Category: plants

The Sunday porch: geraniums

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More properly called by their genus name, Pelargonium.

Porch, Chamisal, New Mexico, Library of CongressAn enclosed front porch in Chamisal, New Mexico, July 1940, by Russell Lee, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Lee and his wife, Jean, spent two weeks in Chamisal and Peñasco documenting the lives of the towns’ Hispanic small farmers and ranchers. Both communities are located along the High Road to Taos, which begins in Santa Fe and crosses the high desert and forest of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

The area was the setting for the 1974 book  The Milagro Beanfield War — as well as the filming location for the 1988 movie of the same name.  Milagro was the first of a trilogy of novels by John Nichols about north central New Mexico.  The second and third books were set in the fictional town of Chamisaville.

Frozen in vines

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C. Highsmith cabin with vines, LoC 2Monroe County, Alabama, May 2010, by Carol M. Highsmith, via The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The infrared treatment of the late spring scene gives it a wintery appearance.

Highsmith has specialized in photographing America’s architectural heritage. She has donated the rights to her work to the Library of Congress for copyright free access for all.

The winter garden: red cactus

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Red Cactus, Preus Museum on flickr“Rød kaktus,” between late 19th c. and 1933, by Inga Breder, via Preus Museum Commons on flickr.

The small Schlumbergera genus of plants is native to the coastal mountains  of southeast Brazil.  By 1860, a number of its cultivars were being sold in England for indoor winter color.

Today, they are commonly called Christmas cactus — or Cacto de Navidad (Spanish), Cactus de Noël (French), and Weihnachtskaktus (German).

The photographer, Inga Breder, was born in Bodø, Norway, in 1855. As an adult she lived in Oslo and became an amateur photographer, competing in and judging competitions.

Merry Christmas!

Vintage landscape: New Roads, La.

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New Roads, Louisiana, 1938, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress“House, small, hipped roof, New Roads vic., Point Coupee Parish, Louisiana,” 1938, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

On some days, this is my dream garden.

Just cut a path through the gate, up to the front steps . . .

01471vand plant a fig tree at the end of the porch.

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

— Gerard Manley Hopkins, from “Inversnaid“

Vintage landscape: Barclay Street

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Barclay St. Station, late 1800s, New York City, via Library of Congress“Cut Christmas trees [at the] market in front of Barclay Street Station, New York, N.Y.,” between 1885 and 1895, by Detroit Publishing Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The station was part of the IRT Ninth Avenue elevated railway line and was located at Barclay and Greenwich Streets, north of  today’s Six World Trade Center.  It closed with the rest of the line in 1940.

O
fury-
bedecked!
O glitter-torn!
Let the wild wind erect
bonbonbonanzas; junipers affect
frostyfreeze turbans; iciclestuff adorn. . .

— George Starbuck, from “Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas tree“