Garden Folly

After looking around the showroom, many customers have asked the same question:

“What is the difference between concrete and cast limestone pieces…and why is the cast limestone more expensive?!” 

So I thought that it would be helpful to write a paragraph or two explaining the differences, as both are wonderful materials and each has their place in the garden.

 Dry cast limestone ornaments are made using a limestone composite.  A slight bit of water is added – just enough to hold the composite together (this is the reason for calling the process “dry cast”).  The damp mixture is then hand packed into a mould and left in a humid room to cure.  Curing usually takes about 3 weeks, during which time the piece hardens and can be removed from the mould. The dry cast limestone is porous and looks remarkably like carved limestone.  The rough surface and minerals of limestone also promote weathering and create a beautiful patina with lichen and moss settling on the surfaces.

The first picture shows a newly dry cast limestone and the second picture shows a weathered version after a year or so.

 

Concrete, in contrast, is made using a wet cast process; that is, water is added to the aggregate and then the mixture is poured into a mould.  The mould is shaken so that the concrete can cover all the details of the mould.   A slurry comes to the outer edges of the mould which creates the smooth surface of concrete.  At the same time, air bubbles also come to the surface which are often visible.  Once the piece has hardened, it is removed from the mould.  A smooth surface is less hospitable to the moss and lichen which lengthens the time needed to create a beautiful patina

This picture shows concrete's smooth surface.  If you look closely, sometimes you can see an air bubble or two.

 

The cost between the two processes differs as well – dry cast limestone is a hand crafted product whereas concrete is largely manufactured and so tends to be about half the cost of dry cast limestone.

We're setting up shop on 1st Dibs in June - come visit our new digital showroom soon!  We'll be showing our best pieces like Autumn, a19th Century Zinc Statue

 

 

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Janine Mudge when she came to interview me in Sudbury.  It was such an enjoyable conversation (talking through most of the afternoon).  Sundials, statues and other ornaments work so well with small city spaces - any trouble with plantings...simply place an ornament instead!  

Janine has created a blog and community focusing on the challenges of city gardening.  It's a wonderful resource that I highly recommend to any city dweller.  

Here is an excerpt from the blog

Spotlight on New England Garden Ornaments – Blending Function, Beauty and Fun

Spend five minutes with Gray Baldwin, the personable owner of New England Garden Ornaments, and you can feel her excitement for cast limestone pots, concrete urns and lead containers from England.  Listen to her tell the story of a carved rain spout or finding whimsical statuary and you can’t help but laugh along with her and share her delight in the pieces....

Read the full blog post here

We have partnered with Barbara Israel to sell her Garden Traditions line of high quality reproductions cast in limestone

Here is an excerpt from Carol Stoker's gardening blog

Garden Traditions

Garden Traditions by Barbara Israel is a line of high quality reproductions of garden ornaments selected by this well known antique garden ornament scholar and dealer, whom I met at the Winter Antiques Show in New York last February. She was selling remarkable stone originals there for tens of thousands of dollars, including a life...

You can read more here.

This year, the Newport Flower Show recreated the stunning legendary "Blue Garden" on the front lawn of the Rosecliff mansion and we happily contributed many urns, planters and fountains to the gardens.

"Mrs. James' greatest triumph was her famed 'blue garden,' planned by John Greatorex on an elaborate scale.  Blue flowers, accented with white ones, were replaced two and three times during the summer to maintain the color.  This garden was also opened to the public every Fourth of July.  From stately stone colonnaded galleries at either end, one could gaze in awe down the long sweep of lawn broken symmetrically with beds of blue and white flowers.  The central lily pool and long shallow blue-tiled lake were joined by a narrow, blue-tiled aqueduct.  Two stone baskets filled with stone flowers rested on the edge of the pool.  Great bay trees, in ornamental stone pots, standing on blue-tile bases, space themselves in stately lines on either side down the garden.

At the south end the garden widened in a semicircle to the arbored gallery on whose stone terrace two white stone dovers perched on a scallop shell.  The whole garden plan was enclosed within tall cryptomeria trees and an intricate latticed fence upon which climbed white roses, blue clematis, and other appropriately colored vines.  The delicate shades of blue were captured in anchusa, ageratum, baptisia, canterbury bells, campanulas, low chinensis delphinium and the taller blue hybrids, heliotrope, hydrangeas, Siberian iris, lobelia, nepeta, pansies (Swiss blue), plumbago, and veronica.  White accents were masterfully obtained with the use of standard tree roses, madonna and auratum lilies, alyssum, and pond lilies.  Mrs. James had set her stage of perfection in gardening when, on a summer night in 1913, she rang up the curtain for its dedication."

The Blue Garden as described by Harriett Jackson Phelps in Newport in Flower.  Many contributed to the installation of these beautifully designed gardens including Hali Beckman and Laura Willson of Garden Endeavors.  Here are just a few pictures.

The 2010 show was quite a success with thousands attending daily - we hope that you'll join us for the 2011 Boston Flower & Garden Show from March 16th to 20th at the Seaport Center.

Please click on any of the photos to view the slideshow.

Metro daily news recently published an article about the fountain installations we created for "Water Whimsy"

 Here is an excerpt from the article

Garden in the Woods' 'Water Whimsy' features fountains

FRAMINGHAM — Horticulture Director Scott LaFleur was "dancing in the rain" at Garden in the Woods when a recent three-day downpour revived plants, shrubs and trees after a nasty drought.

Even after the rain stops, visitors can still enjoy flowing, running and sometimes gushing H2O by checking out "Water Whimsy," an imaginative exhibit that uses fountains as innovative decorations in the Saxonville botanical garden...

You can read more here

This article was originally published by New England Garden Ornaments, Inc. and has been republished here in this blog

Centuries ago, alchemists attempted to discover the means to turn lead into gold. They never succeeded, but in the early 18th century the spreading popularity of French-style formal gardens created a booming market for statuary, urns and vases. Lead was the perfect material for these items — it was easily worked and highly durable, and even if not quite rendered into gold, lead certainly became a golden commodity in gardens of the period, and it remains so today.

The use of lead flowered in England during late 17th and 18th centuries, especially in the shops gathered around the Hyde Park area of London, which produced extraordinary statuary and vases for the English nobility. The English adoption of the French garden style, with its emphasis on parterres and terraces, created a need for large quantities of statuary to ornament these newly laid-out gardens. Prior to this time, statuary for the garden had to be sculpted laboriously from stone or marble, a slow and expensive proposition. Casting statuary in lead not only offered the advantages already noted but also meant that the same piece could be repeated quite easily.

Many of the earlier artisans producing these works came from the Continent, particularly the Low Countries, and were either schooled in the sculptural arts or had extensive knowledge of sculpting techniques. Among the most famous of these was Arnold Quellin (1653-1686), who came to England from Antwerp and was a renowned sculptor of his time. His assistant, John Van Nost (1687-1710), later became perhaps the greatest of this period's leadmakers. Interestingly, Quellin died in 1686 and Van Nost subsequently married his widow, thereby acquiring much of Quellin's work.

The increasing popularity among the English gentry at this time for the "Grand Tour" of Europe exposed them to classical statuary and contemporary sculpture evident in Italy and France. It was, therefore, similar statuary they wanted for their new gardens. Van Nost stepped in and supplied them with lead versions of these great works. His many commissions for Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire included representations of Andromeda, Perseus, a grouping of Amorini and perhaps one of the most elaborate lead pieces made, the Vase of Four Seasons, standing eight feet high. John Cheere (1709-1787) was the most prolific of all leadmakers. His brother, Sir Henry Cheere (1703-1781), may have been a pupil of Van Nost but it was the younger Cheere who became more famous for producing lead ornaments. For Bowood House he produced fine figures of Apollo, Venus, Mercury, Flora. He created sphinxes for Blenheim Palace and at Stourhead, depictions of Pomona, Bacchus, Minerva and Venus, among others. One of his greatest works, the splendid River God in the Grotto, is also at Stourhead. And there was so much more elsewhere - Punch, Harlequin, kneeling Blackamoors, Shepherds, Shepherdess Fauns, Father Time and the incredible life size Gamekeeper firing a Gun at Biel House.

Much of the lead statuary made at this time was painted, either to simulate stone or in lifelike colors or even gilded. This is sometimes surprising to modern eyes accustomed to the silvery gray of old patinated lead, but in fact it was common practice. Only later in the century was the natural weathering of lead appreciated for it own qualities. Modern restoration of lead statuary from these times has begun to include painted surfaces again. Painted lead statues can be seen today at Powis Castle and Clifton Hampden near Oxford. John Cheere also recommended that leadwork be rubbed down every so often with linseed "oyle" to retain a dark, polished surface.

Statuary was the highlight of these times but, of course, many smaller items were made as well, and much of the 17th and 18th century lead that has survived to this day includes items such as urns, vases and cisterns.

With the advent of the English landscape movement of the late 18th century and its abolition of formal gardens and parterres in favor of the naturalistic pastoral settings, ornamentation in general was largely abandoned and the demand for lead statuary fell. Many of the great lead ornaments were torn down, melted and turned into bullets for wars. It is curious to think that lead originally incorporated as part of some heroic piece by John Van Nost might be now lying under the sod in Lexington, Massachusetts, or some other Revolutionary War battle site!

Thankfully, statuary and urns came back into fashion toward the end of the 19th century, both in England and the U.S., and once more lead returned as a popular material for garden ornaments. Several foundries were opened in the early 1900s, some of which survive to this day. One of these, H. Crowther, still produces a wide range of lead ornaments. Still other foundries have opened in more recent years, making planters, fountains, animals, cisterns and statuary. As gardening gains in popularity and the joys and benefits of a well-made garden become apparent, lead ornaments — so noble and so durable in the harsher climates — have become ever more sought after.

To the modern American gardener seeking to incorporate lead ornaments in a restoration garden, or for that matter any garden, it might seem confusing to glean direction or guidance from all this information as to what may or may not be appropriate. As we have seen, colonial gardens used ornamentation sparingly. However, it may be argued that lead is the most sympathetic of materials for this period. Used contemporaneously in Europe, it certainly was present in period gardens and would have been used more extensively in the Colonies but for the high cost of transportation and lack of domestic production facilities.

The post-Civil War period, with its development of great American wealth, led to the creation of spectacular gardens. Lead ornaments, once again in favor in England, were of course introduced into these great gardens. Later Victorian and Edwardian gardens also used English lead ornaments. Examples of gardens in the U.S. that have significant displays of lead ornaments are the Ladew garden near Baltimore, Filoli in the Bay Area of San Francisco, Winterthur in Delaware and Old Westbury on Long Island.

Fortunately, today there is a wide selection of lead materials available for the garden enthusiast. Since 1987 New England Garden Ornaments, Inc. has imported lead ornaments from England, including lead animal figures, vases, urns, troughs, fountain heads and sundials, to name a few, many based on historical molds.

As Gertrude Jekyll, that famous English garden designer of earlier years pronounced firmly, "There can scarcely be a doubt that the happiest material for our garden sculpture and ornament is lead."