Longwood Summer 1

Last week I visited Longwood Gardens outside Philadelphia.  There are 1,077 acres of

gardens of many kinds.  These are the "Trial Gardens," sixteen plots 6 x 16 feet,

planned by different staff members and using only ordinary garden flowers.  They were
 splendid.  You can copy the plan and have this beautiful bed in your yard next summer.

This garden was entitled "Tropical Frieze," and looks like pineapple (coleus), shaved coconut
 (wax begonias and dusty miller), and red Passion fruit (caladiums).

"Pineapple Sun" Coleus - a new variety

"Lantana" - Tutti Frutti

"Redhead."  This garden could be seen from a hundred yards away; the red color is brilliant.  
This is a new variety of coleus called "Redhead." 

"Redhead"  Coleus

A pink and white garden with pink caladium and white alyssum.

Pink Verbena.  Verbena comes in many colors and is used in a number of the beds.

 "Mystic Dreamer" Dahlia.  This has very dark foliage, so it makes a good contrast 
with other plants.  It is also a prolific bloomer.

Mystic Dreamer Dahlia, with dark leaves and stems

A garden with lime green coleus, red salvia, papyrus. and orange cannas for height.

Blue scaevola, white alyssum, lime coleus, and black leaved sweet potato.

Blue Scaevola  /  Fairy Fans

"Yellow Hammer" dahlia with very dark foliage, prolific bloomer.

The black leaves are "Sweet Caroline Bewitched" sweet potato, and the creamy pale
 chartreuse is licorice.  It makes an interesting combination in a large pot.

"Peach Parfait" large dahlia; this is a tall one.

"Swallowtail" Coleus.  This is a new variety and quite dramatic.

"Orange Popsicle" Canna and "Zahara Orange" Zinnias.

"White Datura," from the Nightshade family.

"White Datura," a beautiful large snowy white flower.

"Yellow Hammer"Dahlias with dark green, almost black foliage.

Garden with lime green coleus and orange cannas, Conservatory in back.

Lime-green Coleus, a new variety

Begonias, Caladiums, Coleus, and Dusty Miller

Pink Cosmos, with feathery light-green foliage

Lime-green coleus, Sedona Sunset red coleus, Purple Giant Hyssop, and dark leaved cannas 

Pineapple Sun Coleus

New Zahara Orange Zinnias

Zahara Orange Zinnias

Pale green sweet potato vine, Zahara Orange zinnias, Alocasia Elephant Ears,
and Orange Popsicle Cannas.

Yellow Hammer Dahlias, Sedona Sunset Coleus, and decorative grasses

Sedona Sunset Coleus

Several Trial Gardens and Conservatory beyond.

Black Pearl Ornamental Pepper 

Several Trial Gardens

White Verbena, low plant

On the fence as the edge of the garden, Clematis climbing vines are grown.
This is "Blue Delight Clematis."

"Precious Pink" Clematis climbing vine.

"Dutch Sky" Clematis climbing vine.

When the Clematis flower petals die and fall off, they leave a "floral skeleton,"
which is quite interesting and beautiful.

Clematis floral skeleton

The Horseless Carriage Club of America was meeting while I was there, and there were

cars like this all over.  Groups of them went sightseeing to various locations each day/

A splendid horseless carriage with brass fittings polished and leather seats.
I think I would like this one.


__

Warhol Exhibit

Today would be Andy Warhol's 87th birthday.

Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement that flourished by the 1960s. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became a renowned and sometimes controversial artist.

"Ten Campbell's Soup Cans"
Warhol's art used many types of media, including hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, sculpture, film, and music. He was also a pioneer in computer-generated art using Amiga computers that were introduced in 1984, two years before his death.

This is a silkscreen image.  Andy used serial imagery.  You can recognize the soup
section in a supermarket from 100 feet away.  The image jumps out at you, and 
you know it.  Andy thought art should recognize reality and the mass production
of contemporary life.

"Marilyn Monroe"
Andy was fascinated by celebrities and wanted to record them.  Just as today,
when tv shows like Entertainment Tonight and all the magazines from People and US
to Vanity Fair celebrate celebrities, Andy used the latest techniques to capture
their images.

His studio, The Factory, was a famous gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities, and wealthy patrons.

Andy was always interested in money and becoming wealthy, before football
players and rock musicians.  He gloried in the symbol of the dollar.

Andy rendered homage to the great musicians of the last, Like "Beethoven."
Here the great composer sits at his desk and the notes he is creating float around him.

Andy loved flowers and their infinite variety of forms and colors.  He made many
 many versions of these four flowers in all sorts of colors, like a spring garden.

"Sixteen Flower Paintings."  Just as automobiles, Coke bottles, and Campbell soup
cans were manufactured by the millions, and all were the same and yet slightly different,
Andy as an artist used serial imagery to capture their beauty as well.

"Five Coke Bottles"

Andy's quote about Coke: 
"What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca-Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."

"Jackie O" was known to the whole world, both as a glamorous First Lady of the U.S>
and later as a tragic widow.  Andy captured her various states in this
"9 Portraits of Jackie O"

"Jackie O"

For a while, Andy was very concerned about violence and death, and he did a series on them.  This is one involving an auto accident and death.  He borrowed images from newspapers and magazines and repeated them like a newsreel which repeats images over and over.

Andy did many paintings of animals, especially endangered species, to make
people aware of them.

"Diptych with Four Elvises"

"Albert Einstein" from the "10 Great Jewish Intellectuals" Series

"Big Horned Ram" from the "Endangered Species" series.

For one of his exhibits in an art gallery, Andy chose to repeat a cow's head as the motif.

"Liz Taylor" was the most famous woman in the world, and her image was as carefully
manufactured and reproduced as a bottle of Coke or can of Campbell's soup.  You could
recognize the image 100 feet away.  Every magazine had pictures of her.  Andy took an
image in a fan magazine and reduced it to the essentials in flat areas of color.

Not only actresses, but political figures like "Mao" appeared in works.

"Queen Elizabeth II" was part of a series of queens, along with Beatrix of the
Netherlands and Farah Diba of Iran.

Andy did many religious works during his lifetime.  There are more than 200 versions of
"The Last Supper."  He both recognizes the greatness of Leonardo's fresco, as well as the
millions of reproduction in all sizes and colors obtainable in gift shops.
This "Last Supper Diptych" is 8 feet by almost 30 feet in length.

The figures in the "Last Supper" fascinated Andy, and he did many works based
on Leonardo's fresco.

Warhol's will dictated that his entire estate — with the exception of a few modest legacies to family members — would go to create a foundation dedicated to the "advancement of the visual arts". Warhol had so many possessions that it took Sotheby's nine days to auction his estate after his death; the auction grossed more than US$20 million.  It is the largest arts foundation in the world.
Today a single work may go for more than $100 million.


___