Missed it by 24 hours

Well the Corpse flower hadn't opened at the Huntington when we went to see it. However, the entire gardens were open and we spent the entire day looking at plants from all over the world. It was pretty amazing all around. Here are some pictures, although I'm sad I don't have pictures of it open!

It was in a hot, humid glass house filled with tropical plants. I can't imagine being in there when it smells like something's dead! They actually have 5 planted in there that were propogated by seed from the 1999 flowering. Imagine if all 5 bloomed at once in a hot, humid, enclosed space? Whew!!

The leaves were incredible! The Amorphophallus puts out one gigantic leaf. The petiole is the size of a person's arm!
We saw what looked like a reddish tinge inside and we thought, it's going to open any time now. We even considered sticking it in a paper bag with some bananas :) but of course that would not be allowed. :)

The Huntington was beautiful! Truly a treasure and actually a bargain even at $15. It absolutely delighted us at every turn, and at the end of the day, we were surprised to see that 6 hours had passed, and we had to leave.

Titan Arum! aka "The Son of Stinky"

I'm going to see the Titan Arum tomorrow, otherwise known as the corpse flower. It blooms only randomly and blooms are a media event. They last had a bloom at Huntington Gardens in 2002, when the parent plant of this one bloomed. Its 1999 bloom produced the seed for the current plant, the "Son of Stinky."

I'll be sure to take some pictures of it. I hope it's open by tomorrow!

L

Spirits arise in Phoenix

I took a walk amongst some amazing sculptures by Dale Chihuly at Scottsdale's Desert Botanic Garden. It was amazing to see forms of desert plants echoed by glass. It was his first desert botanic garden installation. I find that odd, as the glass seems to fit so well. You could almost just believe that the forms were alive.

As we walked along and looked at the many installations that were very skilfully placed, I realized that there was a wonderful feedback between the forms and the plants. Seeing the sculptures made the plants look more like artistic objects. The plants made the sculptures seem more playful, as if they were impish sprites that alighted next to the cacti and were imitating them.

Interestingly, the names of the art pieces indicated that they were not actually representing plant forms in most cases. Many were named for things like boats, scorpions, etc. The very skillful botanists and artists apparently got together and made the display based on not only convergence of form and essence, but with an eye to that sort of playful interaction.

What a wonderful exhibit. I will never look at plants in a botanic garden the same way.