Ginny & Dean's Excellent Adventures:Chihuly Glass in Fairchild Gardens 05/07

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Chihuly in Fairchild Gardens--5/07: Part 1 Part 2 >>

Waiting for the Gardens to open.

We stopped to visit Dori and Aaron in Lake Worth on our way south and spent the next day May 28th at Fairchild Gardens just south of Miami to see the Chihuly Glass exhibit.

<< We strolled around the outside gardens and a neighboring park while we waited for Fairchild Gardens to open. Getting there early meant that we had the grounds to ourselves for about two glorious hours before the buses arrived with the tours.

The Chihuly exhibit had been up for several months, but it was scheduled to be taken down on June 1, the beginning of hurricane season--a prudent move we thought.

While the glass was great, we sometimes got distracted with the great garden spaces and beautiful tropical plants. >>

The poster promised that Chihuly wanted his work to look natural. In some ways it did, very cleverly installed into the surroundings, but Mother Nature, as wild as she is, would never have created these amazingly tangled of forms.

Chihuly poster. << At the entrance to the garden, this riot of reds and oranges reaches for the sky. Dean is on the stairs for scale.

<< The floating balls in complement the water lilies.

This bird of paradise flowers is a good example of how it got its name. You can see the sharp beak and wild orange crest of this fanciful bird.

A boat load of glass and perched right above it, an anhinga... >>

If you look at its curving neck, you could make the case that it is the inspiration for some of these sculptures, maybe.

The pink glass perfectly matches the pink in the begonias. The planning of the vistas along the garden's corridors is evident. Can't you just imagine the meetings:

Yellow piece Chihuly: "If we put in the tall pink installation in the lily pond, what can you plant?"
Fairchild: "Well we can make sure that only pink water lilies are in that pool and we can plant a grand column of pink ever blooming begonias along the gravel walks."
Chihuly: "What colors?"
Fairchild: "How about these?
Chihuly: "Perfect! I can match those tones. Now what about a tall yellow piece on the opposite side of the waters?"...

The smaller pieces embedded in the nooks, crannies, and glens of the gardens were hidden away and provided a more intimate experience.

Don't these yellow and red pieces remind you of jacks-in-the-pulpit? >>

The brown lizard flashing its orange dewlap is a Cuban anole attracting attention.

Brown Cuban lizard strutting his stuff.

The green lizard on the contrasting purple glass is our native green anole. >>

Iguana roamed all over the gardens.

<< This large green and black spiny guy is an iguana. They are not native to Florida, but as in many other cases, the released or escaped pets have established wild populations. I read a piece saying the iguana is a big problem for Fairchild, because they eat their plants--a lot of them.

Red spires are added to the Madagasgar plantings.

Various forms and shapes adord the cycad garden.

After more than an hour walking around the gardens, we headed into the conservatory for the interior gardens...

On to the conservatory and more >>

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