Artistic Designers Inspiring across the Waters

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Organic Design

award winning quilt

Best of Show "Chihuly's Gondola," Melissa Sobotka International Quilt Show, 2013

In 2012, The Dallas Arboreteum hosted the Dale Chihuly Glass Exhibit, inspiring graphic and textile designer, Melissa Sobotka, to create a quilt from a photograph she had taken.   At the International Quilt Festival in Houston she received the top prize.  Sobotka, won the Handi Quilter Best of Show award - a $10,000 prize - for a quilt she named, "Chihuly's Gondola." 

Sobotka (http://www.msfiberart.com/)  uses batik fabrics, then outlines with Tsukineko inks to  add color. Her quilt measures 79 by 41 inches.

'Carnival Boat', 'Float Boat' , 'Ikebana Boat'
Dale Chihuly Glass Exhibit
Dallas 2012  

©  Grassroots Horticulture

2014

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An evening at the Arboretum

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The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden 

Desert-Willow Tree (Chilopsis linearis)

Texas Native

The plant combinations that the horticulturists selected were worth  the trip. The deep purples, especially in the evening, created negative spaces and added textures that gave the garden beds depth and dramatic interest.

Purple Elephant Ears, Coleus, Gomphrena

Purple Elephant Ear and
Gomphrena

A row of weeping blue cedar and variegated liriope line the entrance.

 Amidst the Shade

Silver and Blue:  Blue Marlins and the Silver Trunk of Crape Myrtle 
Shade Loving Plants (Mahonia)

Coleus, Purple Leaf Sweet Potato

American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) Texas Native

 The Tapioca Plant 'Variegata' (Manihot esculenta)

As you see the sun setting the tree trunks absorb and reflect the soft rays.  The Tapioca Plant 'Variegata' (Manihot esculenta) is perfectly situated to delight the eyes and pull your attention to the yellow reeds sitting at their base. Green carpet then dark purple delineates the border or edge to frame the bed. Manihot esculenta is considered a native of Brazil and Paraguay and has been cultivated and hybridized as a food plant but this variegated plant ads serpentine lines in the mass plantings.

Yellow Reeds, Chihuly Glass Exhibit
The Tapioca Plant 'Variegata' (Manihot esculenta) 

Yellow Reeds Chihuly Glass Exhibit

The Tapioca Plant 'Variegata' (Manihot esculenta)

Honey scented Blackfoot Daisy
Texas Native

A Few Xeriscape Plants

Berberis trifoliolata 'Agarita'

The Vitex foliage and flowers are a beautiful shade of green and blue

Little Round Leaf Vitex

Monk's Pepper (Vitex agnus-castus)
Native to the Mediterranean Region 

Desert- Willow Tree 
(Chilopsis linearis)

Texas Native

Anole

Ginkgo Tree

Ginkgo Biloba Tree
Female Tree with Fruit
 Fan or Duck-Feet Shaped Leaf

Gomphrena and Canna

Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima)
Native to the West Indies and Tropical America 

Pride of Barbados 
(Caesalpinia pulcherrima)
Native to the West Indies and Tropical America

Walk down the path that curves.

Ethereal Spider Lily in the moonlight.

Giant Spider Lily, Hymenocallis 'Tropical Giant

Crape Myrtles with the Beluga Glass.

What an enjoyable evening. I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Hyden Photography

 for 

Grassroots Horticulture

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