ISSUU.COM

I found out about ISSUU.COM on Ken Smith's site.   Highly recommended for publishing information about your services.

http://issuu.com/keithwheatley/docs

Artificial landscaping on roof garden at MOMA

Internationally acclaimed architect Ken Smith was the recipient of the 2011 Christian Petersen Design Award presented by the Iowa State University College of Design.   He is well known for his work on the Roof Garden of New York's Museum of Modern Art, which consists of white gravel, recycled black rubber, crushed glass, sculptural stones and artificial boxwood plants arranged in a camouflage pattern.  Load conditions and maintenance considerations led to the use of recycled materials, maintenance free shrubs and the lightweight rocks.   See if you can see which rocks are the same.

http://kensmithworkshop.com/

Australian landscape at the British museum.

In 2011, the British museum, in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, commission an Australian themed installation in the forecourt by the main entrance.   The installation allowed visitors to take a journey across the whole continent, from eastern Australia’s coastal habitat, through the arid red centre, to the western Australian granite outcrop featuring unique and highly endangered plants. The landscape showcased the rich biodiversity of Australia, and how these fragile systems are under threat from land usage and climate change.

A selection of the indigenous flora in the museum's temporary landscape are utilised in the cut flower trade and species such as Banksia, Anigozanthos and Allocasuarina are gradually replacing familiar flowers such as lilies, gladioli and carnations.

In order to fully immerse visitors in the outback experience, Alan Bishop www.alanbishopthemeworks.co.uk created life-sized granite boulders using images taken by the British Museum team on a research trip.    You can take a look at the rocks and garden being created in the British Museum's photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishmuseum/5597043005/ and see other images and a video at Alan bishop's site.

Alan Bishop's granite rocks based on the granite rocks below

The Australian landscape was displayed for almost six months with the plants and rocks finally removed in October 2011.    For less (semi) permanent displays, lightweight rocks can be hired from artificialrocks.co.uk.

Lightweight artificial granite rocks

'Travelling to the Wonderland' by Xu Bing

Celebrated Chinese artist Xu Bing has transformed the V&A’s John Madejski Garden with a new installation inspired by the classic Chinese fable The Peach Blossom Spring.  The fable, written in 421AD, describes the moment when a lost fisherman discovers a wonderland hidden behind a mountain where inhabitants live in harmony with nature.

The Madejski garden's main feature is a stone-paved oval, with surrounding steps and water jets, which can be filled with water as a reflecting pool or drained  for displays.   'Travelling to the Wonderland' is an arrangement of various mountain-like types or rock transported from China enclosing the water feature.   The mountain-like rock formations are referred to as scholar's rocks or Gonshi in China and similar arrangements can be found in Japanese culture (Suiseki) and Korean culture (Suseok).   The stones are appreciated for their shape and colours and were used for meditation, contemplation and sometimes simply a way of introducing the wider landscape to the indoor environment.

In 1995, Zahn Wang began creating a series of artificial rocks in stainless steel.   Stainless steel sheets were hammered on to real rock faces and then welded together and finely polished.   Many of these works are Gonshi and one has to wonder how long it will be until there is a Bing-Wang collaboration.

It would be quite easy to recreate the less complicated Gonshi from glassfibre and these will be added to the 'to do' list at artificialrocks.co.uk

Artificial rocks by Zahn Wang

'Travelling to the Wonderland' by Xu Bing

Artificial rock by Zahn Wang

Artificial rock by artificialrocks.co.uk

Artificial stones by artificialrocks.co.uk

More new pots...

More new pots:

Gear pots are 430mm tall, 550mm wide and have a planting depth of 300mm.   Various matt and lacquered colours.

Bamboo planters can be used as a stand alone feature or used in series to create an alternative room divider. Again there is a range of matt or lacquered colours and an illuminated version.  Dimensions as drawing below.

Room divider and planter

New for 2013, this room divider and planter features a frosted acrylic plexiglass screen, a range of matt or lacquered colours and an illuminated version.

'Tis the season...

I have previously mentioned how people get a bit upset when the first Christmas decorations appear in the shops before Halloween and Bonfire Night.   I agree with them.   Decorations do appear earlier and earlier and it won't be long before we see window displays displaying Easter eggs and Christmas trees.   May I be the first to coin the phrase 'Eggs 'n' Xmas'.    Being in the gardening/interior planting business, I am used to seeing Christmas decorations in the wholesalers in August and didn't mind that.   In fact if you needed some decorations at Wholesalers in November or December you could be lucky to find them!

Fortunately the days of returning to a recently installed tree in an office to find the one light bulb that had expired are long gone.   The majority of Christmas tree lights are leds now.   The earlier leds were too white but with the introduction or warm white leds the traditional appearance can be retained.

I am a traditionalist.   I love the 'old' style of Christmas tree but can appreciate that in shops and offices a newer form is sometimes more suitable.   That's why I am offering the trees shown below.   These have an oval footprint as opposed to circular and will therefore take up less space when arranged in a group.   Merry Christmas!  

Prices here: www.plantcontainershop.com.

LED Christmas trees

RGB leds

Leds can be fixed on one colour