Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: dominique on November 09, 2009, 10:57:39 AM
-
Help at all
I have to prepare a work for Dijon botanical Garden. two subjects on plants to grow there :
First : the travel of plants : what species to grow to illustrate the plants which came in Europe, at what time and by who ? (30 species max)
second : 30 species to illustrate the 5 senses : touch,smell in priority
Thank you very very much for all ideas
-
scent - scented Pelargoniums, roses,
touch - Stachys - lambs ears
-
Salvia sclerea turkestanica.
Touch - rough and you pick up the scent.
Scent - pungent
Sight - it's striking with dramatic bracts
Sound - the dry stems rattle in the breeze when in seed
Taste - .... well it is a sage ... but with the pungent scent ???
You could include other salvias - many of them attack the senses!
-
classic plants that were brought to europe include some important food plants:
-tomato (this also has a lot of texture to touch and a strong smell), potato, corn, -chiles (these have some dramatic sensory effects!)
-tagetes (marigolds) are another import with texture and fragrance..
-opuntias and agaves are very widely grown and naturalised in southern europe, and are not old world natives--lots of texture there too!
-dahlias, zinnias
i know i've mixed up your two categories ;)
grasses/grains have a range of visual tactile and even auditory (wind in a field of dry mature grain or grass) effects through the year-bright green soft yet sharp shoots (that you can make a whistle out of) developing feathery flower heads, and growing into dry tough papery mature stalks with hard seeds--and people chew grass stalks and seeds at all stages ....caution needed if people are being encouraged to touch as grass can cut..
herbs are (maybe too) obvious choices..
there are some wonderful plectranthus species ('cuban oregano' 'piss off plant' ;etc nothing like origanum) which are mostly(all?) tender, but have soft fat furry leaves with pungent menthol like scents, can be grown as bedding plants..
-
I'm not all that familiar with the history of French botanical exploration but some that come to mind are David (China) and the Michaux father and son, Andre and François (eastern North America). I'm sure with a little bit of research you could come up with some good examples of their discoveries/introductions.
Ed
-
I'm not all that familiar with the history of French botanical exploration but some that come to mind are David (China)
Ed
Yes and don't forget Jean Marie Delavay French missionary and botanist. Lots of plants named after him. He is reputed to have collected 50,000 herbarium specimens of over 4000 species
-
Roses must feature, surely? Will look for Botanical Artists.....here's one link about Malmaison and the birth of the tea rose:
'The Chateau de Malmaison was the home of Napoleon's first wife - the Empress Josephine and became the birthplace of the tea rose. The garden she developed included more than 250 varieties of roses and other exotic flowers from her native West Indies,...'
Pierre Joseph Redoute:
http://www.squidoo.com/redoute#module23721852