Landscapes of George Tanaka

George Tanaka (1912-1982), born in Vancouver to Japanese parents, was largely self-taught.  He apprenticed with a Nisei gardener, and then studied architecture and landscape architecture on his own, reading books and periodicals in the public library, and eventually developing a unique blend of his oriental heritage with the raw naturalism of the Canadian landscape. In a speech to students and faculty of Humber College, Toronto in 1981, Tanaka said: "the materials of Nature - the rocks, the stones, the trees, the plants, the water and the earth itself - are used as the 'Design-Tools' by which the landscape-forms take shape. The use of Tension in design as between diverse elements: the hard element against the soft; the rugged rock against the flowing curve of a pathway, for example, gives the design a spirit of tension and an aesthetic quality. Whatever the qualification of the design problem, the results are to find a happy Balance and Harmony in all of the elements. Nothing is left to casual chance or to irresponsible placement."

"All of the hopes and dreams, and even the fears, that played a part in my total experience, has influenced me."

from the special collections at the University of Guelph; repository of the archives of Canadian landscape architects.

Garden History Quote of the Week - Georgia O'Keefe on Flowers

"Everyone has many associations with a flower--the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower--lean forward to smell it--maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking--or give it to someone to please them. Still--in a way--nobody sees a flower--really--it is so small--we haven't time--and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small.

So I said to myself--I'll paint what I see--what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it--I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers."

Patrick Dougherty's Stickworks

Landscape artist Patrick Dougherty has a new photographic catalogue of his extraordinary creations, available on his website. I was going to put this on my Christmas list, but I just couldn't wait so I've already ordered it...

One of his latest installations is the "Summer Palace", above, at the Morris Aboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. They blogged the process of its creation, documenting the growth of the 25 foot high structure from thousands of sticks.

"Dougherty arrives at the site of each new installation with no preconceptions as to what he will create. Instead, using locally gathered natural materials, he draws inspiration from the surrounding environment to design a large-scale structure that when completed, may remind visitors of a nest, cocoon or even a fairy tale dwelling. Each of his sculptures is designed and executed without the use of nails or other supportive hardware, and the result is a creation that may resemble something artful that was shaped by a powerful wind that swept across the landscape."

Garden History Image of the Week

found at the blog takebigbites

Garden History Image of the Week: Jardin Botanico, Asuncion, Paraguay

Found while flea-marketing with my sister...this c. 1920s image of the rose garden at the Botanical garden of Asuncion. On the back it reads, "This is the real beauty spot of Paraguay. Our schoolchildren often go here for pictures. The garden is in the care of a German scientist."

According to a biography at the website of the Ibero-American Institute, Dr. C. Fiebrig (1869-1951) was offered two botanical jobs in 1910, "a proposal to work in the German Colonial Office for Eastern Africa and the offer of a chair in Paraguay at the National College and School of Medicine. Fiebrig, who already lived since 1907 in San Bernardino, Paraguay, decided to accept the post offered him the Paraguayan government [because] this offer also included the proposal of then President, Dr. Manuel Franco, to create a botanical garden."

Created from over 600 ha of the former estate of dictator Francisco Solano Lopez on the outskirts of Asuncion , the garden opened in 1914 and Fiebrig remained its director until xenophobic fears forced him out of the country in 1936. "The Botanical Garden not only had a port near the Paraná River, but also had its own train station with a network of 60 km of well maintained roads and a large swimming pool. Gradually Fiebrig also created a zoo, a herbarium, a Botanical Museum, and finally, the Cotton Institute. The latter contributed essentially to finance the entire complex."

45 plant species and 18 animal species bear the eponym 'fiebrigii' in honor of the botanist, but his masterwork, a 2700-page manuscript on the botanical ecology of the South American continent, languishes unpublished in his native Germany, at Berlin's Ibero-American Institute. You can still see his garden, though.

(above is the most recognizable of the species that bear his name, the cactus Rebutia fiebrigii)