The improbable hero of Orczy’s adventure novel took cover behind a common roadside weed. Which side of the French Revolution (the 1789 one, we mean) are you on? In the anti-monarchical U.S., we tend to side with our fellow Revolutionaries, acknowledging that sometimes a few heads must roll in the cause of “Liberte’, Fraternite’, Egalite.’” […]
Evening primroses can open the Bible, kick off a party or alleviate PMS. ‘How can this be?’ Evening primrose, Oenothera, comes into bloom in early summer across much of the central U.S. and flowers on for weeks. As its name gives away, it’s one of those fascinating night-blooming plants favored by moths and bats. Attracting […]
Child’s play became political weaponry with a notorious attack ad from 1964. Probably the first political attack ad was painted on a cave wall somewhere in France. But the one we first remember was aired on U.S. television September 7, 1964, during Monday Night at the Movies: “One, two, free, four…” A tiny girl pulls […]
What happens when you turn cold cash into a faux-floral tribute? Giving gifts is a gift. Giving money is a contribution. So what is giving a money bouquet? In Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, and Nigeria, it’s illegal. And it has been for several years. Around Valentine’s Day official warnings amplify. A message purportedly from the […]
A painter moves past the mirrors of Surrealism to invent flowers all her own. Several months ago we came upon this work—”Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (“A Little Night Music”), from 1943 by Dorothea Tanning. Who wants to venture in–presuming to explain these tense, swooning girls, or the broken sunflower at the top of the stairs? We […]
Pity (or admire) anyone who can switch languages using the common names of flowers. Our friend Audrey Wick, author and English professor of La Grange, Texas, gave us a head-scratcher a few years ago, declaring this flower “a buttercup.” How’s that? We grew up in Kentucky; that was primrose and this was a butter cup, […]
Louisiana’s huge cypresses have been destroyed in the name of better gardens. But switching to pine straw won’t solve forest loss. “Cutting an 80-to-100-year-old cypress tree for mulch is like taking your dining room furniture and burning it for firewood.” So says John Day, Louisiana State University ecologist. And then the rug and the whole […]
Joining forces, a great map-making firm and an accomplished botanical illustrator created a wonder of the world. Are you on a journey this August? Having a staycation? Even better. No suitcase required to travel in David Rumsey’s stunning, searchable, magnifiable, historical and outright gorgeous collection of maps. Go! With delight we feature our favorite: World […]
John Lennon named his final album for a freesia, a rare cultivar he encountered in a Bermuda garden. After more than three mysterious years— childrearing? shooting junk? trying ultra-seclusion after decades of percolation through the public nervous system? – John Lennon was emerging in late 1980. He and wife Yoko Ono had produced Double Fantasy, […]
Wolfgang Laib paints with pollen in Sydney, Australia. The yellow rectangle, radiant but soft around the edges, is reminiscent of Mark Rothko’s pulsing paintings of the 1950s. But this piece is ultra contemporary, made from freshly gathered tree pollen. Wolfgang Laib’s Pollen from Pine and other works will go on exhibit today (August 11, 2005) […]