Steve Snedeker’s Landscaping and Gardening Blog

I love Yew Dell Gardens. Located just outside Louisville, Kentucky by just a few short miles, it is one of America’s most unique, eccentric and yet lush gardens. It’s history I already included in the updated post below this one. That particular post was my first visit there and it was in the Fall. I describe its history in far more detail there.

But there is something of the ‘Anarchist In Us All’ that stretches imaginations and challenges the senses in this minor masterpiece of garden artisan-ship. Yes, the superlatives are flowing. I just always find it hard not to go a bit nutso when I describe this very cool and interesting place. It offers some bizarre brain food – from haunting images such as the lonely but somehow eloquent message in “The Hand” in the middle of the field below, to the raft of strangely-colored hybrid plants, cooked up via the hard work of the early owners. Those who have taken over the running of this intriguing spot have completely “bought in” to the originator’s designs and intent. We gain immensely from this, all of us.

(click all images to enlarge)

In a great bit of serendipity, the garden was also featuring sculptures mixed in with the plantings, offering them for exhibit and sale. I especially liked the limestone carvings of this artist, Don Lawlor, a sculptor with this website which is way worth a look:

Tucked around Mr. Lawlor’s fascinating bird bath are the curiously-colored and unique (to me, anyway) Coleus plants which we found in abundance and – to our delight – in a literal rainbow of hues, some very subtle and muted and some very bright and incredibly playful  colors.

Check out these bright red babies:

We just missed the Astilbe Show behind these gorgeous plants, but other blooms and invading, competing flowers and plants make this riot of color a pure visual feast. I remarked to my Mom, who laughed: “Man, those are red enough to be a flower!!”

And the Coleus love did not stop there. When I mentioned “subtle”, I meant it. This stunning example of understated elegance provides the perfect foreground and lush perimeter for the rose behind it.

Other Coleus had different designs, such as this one with the blood vessels:

Or this bright yellow, quite playful beauty, shown here at the entrance in excessive plenty:

A peaceful beauty surrounds the lucky visitors, complete with heart warming people who work there and who never fail to be cheery and as helpful as they can be. Below is a most peaceful image, placed near the famous Holly Walk. My good friend The Happy Monk got himself all married there. And it took!! 

Proof that romance can flower near……….well……….flowers. But that’s redundant again. Like deja vu, all over again.

Mother and I wandered a piece, curious about adjoinging areas. The reason I bring this up is that we found what was either the original “Holly Walk” or else the practice field for Holly Walking. Kentucky is a basketball-crazy state. It led us to wonder if an area like this might not actually be for super tall basketballers. Don’t laugh. When I said they’re crazy about basketball, I wasn’t just “Whistlin’ Dixie”. Anyway, we felt delighted with what was for us a discovery.

We’re easy that way.

Back to………..hmmmmmmmmmmmm………….how about a few ‘Naked Ladies’?

It’s the Amaryllis Belladonna Show! This Naked Lady is native South African plant – a bulb – which has the most interesting pattern of growing with a fairly graceful foliage, then losing the leaves while the blooms appear. The nickname seems rather obvious, too, I would think. Groves such as this are plentiful at Yew Dell – small, shady realms of sub canopy beauty which the garden takes immense advantage of. To me, the groves such as this are one of its true draws.

We were fortunate enough to happen by this particular grove while it was being watered by a good old fashioned oscillating sprinkler. What made it most interesting were the water trails, mixed with the interesting apparent motions of the pants themselves and the additon of this shimmering sort of sculture, smack in the midst of it all:

Other groves of interest to me: (a small glass sculpture paradise, complete with wind-swept, spent lilies.

A Hosta Paradise, featuring – but not restricted to – Hosta Giants with its very own Fertility Sculpture (always handy! ):

This is getting long………..more in a day or two………….OK, one more sculpture:

Is that cool or what?

(click all images to enlarge)

Peaceful, exotic, unusual, Yew Dell gardens is not your everyday visit. While they have the most gorgeous groupings of evergreens in their classic routine – with smaller, lower-growing species below and the taller groupings behind in a wash of evergreen textures, and all developed carefully over time – there is much more here. Even the more deciduous areas were constructed with the longer view, which means depth, color and structural form of an incredibly appealing nature.

First the evergreens:

Then those more deciduous groupings:

This is a garden that would have to have been a nursery-owner’s delight. Experiments galore still stud the grounds in a riot of stable,aged and  standard plantings, mixed with some real bizarre eye candy. Lovingly constructed by the instigator of all this and his loving wife, Theodore and Martha Klein had them some real fun. Here is a short blurb taken from their website ( http://www.yewdellgardens.org/):

“Beginning with 33-acres of Oldham County farmland in 1941, Theodore and Martha Lee Klein spent the next 60-plus years developing an exquisite private estate, a successful commercial nursery and an extensive collection of unusual plants and outstanding gardens. Known locally, nationally and internationally as a first-rate plantsman, Theodore Klein was also a self-taught artisan who personally crafted the buildings and gardens that became known as Yew Dell.

Through the years, Klein collected over one thousand unusual specimen trees and shrubs which were displayed and evaluated in his arboretum. He also worked to develop new plant varieties for the regional landscape, amassing an impressive list of more than 60 unique introductions over his professional career.”

A perfect example of the level of “whimsy” Mr. Klein brought to bear on his property rests here, in the form of his small “Castle”:

Mr. Klein’s love of and appreciation for stone work is redolent throughout the entire place. His walls and even other entire buildings show a severe appreciation for the beauty and form of stone houses, walls and steps into gardens:

I love this wall. It reeks, somehow, of Kentucky, reminding one of the rows and rows of “slave walls” dry set and loose along the roads around horse farms in Central Kentucky:

In the end, however, it remains the plantings which left the largest impression on this visitor. Here is a series of different-colored Xanthosoma – ranging from a lime green, through a cultivar featuring deep purple stems to another entirely purple variety which absolutely stunned me with its deep purple tone and downright uniqueness. (Check out the reverse side of those gorgeous huge leaves and how they become a dustier “negative” of their reverse):

The velvety texture of the darker portion is hard to capture on camera, but it feels just as lush as it looks.

The fact is, the garden’s fascination with “Purpurea’s” of all types does not stop at those uncanny Xanthosomas. Here is a tiny set of purple Shamrocks -

Odder yet – and tons more purple – is this most surprising Mimosa Tree:

The Yew Dell Garden is a true delight. It’s a bit smaller than I had thought it would be but they manage to cram all sorts of fascinating, weird, wild and wonderful stuff into it in a riot of species, colors and form. We caught it at the onset of Autumn, so we missed a lot of some equally-unusual annuals and the perennials which had just pretty much finished doing their thing.

Frances at FaireGarden will appreciate their love of that gorgeous Muhley Grass, however, stuck as it is here at the entrance to the place -

Fearless, experimental and plain fascinating, sculptures are sporadically placed around the Gardens in auspicious spots as well.

I was particularly taken with The Hand – the sculpture which opened up this post at the top. It’s stark posturing in the middle of a wide expanse of grass just speaks volumes to the unique perspective this gorgeous and interesting garden exudes in so many ways:

Here’s a walkway through some pruned Holly Trees, hard by those purple Xanthosomas and another sculpture. Like I said – the interesting stuff just doesn’t quit.

I confess to my own bias – I am also fascinated with purple as a garden color for some strange reason – and maybe that’s it – the strangeness. But Yew Dell certainly has it in abundance, combined with other slices of absolute uniqueness.

Color everywhere – even in Fall – this garden is well worth anyone’s visit. Eccentric gardens are not that unusual in North America. I know a family in British Columbia who once made themselves a small retreat out of Rhododendrons and Azaleas which got bigger than themselves. Some of these places are now parks people gladly pay to visit in season. Yew Dell, motivated by a nurser and handy man with resources has become every bit of that.

Thanks for coming along!

The signal difference between the places I have lived Out West and where I have recently relocated – Louisville, Kentucky – are stark and prominent. In a word – it’s the “Humidity”. When you hear people speak of ‘dry heat’ versus ‘heat and humidity’, one often wonders what they mean. But when you walk out of an airport in Louisville on a hot, muggy Summer day, following the series of plane journeys to get there, it nearly takes your breath away. Nothing really prepares someone for it.

And of course, literally everything grows. Man, does it grow! I had a comment the other day from my good friend James at lostinthelandscape who, like my daughter, lives in San Diego. His words were essentially to the effect – “How odd that Louisville looks much more subtropical than we do here in the subtropics!”   It’s true, too. Currently, summer in Louisville feels downright Equatorial. 95 degree days with high humidity ratings make those 108 degree temperatures in Reno seem nearly mild in comparison.

Here is a mid-July look at the local park. Bear in mind it is not irrigated. With that humidity brings a different sort of rainfall pattern. When it rains here, it’s a deluge on a regular basis. Electrical storms are the norm – huge, magnificent and scary, with peals of thunder and lightning strikes all around where the lights blink in near-cataclysmic disruption and the ozone is ripe. Later on the year, of course, there are tornado concerns. They are fortunately very rare and there is plenty of advance notice but they do exist.

I do understand the science of humidity. More than anything else, humidity controls the “moisture loss” from a plant. A plant’s leaves have tiny little pores called stomata. This is where they essentially ‘breathe’. Carbon dioxide enters and water and oxygen leave in a near pulsation of Nature’s balance. A lower humidity increases the water loss as it attracts humidity almost like a magnet. It is also why I always insisted – to some dubious looks – that I could literally “change the weather” at a home by adding grass and plants. Inasmuch as the humidity in the center of a plant is 100%, it acts like a little humidifier in its small circle of influence. Imagine what grass does.

Mornings in Louisville see the humidity averaging around 82%. Afternoons, it is always 10-25% less. The Sun acts to dry things out during the course of a day and, of course, the heavy dews of Kentucky mornings increase it dramatically. Even in Winter in this 4 season climate, where the seasons are nearly absolutely separated by conditions implicit in their times, it makes for a ‘colder cold and a hotter hot’. It’s real!

Back to how it feels 

The smells linger in the air. This can be good or bad, of course, but it is also the oft-referred to quality in fiction and in references to the American South. I remember how the air was redolent with the sour mash scents of bourbon-making of my youth. My home town, Owensboro, had some preposterously huge warehouses housing the whiskey barrels of fermenting sour mash, soon to become Kentucky Bourbon, a rather famous – or infamous – export. It is so accepted, of course, we took class trips to watch them make that good old whiskey. Needless to say, hours of speculation occurred involving having the job of “taster”, complete with giggles and wonder.

But the scents can also be attractive, alluring and very sensual. A lady’s perfume will linger in the air. After shave and colognes got great play at the male side of things, not just to hide your typical male’s sloppy grooming habits but simply because it added to the overall ambiance. There are some very sophisticated scents prowling the benches and outdoor seating of the many midsummer plays and musical events of Southern summer. It is a sensual delight, among many others. Needless to say, the floral scents can be stunning too, and there are many. Roses go in for some serious plays at this level, as do the Gardenias, Magnolias, Lavenders, Sages and the raft of odoriferous flowers and plants.

Impossibly beautiful Springs and Falls are a result, combined with atrociously hot and despairingly cold Winters which cut right through one.

I’m a big fan of “Impossibly Beautiful Springs”, myself.

Truly one of my favorites things to do on the Spring Days in Louisville has been to wander down to the free baseball games that the local university plays. It can be great, with excellent baseball. Plus, you never know who might show up, sitting a couple seats away! (it’s cool – Ali has a son playing – and he’s a freshman. I expect to see Muhammed Ali many times over the next few years. I’m a fan.)

Once again with the Louisville, Kentucky July bloomage rant, we begin with some extremely local flora in the guise of Canna Lilies. I’ve always loved this plant because I like their lines, to say nothing of their color.

(click images to enlarge)

They seem to be a late starter – relatively speaking – in Louisville. In Vancouver or Portland, they develop just a bit earlier, probably owing to the head start they get from the warm Pacific North West Winters. There’s a lot to growing one of these bigger, very upright and very tall plants. They take a while unfurling. But they offer an almost Ginger-like brilliancy of color to their rangy ways. These are the ultimate in “back row perennial” development, providing a tall and colorful background to smaller plants fronting them.

Other lilies also bloom a tad later than what I have become used to – and, what is even cooler – they seem to stick around a bit longer. Here are some local lilies which are still blooming and looking fine:

This one I particularly like, owing to the setting. Far from super sunny, the property with this picture is a very early morning shot where the sun is at a low  enough angle to get through to the floor of this man-made canopy of gorgeous White Pines.

The Rose of Sharon’s are also beginning in Louisville and this time, for a change, the pattern is reversed. Whereas these are late bloomers out West – even in Reno – back here they bloom far earlier. Typically, out there they stay in bloom darn near until late Fall, so we’ll keep an eye on the ‘bloom reliability index’ here. The good news, in any case, is that they bloom just as plentifully as anywhere else, once they get going.

Pushy Clematis pretty much takes the cake for being lush. Acting lush is not a sin, however. If you got it, hey, flaunt it!

Hosta’s are maybe the most reliable of all perennials in Louisville. I’ve always been a huge fan of Hosta and have not always been in climatic conditions which allowed planting them. I mean, certainly not in the profusion we see here.

This “small Hosta Grove” is from a picture taken at my friends Dave and Billie’s home. Deeply shaded with yet another gorgeous tree canopy, their Hosta’s looked so good, you could eat ‘em. Dave and I rebuilt a wall at his place earlier this year, where we included our own architectural device I like to call “The Dip”.

Locally also we have many varieties of Hydrangea which bring back fulsome memories of this plant’s glory days when I lived in Vancouver, British Columbia. The English seem to know more about Hydrangeas than is normal and they were extremely profuse there. Locally, I have found an inordinate number of Oak Leaf Hydrangeas. I’m not sure if nurseries suddenly had a spate of them on their hands, but – whatever – they love Louisville and they are a terrifically interesting plant:

Subtle colors and great big huge old blooms and leaves make this a winner:

If you ever happen to encounter this guy on a street – no matter where you might live – do yourself a favor and walk the other way.

I’m not going to say he’s some kind of serial killer or something. But – then again – I’m not going to say he’s not, either.

So what’s blooming? Here it is early July and some stuff has hatched a plan to take off right in front of our very eyes. As you browse these pictures – which you can enlarge greatly by clicking on – bear in mind the scope of this adventure is just another trip around my local neighborhood. I save the special stuff for special posts, although to be perfectly honest, there is nothing not “special” about flowers anywhere, is there?

I cannot help but feature another one of my favorites – a picture I took this morning of perhaps the most perfect Southern Magnolia bloom I’ve ever seen:

Perhaps most apparent to me are these geographically new (to me) Crepe Myrtles. These are another wonderfully Southern plant, particular to warm climates and muggy weather.

This one above was actually a part of an interesting line of these gorgeous and rather informally-droopy plants. Here is a shot just a bit down the line:

And then here they are altogether, forming a rainbow-like wall of color and bright form, right up close to the street. I love this look:

Here’s a close-up.Is this plant cool or what?:

Some of the colors are electric:

I also like that they are used as masses, as is the case at this apartment complex’s central office:

Their colors match those – almost – of the local Hardy Hibiscus shrubs nearby, of which there are bazillions:

This of course is actually 2 Hibiscus plants, installed to hide the utility company’s ugly old box. I happen to be glad they tried it.

There is much variation in Hibiscii!!

Just as there is in the local Lily population:

We’ll explore Lilies more in the next post – including some interesting Cana’s. For now, let’s check in on how our Banana Plant is doing. It seems just about ready to begin devouring that poor house.

I’d say it grew just about 4 feet this month. Poor Harry.

The Southern Magnolia – or Magnolia Grandiflora – is a literal symbolic “Tree of The American South”.  Most comfy in a habitat that stretches across the southern portion of the Southeastern-most states in the U.S., this gorgeous evergreen  prefers the muggy Summer, sub-tropical heat and humidity which mark the climate of this area. It is actually hard to determine which is its most beautiful characteristic – whether it is the deep green and extremely glossy leaves which – when turned – show a brown and green underside of velvety texture, or whether it is the uncommonly lush and gorgeous creamy white blooms which stud the tree at the height of its real glory. Late Spring and early to mid-summers, this tree is nearly unmatchable in its grandeur and striking beauty. That the flowers themselves are slightly aromatic makes it something more along the lines of a massive Gardenia in many ways, a plant which shares its native habitat comfortably.

Once I personally discovered a few of these fancies  growing reasonably well in Vancouver, British Columbia – when I designed and worked there – I became something of a ‘Johnny Appleseed’ for the Grandiflora. Just on the merits of foliage alone, this gorgeous tree stands apart for general appealing color and texture. That hardier cultivars had been developed also helped as well, although, to be honest, it was and still is a novelty plant for the most part. But it most definitely augments garden areas wonderfully with its medium growing size and those dynamite deep green evergreen leaves.

It is an unbearably and usually fatal chore to try and transplant, unfortunately. It has a rather unusual root system – Unlike most other trees and shrubs, the roots are largely un-branched and rope-like. For this reason, magnolias tend to suffer more than many other trees if they are moved after they reach a large size. Most magnolias can safely be moved if the trunk is less than four inches in diameter. The bottom line is always dig as large a root ball as you possibly can, use Vitamin B and water frequently. If they’re big ones, good luck!

In Louisville, Kentucky, where these pictures have recently been taken just browsing the local neighborhoods, this year’s incredibly muggy and hot weather has really pushed them to some extremes of beauty. The cup-like blooms are getting progressively more plentiful, reverting somehow to their genetic bases of heat, humidity and sun.

These pictures are all taken during my local walks here in Louisville. People are now used to seeing me trundle up by their houses, camera in hand, getting inches away from their flora. Funny enough, it’s a great way to meet people, as long as you are rude and thoughtless enough to trespass!   Of course, once they find out that you actually know a thing or two about landscaping or gardening, next thing you know, you’re walking out back and advising on plants or designs. Hi Henry!!! No more Banana Plants!!

Just as in the case of the Portland Chinese Garden, a well-cared-for Banana Plant can actually do its thing in Louisville. The biggest concern is “Will it overtake my home??” Here is a shot at an early stage of a local Banana.

And here is a shot of it, less than a month later. You can see it grow!

Almost as cool as the Louisville fascination with Clematis on mail boxes! (This one with a bit of red-blooming Honeysuckle on the other side.)

One more Magnolia Bloom. These suckers are hard to get away from!

I’m a big Clematis fan. Since most of my writings in here deal with issues of construction and process, it seems I rarely write about the plants which have filled out these projects at the tail end of all that dirt moving, rock rolling and fabrications. I actually know my plants pretty well and I have some most definite favorites. Clematis would be one of those.

(left click to enlarge any pictures)

The truth is, it can be a rough plant to locate exactly right. The old saw: “Head in the Sun, feet in the shade” was never lost on me and has turned out to be fairly accurate. It also needs some amazing rich and good-draining soil. Once all this is accomplished, one can watch it grow. It must be added that the vine itself is extremely delicate. One bad move with a weed-eater and you can ruin 10 years worth of Clematis in a New York second. It always amazed me the amount of bloomage, foliage and all the rest which can proceed from such a scraggly start,  . But those vine beginnings are truly every bit of “diminutive and fragile”.

Here’s a mess of a Springtime guy of the Clematis family, all early as heck and profuse as you could ever want. This is an early Spring bloomer and actually somewhat fragrant.

Later on in the year, we get the Real Deal as Summer approaches and we begin catching what these glorious heavy-blooming vines are all about:

I once took a picture of this relatively famous Clematis, at least famous in Vancouver. It grows in the David Lam Chinese Garden, hard by UBC and actually on campus there. This would be the same garden where I walked nearby as Queen Elizabeth roamed it, with a gaggle of kids with her. This may be the largest Clematis I ever saw – and thank you to the Botanical garden at UBC for this picture. A Clematis Montana, this sucker has been around for a while!:

What I found incredibly interesting, since moving to Louisville, has been the natives’ uses of Clematis as Mail Box Decor. It is one of those local fads which have seemed to have caught on and I really like it. Add that postal workers must certainly prefer these gorgeous plants to the more prickly roses which one can find decorating mail boxes in the past, and I think we’ve found a winner. Here are a few, just now getting uderway this early Summer:

Just up the street a ways -

To cement my amateur photographer status, I submit this one. I like its look and I won’t be back there any time soon, so I’ll let it fly in the face of snootier picture takers:

Here’s a great “starter kit”! I particularly love the bloom color.

This one has to be shown, since its a few doors down from us. The use of Clematis takes a newer route, garnishing a lamp standard, another visible local opportunity to feature this stunning plant.

I describe Louisville’s St. James Court/Belgravia district in some historical detail in this other post here in this blog, including its role in the Southern Exposition of 1883-87.   Click here, please.

The last time this blog visited it was during the past very gorgeous and somewhat warm Fall. So much of the attraction of Kentucky in general and Louisville in particular is invested in their two most-attractive seasons – Spring and Fall – that I thought revisiting during this “very bloomy” Spring might be worthwhile. Well, I think it was.

I almost always begin my journeys around St. James Court with a visit to the place my parents once lived. This home they renovated at some expense, while renting, and it remains one of my most favorite places dating from back when flights to Louisville originated in Vancouver, BC. Mother remembers this Dogwood tree well, having been there when it was planted, nearly 25 years ago.

Across the street was this behemoth which always tickles me to feature. I mean, the sheer size and heft of this single family residence pretty much always blows my mind:

But there is always a far more human dimension to walking this gorgeous area. If nothing else, appreciation from a craftsman yields dramatic evidence of sheer professionalism and craftsmanship in all of the home designs and construction. Not only are the homes here over 100 years old, they were made by people who were the very best at what they did – from masons to glass makers and carpenters. And let us take just a moment to praise a few gardeners as well!

By all means!

A simple and relaxing layout overall presents a superb example of urban planning, back when the trade was rather young and new in America and people like – in this case – Frederick Olmstead  designed them for permanent beauty.

Made for walking and enjoying, the beautiful mixture of interesting architecture, iron work and landscape pitch in to present a moderate, yet gorgeous and still somewhat extravagant face -

Like yet another hidden gem in the midst of a bustling city, St. James Court and Belgravia are actually not quite as hidden as the earlier post. Host of the largest Art Fair in the nation, St. James Court still does not get the traffic outside of those few outrageously packed days, to deter one from making the visit and relishing its various beauties.

All the blooming articles have gone somewhat bananas at the same time, with this warm weather, making for some incredible eye candy.

And the list of wonders also takes in the more avid gardeners of the area and their efforts at maximizing some early Spring perennials such as these gorgeous Bleeding Hearts – or the cute Tulips below that.

Yes, there are some darn good gardeners in the neighborhood, prone to enjoying something more than the stable, structural landscapes and who grow delightful groupings of oddities among other things. Check out this virtual “Variegated Spring Perennial Garden”, now just developing, featuring the variegated (and new to me) Solomon’s Seal:

Here are two extremely well-planned microcosmic glories, both in front yards in relatively small spaces but whose attention to detail and very obvious patience in development offer us fabulous examples of what is possible in Spring:

Needless to say, there are your standard “structural” beauties, if such a thing could be said about a plant as gorgeous as an Azelea:

There is Iron Work everywhere:

Even in some of the smaller front yards:

Once again, any trip through here – any time of the year – is a marvelously relaxing abiding among lushness – homes and trees and urban landscaping designed to be what it is – a place of small worship of Nature and Man, teamed together in a gorgeous dance of possibilities.

We are most pleasantly assaulted by the sounds, sights and smells which are the furthest possible thing from our daily worries – which is also by design.

Our cute little Dogwood brings us full circle this day. Splendid simplicity also has a place.

While I had been exceedingly jealous of my brother Mike in Portland and my friend Paul, with whom I speak even more regularly, over their spate of unseasonably gorgeous weather in February and March, the complete reversal of form sees me in the true “Catbird Seat” these days. (Ha ha, they were bragging about BEES!!) When Winter finally relented, she did so with some passion, leading to warm days and nights and a profusion of blooms I have a hard time ever recalling seeing anywhere, at any point in time.

(Click all images to enlarge, twice for more detail)

It gets better.

It continues now as the earlier-blooming trees – the Chinese Pears and Cherry and even Crabapple species finish and the Redbuds and even more spectacular Dogwood varieties ripen with a profusion that literally boggles the mind. I recall the blooming Dogwoods as a child, dotting the forests with Redbuds in deeply accenting detail, splashing swirls and bold swaths of white and pink deeply inside forest floors amid the lime-green of all the new budding leaves of these deciduous forests.

The term “Shady Lane” would have to be applied to this gorgeous small park and its adjoining streets, just swimming in Dogwood blooms. This is not a particularly noteworthy park, tiny by park standards and lost over by Preston Highway off Poplar Level Road in a district my Mother calls home to the Dogwood Festival.

A near-absurd and dizzying array of blooming things greets the eye and dazzles the senses in this tiny park. It is honestly – without exaggeration – a true assault on the senses, but particularly of sight. Having said that, the redolent and profuse smells waft one into near silence, sniffing like some dog at a popular hydrant as one picks among the billions of rich photo opportunities which fly around, arranged completely differently at each and every single footstep.

I guess I am exhausting my list of superlatives as I describe this 200′ by 600′ city park, diffidently-maintained, studded with native white and blue violets and Bluet’s in the grass -

“Oh My! Oh My God, this is a lawn care guide’s nightmare!!” –

I mean, the lack of discipline is complete! Even the neighbors to this unfortunate park have gotten into the absolute dearth of anality over the this gross omission of the forceful smooth monolithic green necessary to make what we all know is a Real Yard. Those slaggards! You think this is pretty or something???

  Oops, I think the cat’s outta the bag.

Personally, I decided to live with it. It made my life so much easier. Truth is, all in the world I really wanted to do most was to go over and lay down in it. For a long time, too. It smelled real, real, real good. There are worse things than reeking of violets. I know this from my vast experience at reeking. 

We who reek, salute you!

Simple colors, gorgeous sun, shady lanes of goodness and visual delights. The simple but gorgeous blooms of the Dogwood lend themselves magnificently to picture-taking. The blooms are very sturdy and gorgeous on a totally individual basis, all by themselves. When arranged in densities such as these, it makes me glad I have car insurance. No one in their right mind can’t stop in the middle of whatever they’re doing to check this stuff out. I’m sorry, it’s impossible. This is the one zone where speed limits should be in single digits.

But allow me for a moment to mention my next posting in here. We took another trip on over to St. James Court the same day, a neighborhood I have featured at other times in this blog and which one can find by typing the area name into the search bar. I got a picture of the fountain, to whet the appetite for the next post I’ll make. Since the Kentucky Derby is coming up in 2 weeks, Louisville will be in the news rather incessantly. It’s a nice time to feature this splendid town.

This district, designed by Frederick Olmstead to adjoin a major Fair – the Southern Exposition of 1883-1887 – features home designs of the very best of that era, sometimes ornate and all teeming with the craftsmanship and professionalism in their construction of a rare and unique type. And so sure  – that’s all cool and stuff – but I was looking for plants, man. And I found some!

Here’s 3 plants now!

Meanwhile, back at the Dogwood festival -

The neighbors do get into the act, just in a billion different ways. Check out these tulips – don’t they look like little lights with the Sun at that angle?

I credit my Mother for forcing me to this journey. I had been reluctant, frankly, owing to time constraints which magically disappeared upon seeing all this. Sometimes, she knows her business.

The park also contained some very statuesque and just huge Oak trees, which must also be mentioned. They are so large, in fact, that my camera couldn’t catch them all. But I believe the “drift” is easy enough. Like gigantic feet and legs, they provide a young dappling of leaves and shade, towering overhead, just proper for administering a dappled but still-bright sunlight into the groves below.

Sometimes, simple is best. There are few things in North American nature to rival the impressive strength and stability of a huge Oak. Dappled with all these gorgeous Dogwoods around its feet, these massive trunks leading straight up to the sky offer a protective sensibility to the entire park. Well, at least til their leaves fall!    But, know what?…….. me likey!! It’s job security!

But, honestly – what a find!

It’s getting boring now – you are getting sleepy, soooooooooo sleepy.

I lived on a bloom once ………….

This sudden outpouring of uncharacteristic hot weather locally has urged local Spring blossoms to pretty much a “kick butt and take names” modality. While it makes for an unbelievably luscious floral environment, the trees and early-blooming shrubs will close out a bit quicker than is normal. Alas, that’s also fine because the trade-off is this smorgasbord of rioting color and texture which is undoubtedly rare enough to warrant recording.

Here’s a look at stuff around the suburban blocks and neighborhood where I do most of my daily walking:

(click any image to enlarge)

It’s cool the Dogwoods and Redbuds come at the same time as all these Chinese Pears. It mixes texture and colors into these deep dimensions and palettes suitable for painting, like some Impressionist Holiday.

I like that these are normal neighborhood views. The issues of landscape architecture become so much more obvious this way. I finished a great book, recently: “Devil in the White City”, by Eric Larson, a really good writer and a riveting and special book, where Frederick Olmstead was featured, speaking of landscaping at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1892. He was in his 70’s at the time and in poor health, but he did the yeoman’s share of the planning and even the overseeing of this mammoth project. To make a long story short, Olmstead was in the midst of his adamant lifetime declaration that Landscape Architecture be considered on of the classical great “Arts”. His advocacy for the field made many believers, of which I am also one, myself. I have often called landscaping the “Ultimate Cosmetic” – painting structure, form and color into the out of doors in unique and absolutely uplifting ways. It gives humans the right to enjoy Nature, but more so, it gives them the experience, at 360 degrees, of Nature, arranged in human ways to highlight beauty – simply put. This unassuming neighborhood, hard by Middletown in Louisville, fulfills every single possible aspect of that goal.

I really adore this neighborhood. The curving streets, the lack of curbing and sidewalks present this lush green basis from which the rest stems. The streets are nice and wide in this very middle class ‘hood and kids and Moms and Dads are always out at the park or riding bikes, destined to enjoy their days. I suppose it is easy to take for granted, living among it all. Yet, it’s also why guys like me are allowed to remind us that it is special. So, what the heck – it’s a living!

The park always looms central to this neighborhood, here in Douglas Hills. It has a public swimming pool, some tennis courts (no softball fields!! Morans!), and acres of expansive and succulent lawn space – just grass, as much as you want. It is also studded with these gorgeous Redbuds, set between the Chinese Pears, which add color and fun, accompanying a cool walking path.

Once again, the view down a side street, with its colorful street scene boulevard, the Korean Viburnums (Tinus), upright Columnar Chinese Pears, Redbud, Dogwood and the rest. It’s honestly hard to get enough of this view for me. I can’t imagine a more perfect timing for capturing these blooms although I confess I am looking forward to what it has for me today.

But let’s leave Louisville. Let’s re-check things over at Bernheim Woods, hard by the Jim Beam Distillery.

Mother and I passed up the chance to go “tasting” – which was unfortunate. The large warehouses, for those new to Bourbon, hold just thousands of large barrels of aging whiskey. If you drank everything they had inside of just one of those warehouses, you would be drunk for probably 1,000 years. Actually, probably more. Maybe even a billion years. Think about it – and you’d be preserved too! You could be like one of those dead Zen guys, but much more famous.   An icon!

Anyway, this very famous distillery is pretty much across the road from Bernheim Forest. Needless to say, there is a small clear creek running through both places which is where they get all that great water what changes into something more. Well, it does the same at Bernheim, just better. It changes into life-sustaining gorgeousness.

We’re now visiting the “cultivated” parts of Bernheim – dare I even say much of it is the “Experimental” or at least the “Unique” parts of Bernheim. In all its history, managed by a different set of folks at many turns, there has almost always been the delight of offering species for observation over the luxury of Time itself. Patience paid off in many ways, in spite of recent spates of such tough natural events as Ice Storms which cut a nasty swath through the tops of the forest, laden with a literal 3 inch thick layer of ‘ice rain’ for sub-freezing weeks. The odd tornado has coursed through as well as have your standard average wind storms. Inasmuch as so much of the ‘experimental’ areas are out in the open and consist of most-fragile plantings such as azaleas and rhododendrons, much has also been lost, sad to say.

The picture above has all the promise of future glory as this nice Spirea gets going, I’m guessing in about it’s 3rd year. I just liked the tree behind it so much, I was pleased to be able to include this little guy in the picture.

But now we move to the Magnolias. All of these featured here are Magnolia “Soulangiana” hybrids. Frankly, I have never personally seen such a wild mixture all together in one place – anytime, anywhere. It was stunning running across these as Mother and I picked our way through this virtual small forest and every single turn was yet another revelation to me – “The Virgin of Magnoliana.”

We plunge inside, loins girded, as it were, smiles as wide as the one we see here on an experienced, local  “Magnolia-ette” nymph.

You could say there were “quite a few blooms!”

The entry to the grove is this sprawling cacophony of Magnolia Mayhem, probably from the development of plants 50 years in the making. The smells………..Oh My! These dudes smell – a lot! It’s like a Lilac Nasal Massage, only times 20.

Arranged most interestingly, as we crept through, there were camera-rich opportunities beyond the norm. Each Soulangiana had a certain definite uniqeness, all its own. Some were timed differently as well, opening just slightly earlier or later than the others and each nearly “pure” in its own right, rife with beauty and a luxurious flower, larger than a baseball.

Typical of me, I was distracted  (Look! A butterfly!!)  by a grove of evergreen shrubbery down the hill, the backdrop to the Magnolia Mayhem. I really liked this look.

But the Magnolia Love was just beginning – these plants are all about the bloom. Check out this “rather Purple” item:

Around the corner we were fortunate enough to run into some of the rarest colored blooms in Nature – here’s a practically brown bloom, I kid you not: (enlarge it)

From a couple of angles. Can you tell this one fascinated me?:

Well, this was moving us now towards the Yellow species – another stark, revelatory moment for this Magnolia tyro:

And they were not small, either!

Incredible

This brownie looks almost edible!

Once more, looking back:

Of course, there’s a “down side” to all this. From here on out, when I see a plant like the one below, from here on out I’ll just go:

“Oh, hey, another small magnolia soulangiana. Listen, I’ve been to the Magnolia Mountain, Bubba. That one is cute, but it ain’t world class. Hahahaha!”…………. “Nice try!!”

These want to be enlarged – just some random, lacy shots of bloomin’ Magnolias. Don’t get excited:

Almost forgot! (Hey, look! A Balloon!!”)

We ran across a Vasey’s Trillium in the roads in the park. Traveling with Mom, she has all these spots covered where she and her walking Bernheim buddy, Sharon, used to walk and check out every inch of territory with a fine-toothed mental comb – or brush. These Vasey’s guys are ‘no bigger than a minute’ – about 4 inches from leaf-end to leaf-end, but they have this gorgeous little effect and they are somewhat rare up this far North.

All this action is enough to make a grown Redbud Weep!