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.

Crocus pushing itself up through the mulch

The main plants I want to talk about are the witchhazels, Hamamelis. We have several in the IMA gardens in full bloom right now. Or they were. When it gets real cold the petals curl back up in a ball and wait for a slightly warmer day. Witchhazels do best in full sun or part shade and do like good soil. They make great cuts for a vase too.

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’ and H. mollis ‘Wisley Supreme’ can both be found in the Garden for Everyone. Most witchhazels are somewhat fragrant but these two are especially so. You can catch their scent from a long way off. Both are a bright yellow that really shows on a cloudy February afternoon. This is ‘Pallida’ on the top and ‘Wisley Supreme’ on the bottom.

Pallida

Wisley Supreme

A third yellow cultivar is blooming in the Tennis Court area of Oldfields, H. x intermedia ‘Primavera’.

Primavera

Yet to bloom is another yellow cultivar, ‘Arnold Promise’, selected by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University located in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston. The oldest public arboretum in America, the Arnold is one of the meccas of horticulture for those who love woody plants.

Diane

Just so you don’t get the idea witchhazels only come in yellow I want to show you two others we have. From the red group we have H. x intermedia ‘Diane’ behind the Lilly house at the start of the Ravine garden.  Notice how the flowers are not fully open? That is due in part because this particular plant is somewhat shaded. ‘Diane’ is one of the best reds.

Of course a garden isn’t really a garden without some orange in it so we have the beautiful ‘Jelena’, another H. x intermedia located in the Southwest Border Garden.

Jelena

A close inspection of the flowers reveals they are really made up of at least three colors – red, orange, and yellow.

Jelena close-up

The overall effect is very, very tropical – mango, papaya, and passion fruit. In February tropical is very, very good if not actually needed. Witchhazels tend to have good fall color too. An interesting tidbit, the red and orange flowering ones tend to have red and orange fall color and the yellow flowering ones tend to have yellow fall color.

Some witchhazels get quite large and I think they could make nice small multi-trunked trees over time. I’m thinking in smaller gardens or near patios, that sort of thing.

And the snowdrops have stated blooming! These antique bulbs are located several places but these images were from between the Formal Garden and the Ravine Garden.

Snowdrops

I’ve been trying to look at other horticulture/gardening blogs. I came across one by Margaret Roach (15 years with THE Martha) called A Way to Garden. There I stumbled upon an entry about using cardboard as a weed suppressant and a way to prep an area to be planted. I had read about and used newspaper but this cardboard use was new. These materials are used in conjunction with some sort of mulch. I’m trying it at home this year. Look out ground ivy.

In these continuing wintry days and uncertain economical times I long for warmer weather and comforting affection, some sweet summer lovin’.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Dolly Parton.

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.

(stay tuned for a great way to experience the IMA grounds before the end of this post!)

A friend told me about how they went letterboxing on a recent vacation and was surprised that I’d never heard of it before. Letterboxing is similar to its more recent cousin, GeoCaching, and involves hiding small boxes with journals and stamps inside them. The idea being to bring your own stamp and journal with you to collect a log of all the treasures you have found! Letterboxers leave clues to the locations of boxes they have planted online for others to find. Experienced letterboxers can collect hundreds of stamps from around the country and individual boxes can stay alive for many years! As I began to learn a bit more about it… I was hooked!

A Brief History of Letterboxing

Apparently, letterboxing has been around for a long time. Wikipedia’s article on letterboxing says that it originated in England around 150 years ago! Letterboxing seems to have gained popularity in North America in the late 1990’s. In exploring this a bit more online, I was stunned to find out how many boxes exist right around the corner! One popular letterboxing website lists over 46,000 registered letterboxes in the United States and over 1000 in the state of Indiana. There are even 2 letterboxes close by for our blog readers in Zimbabwe… What… am I living in a cave? How could I have missed this one? The thought of all these stealthy hidden little boxes brings out the pirate in me… Arggh!

(A Google Map of Letterbox locations around Indianapolis)

Letterboxing Resources

I’ve found a few great sites to fuel your burning letterboxing habit! Lately, I’ve been looking these sites up on my phone as we sail around with the top down on the Jeep looking for stamps to fill our journal. A good primer on what you need to start letterboxing can be found on this “Getting Started” page.

When you’re ready to find some boxes to search for these are some great links to start with:

• Search Letterboxes on AtlasQuest.com
• Search for Letterboxes on Letterboxing.org

Letterboxing @ IMA

So, why talk about a crazy hobby like letterboxing on the IMA’s blog? Well besides the obvious craft involved in creating some of the stamps I’ve seen… I was stunned to find out that there are two, count ‘em, two letterboxes already hidden on the grounds of the IMA. I’d be breaking the secret code of letterboxers if I gave away their exact locations… but here are the links to the clues so you can find them yourself. We’ve found both of them in the last two weeks, so I know their both still safe and sound. I wonder if our grounds keeping staff knows about these?

• IMA – planted by “Trail Mail Junkie”
• Robert Indiana – planted by “Dream a Dream”

I’m thinking that we’ll have to take it upon ourselves as proud IMA-staffers to plant a few more of these puppies out in the Art and Nature Park before it opens! Any ideas of some good hiding spots?