Seventeenth-Century Gardening

So I got this cool book last spring...

...but I haven't actually looked at it aside from the occasional flip-through every once in a while. It's quite interesting, if not a little confusing actually. In short, as can be ascertained from the title, it's a gardening book (gardining?) on which plants are best to grow for each month.

John Evelyn, author of this book, was born on October 31, 1620 in Wotton, Surrey in England. He was a writer, a diarist, best known for his Diary, though other known works of his included Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees, as well as translations of books on gardening, religion, and architecture. As so aptly described  in the introduction of Directions for the Gardiner and Other Horticultural Advice, "Throughout [Evelyn's] long life, gardening design and maintenance and the desire to pass on his knowledge about gardening inspired him, and it is the detail and practicality of his advice that make his horticultural writings, four centuries later, so fascinating and timeless" (xi). Evelyn was well-traveled, journeying extensively throughout France, Italy, and the Low Countries and even in his earliest diary entries, one could discern of his immense interest in gardens and parks as he took the time to record their design and content, a habit he continued throughout his lifetime.

Directions for the Gardiner at Says-Court, But which may be of Use for Other Gardens is record of "the maintenance and management of a post-Restoration garden" (xv). It was actually inscribed to Evelyn's apprentice of six years, Jonathan Mosse, and was meant for professional estate gardeners. The manuscript itself was first transcribed and privately published in 1932 by Sir Geoffrey Keynes. The Sayes Court itself consisted of 40.47 hectares (or 100 acres) of farmland at Evelyn's disposal, with the Thames River running along its northern edge. Evelyn read extensively on the subject of stylish garden design and on the plants he intended to grow. He was also quite connected and corresponded with everyone connected to horticulture from aristocratic friends to gardeners. His garden allowed him to observe the growth and behavior of plants, which contributed to his writings.

Pen and ink sketch of Deptford, with remarks by Evelyn

So there you have it; an introduction to this nifty little book. It actually consists of several of Evelyn's writings, but for now I just wanted to introduce the general idea of the book. Expect another update about seventeenth-century gardening as gathered from this book.

Bye for now~

Sources

Evelyn, John. Directions for the Gardiner and Other Horticultural Advice. Ed. Maggie Campbell-Culver. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.

UPDATE (01.22.2013): Just wanted to let you know that, after trying my hand at understanding and explaining seventeenth-century gardening, I have decided to revert the two posts I did on seventeenth-century gardening back into drafts. Honestly, I felt that I was doing a terrible job, if only because I had so little understanding of the terminology used in the book, so I decided it would be best to save the series for when, if, I ever grasp all this gardening terminology. Thanks.

Garlic - More than Just a Garnish

So it has come to my attention that I have not been doing a very good job with my blog--or at least part of it anyways; I've got the flora part down, not so much the folklore part, so I decided that, starting with this post, I will try to incorporate more information instead of just lots of pretty pictures.

I have been working a lot with garlic recently (what with all my farm work) so I decided to do a post on garlic. First, a note on planting garlic; at FRESH, we've been planting hard-necked garlic, and the way we did that was by breaking apart the garlic into cloves, (which is pretty hard to do by the way) which will then be planted and from each clove will grow a full bulb of garlic. Who knew that that was the way to plant garlic?? In any case, autumn seems to be a good garlic planting season to get them in the spring. Moreover, the Northeastern environment seems to be better for hard-necked garlic than for soft-necked (though at my other job, I got to plant soft-necked).

From French painter & manuscript illustrator Jean Bourdichon's Book of Hours (early 16th century), emphasizing the decorative qualities of garlic and other alliums

Common Name: Garlic

Scientific Name: Allium sativum

Related Species: Onions and Leeks, Ornamental Flowers

Language of Flowers: Symbol of courage and strength; herb of Mars (astrological)

Garlic is of the allium genus and, along with other alliums, contains a sulphur-rich oil, which is why they have such a strong smell. During Medieval times, garlic was believed to ward off evil and, if fastened to the horse's bridle, to help win a race. Different alliums were prevalent in the ancient world and wild garlics of England, known as ramsons, have white star-like flowers. Medicinally, garlic has powerful antiseptic qualities and is a good natural substitute for antibiotics. For all you literature lovers out there, in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Summoner reeked of garlic smell, which was one of his most unpleasant characteristcs. 

Well that is all for now. I hope this has been enlightening for you and that you have enjoyed reading about garlic as much as I have enjoyed writing about it. I hope to do more posts like this in the future, so until then, bear with me!

Sources

Fisher, Celia. The Medieval Flower Book. London: The British Library, 2007. Print.

Lehner, Ernst, Joanna Lehner. Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees. Mineola: Dover Publications, 2003. Print.

Let There Be Light

Anybody that knows me knows that I am a little, well, anti-light; some might even say vampiric (and I am not kidding here--I have been called a vampire quite a few times). It is not that I have anything against light--I like sunlight as much as the average person--I just happen to be a little light sensitive is all.

In any case, as averse to sunlight as I am, I also really like taking pictures with great lighting. I don't mean pictures where the level of light is just right or a sunset, though I like those too. In this case I would be referring to pictures that capture light in just the perfect way. Pictures in which the source of light is the main focus of the picture. Pictures in which...well, you get the idea. I know that these might not fall under the topic of flora, but the arboretum of Connecticut College is the backdrop, if that helps any! And these pics were taken the same day as those from the last two posts (am I getting lazy here???).

Enough from me--I do waaaaay too much talking when nobody is listening.

From the top of the hill

Illuminating Arbo Architecture

One of my favorites--kind of reminiscent of a diamond ring now that I think about it...

White light is made up of all wavelengths of light--or something like that ^^;;

Another favorite--follow the beacon!

So there was a lot more talking than showing--my apologies for that! ^^;; I shall keep the rambles to a minimum next time, I promise!

Ripples of Serenity

So as promised, I have more pictures from the arboretum to share with you all (these were taken the same day as the previous post). These are also reflective water pics, though of a different nature.

Tada! Rippled water!

 I love watching ripples; I mean who doesn't love concentric circles?? But in any case, the above picture has more of a kaleidoscope effect than circular, but I love it all the same. I tried to draw ripples once for an art project--didn't quite love that experience as much, but ripples are fantastic anyway. Here are some more:

Not as rippled

Very rippled

Impressionism anyone?

With some rocks and plants so you can sort of see the actual scenery

Well that is all from this arboretum trip. I hope you enjoyed the ripples as much as I have and hopefully you also felt the serenity from them! Until next time.

Reflections...

So I went for a stroll in the arbo with a friend yesterday--the weather was so lovely (if a little bright)! We trekked for a good while and it was so peaceful and nice. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes got to us, and the both of us are sporting some bug bites. Still, we had a splendid time.

Here is a snnapshot which, hopefully, conveys the tranquility of the arbo. I absolutely love taking pictures of reflections, hence the post title.

 Some other views of the pond:

Ducks!

Doesn't this look like a secret clearing?

The sky is falling!

Well, that is all. Hopefully this left you feeling zen and serene. Until next time then (expect another post very very soon; I'm not done sharing arbo pics yet)!

EDIT: Wow, I just realized I have a previous post entitled "Reflections" ah well. This is more pensive in nature and well, bear with me--I don't want to change the title!

Newport Flora

My my my, it has been quite a while hasn't it? My apologies--things have just been so hectic lately and I've not been feeling inspired to blog. But despair not! I haven't given up blogging! And in fact, I have some new pictures!

So I went to Newport, Rhode Island with my friend yesterday--let me just say, it is the perfect little college town. As much as I enjoy Connecticut College's arboretum, downtown New London is a little inaccessible and campus is kind of removed from civilization. Newport, however, was such a cute little place full of shops, attractions, and friendly people. I saw many many plants and, of course, took pictures of them, like the tourist that I was. Sadly I cannot tell you the name of these plants, but they were lovely nonetheless!

These were hanging from every lamp-post!

Some lamp-posts had flowers creeping up too!

Even the storefronts had flowers!

Cute little white flowers

Cute little magenta flowers

Most of these are flowers, whoops, but there were a lot of autumnal trees on the way there. Though, come to think of it, the trees were in a state of perpetual summer over in Newport or something--I don't recall seeing much leaves changing color and the trees were definitely not evergreens. Ah well, the weather was lovely yesterday. I would so love to go back!

Well, that is all for now! Hopefully, you can expect an update sometime soon! Until next time!

Flowers of July

Happy July!

Wow, I can't believe it's July already! Spent the better part of the day at the New York Botanical Garden--it was gorgeous despite the sweltering heat and the horrible humidity. Rained for a bit which alas, did nothing to alleviate the air of humidity. However, as the title suggests, this post is not about my visit to the NYBG--perhaps I shall blog about that on another day--but rather about the Flowers of July! I have quite a few friends whose birthdays are in July, so I decided, what better way to acknowledge all of them than to add another post to my Floral Calendar collection?

As with my previous Floral Calendar post, I shall begin with the medieval calendar which designated the water lily as the official flower of July. Monet, anyone?~~ Under the Language of Flowers, the water lily was a symbol of eloquence and persuasion.

Common Name: Water Lily

Family: Nymphaeaceae

In the Chinese flower calendar, the flower of July is the lotus flower, which was a symbol of perfection and purity, as well as an emblem of Summer. As you may or may not know, the lotus flower is important, not only in Chinese culture, but in Buddhist and Hindu religions as well. For the purposes of this blog, however, I won't get too in depth about the various uses and importance of the lotus flower--perhaps on another day. However, I will tell you that the lotus flower also represents fruitfulness and offspring in China, and is a symbol of Heaven in Buddhist thought.

Common Name: Lotus Flower

Scientific Name: Nelumbo nucifera

Chinese: 蓮花 (Liánhuā)

Last but not least, we come to the Japanese flower calendar--for which the mountain clover is July's flower of choice. Along with being July's official flower, it also stood for fecundity, conquest, and victory in Japanese culture.

Common Name: Mountain Clover, Bush Clover

Genus: Lespedeza

Japanese: 萩 (Hagi)

That's all for today--have a happy and safe 4th of July everyone! Happy Birthday to all my July buddies~

Sources

Lehner, Ernst and Johanna Lehner. Folklore and Symbolism ofFlowers, Plant and Trees. Mineola: Dover      

     Publications, 2003. Print.

Folded Flowers

...Otherwise known as origami.

So if you have ever been to American Museum of Natural History in New York City around Christmastime, you would have probably seen the Origami Holiday Tree. Here is a link to last year's Origami Holiday Tree (2012). For those of you that do not know of this tradition, every year the AMNH erects a Christmas tree, which has been decorated with origami creations to fit a theme; moreover, the origami is folded by volunteers, who undertake the project in July, while the tree is up and ready for display by November. Last year's theme was Museum Collections. If you are ever in NYC around Christmastime, I would really recommend going to see it~

But seeing as it is most certainly not Christmas (nor even near Christmastime), you may be wondering why I'm talking about the Origami Tree now. If you clicked on the first link above, you would have known that the annual Origami Holiday Tree is an event produced by OrigamiUSA, a society "devoted to origami, the art of paperfolding" as their site will tell you. In any case, OrigamiUSA holds an annual convention which, this year, was at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). This year's convention was held from June 21 to June 24, and I was lucky to have been able to go with my sister and see all the wonderful origami the convention had to offer, so I decided to share some of the floral related ones with you all. So (after a very lengthy introduction), without further ado, I present to you the OrigamiUSA Annual Convention of 2013.

Enjoy~~

Tried to take pics of the namecards for all the wonderful creations.

 

This was a really cool origami ball that lit up internally at different spots, as you might be able to tell from the three pictures--they're all of the same creation. Also if you can't see the card, it's called Rose Auditorium, designed by Uyen Nguyen and folded by Kailey Shara

How cool would it be to own a flower shop as like this?

A close-up of some of the flowers in the shop:

Money origami! Also, didn't get the artist--sorry!

In its entirety

Tea, for those so inclined--it was really cool because this artist folded origami out of tea bags, some of which can be seen in this picture