Our travels, including Dale Chihuly- June 18, 2017

When we travel we watch for the gardens in the area the way that some people watch for shopping. We went to two Botanical Gardens while we were on the east coast. Last Saturday we went to the New York City Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. It was featuring works by the glass artist Dale Chihuly. It was great. We know his work. We have now toured 4 gardens with his sculpture over 15 years. I must say that nothing will compare with the first time at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago in the early 2000s. As I think about it, that is true for so many things. I think I remember that the Garfield Park show was the first time he had tried the combination of glass art and gardens. It works.

Here are pictures of most of his pieces at the NYBG, as it is called.

Glass and water is one thing he does well.

We have always wanted to find the Chihuly seconds store. I don't think it exists.

Some pieces were enormous.

It would be nice to see these in the night time with lights.

I  like his pieces best that work with the plants around them.

The installation below might have been my favorite of this group. I still have the painted pvc pipe in my back garage that I have occasionally planted around the yard in an attempt to duplicate the effect.

Did I mention how he works with water?

These pieces were a little different. They particularly worked with the reflections in the water.













This was the last piece we saw. It was stunning. Blue is always good.

Here is the enlargement.

The other garden we visited was the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. It is located about an hour north of Portland. We were there on a much cooler day.  That was so much nicer than navigating the crowds in NYC in the lower 90's.

By far the most amazing plants were the native orchids. The variety is cypripedium acaula. It is sometimes called the stemless orchid. We timed our visit perfectly. They were everywhere.

This variety particularly likes/needs a very acid soil. Pine forests are perfect.













I really liked this one, growing on a moss covered area.

This wonderful clump had about the most flowers in one place.

They have a orchid count each spring. There were over 700 on the entire garden, much of which is wonderful woods.

There were ferns everywhere.

Here is a closeup.

This is cypripedium gisela, growing in our backyard. You can see the stem that is not present in the acaula version.









The timing of our visit was also just the right time for  the rhododendron. These also acid loving plants actually are not native as far north as Maine. Despite that fact they do wonderfully there. The rhododendron part of the garden is the oldest.

We enjoyed our time in Maine. We spent much time on the little island of Chebeague. It is in Casco Bay, which is all around Portland.

 It was accessible only by Ferry. The Ferry took about 15 minutes.

We stayed in this little house.









Here are other pictures from Maine.

Ferns were everywhere. There were at least 4 different varieties we saw. This was the cinnamon fern.

I put this picture in because it shows daffodils blooming in June. That is late.

This orb was at the Maine Botanical Garden. It is out in the middle of nowhere. We had visited the garden and discovered this orb last fall. It really is magical.

We saw pitcher plants at both gardens. I do not remember seeing them anywhere before. They seem to do well as far north as Maine.

There were primroses growing many places. They were in people's gardens on the island, growing in wet areas.



















It was a good trip.
This was the last evening we were there.

There was also our grandson Christopher who I met for the first time. That was special. I wish Maine were closer.