overcast: breezy: 42ºF

The botanical garden is a how-to-do-it spot for learning how to decorate for winter without using chasing lights or shimmering acrylic. As winter begins, the keepers bring out some of the hard plastic planters that they used as containers for tropicals and fill them with trees, twigs and evergreens. Mixing fronds from creeping evergreens with branches from upright short and long-needled varieties makes the pots look balanced and alive. As toppers, the pots have twigs cut from one of the botanical garden’s stands of red-twig dogwoods. Finally, a tall pine tree is placed behind the smaller containers and decorated with a simple garland of grape vines.

As much as I disliked the instant ancient plastic planters during the growing season, they look right and good with winter arrangements. Aside from looks though, the synthetics now have a decided edge over terra cotta or glazed pottery pots: they won’t crack or shatter. I have a tall vase-shaped glazed pot in my garden at home that is too heavy for me to bring inside for the winter, so I emptied the soil, filled it with Styrofoam chunks, and will hope for the best.

Still on pots: the Ottoman Garden has a collection of planter pots each large enough to hold its own in a mall or city plaza. They’re not made of plastic or terra cotta or glazed pottery. I thought maybe they were made of iron. This morning I noticed a small impress at the bottom of the planters that identifies them: Longshadow Planters, Pomona, Illinois. Like vintage wines, each planter is dated. The ones I looked at were all made in 2002.

Longshadow’s website says that they make planters for contractors and landscape designers. The name “Longshadow” comes from the “morning and evening shadows cast by native oaks, cedars and sassafras across the rolling meadows surrounding the restored barn and glass house where production takes place.” Longshadow planters are big and heavy. For shipping, the planters are packed in double walled containers, attached to a pallet, and then put on tractor trailer trucks. Upon delivery, a fork lift is used to unload and position the planters.

What I thought was iron is actually a material called “dry cast limestone” that Longshadow says “offers the texture, appearance and durability of carved limestone at a fraction of the cost.” From what I read elsewhere, “dry cast limestone” stone is a mix of Portland cement, finely ground limestone, and a little water. Then this pasty mix is packed or sprayed into molds. Finally, the molds are removed and the planters are finished by hand. Think Pringles stacked potato chips.

The planters that the Longshadows team takes from their molds are all pearly white. The planters in the botanical garden must have been given a wash that gives them a rusted iron look. According to Longshadows, all their planters are “frost-proof and suitable for all-season exterior use.” During the growing season “the thick porous walls . . . keep the roots of the plants cool and moist, allowing lush growth.”

The Longshadows website has several pictures of planters used to line the entrances and sidewalks of a posh downtown hotel. The planters at the hotel are a natural white though. Now I have a good reason to get downtown for Sunday brunch.

The Chihuly Exhibit at the botanical garden ends on New Year’s Day with night showings every weekday evening until then. We visited the Climatron this morning after our walk to have a last look at the glass indoors. The heat and high humidity in the glasshouse fogged up my camera lens as soon as I got inside and the lens stayed cloudy all the while I was inside. This Chihuly picture I title “Hazy Maggots.”

Hundreds of poinsettias line the fringes and sides of the holiday train displays at the garden. Most rarely get a passing glance by visitors who paid their admission to see trains passing through contrived countrysides, not poinsettias. The one display that does draw the wonder of kids and their parents is a border of dyed poinsettias. The sign says the bracts of the flowers were painted with “Dutch dyes” and that painted flowers like these are popular in Europe. Maybe so, but in my wonderings, I’ve spotted loads of them in Wal-Mart, Home Deport, and Lowes. Many of the ones in the big-box stores go a step further and sprinkle the bracts with silver or gold glitter.

I checked further and found that the dyes used on poinsettias come from a company in suburban New York City that makes a line of ten “Fantasy Colors” for dyeing poinsettias. The dyes are mixed with grain alcohol and then sprayed, painted, drizzled, or dripped on white or light colored poinsettia bracts. The company, Fred C. Gloeckner Company, even has an online recipe book for using “Fantasy Colors” to make poinsettias that are guaranteed to turn the stomach of a seasonal traditionalist.

Understandably, the Fred Gloeckner Company has a different view: “Fantasy colors™, along with our glitter attract attention, create excitement, and most importantly provide an opportunity to raise the price point of poinsettias to a much needed higher level. Poinsettias do not need to be a commodity anymore – it’s an opportunity to generate greater profits!” O.K., but I draw the line at the “Fantasy Confetti Effect” in Gloeckner’s recipe manual. Using ten colors on one white poinsettia goes too far.


Among the more traditional poinsettias, two varieties stood out for me: ‘Kris Krinkle’ and ‘Visions of Grandeur.’ ‘Kris Krinkle is bright red with bracts that pucker like seersucker. ‘Visions of Grandeur’ has large ivory colored bracts that look as though they had a peachy pink wash applied. Not surprisingly, both are recent introductions of the Paul Ecke Ranch, the California breeder and producer of the most of the poinsettias in the world.









clear: calm: 20ºF

We are among the half million or so people still without power after an ice storm passed through here on Thursday.  It began with rain, then changed to sleet, and finally to freezing rain.  This Saturday morning there a bit of snow on the ground but most of white comes from a crunchy layer of ice.

Without electricity to nudge our furnace on, we’ve been without heat for two days now.  With our indoor temperatures in the low 50s, we’ve come to the botanical garden (where there is still heat and light) to walk and then to linger long in the garden café over coffee and sweets.

I’ve couldn’t resist taking dozens of pictures of the ice-drenched landscape.  Sunlight and ice combine to make this a morning I’ll not soon forget.  Click here to see some of what I saw.