Midsummer Visit from Puck

"Midsummer Visit from Puck" was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog.


Until the solstice on June 20th the 'Cupani' sweet peas managed to open new flowers each day, but they turned to straw over the weekend. I pulled them up today and looked for seeds but found only three small undeveloped pods on the vines - did the 'Cupani' use all its strength to bloom instead rather than make seeds?

Once the sweet peas were gone light fell on a few seedlings from last year's Blue Pea Vine, Clitoria ternatea, also known as Blue Butterfly Pea. Their growth was so rampant last year that the obelisk could barely hold them so this late start may work better. There should be a Moon Vine, Ipomoea alba, on the obelisk, too - I don't see any sprouts so am soaking a few saved seeds.

The very last flower of Hemerocallis 'Prairie Blue Eyes' opened yesterday for Midsummer's Eve. This daylily is pretty tough, opening every one of the flowers on the scapes as the blooms grew progressively smaller through the days of relentless heat.


I thought about celebrating Midsummer's Eve - but if any fairies were dumb enough to stay in Austin this summer they're lying low now! Squirrels disturbed some of the work done by the Fairy Garden consultant last spring, but until a couple of weeks ago the little pool was in place. I'm only showing you a few feathers, but one morning there were wings on the lawn of the secret garden - ripped off and left by one of the many cats whose owners let them roam the neighborhood.Finding bird wings was bad enough - what if it had been a pair of ripped-off fairy wings, instead? So I closed the pool by turning it upside down... it can still shelter a fairy from a hailstorm, or allow a toads to hide underneath.Frances of Faire Garden is a sort of fairy garden expert, who stocks her garden with plants fairies like - ferns and mossy beds and elfin thyme. Although the pink false indigo is alive, the ferns are drying up here, the sparrows keep the thyme clipped short and moss dislikes hot, dry alkaline soil. I think most fairies have moved to Tennessee or Washington State or Maryland, but it seems that the mischievous Puck has less fear of heat and drought.



Since we moved here nearly four years ago the trees behind our back fenceline grew unmolested, leafing out each spring and casting dappled shade. In response I've chosen plants that were suitable for shade and have enjoyed the illusion of privacy provided by those leaves, especially admiring the saucer magnolia which draped down on my side of the fence, masking the bulk of the looming house on the other side, with its windows and balcony all seemingly designed to look into our yard.


Who else but Puck could have been at work yesterday, whispering into my neighbor's ear? Why else would anyone employ a tree service to raise the canopy of the trees on June 23rd with the temperatures rising to our daily 100 degrees?

From our back door and from the breakfast room windows we now see ugly bare trunks and that looming stone blockhouse instead of leaves. Since their house is on a slope the pruning allows them a much better view into our garden and windows. It looks much worse than in the photo; I'm trying to respect their privacy.



We on small lots are always at the mercy of what happens next door and this year's storms have changed many of your gardens. MSS at Zanthan is dealing with sun on shade lovers since a neighbor's tree fell in a storm, Garden Girl Linda suddenly lost her private spaces, Zoey will soon have a view of a huge garage, and back in fall 2006 a gigantic house was built behind Ki. Several of the Divas of the Dirt have seen shade gardens suddenly exposed to sun when trees were removed on the other side of the fence and then had to scramble to redesign their gardens.


Now it's my turn to try to see a pruning as an opportunity instead of a minor disaster. I repotted the larger plumeria and stood its pot in the border - maybe it can cast enough shade to keep the plants below from dying from the sudden increase in light. I also rearranged the pots on the 'growing on' table so the most sun tolerant can act as parasols for others - and will need to monitor them closely. I will fertilize and water my young evergreens while urging them to grow taller than the fence and I'm already planning what will be planted in late fall.

Luckily the area where the 'San Antonio Rose' hippeastrum grows was unaffected by the pruning and it still has dappled shade.

Yesterday was a very unsettling day. It was good to get a few tomatoes big enough to slice for sandwiches. It was bad to lose our privacy. But it was even worse to lose George Carlin. That news put the tree trimming into perspective.

My favorite routine was his comparison of baseball and football.



There are many versions of this classic comedic comparison, including one he used for the very first Saturday Night Live show, but this one was on YouTube.


Thank you, dear readers, for letting me vent about my unhappy Midsummer's Eve experience! Now if you'd like to see someone properly celebrate this ancient festival, go over to Faire Garden where Frances describes an evening filled with whimsy and glitter.

"Midsummer Visit from Puck" was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose blog.

Blue and Red and Yellow

It's primary colors today at Circus~Cercis - another three ring show:

* * *

First look toward the Blue Ring to view the successful finish of the Blue Planet Run.

Mary's husband Paul followed the team across much of the US portion of the run - he took this photo of Mary and her brother Jay at the completion of the Elmira run, and Mary's mom sent it to me for this blog. The adventures of the team as they traveled the globe were quite wonderful to read about - even with the injuries, losses of luggage and clothing and exhaustion.

To see Mary cross the finish line in NYC go to the Blue Planet Website.

If you want to make a donation to help the cause of clean water, this link will take you to the right page. Congratulations to the entire team and their families!

* * *

In ring two we present the oxblood lilies:


The Rhodophiala bifidia are blooming! They're also called School House Lilies.



Most of my clumps of school house lilies were shared by MSS of Zanthan Gardens. Since hers were in bloom a good 10 days before mine appeared, I'm not only delighted but relieved to see them! Here's a Zanthan Gardens profile of these lovely flowers. Julie at the Human Flower Project has posted an article on them by Jill Nokes.

* * *

In ring three are some showgirls of September, all wearing yellow:


The hanging bells of yellow brugmansia - Angel's Trumpet wear a train of Blue Plumbago.

Our yellow 'Julia Child' rose still sends up a flower or two every couple of days.

The yellow Plumeria/Frangipani has opened in pale gleaming yellow - not as flashy, but more fragrant than the pinky-red plumeria.

As to refreshment - no lemonade yet at Circus~Cercis, but a couple of the Meyer's Lemons are turning yellow.

Three More Movies and A Blue Planet Update

Yes, we've once again managed to see three more movies in a real theater, not on cable or DVD. What can I say? It's hot and buggy, the wonderful Austin Film Society treated us to a couple of previews, and I can't resist Seth Rogen's voice.

As stated a few weeks ago, I'm no critic - just a movie fan who likes to talk about them. My children are adults so I no longer worry about ratings. Foreign films, bad language, interesting sex, nudity, inhaling, subtitles and endless conversations won't keep me from seeing a film that looks good, but excessive violence and lame dialogue might do it.

KNOCKED UP

A few years ago The 40 Year Old Virgin was pretty raunchy, and pretty funny, had lots of interesting things going on around the edges, yet was somehow sweet and life-affirming. The movie was directed by Judd Apatow and it featured Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell and a charismatic young guy named Seth Rogen. Once I read that Knocked Up was also directed by Judd Apatow and starred Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd, I wanted to see it. So we did. It was raunchy, way too full of potheads, very funny, had lots of interesting things going on around the edges, and it was ultimately sweet and life-affirming. When the DVD comes out I'll probably see it again.

2 DAYS IN PARIS

Movie number two was 2 Days in Paris - written and directed by Julie Delpy. I couldn't find downloadable wallpaper for 2 Days in Paris, so the poster has Julie with Ethan Hawke in the Richard Linklater film Before Sunrise. She and Ethan were also in Linklater's Before Sunset, and in his Waking Life - did you see any of these?

Delpy has made a very entertaining movie about the relationship between a quirky Parisian-to-New York woman, played by herself, and a neurotic American man played by Adam Goldberg. It's been interesting to watch him evolve from one of Linklater's scruffy Dazed and Confused high school kids into a lead actor in this movie.

Julie Delpy's movie parents are played by her very real parents, who are actors in France but have different occupations here. The humor comes from the conversations, the interplay of personalities, stereotypes both French and American, the language problems and the collision of American standards with Continental attitudes, in both sex and cuisine. There is artistic nudity, and given a French woman at the helm, the nudity deals less with the female body than with the male. There are memorable scenes in taxis and train stations and markets.

SELF MEDICATED

The Austin Film Society hosted movie number three, which opens tomorrow. Self Medicated has won a score of film festival awards in the last year, but independent films can win prizes without ever landing a spot on a marqee. It's having a limited run in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Phoenix, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Denver, San Diego, San Francisco and Indianapolis.

From the title you can guess we're going into addiction territory - set this time in Las Vegas with trips to an adolescent substance abuse hospital. The story is intense and emotional with a surprising amount of humor stirred in. The lead character reminds me a little of Clint Eastwood back when he was Rowdy Yates- those eyes, those cheekbones, athleticism, an impression of intelligence and a quality of stillness in the acting. Like Clint Eastwood the beauty has brains - twenty-something Monty Lapica not only stars in the film but is also the writer and director. Diane Venora plays his pill-popping mother and you'll probably recognize others in the excellent supporting cast.

Philo thought the cinematography by Denis Maloney was outstanding and I found Anthony Marinelli's score quite compelling. There were some parts of the story that strained belief, but the movie is an impressive debut which deserves to be seen by a larger audience. I'd like to thank the Austin Film Society for letting us see it.

BLUE PLANET RUN ~ ALMOST DONE

While we've been watching fine movies in a cool theater, Mary Chervenak and her clean water team have almost completed their circuit of the globe. I wrote about Mary and the Blue Planet Run at the beginning of July. Since then Mary has run across Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, and Japan, and traversed the width of the US to New York State. Mary's parents live in the Corning area so she brought the team there for an overnight stay. They're now heading in the direction of Washington DC, where there will be some kind of public event on the 31st. Here's a link to some photos taken earlier this week.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and if you see any movies, let me know!

INSIDE: Three Movies, 27 Links

Once in a while I like to write about movies - not as a critic - just as a person who dearly loves them. Somehow we've managed to see three current movies so I'll ignore the borders until Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the 15th, and take you where the lights are dim and the scents aren't of gingers and amarcrinums, but of popcorn and fake butter.

As members of the Austin Film Society Philo & I occasionally get to see movies before they're released. A couple of weeks ago we saw Stardust, which opened on Friday. The trailers made me think of old favorites like Time Bandits , Willow, and The Princess Bride, where the tongue is held firmly in cheek as the hero wields his weapon. Stardust did resemble those movies, but with modern computer effects and sensibilities reflecting changing social attitudes.

I liked how the movie looked on the screen, large and romantic with some lovely sweeping views. Claire Danes and Charlie Cox play the hero and heroine, but with Robert De Niro out-Depping Johnny, and Michelle Pfeffer shedding her leading-lady skin to emerge as a wickedly funny villainess, the young actors have to fight for leading status. This is not a great movie, but I think it's a good one - and it was lots of fun to see it with a summertime audience in an airconditioned theater - I even got the souvenir poster above to bring home.

When the Austin Film Society sent a notice for a screening of Werner Hertzog's new movie, Rescue Dawn, I told Philo about it so he could act fast and snag a pair of tickets. Philo really liked the 1997 documentary Little Deiter Wants To Fly, about Dieter Dengler's experience as a prisoner and eventual escapee in Laos during the Vietnam War. My husband wanted to see the new fictionalized version but was surprised to hear that I did. It kind of surprised me, too - but I'd heard about the documentary from Philo, heard interviews about both movies with Terry Gross on NPR and most compelling of all - it starred Christian Bale and Steve Zahn. That's one reason I can't be a movie critic - I like actors way too much to be impartial.

Philo noticed big differences between Little Dieter Wants to Fly and Rescue Dawn. In the documentary, Dieter goes back to Laos, speaking of his adventures in a very matter-of-fact way while meeting many people who helped him. Christian Bale is more of a superhero in the film, which was very intense and dramatic and gripping. I liked it a lot, was completely blown away by Steve Zahn's performance and was surprised at how much dry humor threaded through the story. There are reports that relatives of other men who were in that camp are angry that Hertzog used the prisoners' real names while fictionalizing their personalities and changing events. That part does bother me - why didn't he just give them different names? It also surprised me when some glossy scenes that seemed unreal turned out to be factual, while other, quite believable scenes were fabricated.

Is there any way to watch a movie set in a tropical jungle without past images coming to mind? I guess after decades of watching actors push through greenery in the rainy season, those visions are embedded on my cortex - I saw flashes of The Deer Hunter, The Emerald Forest, The African Queen, Anaconda, Hertzog's own Fitzcarraldo, the documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo called Burden of Dreams and The Vertical Ray of the Sun. I couldn't forget other prisoner of war movies like Stalag 17 , The Great Escape, and Bridge On The River Kwai. A few scenes echoed such unlikely movies as South Pacific, The Sound of Music and Camille!

I don't, however, think this means Hertzog was derivitave - I think it means that I've been watching movies for a long, long time!

My fast work in getting tickets for Rescue Dawn gave me trading points when choosing the next movie to see - I'll bet this kind of bargaining is common! We'd watched The Good Shepherd on DVD a few days after the Hertzog movie. While I liked The Good Shepherd, it was yet another story that involved interrogation and torture. I demanded a movie with some fluff, some songs, some Johnny Travolta in a dress!

Some people who loved the original Hairspray are ready to hate this new musical version - but by thinking of it as a completely separate movie I thought it was lots of fun. All the versions use music to celebrate individuality, acceptance of body size, interracial romance and the vanquishing of snobs, but things have changed in the nearly twenty years since Edna was played by the outrageous transvestite Divine followed by Broadway's Harvey Fierstein. With so many actors gay & straight vying to don that outsize bra, playing Edna in Hairspray may become the pop equivalent of the celebrity guest role of Mother Ginger in the Nutcracker. Here's a link to a site that compares the three versions.

While watching John Travolta in the new Hairspray, I was struck by how natural it seemed to have him play the mother, and realized that I've been watching him for over 30 years - not just in movies or TV but in interviews and on talk shows where he frequently shows the nurturing side of his personality. His Edna seems genuinely maternal and what fun it is to watch Travolta make Edna dance - both on her own, and with Christopher Walken as Edna's husband Wilbur.

I liked the energetic young Nikki Blonsky as Tracy, and was glad to see Queen Latifa get some time to shine as Motormouth Maybelle. Jerry Stiller played Wilbur in 1988, but shows up here as the proprietor of a plus-sized clothing store. Maybe you know the other young stars like Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, and Amanda Bynes - they were new to me although I'd seen Brittany Snow before.

The actor playing TV show host Corny Collins is James Marsden - known for the X-men movies. I'm keeping my eye on him in future. Allison Janney, Paul Dooley and Ricki Lake, the original Tracy Turnblad, show up in small rolls. And circling back to Stardust - Michelle Pfeiffer has a lot of fun playing another villainess - and gets to sing and dance this time.

Next time I promise to show up with flowers.

Carolus and the Clerk

This photo was taken in 1988, at the Chicago Botanical Garden in Glencoe. I haven't been there in some time, and don't know how it looks today, but back then my younger children loved the intricate details and large three-dimensional quality of this portrait of Carolus Linnaeus. On every visit, and there were many, we walked around it, trying to identify the individual leaves and flowers that were sculpted and blended together to form his image. Today, the 300th birth anniversary of Linnaeus is being celebrated not only in Sweden, but in the hearts of gardeners and scientists all over the world.

This day is also the birthday of a modern gardener, the wonderful, intricate and three-dimensional Hank the County Clerk - if you have a chance to read some of his essays on Linnaeus [make that essays that use Linnaeus as the jumping-off point for many thoughts!] you will be amazed. Here's a link to Linnaeus, Son of No Man.

Happy Birthday, Hank... and Carolus, we do not forget you.

Reasons to Enjoy Blogging

A couple of days ago Sissy tagged me to write about why I enjoy blogging. I thought about the question as I wandered around, enjoying spring in the garden.

In the last post I pointed out the iris from Ellen in the side garden… the ones I hoped would bloom purple-violet in color. Once the buds showed color, I knew this was the spring for purple iris!

This shade is probably too far toward the violet side of the spectrum to thrill Hank, the Lake County Clerk – I think he wants a little more red in the color, but it looks good to me.

Several crepe myrtle saplings and a few nandinas grew on the back garage wall when we moved here, but we soon banished them, and smothered under the crepe myrtles we found a spindly rose. I gave the rose a chance - cut it back, watered it and Philo made it a trellis. This unnamed pink climber throws ridiculously tall canes 12-feet into the air every spring, makes one big splash of blooms in April, and is severely cut back again after the flowers fade. Along the back fence our neighbors have a gloriously full hedge of Southern Mock Orange. Some of the suckers sneaked under the fence, making smaller versions of the big shrubs on our side, so now we have Southern Mock Orange, too.

These three plants are in full bloom now, but they’re in different parts of the yard, and it’s impossible to look at more than one at a time. Out came the floral shears and now the three kinds of flowers form a more exciting composition by being together.

This kind of combination is a reason why I like blogging. It can be very exciting when each of us, blooming in our different corners of the world, has found a place to get together – a place where our talents, personalities and ideas can play off each other, and where they can be seen close up, not at a distance.

I loved reading blogs for a few years, then graduated to commenting on them. Once I started the Transplantable Rose it turned out to be more fun than expected, especially getting to know the other bloggers. Some of us have developed relationships with each other, and we’ve gradually revealed ourselves as time has passed. People are so complex, and have such unexpected things to tell and to teach, that things never get boring. I like surprises, both in blogging and in gardening. That’s why I tucked this small clematis, survivor of the deck at our last house, in at the base of the Lady Banks rose. Surprise!
I could say that I enjoy blogging because I like to write, or take photos, or enjoy learning more about other gardens, and say that it’s been fun to meet other bloggers in real life. These things are all true, but here’s a reason why I think blogging is not only enjoyable but magical:

Although we have no trouble talking, whining, discussing, joking, arguing, laughing, teasing and seeing the value of each other’s opinion in the blog world, this might never happen in the ordinary world. We’re sequestered in our separate circles – at work, in organizations, with family & friends, at children’s soccer games, in clubs, or on vacations. You might zip past my house on a bike while Philo and I would be inside the gate, working on a garden project. I might wave hello if we were in front, and you might wave back, and say hello, too, and that would be it.
But here, through the magical Blogosphere, from all over the world, women & men, of every lifestyle and orientation, old & young, with or without kids, with or without pets, with or without money, or health, or beauty, or physical strength or status - here is a place where disparate people can have genuine conversations.

It is a busy time of year, and I'm not sure who has time to read, let alone write, but if Mary in North Carolina, Gary in Houston and La Gringa in Honduras would like to answer, consider yourself tagged.

Felder Rushing at Florarama

The answer to all of the questions at the end of the last post is Yes! I did get to hear Felder Rushing speak in person. Philo & I did get to Florarama [AKA Zilker Garden Festival]. I bought the two replacement Duranta plants, and also found another Barleria-Philippine violet, a Pigeonberry, a Denver Gold columbine, a Dwarf myrtle, a Bletilla-ground orchid, another hot pepper for Philo, raffle tickets to benefit Zilker Park, and bought Felder Rushing’s book Tough Plants For Southern Gardens, seen above with my well-read copy of Passalong Plants, which I've scribbled in, stuffed with notes and filled with post-its.

You know, that passalong book has been in my possession since the middle nineties. It had me craving Crinum lilies and wanting Banana Shrubs/Michelias when I lived in Zone 5-Northern Illinois. I’ve read and reread it, and made lists of plants I’ve been given and plants that I've given away from three different gardens.

When Felder Rushing walked up to the podium and started talking it was like hearing an old friend – a very wise and funny friend. He talked of left-brain horticulture and right-brain gardening. He talked about his ancestors and his descendents, about plant societies and rules, bottle trees like Pam’s, using plants that want to grow where you live, told how to use plants in combinations, and then he shared the his “Gardeners’ Bill of Rights”, which was quite empowering! He introduced his radio partner, Dirt, who spent decades as a chef, but is now a radio gardener with very unusual advice, a mellow voice and very interesting stories.

Can you imagine how glad I was that we were in that audience?

Apparently with age comes boldness - because after the talk I not only asked Felder Rushing to sign my book, but mentioned that the Garden Bloggers' Book Club had chosen Passalong Plants as the next selection. I even gave him one of the little business cards Philo made for me with the girl-in-the-hat icon and my blog address.

This was my second burst of courage. Earlier in the day, I approached John Dromgoole [John is the garden guru I linked to in The Gardener’s Year post] and told him that there were a bunch of Austin Garden Bloggers who were fans, that we loved his nursery and that we had links to the Natural Gardener’s website on our blogs, so that people all over the country may have heard that rooster crow. And I gave him one of the little Annie cards, too.

For the Wisteria fans, let’s close with a photo of Zilker Botanical Garden’s method of dealing with this lovely, rampant vine. Their venerable Wisteria is pruned into a tree-form on a small, manmade island in the middle of a koi pond:

Two Gardeners, A Friendship in Letters

Many thanks to Tracy of Outside for suggesting Two Gardeners, and to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for starting the book club.

In 1988 Katharine S. White and Elizabeth Lawrence were included in Allen Lacy’s anthology, The American Gardener : A Sampler and one taste made me want more from these writers. A couple of their books showed up at our local library and eventually I owned several volumes of my own. My reading of Two Gardeners was less discovery than revelation, as their collected letters to each other unveiled a long relationship. I already felt affection for them - what a pleasure it was to see their connection grow once Elizabeth writes to open the conversation.

This is no vague or gushing fan letter – Elizabeth packs her first missive with information, ready to explode when Katharine opened it. I like to imagine Katharine opening the envelope, then feeling a bit overwhelmed as she learns a great deal about her unknown correspondent: Elizabeth lives in North Carolina; she is not only familiar with the New Yorker, she has connections to one of its writers; she is glad to hear about a previously unknown catalog; she offers addresses and names of other catalogs with detailed descriptions and criticisms of the covers and contents; she also establishes herself as a rose connoisseur, compliments Katharine’s husband while declaring herself a fan of Charlotte’s Web, and gives glimpses into her personal economic situation. What Elizabeth does not mention, is that she is herself a published garden writer of books as well as a newspaper column. Elizabeth didn’t seem to be good at promoting her works, and Katharine is left to discover the wealth of Elizabeth's knowledge from other sources. Katharine soon realized that her new friend was an invaluable horticultural resource.

Although that first letter arrived in May of 1958, Katharine’s literary world has influences in today’s news. The New Yorker magazine is still vibrant, the New Yorker on DVD is a popular item, and a star-studded movie of Charlotte’s Web, written by Katharine’s husband E.B. White, was released at Christmas. Garden Blogger OldRoses just reviewed a flower show with arrangements that cry out for skewering by a new Onward and Upward in the Garden article. It was fun to see names from Katharine’s letters echoing in the present day – Katharine writes of her frequent dealings with William "Bill" Shawn, the famed editor of the New Yorker – and I recently read newspaper articles about his sons, Wallace and Allen. Wallace Shawn, a writer and actor with roles in films from The Princess Bride to Woody Allen's, appeared in theater reviews this winter; Allen Shawn, composer and writer, was the subject of a recent NYTimes article in the Home & Garden section, with reviews of his latest book in another issue. (Just to keep things even more circular and gossipy – Allen is the ex-husband of a previously selected Garden Blogger Book Club author, Jamaica Kincaid. While this celebrity scoop may not rival Britney’s tattoos, it was amusing to me!)

The editor clues us in that Katharine is a decade older, a New Englander, married, divorced & remarried, a mother and grandmother with a long career in the high pressure world of literary editing, her personality infused with the editor’s emphasis on exactness, a recent transplant from the lively city to a farm in Maine.
Elizabeth is a Southerner, never-married, a dutiful daughter and affectionate aunt, living in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the first women to enter professional landscape design, which she does for a living while writing her column. Elizabeth is a much more active gardener than Katharine can be. Because this book includes some wonderful photos, we can also see differences in their looks and demeanors.

I'll have to read their individual biographies to find out more about their early lives. They’re so familiar with a broad range of literature - did they come from families where reading was respected? Was their gracefulness in manner, correctness in behavior and fluency in expressing themselves instilled from earliest childhood? When these women begin to use each other’s first names, I felt a quite Jane Austen-type thrill at this bold step toward intimacy.

The Presidential campaign of 1960 caused rifts across the country, and there’s a point where our Elizabeth and Katharine reveal their feelings about John Kennedy’s election. They accomplished this quite delicately, letting their positions be known via anecdotes and conversations couched in tactful words that would not mar their friendship. But such courtesy does not mean weakness! Both women had to be strong as they dealt with health, employment and family problems, researched relentlessly to ensure the integrity of their work, and when pain and grief laid them low, they found refuge in their conversations about gardening and garden writing.
Has much changed in the gardeners' world? Terrible and unprecedented weather events threatened their beloved plants, they worried about the ecological effects of chemicals, and bemoaned the closure of favorite nurseries. They wished for the good old days, when people respected fine, opinionated, detailed garden writing.
And even half-a-century ago, publishers chose to give contracts to writers of money-making, didactic, how-to-do-it garden books, while refusing to print reflective, specific garden writing stuffed with botanical names and references. Weren’t similar feelings about boring garden writing one of the factors leading to the establishment of GardenRant?

Through The Garden Gate is a collection of Charlotte Observer articles written by Elizabeth Lawrence over many years. For the book the articles are arranged by the month in which they appeared, and thus Elizabeth takes us through the cycle of the year, investigating customs, seasons and holidays, describing gardens and talking to gardeners. For a dozen years I’d been touched by her poignant July entry for the poet Robert Vernade, but not until reading Two Gardeners did I realize that Elizabeth's research for this article was blocked until Katharine used her influence. These events unfold through the letters between the two women. When I reread that story now, it still touches me, but I also treasure it because I know more about the friendship in letters between Elizabeth Lawrence and Katharine S. White.

The American Gardener : A Sampler by Allen Lacy (Editor) May 1988

Onward and upward in the garden, by Katharine Sergeant Angell White, 1979

A Southern Garden by Elizabeth Lawrence, originally published in 1941, special 50th Anniversary edition, 1991

Through the Garden Gate, Elizabeth Lawrence (Author), Bill Neal (Editor)1990

Directed by Duplass

In this movie-mad town, everyone knows someone who was an extra in a movie or who was a member of the crew. Austin bloggers reported their strange experiences with antique uniforms during the filming of The Alamo, and some friends described doing time with Johnny Knoxville as extras for The Ringer. They'd moan about the tedium of filming, then two seconds later were saying how cool it was to see how movies are made. We’d heard similar good/bad stories from people who were extras for movies made in Chicago, and hoped we’d get a chance to find out for ourselves.
Early last week I got an email, inviting us to be extras for a movie being filmed by Jay & Mark Duplass. As soon I saw who the filmmakers were, I emailed back a definite 'yes', asking that both Philo & I be put on the list. We liked the Duplass brothers’ last movie very much. It was one of two movies I talked about in my June 21st post if you want to check the archives.

Back then I said that this ”…combination road picture/relationship movie is called The Puffy Chair. Jay and Mark, the Duplass brothers, some-time-Austin residents, made the film on an incredibly small budget using many ways to keep costs down: one brother is the director and cameraman, the other stars and acts as producer, family members were talked into giving financial support and taking roles as actors, the homes of family & friends are used as sets, and the number of takes was kept short.
The performances are a delight, and we want to see these people again. Rhett Wilkins is making a habit of playing quirky brothers, since he is the main character’s nature-boy brother in this movie, and the main character’s older brother in Jumping Off Bridges. There are parts of this movie that leave you limp from laughing.
The Duplass Brothers were present at our showing of the movie, and they are hilarious and articulate in person. Mark Duplass has an intense and expressive look, reminding me somehow of Martin Landau when he was very young. Back in 1959, Landau had to be the villain in North By Northwest, but Mark gets to be the lead in a world that better appreciates interesting faces.”

You can read more about the movie at the Official Site. This October, after screenings at festivals and some theaters, The Puffy Chair became available on DVD through Netflix. Now even if you live where access to independent films is limited, you have a chance to enjoy this movie.

Last weekend we went to the filming site for the new project, and found out that many of the other people were experienced at being extras. There were some professional film actors in the group, as well as a local stage actress. We heard about their previous movie work and noticed that some extras brought additional articles of clothing and reading material. All we brought was a tin of Altoids.

It won’t be giving anything away if I tell you that we extras portrayed members of an audience in a movie theater – that’s already been in the movie blogs.
It won’t be giving anything away to say how fascinating it was to watch Jay & Mark and their cast & crew in action.
I’ll only give away my one, tiny ‘extra’ moment which happened during a brainstorming session about one line of dialogue. I made a very audible wisecrack, causing Jay Duplass to look up, smile and say “That’s really funny!” Then he laughed. I found it very cool to make a movie director laugh, especially since he’s the same age as my kids.
Twenty-two years ago we had a big party, and I dressed as Magenta from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. For 2006, this hat and official Puffy Chair T-shirt will be my costume!
Happy Halloween!






EDITED JUNE 15, 2008
We didn't know what the movie title would be back when we were extras in October 2006, but the Duplass brothers named their horror/relationship comedy Baghead. It played Sundance and is now premiering in Austin (playing at the Regal Arbor and at the Alamo Drafthouse) even before it opens on East and West coasts. Philo and I saw the movie (yes, we are visible!) and I'll be posting about it soon.

TreeFolks

As the Northern gardeners retreat into their houses, we’ve finally had a few days this week when it was mild enough to turn off the air-conditioning and open the windows. Today’s high was only 83º, a perfect day for the Farmers Market.

The Austin organization called TreeFolks began in 1989 and today, "TreeFolks grows the urban forest of Central Texas through tree planting, education and community partnerships."

The group held their first ever benefit tree sale today at the Sunset Valley Farmers Market. There were all kinds of trees available, and a large crowd took home new additions for their own part of the urban forest. The Treefolks even offered delivery and planting services!

My friend Shanda was part of the sale crew – here she checks out some of the fruit trees. Shanda is a member of Treefolks, and also one of the Divas of the Dirt. After some consideration, we bought a Texas redbud for a spot that needs a hardy native ornamental.

Once the tree was stashed in the car, we strolled the Sunset Valley Farmers Market, buying tomatoes, pecans, cucumbers and oranges. Whenever we come to the Farmers Market, we always go to JimJim’s Water Ice stand [Philo’s favorite is Mango] and I check out the plant vendors. Today I found a Chocolate mint for a couple of bucks. I’ve tried them in containers but August was too brutal -this one will go in the ground, and maybe it will live through the next summer.

Live music is part of the Market, too. Jimmy Natoli is frequently seen and heard, but today there was a group of young violinists sending their music aloft. I hope TreeFolks did well with their sale!

CALLING GARDEN PRODIGY

When you look at this photo the conifers might tell you that it wasn’t taken in Texas – in fact it wasn’t taken in this century. A woman named Pam snapped the shutter in June of 1993, as she looked out on the Vermont countryside from the Tearoom of the VonTrapp estate. Pam was part of a group of gardening friends who were touring New England, but not as part of a garden club or a horticulture class. Back in those pre-blogging days, they’d all met on the Prodigy garden bulletin board, where they found soulmates – other people who were obsessed with perennials, bulbs, flowering shrubs and creating personal landscapes.

The Prodigy gardeners went to Readsboro, Vermont where these Hostas graced the grounds of North Hill. Garden authors and partners Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd started this garden in 1977 and thirty years later, they’re still holding open days for groups and fundraisers.

I was one of those long ago perennial maniacs, going online as Kat in N-IL whenever I had time to spare. Despite having only plain text to express our thoughts, slow response times, single phone lines with dial-up, and no way to post a photo or a drawing, it was addictive and exhilarating. Since I couldn’t meet with the others in New England, the garden at North Hill and the Von Trapp estate came to me in photos sent around the country after the trip.

This is also from Vermont - I think it's at Cady's Falls Nursery in Stowe. We never met in person so I can’t even put names to the faces, but loved their words and wonder where they are and if any of them are now garden bloggers, too.


Shout out to all you Gardeners from the Prodigy bulletin boards – Niko in Norwalk, Connecticut, Allen in Linwood, New Jersey, Marion from Waterbury, Vermont, Denise in Minnesota, Ellen & Deb from Illinois, Margaret in New York, Pam in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Bargyla in San Diego, California, Don from Saginaw, Michigan, Joyce in South Carolina, Nancy from Norcross, Georgia and all the others - I hope you’re still in the garden!

INSIDE: He's My Man

Although this is an Austin garden blog, once in awhile there’s a movie to talk about. When it’s one hundred degrees, week after week, sitting inside a cool, dark theater is one way to stay sane.
Are there any other Leonard Cohen fans out there? The Arbor in Austin is showing Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, which both Philo & I greatly enjoyed. This movie is part tribute concert, part interview, part biography, and part history. The film includes old home movies of the child Leonard growing up in Canada as well as recent images.
In the clips from a tribute concert in Sydney, Australia you can watch Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Teddy Thompson and longtime Cohen backup singers Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen interpret Cohen songs, along with Cohen songs sung by the extended Wainwright family – Rufus himself, his sister Martha, their mom Kate McGarrigle and their Aunt Anna McGarrigle. Back in NY, it’s fun to watch Bono & company drop phrases of praise while trying to remain cool behind the wraparound glasses. It’s even more fun when Leonard himself casually takes the mic and steals the film back from the tribute-givers.