Uprights in Downright Painful Situation

Today's guest blogger is Amanda Campbell, Manager of Display Gardens. Amanda has been with the Garden for nearly 8 years. Today she's addressing a potentially "painful" subject: the Granite Outcrop. This is where we've placed the Upright Motives. The site was selected because of the perfect juxaposition between the natural and industrial forms contained within the sculptures positioned against the natural and architectural forms of the bed and the conservatory behind the works. Here's Amanda's post:

Cardboard boxes, cut open 2-liter bottles and old shirts aren’t your typical gardening tools. However, when bodily harm is at stake you become very creative.

The untraditional assortment of “tools” listed above assist in planting and transplanting my formidable darlings. The Granite Outcrop is comprised of cacti and succulents native to the southeast, southwest, and northern Mexico. Columnar cacti are frequently shipped in cut open 2-liter bottles. Prickly pear, or Opuntia, slated for a new home are popped out of the ground and maneuvered into a box or lowered onto an old shirt and tugged into place. Shovels, hoes, even the backsides of display labels are all used as limb extensions during the planting process. Anything but my hands. I’ve become quite good at handling them without actually touching them. Plants that live thrive through our hot, humid summers and rainy winters. In fact, new plants only get watered once or twice and then they’re on their own. It’s tough love and those that don’t survive rarely get a second chance.

The garden’s name, Granite Outcrop, is a slight misnomer. The planting concept has changed since its inception 20 years ago. The current Granite Outcrop grows a wider range of plants than traditionally found in southeastern granite outcrops. Wonderfully vase shaped, I call the two enormous Agave americana my gentle giants. They still have spines on the sides and end of each leaf, but they’re so large that I can pet the leaves and feel how soft and velvety they are. Here’s an interesting factoid, do you know the difference between a spine and a thorn? A thorn, like those found on roses, detach without causing the plant harm, but a spine will not cleanly break off and will cause damage.

When the Henry Moore totems [Upright Motives] were installed they seemed to blend seamlessly into their surroundings. Tall and strong, they picked up the architecture of the plants around them. But, at the same time the fluid lines of the faces emphasize the graceful petals of the often overlooked flowers. Cosmidium burridgeanum, with its deep burgundy petals edged in bright gold looked even more dramatic beside the bronze sculptures. Opuntia, with yellow, peach, and orange blooms shined a little more next to their sculptural counterparts. Leucophyllum frutescens, Barometer Bush’s purple flowers are perfectly balanced by the darkness of the metal. Fuschia Delosperma, cream and orange California poppies, and royal purple Setcreasea, all had a bit more luster.
This garden can be painful. I’ve shed quite a bit of sweat and blood over the years. But, it is also incredibly rewarding, especially when the three graceful Henry Moore totems persuade guests to look at the Granite Outcrop in a new light.