Tens of thousands of visitors have discovered the same, awed by the exquisite beauty of these meticulously cultivated chrysanthemums in a traditional Japanese art form never seen before on this scale outside Japan. “If the stock market has you blue, go to the exhibition and drink in the uplifting display,” wrote Bill Cunningham in The New York Times.
But hurry. The spectacular flower show and cultural exhibition comes to a close Sunday. For an extra special experience, you may want to come this evening from 6–8 p.m. for Kiku and Cocktails, when you can view the exhibition under lights and with the authentic ambiance of live Japanese musical performances.
Nick Leshi is Associate Director of Public Relations and Electronic Media.
According to Technorati, the leading blog search engine, millions of entries are posted every day in the interconnected, online world of Web logs known as the blogosphere. As the world of journalism continues to evolve from the dominance of traditional print and broadcast media to the growing user-generated content of the Internet, The New York Botanical Garden has earned the attention of the growing new medium.
Many mainstream print publications are making the leap into the new digital frontier. One of the more popular blogs is City Room at The New York Times Web site, where Tina Kelley wrote about Kiku in a blog entry called “Shaping the Chrysanthemums, a Rare Art,” sparking some fun comments from the public. National Geographic’s News Watch blog posted a review by David Braun of Liverworts of New England: A Guide for the Amateur Naturalist, published by The New York Botanical Garden Press. (Order at 718.817.8721 or online.)
Journalists such as Bill Cary of The Journal News, garden writer Irene Virag, and many others have their own blogs. Even some of the Garden’s own staff have ventured into the blogosphere. Check out the personal journal of Chuck Peters, one of our top scientists, for some thought-provoking ruminations. Bookmark them all!
Looking for more? Check out OffManhattan.com, which describes itself as “a travel guide for native New Yorkers and tourists alike, in an effort to promote a ‘greener’ lifestyle,” or the popular BoogieDowner, a great portal for all wonderful things the Bronx has to offer.
There are blogs about art, like Studio-Online, which wrote about Kiku and Moore in America on October 27, and blogs about crafts, like Quaint Handmade, which also spotlighted the Garden in a glowing review about Kiku. Pick a topic and there’s bound to be someone out there blogging about it.
If you have a favorite blog or if you come across one that mentions The New York Botanical Garden, let us know about it. You can e-mail me or just post a comment below. The key to the explosive growth of the blogosphere, I believe, is the line of communication between fellow bloggers and the people reading them. So let us know what you think.
The polls have closed and the final results are in. Voters have made their choice. Time to announce the results of…our Kiku Poll!
Two weeks ago, we asked visitors to select their favorite kiku style and the race was tight. It seems all four display styles have their fans. In an extremely close survey, the dramatic single-stemmed ogiku pulled an upset, coming from behind for the win, earning 30 percent of the votes. In a very close second place was the dome-shaped ozukuri, with 28 percent. The new style, shino tsukuri, and the cascading kengai were tied for third, both with a respectable 21 percent.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote in our fun little election. Be sure to see the displays in real life by visiting Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum, which runs through November 16. This video gives you a preview of what you’ll enjoy.
Last Sunday’s Halloween Hoorah at the Garden was a hit, as shown in these photos taken by Gayle Schmidt, Coordinator of Public Education. As children entered the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, they turned a cotton ball and tissue into a ghost to hang in the Ghoulish Garden. And, of course, no Halloween celebration would be complete without a fancy jack-o-lantern, carved on the spot in the Benenson Ornamental Conifers.
Autumn is here and Kiku returns to The New York Botanical Garden from October 18 through November 16. Time to perform your “civic duty” and vote…for your favorite kiku style.
Is it the majestic dome-shaped array of the ozukuri (“thousand bloom”)? Could it be the colorful kengai (“cascade”) that resemble “waterfalls” of wild chrysanthemums? How about the towering ogiku (“single stem”) arranged in symbolic rows representing the colors of the horse bridles of Japan’s Imperial family? Maybe it’s this year’s new display style, shino-tsukuri (“driving rain”)?
Click the images on the poll to learn more about each variety and then choose your favorite. (P.S. You can vote as many times as you want. We won’t tell anyone!) Spread the word and get others to vote, too. Then, come visit Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum and see the impressive cultural exhibition and flower show first-hand.
The polling widget will live on the upper right corner of the blog until Election Week (the first week of November), when we will announce the results.
Sally Armstrong Leone is Editorial Director at The New York Botanical Garden.
The Courtyards of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory are abuzz with staff, designers, and volunteers creating and installing the upcoming exhibition Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum. Four elaborate growing styles of chrysanthemums (kiku) make up the focal point of the show. These exquisite displays are housed in Japanese garden pavilions known as uwaya, intricate structures of bamboo and cedar delicately edged with ceremonial drapery that provide both shelter and a formal stage for kiku. The uwaya featured in the Garden’s exhibition were crafted by Tom Owens, President of High Country Timberframe & Gallery Woodworking in Boone, North Carolina, who recently talked about the design and construction for the show.
How are the structures that you made for the Botanical Garden different from those that are made in Japan?
In Japan uwaya are newly built each year for the annual Chrysanthemum Exhibition. The NYBG challenge was to provide traditional structures that could potentially be re-used for many years. That is, the design and construction techniques had to utilize traditional Japanese joinery, proportion, details, and materials while also facilitating the safe and orderly disassembly and storage of the pavilion components during the winter, spring, and summer months.
What was the production process like?
More than 4,000 man hours were spent from inception to raising to disassembly. Our crew of eight carpenters and I traveled to a bamboo farm in Charlotte, N.C., to harvest thousands of fresh bamboo poles by hand. Once cut, we brought them back to our shop and carefully cleaned and polished the poles and cut them to the required length before assembly into the uwaya. All of the timber layout, joinery work, and finishing took place in our shop in Boone. Upon completion, we pre-assembled the more intricate joinery to ensure proper fit and then, once final adjustments were made, sent the hundreds of components wrapped in paper via tractor trailer to NYBG for installation.
Can you explain how the uwaya used for the kengai* style is different from the uwaya used for the other styles? What is the significance?
The kengai uwaya differs significantly by relying primarily on a bamboo lattice to support its multi-tiered roof system. The materials are also much more varied and natural in their shapes. The post-and-beam elements of all uwaya are exposed, contributing their beauty, but the kengai is particularly spectacular as its materials are so rich and textured, providing striking contrasts with the cascading flowers. It is a building with a lot of soul!
*The kengai (cascade) style features hundreds of small-flowered chrysanthemums trained on a framework that is angled to evoke flowers growing down the face of a cliff.
Karen Daubmann is Director of Exhibitions and Seasonal Displays.
Last year, as one of my first projects as an employee of the Garden, I had the pleasure of working with artist Tetsunori Kawana as he and a crew of staff and volunteers (see photo below) assembled a bamboo sculpture for Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum. The exhibition focuses on luscious displays of chrysanthemums but uses bamboo, maples, and other Japanese plants to showcase how important plants are to the Japanese, especially in autumn.
The towering sculpture provided a magnificent accent to last year’s Kiku display in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Courtyards. If you saw the sculpture, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it was very cool and like nothing you’d seen before. Though it was untitled, I’d compare it to a bamboo volcano, a wide base narrowing at the top but giving way to an explosion of bamboo strands that danced through the air, rugged and powerful but graceful at the same time.
This year, Kawana-san is back with a bigger and even cooler project. He has designed what he calls a “cloud forest,” which visitors can walk through to experience it from within, immersing themselves in his work. On Monday, 350 pieces of 30-foot timber bamboo (Phyllostachys bambusoides) arrived here from Georgia. As the truck was unloaded, the excitement for the project began to build. The bamboo will be used in many ways—cut into sections to form triangles of support, split into segments and woven to create “clouds,” and used full length to create the “forest.”
Unless you’re a volunteer working on this project, you’ll have to wait until the show opens for the sculpture’s unveiling. However, if you’re willing to spend some time sawing, splitting, and wiring bamboo together and you are available October 2–11, please contact the volunteer office at volunteer@nybg.org or 718-817-8564.
Believe me, it is a treat to work alongside Tetsunori Kawana.
Another exhibition season ends this weekend with the closing of the ever-popular Holiday Train Show as well as the stunning exhibition The Chrysanthemum in Japanese Art.
The polls have closed and the final results are in. Voters have made their choice. Time to announce the results of…our Kiku Poll!
