well as the more traditional red. Two yellows we have are ‘Canary’ over at Newfield and ‘Bob White’ at the 40th Street entrance. Here’s ‘Bob White’ on the left and ‘Canary’ on the right.

The shot of ‘Canary’ helps explain why the yellows are not as popular. They don’t hold their color as long as the reds. One of the best reds is SugarTymeTM (‘Sutyzam’), planted along the drive to Newfield.

As a point of interest, the only difference between crabapples and appleapples is the size of the fruit (I am being sooooo good right now). If the fruit is over 2 inches the tree is considered an apple. They share the same genus name, Malus, and most are complex hybrids.

When I went to out to take some of these images I found a few more things. A common witchhazel, Hamamelis virginiana, with petals still holding on.

Euphorbia amygdaloides v. robbiae, wood spurge or Mrs. Robb’s Bonnet, is still underused.

And the twig dogwoods are already showing the promise of great winter color in the landscape.

So while the weather isn’t ideal there is still much going on in the gardens. And really even on a cold day, if it’s sunny, it is quite nice out. By all means keep visiting. You can always warm up in the greenhouse if your fingers and toes get cold (they have lots of shiny sparkly things in addition to plants). I’ll be seeing you somewhere between the frost and the sunshine. Well, actually, I’ll be in my office a lot the next few weeks. Surrounded by tropical plants.

Interview with Alice Waters
As published in the winter issue of the IMA’s Previews membership magazine

Q. What culture do you think has the most interesting relationship with food?
While I can only speak to the cultures I’ve visited, I find the Mediterranean culture of Southern Italy has a unique balance in their relationship with food. Food is part of the fabric of life there. It’s not on the side in the form of health or fueling up. It’s connected to meaningful everyday experiences. Sitting down at the table with family and friends is precious and important.

Q. What did you learn from your grandparents about food?
Not much. My grandparents were Irish English and it seemed to me that they liked to eat quite a lot, but that’s it. They had a narrow, limited diet. My parents were concerned about diet but didn’t know how to cook. My interest in food came from working in my parents’ Victory garden, and my passion came from traveling to France at the age of 19. The experience opened up a world to me.

Q. How are children in the Edible Schoolyard project transformed by food?
When kids are growing the food and cooking it themselves they build a sense of pride in what they are doing. When they serve it, they want to eat it, and their friends want to eat it. The ideas about food happen by osmosis. The values we talk about are absorbed by the kids in the process of working in the garden and kitchen. Science and history classes educate their senses and open their eyes to the world around them, not just to food.

Q. What’s the relationship between food and art?
You can set a table with flowers and cloth and it’s like magic. I think of art as magic. It nourishes us in beautiful ways that we can’t speak about. I see beauty as a way of caring. Both food and art offer the possibility of seeing the world in a different way.

The reason I’m interested in working with artists is to take food out of that ‘foody’ place and put it into the beauty of culture. Food is a universal language. We are digesting fast, cheap and easy. The consequences of the choices we make are destroying our world and our culture. I envision a place where an artist is curating the food. You would walk through a beautiful museum and food would be part of that experience.

Q. What artists inspire you?
Peter Sellars, Olafur Eliasson and Ann Hamilton – These artists have a way of surprising people and caring about the same set of values that I’m talking about.

Q. What’s in your refrigerator?
All the produce I brought back from a friend’s garden, jams given to me, milk, coffee, a bottle of Bandol Rose Wine, two small bottles of sweet wine from my daughter’s birthday, duck eggs, pickles, mustard, walnuts and hazelnuts, a couple lemons and Seltzer water.

Q. If you could be any food, what would you be and why?
It’s a toss up between being sweet like tomatoes or spicy like garlic.

Recipes from Alice Waters
If you are still unsure of what will dress the Thanksgiving dinner table tomorrow, try these recipes from the kitchen of Alice Waters.

I know I try to grow too many things but what are you gonna do? There’s so much stuff out there. Eggplant, cotton, sedges, magnolias, peppers, bananas, elephant ears, lantana, variegated corn, and cannas. Ooooooo, my, my, my. The cannas. How can I deprive myself of the pleasure of knowing them all? Dahlias. Give them up? I don’t think so. And my Agaves. Sweet Mother of Succulents. How could I not surrender myself to these thorny muscular spears of the plant world? There’s so many of them but it’s hard to beat the straight species Agave americana.

You know you shouldn’t touch the tip of that leaf. But every once in awhile. That little voice in your head tells you “Go ahead. You know you wanna”. You just have to lick the tip of your finger and feel that hard sharp point. Oh yea. Hurts sooo good. They are not even high maintenance.  And their cousin Furcraea foetida ‘Mediopicta’ – no spines.

Or their half brother the XMangave ‘Macho Mocha’.

Okay, some now say this is just plain old Manfreda not a hybrid of Manfreda and Agave but I like the word Mangave.

I usually don’t plan to buy as many plants as I do each year. But they keep introducing new ones. I have to have the new ones. When you think about it really it’s no different than the folks in MIS or IT here upgrading their software or equipment. They don’t use the same stuff year after year. Admittedly there are times when the plant upgrade amounts to a downgrade. Like in the technology world, sometimes new things in the plant world get introduced before enough testing and evaluation has taken place. But, when you are a plant slut you’re not always worrying about a long term relationship with your purchase. It merely has to satisfy your need at that moment. Like the oil fern I bought this summer, Microsorum steerii.

I think it’s going to be high-maintenance. And that’s going to lead to problems. I’m going to forget to water it and it’s going to whine and carry on about how I just don’t care anymore. Well, la-dee-dah. When I said I loved it I didn’t mean I wanted to marry it.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not all about instant gratification or a one-season stand. There is permanence within plant sluttiness.  I added several woodies to my collection this year.  I’m trying two Magnolia grandiflora (that’s southern magnolias, y’all) cultivars that are supposed to be hardy to zone 5 – ‘Kay Parris’  and ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’. Or was it ‘D.D. Blanchard’? Anyway, the important thing is I have them. I also purchased two cultivars of Sciadopitys verticillata, Japanese umbrella pine, one of them chartreuse of course. Continuing the group of 2 theme, I got another Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’. See, I’m all about pairing up.  Sometimes though, three is even better than two. Like the triangle I’ll create with my Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Fernspray Gold’, XCupressocyparis lawsoniana ‘Gold Rider’, and the new Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’. Yes, each is different. But they are also all three upright pyramidal (more or less) chartreuse evergreens, giving the eye that repetition it craves so badly. And I get to add three more plants to my collection.

Now it is coming to that time of year when we do our major designing for next year. I’ll be looking at dozens of catalogues and websites searching for those perfect plants that solve all my problems at the IMA. And looking at all those perfect plants that cause my problem at home. Sing it Ado Annie.

There is THE SUPPLIER THAT CANNOT CALL to let you know the plants you ordered, well, they are not necessarily the plants you are getting. The guy calls the afternoon before the plants are supposed to be delivered and says something like, “We couldn’t find the Salvia ‘Caradonna’ so we had to sub with Salvia ‘May Night’. Hope that isn’t a problem”. And you knew this for how long? And you didn’t think we should know this? In a similar vein there is the call that goes, “That Alternanthera ‘Mai Tai’ you ordered is a great looking plant. Beautiful colors in the leaves. But we had some problems with a fungus. The good news is we do have 6 of the 23 flats you ordered. Hope that works for you”. Hope you get hit by a big red truck.

Then of course you have THE PLANT THAT WOULD NOT LIVE. It’s something that you have seen grow happily a hundred other places but in your garden it dies the minute you put it in the ground. Or worse yet, it lingers on and on languishing in a slow spiral of death. A friend will call and tell you how theirs is now three feet tall and “just covered in the most beautiful cobalt blue flowers I’ve ever seen”. You look out the back window and see yours – barely alive, maybe a foot tall, rusty brown edges on the leaves, a squirrel is biting off the one flower bud on the sad plant. For a second you can’t decide what to do, shoot the squirrel or shoot your friend. The other half of this double feature is THE PLANT THAT WOULD NOT DIE. Bindweed. Need I say more? I think I would rather fight thistles. Every little root piece of bindweed can become a plant. It’s impossible to dig out, requires multiple shots of herbicide, and who know how long the seed is viable. Just laying there in the ground waiting, waiting for that moment when you aren’t looking and then…….

To be honest I am at a bit of a loss for ideas for this week’s blog. Well, not at a loss for ideas really, but at a loss for ideas that the muse can turn into a blog. The muse is being a rhymes-with-witch this week. Some weeks I can pound one of these out in a couple hours. Other weeks are like this one, three days off and on and I’m still not there. And the blog is hardly something I can afford to spend too many hours on. So it finally came to me to describe in a bit of detail this summer’s design for the circle bed in front of the Museum. I can’t let you into my head for the entire thought process however. It is a far too dangerous place. There are things in there that even I’m afraid of.

Each year as I begin designing my gardens I hope for some bit of inspiration from which to build a complete thought. There might be an individual plant that starts the design development. A desire to use a certain color might be the catalyst. I might even copy a design I have seen elsewhere. Probably not copy exactly but use many elements. A comment from someone may be the guide to a plant or plants that the idea forms around. Last year the truly fabulous Pam Stokes asked something and from that question came an entire design. The question? “Why don’t you ever plant those black elephant ears?” No reason. I just had not used them here at the IMA. They were a staple at home and in clients’ gardens.  So I decided there was my first plant.

Now, what would look hot with it? I had done containers and small designs using black and chartreuse foliage with red flowering plants. Ideally the flowering plants would also have black or chartreuse foliage. I had all the color elements needed for a design. Now all I had to do was decide which plants (making sure I had a mix of foliage textures) and how to arrange them.

For the black elephant ear I chose Colocasia esculenta ‘Black Runner’. It has a beautiful matte finish to the upper leaf surface (none of the green that often shows in other cultivars) and an equally beautiful silvery gray underside. Plus as the name suggests, it sends out lots of runners with new plants at the end. That sort of thing can kind of knot the whole look together. And the pups as we call them can be used to fill any unexpected gaps. What else could I use? Another plant with good black foliage is an ornamental hot pepper called ‘Black Pearl’ (Capsicum annuum). Even the fruit is jet black before it ripens to red. When the peppers turn red they appear to be lit from within. That adds some of the red I was wanting as well. The smaller leaves also give texture contrast to the large leaved plants in the design. Another good choice for black and red is Canna ‘Futurity Red’. This fairly short (3-4’) plant has good black color to the foliage and arrest-me-red flowers. Unfortunately there are a limited number of plants with true black foliage so for my other dark leaved plants I would have to accept some not quite true black leaves. A just introduced cockscomb (Celosia cristata) named ‘Chinatown’ had promise so I ordered seed. The foliage turned out to be more bronzy than ideal but had that look of stained glass with sun filtering through. The plants also had bright red plumes for flowers. For my tall center element the only plant I could think of was castor bean. They get huge and are available in a very deep burgundy. The palmate leaves would also contrast with the entire-margined plants.

What about my chartreuse elements? I had Xanthosoma ‘Lime Zinger’ and Colocasia ‘Elena’ both on hand. They would be the perfect color contrast and the perfect texture echo to the ‘Black Runner’. Salvia elegans ‘Golden Delicious’ would give me chartreuse foliage and red flowers come late summer. I used to want everything to start blooming as quickly as possible but over time have come to appreciate the later blooming plants. When the same plants have been blooming for months it’s nice to have a new element appear in the garden. What else? I had some variegated ginger. The Alpinia zerumbet ‘Variegata’ had long narrow pointed yellow and green striped leaves making it a texture echo and color contrast for the Canna ‘Futurity Red’.

I had all my major elements so I could start infilling. Some ‘Big Red’ coleus in red and yellow. Duranta ‘Lemon Leaf’ and Talinum ‘Kingwood Gold’ for chartreuse foliage. Musa zebrina with burgundy and green foliage. Alocasia plumbaea ‘Nigra’ with dark slate-green leaves and burgundy stems.  Some Colocasia macrorrhiza with plain green leaves but oh-so-tropical.  And then because my castor beans were so small I simply had to put something in the center to hold the space. I chose one my largest single stemmed bananas. It wasn’t what I had planned but it did the job. Adapt or die my little future designers.

Despite long weeks of slow growth I finally got a planting I really liked.

In fact one day I got so happy about the results I just felt like celebrating. First I checked to see if the coast was clear.

Sure enough, there went Chad on a death march to another exciting meeting in the big house. He’s so lucky he doesn’t have to work outside on sunny days with blue sky overhead and a breeze in the trees.  Then it was grab the pole and express myself. Gotta dance!

I must admit I have watched very little. In part because I am very busy at the moment. In part because I am not strongly sports oriented (I was picked for the ball teams just before the ugly girls in grade school). And in part because I just can’t bear to watch some of the people lose. Oh, I’m not talking about the no-chance-in-hell-of-finishing-in-the-medals people. I’m talking about the for sure winners. The athletes that the announcers describe as the gold medalist favorite. The athletes that broke a record at the World Championships (insert your sport of choice). But for every Michael Phelps there is a Lolo Jones.

Here she’s gone and trained her whole bloody life for this moment. Foster homes. Working to get a scholarship. Actually getting the scholarship. Beautiful start on her run, pulling out ahead of the pack, on her way to gold…….and she clips the 9th hurdle. How many hundreds of times has she been successful? But on this most crucial moment a snafu finishes her and puts her out of the medals. It’s heartbreaking. It’s like reliving the Erica Kane woes all over again. I just can’t do it. I quit watching All My Children 20 years ago because I just couldn’t see her go through any more heartbreak. For me it all started with the hysterical pregnancy. Does anyone remember that? It’s just too much.

With the Olympics it’s especially bad when you can figure it is probably their last real chance. Sure some athletes are lasting longer but when you are in your late 20’s in 2008 it means you are in your early 30’s in 2012 and there is some younger whippersnapper chewing up the ground all around you. Yes, there is Dara Torres. But how many her age in total? So, no. While I enjoy watching many Olympic events (Some hardly seem like sports at all!) I won’t devote my life to them. Besides, I participate in the Horticulture Olympics every year. I know the thrill of victory AND the agony of defeat. This year it’s lots of defeat.

Each year it’s like having to go through all those preliminary rounds to get to the finals. And you hope for your best performance knowing anything can happen. Some gardening moments you finish in the medals, others you fall off the pummel horse. Talk about trying to stay on the balance beam. Some years you have a great mount. Your whole routine is just golden. How could it be any better? Time for the dismount. Oooooo. You slipped just as you pushed off. To put it in horticulture terms, who knew it could take that long for castor beans to take off? Normally they grow a foot a day. My whole design was to be anchored by the damn things. Oh, they’re starting to look pretty good now even though they are barely above the cannas.

But that’s like saying “I won $17 playing Bingo at the church picnic so I’m okay loosing the Olympic medal”. No one really gives a crap about the Bingo game. I mean with my love of, fascination with, and perhaps obsession for tropicals and annuals I think of myself as one of the ones about whom the announcer would say: “He’s definitely a gold medal contender in this year’s Horticulture Olympics. Remember the incredible performance he turned in a few years ago with the unbeatable red rice and papyrus combo? Let’s not forget the year of pink, orange, and yellow.” I trained. Really I did. I studied past performances. The damn purple heart vine should have filled in and not look like this.

Colocasia likes it on the wet side. So why are mine barely a foot tall?

I should have been within reach of the medal. But here I am. Nearer to frost with each passing day. Trying to catch up with the other Horticulturists instead of having them breathless trying to gain on me. Geoff’s pots at Garden Terrace are full and lovely.

Patty’s urns at the Formal Garden are all summery in blue and yellow and scented of rosemary.

Jim’s Annual Border is what a tropical/annual planting is supposed to be.

Katie’s pots are perfect.

And Chad’s Garden for Everyone has clever lush pairings like this one of parsley and fountain grass.

So where does that leave me? Lying under the pummel horse covered in chalk and blood? Hanging from the rings like a dead carcass? On my knees crying my eyes out in the tunnel waiting to be kicked out of the stadium? Hell no. I may be old but I’m not dead. I will be training. I’ll be studying those plant catalogues. I’ll be going through those images I took on the Perennial Plant Symposium tours. I’ll be taking mental notes when I visit other gardens. I’ll be writing down ideas as they come to me. Look out you IMA Horticulturists. That sound you here is me about to run past you faster than kudzu can cover a junk car in Mississippi. Game on, bitches.