Botanical Display Cabinet

I can’t seem to help myself from bringing home plant bits from here and there whether its on a trip, out on a walk, or from my own gardens. I am in awe of the architectural shapes and designs found in nature and I want to have their beauty around me at all times of the year. It is the same with rocks, shells, and sticks. The world is full of beautiful and incredible things and I am constantly amazed by it all.

I bought this homemade display cabinet rather impulsively for $15 at the flea market a few months back. It’s meant to sit flat on a table rather than propped up as I have it now. Davin could not see its potential and wasn’t particularly excited about carrying it all the way to the car, but I persuaded him to give it a chance. I could see his point as the plexiglass front is scratched and worn from its original use as a flea market stall display (it sat flat on a table rather than upright), and the thing is awfully large and heavy. Still, I think he was eating his words once I got it set up and filled with random seedpods, leaves, and dried flowers we have collected over the years.

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Herbaria (September 14, 2012)

I took a break from posting the Herbaria recently. I did continue shooting the photos so I am resuming where I left off a few weeks back.

This week marks more tomatoes. All varieties have come in and many were already starting to wane at the time of this photo a few weeks back. It’s turning into a hustle to ensure that the remaining varieties as well as other frost tender plants make it into these photos before their time comes.

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Herbaria (September 3, 2012)

Again you are looking at last week’s photo, shot just before I took off for a road trip to teach a workshop at Margaret Roach’s garden in the Berkshires. The garden was fairly unruly and overgrown before I left, but nothing like it is right now. Total mayhem! I’m not exaggerating. Even the dog doesn’t know what to make of the obstacle course out back.

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Herbaria (August 31, 2012)

The hot peppers are in their prime, the late season tomatoes are ripening faster than I can use them, the sun is setting earlier in the evening (no more gardening until 10pm) and even the tomatillos are not far now. All of the hallmarks of the September garden have arrived. I am trying my best this year to enjoy it as-is without fretting about summer’s end.

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Herbaria (August 22, 2012)

This week (now catching up on last week) I’ve focussed on Zonal Geraniums (Pelargonium x hortorum). Zonals are the colorfully patterned, but stinky cousins of the wonderfully scented pelargoniums aka Scented Geraniums. I’m a scented geranium fan and always grow several each year (I will feature those soon), but I have never been into the zonals, primarily because I do not enjoy their musky odor. They remind me of the horrible pom-pom geraniums that my primary school sold as a fundraiser each year. As a result, the neighbourhood, which was not known for its gardens was pretty much littered with them. In fact, they were one of perhaps half a dozen plants that were grown with intention around our subdivision, and the plant I most closely associated with gardening until I was old enough to experience something more. This year my friend Barry gifted me with several cuttings and it is through his eyes that I have come to appreciate them for what they are rather than the memories they evoke.

Zonal geraniums, named after the patch or “zone” of colour that marks their leaves, are all about the foliage. Until recently I’ve been diligently snipping off their flowers, but decided to let them go for these photos.

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