9/23/20: FABULOUS North Carolina Arboretum in Hendersonville!

Last September, Steven and I were lucky enough to tour the North Carolina Arboretum located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Southern Appalachian Mountains nine miles south of Asheville, North Carolina. They had an interesting policy that admission was free but parking was a whopping $16. Why not simply charge admission and be done with it?

We would have been excited just to tour the Arboretum in and of itself but our experience was certainly heightened knowing there was also a large collection of animals in Legos, too!

This Monarch on Milkweed had an astonishing 39,708 tiny bricks. I would have hated to have had the job of counting all those!

I read that the Arboretum's Bonsai Exhibition Garden was designed to enhance one's enjoyment of bonsai art by blending the designs of Asian tradition with the Southern Appalachian environment to create a unique experience. I hadn't realized that bonsai first appeared in China, not Japan as I had thought, over one thousand years ago to grow dwarfed, ornamentally shaped trees or shrubs in small, shallow containers. 

They were then introduced to Japan about 1200 where the art form was refined and became a symbol of prestige and displayed on special shelves for special occasions. Japan presented bonsai to the world at the Paris Exhibition in 1900. After demand for bonsai grew, the Japanese opened up nurseries and exported the trees. 

Originally inspired by religious belief, true Japanese gardens often contain an island, a bridge, a stone lantern, or even a teahouse. 

Steven and I looked at each other in amazement wondering just how are these stunning bonsai created?

Part of the answer was a plant's overall health and adaptability to bonsai culture by growing in a container and regular pruning of both the crown and roots. A good choice was the juniper for its strong trunk and abundant pruning.

Often, gardeners must reposition various parts of the plant to achieve the desired result. That was why you will find wire wrapped around a limb to hold it in the desired position until it is 'set' and will remain in place when the wire is finally removed. 

A bonsai gardener must choose which parts to keep or remove based on a mental image of the best shape possible.

I hadn't realized that work on a bonsai plant was never considered complete or done while the plant was still alive. A bonsai gardener aims to keep refining its design while promoting the living plant's excellent health.

This stream bed was intended to be dry so that water would be supplied by one's imagination. The only time it carried water is when it rains. I learned this element of suggestion and what is absent are essential elements of the bonsai experience.

Being a facts and figures person, I had often wondered when seeing other bonsai how old they were. I read here at the Arboretum that unless careful records are kept from the time a bonsai is begun from seed or cutting, the age's estimate is essentially guesswork. It was important to remember that "a bonsai need not be old in order to be good."

I certainly never imagined having a one-on-one 'relationship' with a plant but could admire that patience, persistence, and above all practice in others growing bonsai. After our tour of the exhibition, I could understand others cultivating bonsai as a form of creative expression and how these were very much living works of art.

Chinese Elm:

There was no way I could resist taking a picture of Aunt Martha's Magic Garden! I had to wonder who, pray tell, was or is Aunt Martha and why did she have a magic garden?!

This amazing 'sculpture' was only about six inches high! It was called Mount Mitchell and was comprised of dwarf white spruce among others.

I don't think this Exotic Fig would produce much in the way of edible figs.

Unlike the dry stream bed above, this water feature was designed to create the effect of a natural spring high in the mountains. One had to think of "the water emerging from the ground, trickling over the boulders, gently splashing into the pool below, before beginning a long journey to the sea."

Though Steven and I didn't have all the time we would have liked to spend in this part of the Arboretum because it was closing, I still remember it with great fondness as it set the bar for bonsai gardens in the future in my mind.

This magnificent, 12.5-ft.-tall, bronze sculpture of an Indigenous man with his arms and head raised toward the sky was called Oh Great Spirit. 

A Christmas Rosebush cascaded over the bench.

A watershed was defined as an area of land that contained a common set of streams and rivers draining into a single, larger body of water like a river, lake, or ocean. The Bent Creek Watershed was a 6,300- acre area that funneled water into the French Broad River ultimately.

Before White settlers came to the Bent Creek Watershed, the forest probably had an unbroken canopy with abundant wildlife, including wild turkeys, bears, raccoons, rabbits, and more. Burning the land to aid crop cultivation by the Cherokee and White settlers eventually led to the land's erosion and the scars still visible today.

There were two stone bridges on the Arboretum's property that were likely constructed by participants in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

I loved the shade of the bark of the Paperbark Maple tree.

Artist Sean Kenney used more than 61,000 Legos to create this Hummingbird. Kenney was the mastermind behind all the Lego creations at the Arboretum. What a genius!

Keney did an eye-popping job on the Peacock strutting his feathers. I learned then that only males are peacocks and females should be called peahens. Its tail feathers account for more than 60 percent of its total length!

I was definitely glad this oversized Corn Spider didn't jump from its perch in the European Beech tree.

After coming across our first miniature railroad garden in Columbus, Ohio earlier in the 2020 trip and being so entranced by it, I was bummed the Rocky Cove Railroad had closed already for the day.

At the end of the Grand Promenade was this pretty fountain but I don't think I've ever seen a fountain I didn't like!

Frederick Law Olmstead, 1822-1903, was considered the "Father of American Landscape Architecture.'

The Roseate Skimmer Dragonfly was one of the most widespread dragonflies that are native to the Americas from the US to Brazil. 

Did you know that research has shown you've got a longer than average life expectancy if you're a gardener? The reason is its physical activity, it reduces stress, and uses a full range of motion to keep muscles active and healthy. This grandfather and grandchild Gardeners combined for more than 46,000 Legos! From a distance, I had to look twice before realizing the grandad wasn't real as he looked so life-like!

Steven and I have been extremely fortunate to travel extensively here in the US ever since we married as teachers were always off in the summers and we hit the road each and every one. We have seen a lot of botanical gardens and arboretums in our day but never, before stopping at the North Carolina Arboretum, had we been lucky enough to see a Quilt Garden.  

As we wandered through it, I kept thinking of you, Darlene, as I imagined you would have given your eye teeth to spend some time there yourself! The garden was a perfect marriage of the Arboretum and North Carolina, a state so famous for its heritage of traditional quilt block patterns and its multi-million dollar craft industry. Even though the garden hadn't completed its transformation from summer to fall, I just focused on its beauty, not its omissions.

I hadn't known the first known example of a quilted garment was found on a carved ivory figure from Egypt's First Dynasty. The 5,000-year-old carving depicted the Pharaoh wearing a quilted robe! When the Knights of the Crusades returned to Europe from the Middle East, they brought back samples of quilted armor from their adversaries who had easily outmaneuvered the knights clad in heavy metal armor. Eventually, colonists brought quilting to America where it thrived. 

Quilting in the US was born out of necessity for warm covers and hangings over doors and windows. When the cotton gin was invented in the Industrial Age, it processed cotton more quickly and economically so fabric became affordable for the average person. Quilting expanded across the country with regional motifs.

Fiber artists in the 1970s and 1980s helped quilting be considered fine art as they used traditional and modern techniques, like painting, dyeing, and other processes. 

The Arboretum's Quilt Garden was an interpretation of a traditional quilt block pattern common to the Appalachian region. As you might imagine, there had to be a commitment to planting masses of harmonious or contrasting colored foliage and flowers to last a season. Every two years, the garden is replanted with a block pattern that changes.

The initial step to a quilt garden is choosing a quilt block such as Log Cabin, Double Wedding Ring, Bowtie, etc. The block is then drawn to scale using geometry, determining the area of each shape within the block pattern. Appropriate plants are then selected for each growing season and grown for spring, summer, and fall. Hardy plants or contrasting mulch or stone could be used in a winter quilt garden. 

The quilt garden's border:

We had unsurpassed views of the floral quilt from the observation deck that we had just ambled through. I don't think I've ever been so impressed with a single feature at any botanical garden before or since. I wish I could have used a panoramic feature on my camera to capture the entire scene before my eyes. It absolutely was a work of art.

Janina, Dennis, and Gail: Since you've also been to the Galapagos, I think you would have gotten a big kick out of seeing the Tortoise and Darwin Finch that Kenney fashioned out of Legos. I loved seeing the Lego sculptures with you later at the Denver Zoo!

We knew we'd stepped into the Heritage Garden when we saw the rough stone chimney and flagstone patio. It brought to mind the rustic cabins built by the region's early settlers.

The garden was surrounded by beds with medicinal herbs and plants once used to make practical items like brooms and baskets.

The trees' colors were definitely a-changing as we regretfully left the Arboretum that September evening for our return to Asheville for one more night. How lucky we were to have had the time to spend in some amazing gardens. I had learned so much in the Bonsai and Quilt gardens and had been utterly intrigued and captivated by both as you likely guessed by now!

Next post: We go back in time driving toward Cherokee, North Carolina, the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway last September!

Posted on July 3rd, 2021, from Albany, New York where both Steven and I had family connections years ago. After driving all day through mostly back roads from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, we luckily arrived in the state capital just in the nick of time last night to have some time touring the statehouse before it closed at 7 for the Fourth of July long weekend. I hope you and your loved ones have a fun Independence Day.