One new thing: They have hired John Forti as their first executive director. Forti was for many years the chief curator of historic gardens and landscapes at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH, and since 2014 has been director of horticulture and education at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Wellesley, MA (I saw him in that capacity at the Boston Flower Show in March). They day I visited Bedrock Gardens last month, Forti was on our small 3-hour garden tour led by volunteer Hobson Jandebeur.
*
I saw some new plants:
Narcissus bulbocodium (Golden Bells)Arisaema sikokianum (Japanese Jack-in-the-Pulpit)closer view of the Arisaema sikokianum (Japanese Jack-in-the-Pulpit)Saruma henryi (upright wild ginger) …. See how Saruma is an anagram of Asarum, the genus for European and Canadian gingers?Podophyllum versipelle (Spotty Dotty may apple) foliagea pink trilliumthe black flowers of Asarum maximum (pansy-faced ginger)a spikey sort of epimedium (maybe Epimedium wushanense?)Glaucidium palmatum (Japanese wood poppy)I think this is Schizocodon soldanelloides (reminiscent of a Soldanella sp., a snowbell) or a Soldanella alpinaXanthorhiza simplicissima (yellow root plant) – the only member of its genus
*
And some plants I’ve met before but don’t see often:
skunk cabbageI have not noticed this flower bud (seed pod?) before on skunk cabbage; I’m used to seeing a dark red sort of growth.a lovely river birchStewartia tree with camo bark, against tilespaw paw flowers (Asimina triloba)May apple plant with flowerMay apple flowerbamboo resproutingErigeron (fleabane)closer view of Erigeron (fleabane) flower
*
Some creatures:
three tadpolestadpolemoth cocoon in a sweet gum treelarge tadpole facekilldeer (bird) in the grassgreen frogfive guinea fowldragonflydragon or lizard sculptureheron or stork sculpturesanother green frog
*
Landscape:
woodland pathWiggle Waggle, Garish Garden, arborvitae hedgeview from Parterre Garden to goddess sculptureSwaleway viewSwaleway gardenlarge pondaxis view from large pond to acrobat sculpturePetit Pond gardenpeople strollingPate hedge and Coneland treeswoman and girl in Grass Acremetal sculpture by large pondhedge with sculptures and ballbee banner in the Swaleway breezeballsanother view of the Petit Pond areafour elements totem poleacrobats sculpture and rhodos
*
Things I just liked:
white tiarellarhodos and a goddess sculpturereliquary with urchinred rhodos and colour columnsspruce conespurple peony budprayer housepink and white rhododendronlichen bench and insulatorlabyrinth and ventilatorsgnome house in the woodschairs near large pond
Bob & Jill’s heart sculpturebee banner and sculptureblue globe view (“things as they are are changed upon the blue guitar”)
And one of the things I love the most of all, ginkgos:
Ginkgo tree leaves
It was a great day, with an in-depth, plant-geek tour of the gardens, followed by a fun lunch at The Holy Grail in Epping, NH.
_____________
The post title — “The moments when we choose to play / The imagined pine, the imagined jay” — is from a Wallace Stevens’ poem, “The Man with the Blue Guitar,” which I also quoted above in a caption (“Things as they are / are changed upon the blue guitar”).
Wow, what a place. I especially like the wildlife photos and the gnome place. I’d love to visit one day, thanks for the wonderful tour.