Syringa vulgaris or smell of spring

When May comes after a long winter, it looks like green hues are painting the landscape all over the place.Since always you remember the spring smell of new leaves opening all over the forests, gardens, parks.And, indeed, when then first fresh green tiny leaves are unpacked from buds ,it again feels in  spring of this year everything could be possible, even the almost forgotten smell of lilacs seems to become more as mere memory quite soon.And when  then comes the first tiny spring rain,washing down leafy smell from the air,you feel spring is already evidently here ,but then you open the window and sweet smell of lilacs embraces you.There it is, lilacs in fool bloom , and now you know for sure, this spring is real…… 

“Open Window Lilacs Study 1886″ oil on Canvas,Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov, from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_297499/Valentin-Aleksandrovich-Serov/page-1

“The Lilac Bouquet” oil on Canvas, location: Private collection.Serkis Diranian, from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_80221/Serkis-Diranian/page-1

“The Bunch of Lilacs” oil on Canvas.James Jacques Joseph Tissot from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_253706/James-Jacques-Joseph-Tissot/page-1

“Gathering Lilacs” oil on Canvas Daniel Ridgway Knight, from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_324463/Daniel-Ridgway-Knight/page-1

“Lilacs” oil on Canvas Boris Kustodiev, from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_204631/Boris-Kustodiev/page-1

Prunus serrulata and Cherry blossom Viewing

Utagawa or Ando Hiroshige:”Cherry Blossom at Asakura” oil on Canvas.from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_210155/Utagawa-or-Ando-Hiroshige/page-1

Torii Kiyonaga: ”Cherry Blossoms at Asakayama near Edo” oil on Canvas.from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_203768/Torii-Kiyonaga/page-1

Pierre Amede Marcel-Beronneau:”Cherry Blossom” oil on Canvas.from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_368106/Pierre-Amede-Marcel-Beronneau/page-1

Ogata Gekko:”Cherry blossom Viewing at Kiyomizu Hall in Ueno” oil on Canvas.from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_286026/Ogata-Gekko/page-1

Spring makes me happy each year .This year the winter was cold and so long we almost forgot the colours of a spring sunny day. Yet it is now here, opening our hopes towards the future, making us believe sun will shine forever and all these vivid colours of spring flowers in breeze will carry us into some new days. Unexpectedly,this Japanese cherry in full bloom embraced me not only with the smell of new day to come, but with sweet memories of past days at the same time.Admiring pink cherry buds opened in early day I remembered how many years ago my son couldn’t wait cherry blossoms to fall down to make us a pink carpet on the pavement on our way to kinder-garden.And as these thoughts under cherry tree have carried me back into memories I’ve searched across some old art works with cherry trees catching my memories-to be transposed in future of the spring day again, staying fascinated with the impression of old and new times catching each other under a cherry tree!

Paper flowers-an old craft

 

 

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Taking a train ride for Stoke on Trent I was observing Potteries landscape running by, all green and smooth.It made me happy to recognize English countryside  just as sculptured in Wallace &Gromit our kids liked that much .Yet my thoughts at that moment  were: “If I survive this I shall reward myself  with one Wedgwood cup!”-sorry my friends in Stoke, but at that moment I couldn’t know that all the clay and coal from these green paysage helped writing a garden story I would listen with open mouth…

I met a young man by the name of J. Wedgwood  who had planted a flower garden adjacent to his pottery.He also had his men wash their hands and faces and change their clothes after working in the clay.(attributed to John Wesley).

I was  happy indeed, when I found this sentence, visiting Wedgwood museum.There were so many potters there around, for centuries, but just one of them, Josiah Wedgwood, succeeded to become the one and only one.  How he did it?  The mentioned sentence explains it all.  I am not saying each gardener will become best potter ever. Yet to make porcelain that different from average, so beautiful, with fantastic patterns, one has to be a good observer,and one has to dare. Young Joshua dared to plant a garden behind his factory, there he could observe the beauty of nature, and to transpose it into porcelain.I state this shows nature is the best teacher keen observer  can have.

 

 

Garden themes Joshua Wedgwood revived in porcelain brought his name far away.

One of Wedgwood porcelain masterpieces-Frog service- was commissioned by Empress Catherine in 1773 .Incredible number of 952 pieces of the service were all painted with 1,244 realistic scenes with buildings ,gardens and landscapes from England.As the service was intended for the palace built on a frog marsh a green frog emblem was painted on each piece of the service.

Frog Service Dessert Plate View 947. A View taken near Mr Smith’s House at Battersea looking up The Thames. Designed & engraved by Boydell, 1752. (Possibly a duplicate that was not sent to Russia due to an imperfection).from:http://wedgwoodmuseum.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/by-royal-approval-wedgwoods-queens-ware/#more-216

Nature and gardens didn’t bring Joshua Wedgwood only to the queens of England and Russia, there arouse even more important friendship.In 1780 Wedgwood turned to Erasmus Darwin,English physician, natural philosopher, physiologist, inventor and poet, to help him running the business after Wedgwood business partner died.It is no surprise the two became close friends.Why? They both admired botany! While in Etruria Works  fantastic porcelain with scenery from nature, gardens, botany was produced Darwin worked for seven years on  Carolus Linnaeus  latin text coining many English botanic terms in use up to today.

Erasmus Darwin, from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_Darwin

Erasmus Darwin was not only a scientist and inventor, he was also a poet.His two poems; The Economy of Vegetation and The Loves of the Plants,were published together as The Botanic Garden (1791).The book was an expensive one, but it became a best-seller  It was educating broader public, making botany interesting ,speaking about evolution in nature.

Title page from The Botanic Garden(1791), from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Botanic_Garden

But the story does not end yet! Joshuas daughter married Erasmus son.Their son was Charles Darwin, father of the evolution theory! Could you believe what arouse from the love of nature , gardens, botany?

The seven-year-old Charles Darwin in 1816.from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

This post was written as a guest post for The Beagle Project, a blog  about Charles Darwin journey ,so inspiring even today.

 

 

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8th February is the Slovene Cultural Holiday, named after our biggest poet, Prešeren’s day.At that day the most important cultural achievements and the greatest artists in Slovenia are awarded. This year laureate in category life’s work is illustrator Marlenka Stupica.  Generations of kids grew up with her books, she offered beauty to each childhood. Part of this beauty came from great love for natural detail.My Botanical Garden is expressing, at this occasion, the greatest respect and profound admiration to Ms Marlenka Stupica’s work.Congratulations

Water lily

Claude Monet: Nymphéas,from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet_038.jpg

Viola odorata and pastilles from Favigny

Looking back my older posts I’ve just chosen this one to copy as a first post for 2013-I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Albrecht Durer-Violet bouquet (watercolor, 15-th century)

Edouard Manet-Bouquet of violets (Oil on canvas 1872)

Common violet , tiny  beauty,hides in semi shades of forest edges. Sweet scent  betrays easily overseen plant.  Modest in nature this flower entered world art galleries ,literature and music,biggest artists love her since ewer, perhaps for it is plant from everyday life with smell from heaven?

 

Listening to the music,would you treat yourself with something special? My favourites are violet pastilles from Flavigny. I love their  violet flower, and the  decorated oval box makes me remember the summer far ago, when  I got a tiny box of violet pastilles from my mother.Since then for me this little pastilles bear memories of almost forgotten summers when eating violet candies we tried to imagine what would the coming summers look like…..

….

http://anis-flavigny.com/boutique/en/original-range/2-oval-tin-50g-violet.html

Viola odorata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Violaceae
Genus:	Viola
Species:	V. odorata
Binomial name
Viola odorata L.from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_odorata

Christmas cactus

Christmas cactus was one of my  mothers favourite house plants. I remember the pink schlumbergera I gave to her so many years ago.Who knows how she managed to cultivate this same plant for so many years.Each summer she put it in the shadow of her garden,each fall back in the entrance hall again where each Christmas the cactus opened many many pink flowers to remind us spring is to come soon. Until the spring came my mother was not with us any more.Now I care for the plant wishing my mother would be here to admire the pink show of Christmas she loved that much.

http://youtu.be/ky55MjZuNFM 

from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_255439/Charles-Rennie-Mackintosh/Cactus-Flower

Drawing of S. russelliana, the type species, from the Botanical Magazine, 1839

Schlumbergera
Cultivar belonging to the SchlumbergeraTruncata Group
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Cactaceae
Subfamily:	Cactoideae
Tribe:	Rhipsalideae
Genus:	Schlumbergera Lem.
Species
S. kautskyi (Horobin & McMillan) N.P.Taylor S. microsphaerica (K.Schum.) Hoevel S. opuntioides (Loefgr. & Dusén) D.R.Hunt S. orssichiana Barthlott & McMillan S. russelliana (Hook.) Britton & Rose S. truncata (Haw.) Moran

from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlumbergera

Punica granatum makes friends

A friend gave me this beautiful pomegranate she grew on her summer-house  garden.Not a kilo of them, not five or two of them,just a single one.And it is the same with me.I may bring a kilo of oranges to my friend, but I will choose just one pomegranate for a gift.And it is always the same,one pomegranate is a perfect gift one looks forward of getting it. I don’t know from where this tradition, or is it just a habit,came.But I am sure it has to do something with strong symbolism of pomegranate,offering a pomegranate one gives best wishes for prosperity, health,ambition,fertility, wealth, good luck.And these do not come in numbers. This is ,why a pomegranate given from a friend’s heart always means a lot...

The pomegranate is the symbol of Armenia and represents fertility, abundance and marriage. One ancient custom widely accepted in ancient Armenia was performed at weddings. A bride was given a pomegranate fruit, which she threw against a wall, breaking it into pieces. Scattered pomegranate seeds ensured the bride future children.

The name pomegranate derives from medieval Latin pōmum ”apple” and grānātum“seeded”. While most European languages have cognate names for the fruit, stemming from Latin granatum, an exception is the Portuguese term romã which is derived from Arabic ruman, and has cognates in other Semitic languages (e.g. Hebrew rimmon) and Ancient Egyptianrmn.

Pomegranate
A pomegranate fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Myrtales
Family:	Lythraceae
Genus:	Punica
Species:	P. granatum
Binomial name
Punica granatum L.
Synonyms
Punica malus Linnaeus, 1758

from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate

Man Holding a Pomegranate, cca1618,from:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_Man_Holding_a_Pomegranate.jpg

Antonio Ponce, 17th century, Pomegranates, from:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AntonioPonce.jpg

Marie Egner, about 1940, Granatäpfel auf einer Fensterbank, from:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Egner_Granat%C3%A4pfel_auf_einer_Fensterbank.jpg

 

 

Zinnia-mal de ojos and human eye

Fall colors bring the last sun before winter.But before forests turn their foliage to yelowish part of the specte the last summer flowers pretend this summer will never end.Zinnias make even this little garden an oasis of summer,delivering a piece of colour memoirs to those passing by.I’ve remembered little zinnia bouquets from the food market that we loved so much, that we kept buying them untill we believed they are nothing special and traded them for some fancy flowers in trend.What a pity a human eye recognizes colors, but the meanings remain unseen just too often……

Johann Gottfried Zinn was born in Schwabach. Considering his short life span, Zinn made a great contribution to the study of anatomy. In his book Descriptio anatomica oculi humani,       he provided the first detailed and comprehensive anatomy of the human eye.

In addition to his medical career, Zinn was also an ardent botanist. In 1750, the German Ambassador to Mexico sent Zinn some seeds of mal de ojos,  which was considered a weed in Mexico, but the plant briefly aroused interest in Germany. ^[1]

Botanist Carolus Linnaeus designated a genus of flowers in the family Asteraceaenative from Mexico as Zinnia  in his honour. Zinnia was introduced to Europe in 1613.  from  :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Zinn

from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_299336/Frida-Kahlo/Self-Portrait-Dedicated-To-Dr-Eloesser-1940

from:http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/mary-cassatt/woman-with-a-red-zinnia-1891

Zinnia
Zinnia × hybrida flower and foliage
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Subfamily:	Asteroideae
Tribe:	Heliantheae[1]
Genus:	Zinnia L.
Type species
Zinnia peruviana (L.) L.
Synonyms
Crassina Scepin Diplothrix DC. Mendezia DC. Tragoceros Kunth[2]from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinnia