Old farm bell as planter, Oglethorpe County, Georgia, May 1936, by L.D. Andrew, via Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Have a happy 2015!
Category: vintage landscape
The winter garden: under the palms
“Hotel Seneca, Pompeian room, Rochester, N.Y.,” between 1908 and 1915, by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
More winter gardens are here.
The Sunday porch: geraniums
More properly called by their genus name, Pelargonium.
An 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.
The winter garden: red cactus
“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.
“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 . . .
and plant a fig tree at the end of the porch.
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
— Gerard Manley Hopkins, from “Inversnaid“
enclos*ure 