Cherry Blossom Festival at Yuko-En

Last weekend (the 17th-18th), Georgetown Kentucky played host to a couple of wonderful cultural events. Both events were related to each other, held in adjoining venues, but separate in scope. The first event that usually draws more attention from those with families is the annual kite festival. Out past the Cardome Center on U.S. 25, a huge field is opened to participants flying kites. The colorful display is remarkable and a wonderful opener to the spring season! The events for that portion are free, but parking is $5. Games and vendors are included in this event, but a frequently overlooked portion of this celebration is the Cherry Blossom Festival held in the adjoining Yuko-En Japanese Garden.

The Yuko-En on the Elkhorn is Kentucky's only official sister relationship garden with Japan. If you are not familiar with Georgetown, the city has a special sister relationship with the Japanese City of Tahara-Cho because of Georgetown's huge Toyota factory that sits on the northern boundaries of the city. The word "huge" is no exaggeration as the right viewing angle will demonstrate its massive size.......bigger than Georgetown itself!

Opened in 2000, the garden was constructed to be a Japanese garden in design, but Bluegrass region in specimen use. By combining the two elements, the experience is unlike any other. There are several reasons why I love visiting this garden. The architecture alone is quite stunning. I have admired this gorgeous entryway since it was built, and I didn't even live in the county at the time. The visual impact is not only arresting, but when entering through the large gates, they seduce you into this long sunken pathway lined with bamboo. The impact creates an immediate sense of entering a special and slightly mysterious other world.

The architectural elements continue once inside the garden. This large multi-purpose building was recently completed within the past few years, but has played host to several events, such as weddings and educational sessions.

The approach to the multi-purpose building is embellished with this beautiful red bridge that serves as a prime place for a photo-op!

But on the other side of the multi-purpose building, the walled zen garden is truly a peaceful and shady place to sit and contemplate the beauty that surrounds each visitor as they pass through. You may not walk in this portion of the garden, but you may sit on a deck that overlooks this stunningly detailed enclosure which is just as enjoyable. One feature of the festival itself is the zen garden combing ceremony. I missed that event this year, but that only gives me a reason to try again next year!

Across from the multi-purpose building is the lake that holds, what appears to be, thousands of beautiful goldfish and koi. This is usually the favorite spot for the children as there is a place dedicated to feeding the fish. Honestly, some of the old scaled veterans in there look like they are just miniature sharks, but they assure me they are really just koi. I'm not so convinced!

The view looking toward the waterfall feature, as seen below. As you can see, the blooms are exquisite during this festival. The dogwoods, redbud, and other blossoms provide quite the show!
Wandering down below the hill to the small waterfall, keep your eyes open for pieces of artwork that line the paths. This is a fairly new feature to Yuko-En, but a very welcome one. It adds such a visual interest to the surroundings and exposes the local visitors to an unfamiliar art element. In my humble opinion, introducing art into the garden not only enhances the experience, but better connects us to the culture of Tahara-Cho. Nothing conveys a message more clearly than artwork. Combined with the elements of nature, one can quickly appreciate the spiritual influences that are so important to the Japanese culture.

Overall, the events of the Cherry Blossom Festival are numerous all weekend long and just as colorful as the kites flying in the distance. The educational value is priceless for both the kids and the adults. My only criticism is one that could be very easily remedied......I didn't see any cherry trees! There looked to be some on the hill near the Cardome Center, but the blossoms had already reached their peak the week before and were already brown. I couldn't guarantee that they were cherry trees since I didn't get close enough to tell for sure. Needless to say, they should add cherry trees to the this beautiful garden that has ample room for such additions, or change the name of the festival.


If you missed the festival, don't worry, this garden is beautiful year round! If you are in the Georgetown area, be sure to put this on the itinerary......you will be very glad you did!

Sayonara everyone!

Easter Surprise

Since my move into a new neighborhood this past summer, most of my plants are still being watched over by my Mother. Moving and getting adjusted did not afford me enough time to do any fall planting or planning for that matter. However, the landscaping around my house is actually pretty nice....just need to add some of my favorites here and there, and re-do some of the backyard spaces. Today was so gorgeous here in Central Kentucky. This evening it was 80 degrees and sunny......so I decided to take a backyard stroll to assess the planting situation. I know I have some shrubs and a couple of perennials that haven't made a presence yet this year, but as I took some shots of the garden areas to keep with me as I shopped for new specimens, I spied a tiny little surprise in the top corner near the deck......a very healthy stand of Grape Hyacinths. Such a pretty overlooked little flower, with a great scent and lovely purple shades......little bells similar to the Lilly of the Valley, only perhaps a bit more dainty, with a stronger stalk. As I miss the daffodils and tulips from my previous home this year, I cut a few of these new little delights to brighten the room just in time for Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter everyone!!

Peonies and Pondering the Past

For those of you who have kept up with my blog in the past, I apologize for the year+ long hiatus from posting. Life just became way too hectic to keep up posting with the seasons, so hopefully I can fit this into my schedule....balance is my new mantra, so we'll see if that helps any.

I also realize that October is a funny time to be talking about Peonies, but another part of my life, genealogy, has recently reminded me of this moment when Peonies proved to solve a family mystery.

This gardening tale comes from the northern part of our state in Pendleton County. As so many of you know, small abandoned cemeteries dot the countryside as little testaments to the thriving communities that once populated these remote areas. As we moved away from farming as the main income producer, the familial descendants of these ancestors also moved away leaving the cemeteries to fall into serious disrepair or even complete obscurity.

This little cemetery is known as the Fisher Cemetery in the northern end of the county on number 10. It sits just down from the old Fisher School house. Unfortunately, the cemetery has had most of its stones knocked down and then piled into the middle of the cemetery on a skid by a kind person that cleaned them out of the fence row. Either scenario is horrible since the exact location of the stone in relation to remains was forever lost.

After going through the stones I could lift and checking a similar inventory taken years ago, I noticed that some relatives appeared to be unaccounted for. Let's put it this way, when you get to official burial records for 19th century small country cemeteries, the "official" part can be extremely sketchy. I have a set of 4th great grandparents whose burial location is unknown. They could be buried on previously owned family property, or even more likely, they could be in a cemetery like this one, where the number of related individuals to this couple is pretty high, therefore increasing the odds of a final resting place.

I suspect my elusive 4th great grandparents could be in this cemetery, but I still have not found confirmation, even though a teenage son as well as a grown son and entire family are in this cemetery.....pretty good circumstantial evidence. As I searched for this elusive couple, I also had another individual on my "lost" list that I had very little hope of ever finding.

Her name was Mary Malinda Mockbee. She was the daughter of William Mockbee and Jane (Allender) Mockbee, but was named after her grandmother Mary Malinda (Moore) Mockbee - one of the elusive 4th great grandparents I had been searching for. This Mary Malinda Mockbee died at the age of 14 from Typhoid Fever, and her burial place has been in question.

On a trip to this cemetery in middle March, I was admiring the gravestones of my other 4th great grandparents - James Jackson Allender & Mary (Stout) Allender - whose gravestones were some of the very few still standing. Since it was very early Spring, the Peony stalks were breaking ground at a height of about 6 inches above the grassline on this couple's plot. As I pondered which family members might have planted these peonies so long ago, a small cluster of the same peonies a few yards away suddenly caught my attention. They were growing vigorously with no stone to signify who they might be honoring each year, and the stone could be in the pile at the other end, but I wasn't so sure since I hadn't found any of my relatives in the pile.

I took this opportunity to run back to the car for the tire-iron in my trunk and proceeded to stab the ground around the peonies. Within a few seconds I hit stone and digging only a few inches under the soil uncovered the broken pieces of the stone belonging to Mary Malinda Mockbee. I could read enough to know who it was and even noted that her parents' names were inscribed there as well. Apparently, the pieces had been under the ground for so many years that they had eluded the previous cemetery inventory taken in the 1970s.

The discovery was such a small moment in the grand course of history and small even for my own family history. But she was precious to someone at some time, and I was happy to be able to solve this little family mystery once and for all. The records are now complete as to where this teenager was laid to rest.....right next to her grandparents. It gives me hope that her other set of grandparents might be nearby, but more importantly, it reminded me of how important gardening is historically.

Those flowers were lovingly planted as a reminder of the life renewed and the life that continues even after we are gone. Where did these peonies come from? Probably from Mary's mother's house, or one of her many sibling's homes. Perhaps they came from her grandparents homes and had quite a genealogy of their own. We may never know, but they are a living, breathing, glimpse into the vibrant world that came before us....a link to our families and a celebration of our heritage.

This story serves to represent another reason why I enjoy visiting cemeteries....not only for the historical information and artistry of the stones, but for the colorful gifts planted on the plots of loved ones so many years ago. If you want to begin the wonderful journey of heritage gardening, cemeteries are a wonderful place to start as they have wonderful examples of the varieties grown during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Plus, they can tell you a little about your ancestors and their favorite choices in gardening!

Happy Hunting!!

C

Primitive Daffodil Mystery

Old abandoned farms and fence rows are wondrous places. Each spring and summer they bring forth echoes of those country gardeners who came before us. Many of my antique roses were discovered on the side of the road in hidden nooks and crannies of our Central Kentucky counties; long abandoned, but still true to their original planting form. On some occasions, the discovery leans toward a mutated or primitive version of what was planted years ago. I have such an example that we dug up about ten years ago, along a back road fence row in Bourbon County. Upon first sight, these daffodil like plants in no way resembled the current popular form. They had the correct stalks and shoots from the ground, but the blooms resembled a regurgitated green mass of twisted petals. They appeared to be the green rose equivalent of the daffodil world. Despite their very unattractive appearance, we dug them up and brought them home to our garden. The bulbs were very deep, and not easy to extract, but once we let them grow for a few years in their new home, they morphed back a little into yellow regurgitations with twisted petals. Over the next ten years, we moved them, divided them to create more clumps, and in perfect harmony, each batch has transformed into the following form:

This was their first appearance in early March just as the snow was melting. (see previous post for exact date)

The next two photos demonstrate the bud formation just as they are beginning to open...note the strong green appearnce.

This looks like a very angry bud to me.

The curling green around this bud is a wild onion...evidence of my needing to weed. And yes, growing right alongside our Easter Bonnets with no crossing effects.

And so you have it, our mysterious primitive daffodils in all their glory. This photo shows clearly the early stage as resembling something from Little Shop of Horrors, complete with teeth, while the more mature blossom is an explosion of petals, with much of the green faded away. If any of you have similar garden inhabitants, please share. Or if this resembles a variety you are familiar with, that would also be interesting. I'm sure some of you may also be able to fill me in on the parentage of current varieties that might help solve this little mystery. However, keep in mind, this little beauty is from a very old abandoned farm.

And on a side note: I apologize for having been such a lax blogger these days. My semester is over in about three weeks so I will be a much better blogger in May! I greatly appreciate all of your comments, but am way behind on responding to many of them. And welcome to all of the new bloggers I noticed as I take a small break to check in with my favs....it's springtime in blotanical as the new arrivals burst forth!! Sure wish I had more time to read them...Hoping May comes quickly!

Happy spring gardening! It's finally here!

Spring Arrives in Second Life

One of my fellow garden bloggers out there recently made a reference to the five foot tall daffodils in Second Life - sorry, I can't remember which one it was, please comment to leave a link if it was you! So, on a recent foray into this new world, I was amazed at the amount of flowers and blooming trees that are in full flourish right now in SL.

So far, I have only come across one group of overly large flowers...some tulips over five feet.


Most of the other plants I've seen are large and beautiful but of semi-normal size. UK Island has a beautiful scene right now with blooming cherry and dogwood trees.












My favorite grouping is the red tulips next to the water garden in the gazebo area.





It seems that gardens are an important design element in SL with many people focusing on the specifics of nature to help an area look more realistic. Besides these beauties, you can encounter plants of all kinds from the deserts to the tropics. In one Italian location the trees are square and triangle just like the modernist representation in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Our current quest in SL focuses on education and libraries, but many fail to notice the importance of the garden features....but I knew the garden bloggers would like to see it. By the way, if you're ever on UK Island in second life, keep an eye out for my avatar, Sifriya Devin, she's probably over in the gazebo, listening to the fountain.

On to embrace March! Finally, a few warm days in Kentucky! 60s today and tomorrow!