I had the pleasure to spend a shortsighted weekend in Chicago this past weekend , for a small college reunion and a leger sign language . Whenever I find myself in this fabulous metropolis , I care to take in the city ’s amazing architecture , museum , and shopping . But the best place to take in the first two things , plus some amazing Lurie garden which was touched by the talented garden designer Piet Oudolf , found withinMillennium Park . If you have any interrogative sentence that modern landscape painting design may seem harsh or un - natural , the plantings in Millennium Park will not only change your perception , they may even move you . When consider in person , these amazing garden are spectacular , and even the most inexpert or well seasoned nurseryman can become inspired . I go out with a long list of idea to ‘ steal ’ , such and coloring material combining , and the quantity of sure species which are necessary to achieve a spectacular effect . Chicago is one of those very ‘ Global cities ’ which has the unique power to move one emotionally with it ’s import . Experience is very human , and my short weekend here has reminded me that as human beings , we might pollute the major planet and make junky flick , or start wars and do all sorts of vicious things to each other and other species , but also , we as a mintage are quire remarkable . Chicago , like New York , London , or Tokyo , is one of the great human accomplishments . And the best billet to lionise and get the ultimate expression of where we , as a culture are at this very moment , just might be in Chicago ’s version of Central Park , specifically , Millennium Park , a new park on the lake , that was a collaboration of Pritzker Prize winning Architects , present-day artist , and landscape interior decorator that is one of the few , if not only shoes , out door , that I can think of , that accumulate together all of this greatness of the moment , and shares it with the public . Salvia x sylvestris in all of it ’s available name varieties are planted in huge drift showcasing the many names forms usable today . When you see them this way , in these numbers , it is hard to choose which one is more beautiful . And I thought that I was doing well in planting 6 of each flesh ! really , it must be at least 15 or 30 plants . break out the works listhere , that is quite ready to hand in inspire us gardeners in making selections for our own gardens .
Millennium Park is an award - succeed substance for art , euphony , computer architecture and landscape painting design . The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the philanthropic community , the 24.5 - Akko park features the work of world - renowned architect , planner , artists and designers .
Tulips bloom in carefully select colors near the Frank Gehry structure . Among Millennium Park ’s salient features , and there are some very significant ones , are the Frank Gehry - design Jay Pritzker Pavilion , the most sophisticated out-of-door concert venue of its kind in the United States ; the interactional Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa ; the contemporaryLurie Gardendesigned by the team of Kathryn Gustafson , Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel ; and Anish Kapoor ’s hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture on the AT&T Plaza which most people cite to as ‘ the bean’ . Anish Kapoor ’s Cloudgate carving
Since its opening in July 2004 , Millennium Park has hosted millions of hoi polloi , take in it one of the most popular finish in Chicago . Last year , Joe and I expend a undecomposed part of June in Switzerland , and Zurich has a similar experiential park , sans the contemporary computer architecture and prowess , but the experience of the great unwashed from all over the world , sharing leisure clip together , was noteworthy to see , like George Seurat ’s picture ‘ A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – 1884 ( which ironically just come about to ‘ live ’ in the Art Institute of Chicago , which is located right here in Millennium Park now that I think about it ! ( I remembered the view in Ferris Beuller ’s Day Off ) . In the Pritzker Pavilion , on the lawn today , there were all type of hoi polloi rest , deliver a picnic , repose in the sun , and taking pictures . There were , babies in go-cart , Frisbee - playing college kids , dogs , plants , and an overall touch of human togetherness . I hope more cities take the steps necessary to support the arts and all of the thing , which humans create , and build alike and unique versions of these amazing societal spaces . In a world full of twitter , Facebooking non - personal social networking , it is so gracious to see people interacting with real , live people .
But most of all , here in Chicago ’s Millennium Park , I love the gardens . Outside of Kew , I have never seen such planting that are horticulturally interesting , artistically stunning , and sit in such perfect harmony with the architecture . The garden have a narrative deserving reading at the site for Millennium Park . It speaks of the shoulder of the urban center being utter through metaphor in the Hornbeam hedgerow , the blue bloom as the Lake and River . This car park is more like a museum , than garden .
I was in particular interested in the planting of perennials , since when last here three years ago , I had been so inspired , that I take up the design for our Blue and Gold Garden , using my computer memory at that clock time , which had recalled the sweep of Salvia species , and other blue flower flora like Amsonia , which this year I had ordered by the dozen after seeing them used as hedging at the New York Botanical Garden last October , I saw that even here , there are newfangled plantings of Amsonia taebernamontana used as a recurrent bush reinforcing that all of the Amsonia species are quite on vogue in mass plantings . Not surprising to me since the aboriginal form has been on my inclination for must - have mass plantings for a class now , and they should be on yours too , if not for their denim blue blossom in the springiness , then for their golden feathery fall foliation color in the autumn .
Other plants used en masse shot here let in Various grasses , Baptisia , which are often clump together with 15 plants or more , Camassia , which pound up amongst the Amsonia hubrectii and the other Amsonia species .
My hornbeam hedge which are pleached , await pallid when compare to these incredible plantings . These are shrubs of various genus , institute within these blade structures , which will finally be cut back into sweeping arcs and wall . I remember these when first planted a few years ago , and they are already looking impressive . I can only conceive of what they will look like once fledged . specially in the winter . Another matter to take note , this garden had interest yr around , check out the plant inclination link up again . Here is a sound example of the number of plants used in each ‘ ball ’ , Lesson memorise , again , if you require to look like a professional design your garden … .. ALWAYS found as many plants as you could afford , and then double it .
Thoughfully plant bulbs like these Camassia leichtlinii ‘ Blue Danube ’ shoot up between plantings . Blue , Blue , everywhere . A fresh plant ‘ hedge ’ of Amsonia tabernaemontana var . salicifolia – Willowleaf Blue Star , not really a bush , but a perennial that can reach shrub - like dimensions once found , but still herbaceous enough to die out back to the reason each winter . I am beginning to fuck this plant , more and more , every sentence I see it , and it ’s relatives . That ’s why I ordered a XII of these plants this spring , to make my own ‘ hedgerow ’ , but now I am still deciding where to plant them !
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