Inspire - Hort Couture

I attended the Chicago Flower and Garden Show last weekend with the Garden Writers Association and was pleased to find out that the rights to the show have been bought out by a private company.  This company will have more control over the theme they espouse, Inspire, Educate and Motivate.

The TREND is oversized containers even in small areas used not just for planting but as part of the outside decor.

If you take a tour of your neighborhood you will find as I did that most people use containers that are much too small for their home, myself included.  Stand across the street and look at the scale of your containers with your home.

TREND, outdoor furniture is looking more and more like indoors, less metal, more upholstered and outdoor wicker.

I would guess this is how we are supposed to look in these elegant spaces!

TREND, eye-popping color, tropical plants and vines being heavily used on the patio and in garden beds.

Small garden areas (not sure about the crooked tree) can be very effective packed with perennials and again this year with "house plants."

"Found" pieces have been popular in the garden for years but now we are beginning to see them used as part of outdoor vignettes rather than stand-alone objects.

Well, I am inspired!  I just have to win the lottery to put all of these ideas to use.

An Unexpected Treasure

The Chicago Art Institute Study Group went to a local art museum located in the western suburbs of Chicago.  It was quite a wonderful and an unexpected surprise!

Elmhurst Art Museum

Built in 1998

The Elmhurst Art Museum was built to match the design of this Mies Van Der Rohe home built in Elmhurst in the 1950's.  The home was later moved piece by piece to the property where the Elmhurst Art Museum would be built.  Robert McCormick, a Chicago real estate developer, was the first owner for nine years and there was only one other owner for twenty-nine years before it was sold to the developers of the Elmhurst Art Museum.  Mies Van Der Rohe only built three of these innovative aluminum and glass homes, Elmhurst and Plano, Illinois and Connecticut.

His dream was to revolutionize the building industry after WWII thinking that everyone would want one of these glass homes.

This is the only room open in the house at this time furnished in mid-century furniture.  Other rooms will be completed as funds allow. 

A little background on Mies Van Der Rohe is that he was a student of the German Bauhaus movement which we see so prevalent in mid-century design.  He designed many high rise buildings in Chicago and is known as the "father of the high rise."

Original Bauhaus Chair

The museum is unusual in that they display the works of up and coming artists who have not quite made it yet.  They are all alive and most are local to the Chicago area and recently being shown in Chicago galleries.

Hanging stainless steel replicas of dried garden plants by Carolyn Ottmers who is also the Director of Sculptural Art for the Art Institute of Chicago

The above are digital photographs shot by David Weinberg through the glass of a dilapidated greenhouse.

Hand cut pieces of photos from art books, catalogs, magazines to form collages of plants by Stephen Eichorn

Molly McCracken Kumar is the only non-local artist in this exhibition.  She is from San Francisco and works in a layering process.

Terrariums are back big time even in the art world.  Meghan Q. McCook calls these Terra Hives, blown glass and copper with small plantings inside.

Art is a wonderful way to have a garden inside your home!

Get Ready!

Early Sensation will be one of the first

Early Sensation

Itzim

Yellow Hellebore

Crocus

City Of Haarlem

PJM Rhododendron

Pink Pearl

Star Magnolia

Sagitta

Marieke And Mount Hood

Chanticleer Pear

Monte Carlo

Muscari Blue Spike

This was just a little peek at Spring 2011 with more to come ....

ANTICIPATION!!

True Or False

This is the time of year that I visit my local Pottery Barn to get an early fix on spring.

I know these are false because they wouldn't have real bunnies on a dining table.

I order real Oregon moss every year for my outside baskets.  This looks very good but again it is false.

I guess I had better say early on that everything plantwise that you see in Pottery Barn is false but each year gets better at fooling the eye.

Snowball Viburnum

The pottery has a washed look with stenciling.

Bright southwestern looking pottery

Crystals are big this year with floral displays and tablescaping.

Basket weave lanterns

Decorative bottles

More decorative bottles!

Mercury glass is plentiful again and more reasonably priced, goes with every decor.  Antique mercury glass was very popular during the 1800's with silver being blown in through a double layer of glass.  These are reproductions with the silver being applied onto the glass.

I have a Mercury Glass vase on my coffee table and it blends beautifully with my old and new furnishings.  Lots of reflections in this photo from the sun pouring into my family room.

These are false but it won't be long before we can say it is true, our garden tulips are the real thing!