http://www.marierutkoski.com/journal/28 Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:20:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.marierutkoski.com/journal/28/comment-page-1#comment-150 DCE Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:47:10 +0000 http://www.marierutkoski.com/?p=28#comment-150 Aw shucks . . . I remember that front desk. Aw shucks . . . I remember that front desk.

]]> http://www.marierutkoski.com/journal/28/comment-page-1#comment-145 Gail Rothschild Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:15:09 +0000 http://www.marierutkoski.com/?p=28#comment-145 I have never cared for an orchid. Like many serious gardeners, I'm not that good at growing things indoors. Robert Newgarden (yes, his real name) with whom I did my horticultural apprenticeship at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden claimed to routinely annihilate houseplants. But the Monocot Border and the Herb Garden at BBG blossomed under his gentle care. I do, however, have an armchair fascination with orchids. Gardening and literature go hand in hand. Vita Sackville West was only one of the more flamboyant writer gardeners. Especially in the winter gardeners read. The orchid section in my library includes: Susan Orleans brilliant The Orchid Thief, Eric Hansen's Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy, a coffee-table picture book and then a handful of horto-geek botanical tomes. Why? And why did I let Stephen organize our library which is finally more or less done? It took half an hour to find them. One final orchid note before I get back to painting. Last spring when Vadim and I were climbing at Rumney in New Hampshire I found a pink Lady Slipper (Cypripedium reginae) growing out of the leaf litter. How could a native New England wildflower be so exotic and so sexual? I have never cared for an orchid. Like many serious gardeners, I’m not that good at growing things indoors. Robert Newgarden (yes, his real name) with whom I did my horticultural apprenticeship at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden claimed to routinely annihilate houseplants. But the Monocot Border and the Herb Garden at BBG blossomed under his gentle care. I do, however, have an armchair fascination with orchids. Gardening and literature go hand in hand. Vita Sackville West was only one of the more flamboyant writer gardeners. Especially in the winter gardeners read. The orchid section in my library includes: Susan Orleans brilliant The Orchid Thief, Eric Hansen’s Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy, a coffee-table picture book and then a handful of horto-geek botanical tomes. Why? And why did I let Stephen organize our library which is finally more or less done? It took half an hour to find them. One final orchid note before I get back to painting. Last spring when Vadim and I were climbing at Rumney in New Hampshire I found a pink Lady Slipper (Cypripedium reginae) growing out of the leaf litter. How could a native New England wildflower be so exotic and so sexual?

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