More SJG blogs to amuse you.... Bloom and Spots

by aleks

SJG 6/9/11 • Rhododendron calendulaceum, Flame azalea;
close-up, Area  V

• SJG Bloom: Our Plant Committee (7 people to replace ONE Kathleen Smith) managed to produce 2010 and 2011 edition of 'Plants of the Japanese Garden' (for sale or loan at the Garden gate), and we were able to update the booklet's format by putting it into excel spreadsheet - so now you can look the plant up specifically by the area, or by alphabetical order (it lists all the areas the plant grows + its origin); the Japanese plant name list is also coming - the working version is already available at the gate.

One of the problems we encountered was inability to tell which rhododendron was which: we picked up Kathleen's project in fall and worked on it through winter, where all of them were fairly dormant - and we have MANY rhodies in our Garden!

This spring, when the rhodies  started to bloom we rushed to the Garden to see what blooms and how.  It's an exciting, often investigative work:  some plants are blooming, some not, some were moved, some behave erratically - we carry around Kathleen's four thick binders on rhododendrons  to compare what we found to her pics.  Frankly, the whole project was a bit much for me: I tended to forget what we identified  the moment I wrote it down.  So, I started to bring camera to help me remember, and while organizing the data I accidentally created SJG Bloom blog...  It's all there in the order the blooms appeared in the garden + pics of some interesting leaves, as well.

SJG 6/4/11 • Wisteria in 6:30 pm light

• SJG Spots blog is my reaction to the 'Now and Then' exhibition  I went to see at MOHAI with Nat S. and Keiko; it featured photographs by Paul Dorpat, and the part I found especially fascinating was his photographing over and over the same spots on his Walingford walks - watching what got into frame: different lights, seasons, people, cats or furniture was quite mesmerizing and thought provoking on the passage of time.. I'm no Dorpat, not even an amateur photographer, just a point-and-shoot person who owns a small portable camera, but thought recording same spots in the SJG would be an interesting experiment. And it IS - see for yourself...

Both of the blogs will be permanently pinned on the left side of this blog, under 'Garden Events'...

• Myrna already emailed you that The Japanese Garden Advisory Council (JGAC) commissioned a new web site for the Garden, here it is again (I'll put it into LINKS page, as well):
http://www.theseattlejapanesegarden.com/

• One of our co-bloggers, Keiko, is leaving for Japan June 18th.  I asked why she is going, as she just went there last fall. Her sweet answer: 'I want to see the face of my mother'. Happy travels Keiko!  Write to us from Japan, if you can.