design – Page 79 – enclos*ure

The Sunday porch: Oak Hill, Alabama

March 20, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

The Ramsey-Jones-Bonner House, Oak Hill, Alabama, March 24, 1937, by Alex Bush for an Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (all photos here).

A nice front porch, but not especially interesting — except that it is a Carolina (or rain) porch.

Its columns rest on masonry bases set “directly on the ground . . . in front of the foundation of the porch floor. This is a distinctive regional characteristic,” according to the registration form (1998) for the National Register of Historic Places for the Oak Hill Historic District.

The back porch, however, is more unusual.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

“[The] rear wings have integral recessed porches facing inward and creating an atrium-like space which has been roofed [with] corrugated metal. . . . [The] . . . first floor [is] essentially an enclosed dogtrot. . . .”

The house was built in 1836 by Abiezer Clarke Ramsey, a school teacher and Methodist circuit rider. In 1937, he married Elizabeth Amanda Wardlaw, a widow with four children. She and Abiezer had seven more before her death in 1854.

The house still stands in the Oak Hill Historic District.
Continue reading “The Sunday porch: Oak Hill, Alabama” →

GB Bloom Day: snow day

March 15, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure7 Comments

Because I haven’t really been gardening here in Stuttgart, I decided that for this year’s Bloom Days, I would make a record of the flowers of the display garden of the 18th century Spielhaus at the Exotic Garden of the University of Hohenheim, which is close to our neighborhood.

Unfortunately, when I visited this afternoon it was snowing hard, and I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked. I may have to try again later this week.

Please click on any thumbnail in the gallery below to scroll through larger images. And to see what’s blooming today for other garden bloggers, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

First seeing the Spielhaus through Japanese cornelian cherry trees in bloom.

Cornus officinalis.

Hohenheim Botanical Garden, March 2016, Stuttgart, by enclos*ure

The Spielhaus or playhouse,

which is part of the “English Garden” (now called the Exotic Garden) constructed by Duke Carl Eugen and his mistress (and later wife) Franziska von Hohenheim in the late 1700s. It’s now incorporated into modern Hohenheim University.

Abeliophyllum distichum. . .

. . . or white forsythia.

At this point, I was really hoping that my camera was water resistant.

Flowering Arabis ferdinandi-coburgi ‘Variegata’ or Alpine wall cress.

I believe the patch of blue on the right is a planting of Scillas.

Of course, there were snowdrops.

Abeliophyllum distichum ‘Roseum’ with hellebores in the background.

Aubrita-Hybride ‘Lavander’.

29 March 2016 Bloom Day, Stuttgart, enclos*ure

Pansies on the terrace.

Wisteria on the arbors.

Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’. . .

. . . or sweet-smelling winter honeysuckle.

A huge Platanus x hispanics or London plane tree.

You must stand still; and then. . . you will hear the infinite march of buds faintly roaring.

— Karel Capek [on the coming of spring], from The Gardener’s Year

In a vase on Monday: grape hyacinths

March 7, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure15 Comments

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On Saturday, I wandered around the downtown Stuttgart flower market admiring all the blooming spring bulbs — which were being sold both potted and as cut flowers (pictures below). I bought some cut tulips and then went to Butler’s for a vase and another container of seashell chips. On the way home, I stopped at a florist and bought a little pot of forced Muscari, or grape hyacinth, bulbs.

I think I should have set the bulbs lower in the vase, but I didn’t want to disturb their rootball, which I covered with the chips.

Click on any thumbnail in the gallery below to scroll through photos of the flower market.

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

The flower market at Schillerplatz.

Tulips — 6.50 euros for 10.

Potted forced dark blue irises.

Potted primroses in almost every color are a feature of the markets and florists right now.

Potted forced Fritillaria meleagris.

Cut tulips and Narcissus.

The Saturday markets, Stuttgart, March 5, 2016, enclos*ure

Cut Narcissus.

A potted lime green Chrysanthemum.

This stall had the prettiest colored cut Hyacinths, Muscaris, and tulips.

Cut Muscaris.

Cut Dutch hyacinths.

Potted forced tulips and Fritallarias. This was in the farmers’ market in the square in front of the Rathaus, or Town Hall.

I caught this woman in mid-step. I love the colors of her outfit.

Potted forced Narcissus and Dutch hyacinths.

The “ingredients” of my Muscari arrangement.

On the coffee table in our living room.

Muscari bulbs, Stuttgart, March 5, 2016, enclos*ure

The baskets are from Rwanda.

My tulips, Stuttgart, March 5, 2016, enclos*ure

The Sunday porch: Belvidere, Illinois

March 6, 2016March 6, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

The Palmer House, Belvidere, Illinois, 1937, by Joseph Hill for an Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The HABS described the stone portion of the home — built in 1851 — as “severe Greek Revival” and then noted that the front porch was “ornamented with jig-saw wood pat[t]erns which distinguish the building.”

The house is still standing, although the porch has been rebuilt (at half size) as an enclosed porch.

You can see more Sunday porches here.

Life in gardens: Mr. Hesse

March 3, 2016April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

“Mr. Hesse, Bot.[anic] Gardens,” Washington, D.C., 1928 or 29, by National Photo Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Years later, did he go back and say, “I remember it as so much bigger. . . “?

The little boy was almost certainly the son of George Wesley Hess, who was Superintendent and then Director of the U.S. Botanic Garden from 1913 to 1934. There are more photos of the family and the Garden here.