A Memorable 1st Visit to the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory (Ft. Wayne, IN)

The weeping spruce trees on the east side of
the conservatory always look like they're
celebrating something.

Each winter, just as the gray, cold days start to wear on me, I start wanting to pay our local botanical conservatory in Ft. Wayne, Ind., a visit. For many of the past years, we made it a family affair, inviting our girls and their spouses to join us for a couple of hours of lush, tropical goodness. It's a way to spend some family time and forget about the weather.

About a month ago, we joined younger daughter Jenna and oldest grandchild Hannah at the conservatory for a bit of Christmas cheer and hopefully some nice photos of Hannah for their Christmas card.

The theme is always different each year, but always full of beautiful flowers and unique decorations. Poinsettias are usually part of the display and this year was no different. There were lots and lots of poinsettias...

Tree branches painted gold add a bit of glitz to this holiday display.

The waterfall in the rainforest is a popular photo spot.

Winter? Where?

Paperwhites were dotted throughout a sea of blood red poinsettias.

There are always orchids in bloom, no matter what the season.

1

Mini ruffled poinsettias decorate this holiday "cake."

Several lush poinsettia standards were placed here and there throughout the display.

Santa was clearly having fun this afternoon as kids waited in a long line to see him.

There were live reindeer outside for the kids to see and be photographed with. I'd never seen a real reindeer before and I was surprised at how small they are. I had expected something along the lines of a moose in size.

Hannah wasn't too sure about the reindeer, but I was impressed with their pedicures.

The conservatory was a busy place and as Hannah is one of those people who gathers energy from those around her, her mommy wasn't too pleased with the photographs she took (or attempted to take) while we were there. Jenna pretty much gave up on the idea, but I took a few photos of my own and I think they turned out just perfect. Two-year-olds always take the best holiday photos, no matter what. :-)

Be a joiner!

One of the many benefits of being a member of the American Horticultural Society is their Reciprocal Admissions Program. Regular admission to the conservatory is $5, but I can go as often as I want at no charge, thanks to the AHS. If you haven't become a member, you really should, because it's one of the best deals out there for gardeners.

For just $35 a year, you get free admission to over 300 public gardens and arboreta in North America, discounted or free admission to select flower and garden shows, a subscription to The American Gardener magazine (excellent!), and can participate in their seed sharing program.

Upcoming exhibit

Today was the last day to see the "High Style Holidays" exhibit, but this week, the conservatory will be installing a new one featuring internationally known artist Sakaya Ganz. "Changing Tides" will run from January 10th through April 5th and will feature an imaginative seascape using recycled materials.

The Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory is located in downtown Ft. Wayne (Ind.) at 1100 South Calhoun Street.

Hours
Tuesday-Saturday 10 am to 5 pm
Thursday 10:00 am to 8:00 pm
Sunday 12 Noon to 4 pm
Closed Mondays, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day
Discount Admission with Bagel Station Café Purchase
Receive $1 off Conservatory admission with the same-day purchase from the Bagel Station café (minimum $5 purchase)
Show your café receipt at the admissions desk to receive your discount.
 
Admission Rates 
$5 Adults
$3 Children (ages 3-17)
Free ~ Children age 2 & under
Members free 

A Visit With Debra Lee Baldwin (and a giveaway!)

In March of 2012, I had the good fortune of being able to travel to the west coast to attend Spring Trials, courtesy of Proven Winners. It was my first trip to California and there were many things that made it memorable.

Debra and her sweet Lily in her garden in 2012.

One of the highlights of the trip was the opportunity to see Debra Lee Baldwin, whom I call "Queen of the Succulents."

Debra was one of our mentors when Jenny and I wrote our book, Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants. As a veteran author, she provided all kinds of encouragement and challenged us with ideas, all of which proved valuable to us as first-time authors. (Thank you, Debra!)

While I was at the Proven Winners location near Bonsall, Debra stopped by to see their plants and extended an invitation to me to come and visit her garden on my way back to the airport to return home. The chance to see Debra in her garden was too good to pass up.

If you're a fan of succulents at all, I probably don't need to tell you who Debra is, but just in case you haven't heard of her, she's the author of three bestselling books on the subject: Designing With Succulents,  Succulent Container Gardens, and Succulents Simplified. Even if you never grew a single succulent (unthinkable!), these books are full of beautiful images making them enjoyable just to look through, but they are also jam-packed with ideas and information on growing this unique group of plants.

Debra gardens on a rather steep hillside in her neighborhood in Escondido and because of the way she has paths crisscrossing in tiers, you can almost imagine that you're exploring a trail far away from the city. As with most gardens, Debra's is in a constant state of change and she's told me that hers doesn't look like this anymore, but I can bet that it's just as beautiful now as it was in 2012.

I pretty much drool over agaves, large and small, but this one was really LARGE.
It was taller than me.

Imagine stepping out your front door and having to look at this. Such a travesty.

Doesn't this just make you want to hop, skip and jump to see what's at the other end?

I love the pottery and the aloes.

I'll take my morning tea right here, please.

Debra has this rainbow of succulents potted up on her balcony. Yummy!

Not only does Debra walk the walk as a succulent expert, she's an artist too. She creates beautiful watercolors of the succulents she grows. She sent me a calendar for 2015 that features a dozen gorgeous images of her paintings.

Image from Debra Lee Baldwin

I've done one watercolor in my life and that was several years ago. I found it to be a daunting task, but when Debra did a blog post explaining her process of painting watercolors of her succulents, she made it sound much easier than I remembered. I might just try again, this time painting some of the flowers from my garden.

Debra has offered to send one of her 2015 Succulent Watercolors Calendars to one lucky reader! Just imagine getting to display this artwork on your wall all year long. All you need to do is this:

1. Leave a comment to this blog post, telling me which month's painting from the calendar is your favorite (mine's November - I think)

AND

2. Fill out the Rafflecopter form with your contact information. I will be using Rafflecopter to pick a random winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway will end at midnight EST on Friday night, January 9, 2015, and all entries must be received by that time. A random winner will be chosen and the winner will be notified by email.

If you can't wait to see if you're the winner, you can purchase one of Debra's calendars here. Debra blogs at Gardening Gone Wild and on her own website, which has a wealth of information for succulent lovers.

From Debra Lee Baldwin's garden, 2012

___________________________
I was given a complimentary calendar from Debra as well as being able to offer one for a giveaway. All thoughts expressed here are my own.

Elizabeth and Her German Garden

This is a story about a book. As you're reading this, you're probably going to think to yourself, "Well, that's rather historical, how nice," and then your attention might wane unless you're interested in that sort of thing. But this is not going to end like you might think...

Thanksgiving weekend, my husband and I spent three days watching the first four seasons of Downton Abbey since we were both too sick to do much of anything else. We're both DA addicts and we thought we'd just start from the beginning and watch them all again in preparation for Season 5, which begins here in the U.S. on January 4, 2015.

It's amazing how much you forget and even more amazing the things you didn't notice the first time around. For example, there was one little detail that I didn't remember in the scene where Mr. Molesley brought a book for Anna to read, in the hopes that he could spend more time with her, discussing it.

While I did remember the scene, I did not previously take note of the title of the book - Elizabeth and Her German Garden.

This time it caught my attention and as a collector of old gardening books, I immediately took to the internet in search of it.  It didn't take me long to find an early copy, located in England, where it was first published by MacMillan & Co. in September of 1898. The author is Elizabeth von Arnim, but it was published anonymously and nowhere in the book does it state who the author is.

This particular copy - First edition, 4th reprint, December 1899 - has a bookplate affixed to the front paste down, indicating that it once belonged to Lady Anne Dick-Lauder.

Now that sent me off on a search to see just who this Lady Anne was.

Wikipedia states:

Sir John [Dick-Lauder] married at St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh [Scotland], on 22 May 1845, Lady Anne (1820–1919), daughter of North Hamilton Dalrymple, 9th Earl of Stair. 

Well, that's interesting. I now own a book that belonged to a proper lady who was an aristocrat with maids and everything. Just like the Crawleys.

But the author of the book itself has a storied past that bears mentioning. Born in 1866 in Australia and raised in England, her given name was Mary Annette Beauchamp. First married to a German Count, she went to Germany to live with him, where she wrote this book.

Elizabeth von Arnim

She later lived in England and Switzerland and married the brother of Bertrand Russell, during which marriage she was known as Countess Russell. Following the death of her first husband, she also became a mistress of H.G. Wells. She fl19ed England at the start of World War II to America, where she died in South Carolina in 1941 from complications of influenza.

Elizabeth and Her German Garden was her first book and it was an enormous success and somewhat controversial, going through several printings in its first year alone. Though the original book had no illustrations, a deluxe illustrated edition was published in 1900. Two of Elizabeth's later books were made into successful movies, one of which starred Bette Davis. The text of this book is available online via Project Gutenberg.

A recurrent theme in Elizabeth's books is that she took great refuge in her gardens, much like those of us who garden today do, even if we don't lead such turbulent lives like that of our dear Elizabeth.

If you've ever read books from an earlier time period such as this (Victorian/Edwardian eras), you know that the English language has evolved with regard to both formal and informal speaking and comprehension can be a little tricky sometimes. Romie and I had a conversation about this as I was looking through Elizabeth and Her German Garden:

Me:  Listen to this...

I am always happy (out of doors be it understood, for indoors there are servants and furniture) but in quite different ways, and my spring happiness bears no resemblance to my summer or autumn happiness, though it is not more intense, and there were days last winter when I danced for sheer joy out in my frost-bound garden, in spite of my years and children. But I did it behind a bush, having a due regard for the decencies. 

Romie:  Yes?
Me: What do you think she's saying?
Romie:  She went potty behind a bush.

 ____________________________________

While writing this blog post, I discovered these articles, which have more information on Elizabeth von Arnim and her recent connection with Downton Abbey:

• Downton Abbey: Elizabeth von Arnim Returns to Life   
• Elizabeth von Arnim: The forgotten feminist who’s flowering again