'Extinct' plant flowers, in Dublin’s National Botanical Gardens

This is a story I have just come across, posted on the RHS website. Apparently just a few minutes drive from where I am sitting, in the National Botanical Gardens in Dublin, an abutilon thought extinct until just a few years ago has produced multiple flowers for the first time.

Abutilon pitcairnense, found only on the small island of Pitcairn near French Polynesia in the South Pacific, was presumed extinct until 2002, when the chance discovery of a single remaining plant by local nursery-owner Carol Warren led to intensive efforts to save it.

The first cuttings, brought back to Ireland by botanist Dr Noeleen Smyth, rooted and produced a single flower in 2005 but were unable to set seed. Now, after several years of bulking up from further cuttings, more than 20 of the plants have burst into flower simultaneously.
"We want to build the most genetically diverse population possible," said Noeleen. "All we have at the moment are clones but we want to see what's happening at a genetic level and get as many individuals as possible."

The original plant has since been destroyed by a landslide, so more cuttings are being distributed to other botanic gardens such as Kew to ensure their long-term survival. It's hoped that within a year or two the plants can be returned to Pitcairn to re-establish a population in the wild.



Original post can be found here http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/News/Botanist-preserves-rare-abutilon

Best Home Design series of Modern Room Flooring at a Penthouse

Wood flooring is one of the best flooring design, here is the sample of the use of wood material on flooring, cabinetry, kitchen cabinet, and another storage system of this penthouse unit. This beautiful penthouse is located in Boston, Just enjoy and see these beautiful home furnishing and it's wooden flooring.

Stone Master, Lew French

When I first started working with stone back in my late teens, I quickly developed a passion for it. All of a sudden I started noticing stonework a lot more, every time I would see a stone wall or an old castle I would stop and take a moment to examine how it was built and image the work that went into building it. As a mason you definitely do appreciate quality stonework at a different level, as you have a pretty good idea at the amount of work that went into it. You also have a great respect for masters of the craft, who motivate and inspire you on a continues bases.

One such master of the craft is Lew French.

I have to admit I only discovered Lew’s work quite recently (you got to love the internet) but was immediately taken by it, and ordered a copy of his book ‘Stone by Design’ straight away.

Lew has been working with stone for a little over 30 years now, producing exceptionally crafted, one of a kind pieces of work, from all things in the landscape to the most amazing interiors and fireplaces.

Lew was born in the small farming town of Zumbrota, Minnesota. He started to work with stone when he was just nineteen years old. He moved to Martha's Vineyard over 25 years ago and has worked on his own stone designs exclusively since.

One of the great things about working with stone is, you are always learning. In Lew’s book he writes ‘I am still amazed at how much I do not know or understand about this simple and basic material called stone’

Lew rarely uses mortar, he believes that every stone has its natural place and fit, and that altering or modifying stone takes away from its natural beauty, this respect and treatment of the stone, is what makes his work stand out, and gives it a real natural and aged look.

Lew's  dry stacking technique, is similar to the one used to build the old walls. In a dry-stacked wall, the stones are laid one on top of each other without mortar, held in place by gravity. However, French's walls and dry-stacked mosaics have none of the gaps or disjointed pieces found in old stone walls. His stones fit tightly together, each fitting seamlessly into the ones around it.

The stones Lew uses are usually not shaped or altered in any way. As he builds a wall, he searches for just the right stone to fit in his designs, a process that can take months. He finds or buys stones and stores them in a field. Some of the stones have been waiting in the field for twenty years, in order to fit into a perfect pattern.

One of the reasons way I am such a fan of Lew and his work, is that I share much of the same respect and views of stone as him, and I can only hope that some day someone will want to pay me, what they are paying him to create a magnificent work of stone art, like these of this stone master that is Lew French.

Below is a video featured from PlumTV's "In the Studio" 2009. If you have an extra few minutes take a look at it. It is a very nice interview with Lew and the photographer who took the photos for Lew’s book, Alison Shaw.


I would like to thank Lew for his inspiration, and for his kind permission to use photos and information from his website http://www.lewfrenchstone.com/

Cool Teen Bedroom Design for Boys and Girls by Hulsta

Boys and Girls need a special thing to celebrate a youth, energetic and cheerful. So, here is the cool teen bedroom design from Hulsta. A series of  zippy, trendy and bring some much needed fun to the bedroom. A teen bedroom should have a simple and minimalist furniture and bed. A simple room decoration will make this bedroom looks more fresh.

My Favorite Photo Meme

This post is part of a Photo Meme. The other day I was asked by fellow garden blogger, and fantastic photographer, Britt Conley from the Photo Garden Bee to partake in a photo meme. Basically the idea is, to pick one photo that I love - it can be of anything - not even garden related but you explain why you love the photo and pick 2 or 3 other photo-garden bloggers you like and ask them to do the same.

I must say that it’s actually a far greater challenge than I anticipated, as to pick your favourite photo is near impossible. Fortunately for me I don’t have a fancy camera, so I don’t have a huge archive of photographs (can only imaging what it must have been like for someone like Britt), which makes it a bit easier, but still no easy task. So eventually I came to a decision.

To help me choose, I decided to ask myself ‘which photo brings back the most memories, and amazes me every time I see it?’ And this picture is the answer to that.

A couple of years ago my wife and I spent a few mounts travelling in Australia. Some of our best time was had, bush walking in the Blue Mountains, just a few hours outside of Sydney. It is such a wonderful area (anyway back to the photo) we were staying in a town called Katoomba, and decided one day to take a more civilised walk, so we went to the nearby Everglades Gardens at Leura, what a lovely place it was too. And it was here that the photo was taken.

What amazes me about this photo is that this garden sculpture was sculpted by none other than mother earth herself. These fantastic rock formations can be found all over these area in a larger scale, but what I loved about this piece is that it looks as if it is sitting on a plinth in an art gallery. These rock formations are formed from Triassic sandstone rich in the iron oxide which coloured it with dark red and purple bands. Sandwiched between the ironstone, much softer layers of sandstone eroded at a faster rate over the millennia, leaving a rock face deeply etched with curving hollows and stripes.

So this brings me to the part of the meme where I tell you about some of the garden photographers that I enjoy, and let me tell you there are many fabulous blogs to choose from, you just need to look at my blog role to see that there are allot of very talent bloggers out there. So I decided to choose some blogs I enjoy that don’t get as much exposure as they deserve.

First up (in no particular order) is Michelle’s fantastic blog, ‘Garden Porn’. The title of the blog alone, tickles me every time I see it ‘Garden Porn, Is that a pistil in your calyx or are you just happy to see me?’ This blog is full of all kinds of fantastic things, from delicious gardens to fun and creative garden design and sculpture.

‘Michelle has been sculpting gardens for the past 27 years. She strongly believes that the most successful gardens are those that capture the spirit of the individual and the essence of the site. Together in our unified efforts our team strives to create sculptural gardens that Inspirit the Heart, Imbue the Senses and Inspires the Eye of the Beholder’ http://deviantdeziner.blogspot.com/

Another blog I love to visit is Birger’s lovely photo blog ‘North of Sweden’ This blog is a photo diary of his snowy garden near Norrlänska, Sweden, as well as gorgeous photos of the local area and wildlife throughout the year. Birger himself is Professional musicians and an avid photographer.
Please click on the link or the photo to be directed to Birger’s blog and see some of his amazing photos and some breathtaking Swedish landscapes.And thanks to the fantastic Google translate tool, you can also read his stories and descriptions (well sort of). Enjoy!http://northofsweden.blogspot.com/

Grow our own chairs for national tree week

 1987 Peter Cook

As it is national tree week here in Ireland (7-13 March) at the moment, I thought a tree related post would be appropriate. So what better way to celebrate national tree week, than growing your own chair out of trees!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately as I am currently renting a house in the centre of Dublin city, so I am unable to get to try this out myself, during national tree week, but as soon as I have time to head out to the home place in the heart of the country side of West Cork, I will be heading to our local nursery (which coincidentally, happens to be one of the best in the country www.futureforests.net/) to pick up some native trees to give this a go. If you click on the picture below, it will take you to a page on ‘Arborsmith Studios’ website where you will see instructions on how to create one of the magnificent chairs.

Click on the picture to see instructions by arborsmith on how to create a tree chair.

When researching for my living willow structures post, I came across many of these living chairs.

The idea of creating these fantastic structures has been around for some time.

Richard Reames creations

Probably one of the earliest depictions of a living chair is in a painting by Jean Perreal, from 1516 called ‘Dialogue between the Alchemist and Nature’.

‘Dialogue between the Alchemist and Nature’ by Jean Perreal 1516

 However probably one of the first people to give it a go, was bank president/cheese maker and naturalist, John Krubsack (1858-1941) who, unsatisfied with ordinary furniture said “Dammit, one of these days I am going to grow a piece of furniture that will be better and stronger than any human hands can build.” And that is precisely what he did. In the spring of 1907 he planted 32 box elders trees, then the following spring he gradually began to train the young stems to grow gradually in the shape of a chair. After the seventh year all the trees were cut, making in all eleven years from the time the seed was sown until the chair was finally completed.

John Krubsack 1908

Following him in 1925 was arbor sculpture and creator of the tree circus, Axel N Erlandson.

Axel N Erlandson 1925

Some of the more resent contributions include Peter Cook, (pictured at the beginning of the post) who in 1987 asked himself, "I wonder if I can grow a chair?" The answer to this question is evident in the picture at the top of the post.

More recently in 2000, sixty year old Chinese chair designer, Mr. Wu has been shaping elm tree branches into chairs. It takes Wu about five years to grow a tree chair, during which time he constantly trims and guides it into shape before harvesting it. He currently has one tree chair in his home, and six more in production.

Mr. Wu 2000

Although there are many more examples, the final example I will mention is Arbor smith and sculpture Richard Reames, (the guy who’s instructions above you all will be using to plant your own chairs). Richard opened Arborsmith Studios (A tree nursery/art studio) 1993. He has grown many of these chars, and in 1995 wrote a book on the matter, simply titled ‘How to Grow a Chair’

Richard Reames 2000

So I hope ye are all inspired now, and that you all go off now on this national tree week to continue on this tradition started over 100 years ago!

Happy planting

There are still a number of events on this weekend, right around the country. To find out what in happening in your area, follow the tree council of Ireland link http://treecouncil.ie/tree_council_national_tree_week.htm

Comfort and Relaxing with Swissflex Smart Bed

Comfort and design. The combination of ingenious technology and creative design invokes uni­maginable possibilities. This is the smart bed with the symbiosis of comfort and design offers an entirely new aesthetic sleep experience. Perhaps the most perfect transition from dream to reality. Here are several products of Swissflex. There are a lot of awesome bed series, such as Ambiente series, SF Series, mattresses, and pillows.

This is the Ambiente 500 with smart concept, for endless comfort with a frameless slat base. Timeless, sleek design with stylish, authentic materials and fascinating colour interpretations. Highest comfort combined with luxurious ambiance. The floating visual appearance of the slat base is matched by the body’s sense of near weightlessness. --swissflex--

Contemporary Kitchen Lighting Ideas Project by Mal Corboy:

Kitchen lighting can adding a special value of the kitchen, here are the project of blue lighting contemporary kitchen by Mal Corboy: Here is the description of the project:

The client purchased this penthouse apartment off the plans and has been three years in the making.

The award winning Architect for the apartment project had designed this contemporary complex with very modern simple lines. There is a high degree of glass and natural stone on the exterior. He had sourced European Imported Kitchens for all of the apartments, however my client found that the company could not meet the height he wanted in the cabinetry of 2.4 meters’. A client that I have worked with in the past recommended they commission myself to assist them achieve their perfect Kitchen.

As my clients has been involved with the Professional Motor Sport Industry for a number of years, they wanted a very masculine looking space. To achieve this we eventually chose the Stat Vein Marble and Stainless Steel, which provided an overall strong mono chromatic look to the Kitchen. Bench tops were made 150mm high of Stainless Steel with the Stat Marble inserted into the work surface. I continued the use of the Stainless Steel on the draws, doors and end panel fronts. My clients were particularly fond of Gaggenau appliances and wanted these, to not only match their overall look, but also used extensively within their Kitchen. This required sourcing and importing the Gaggenau fridge/freezer from England as at that time the integrated option wasn’t available in our country. A streamline chromed handle was used on all the cabinetry which were imported from Germany, this gave the Kitchen nice lines and could be used secondary to the Blum electric push release draws. The clients are very design conscious people and coupled with the fact it was twelve months before production began for this Kitchen, I was required to rework the drawings several times as their taste changed as they were exposed to new and different products in the market place. The end result is a very contemporary kitchen which takes peoples breath away when they first see it. This has become a focal point in this large open plan apartment.

Garden Labyrinth

This seven circuit classical hedge labyrinth with enlarged centre, was designed and constructed by
my dad, Fred Wieler in the beautiful gardens, (a labyrinth in it's self) of Hagal Farm - a holistic retreat centre and our family home. Hagal Farm is nestled on the slopes of the Maughanaclea mountains, in the picturesque Mealagh valley near Bantry, in West Cork.

The gardens at Hagal Farm spared out over about four acres, making up a number of different gardens, each with its own character. (but this is another story for another post, sometime in the future) From the car park, little blue sign can be found with the symbol of the labyrinth, pointing down a winding path through some of the wilder gardens. As you wind your way through the gardens, more of the same signs keep you on the right path, to the entrance.

The Labyrinth’s hedges are Lonicera (Lonicera nitida) and was all planted from cuttings approximately five years ago. To walk the labyrinth is about a 360 meter round trip and takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

An ancient piece of local bog Oak makes up the sculptural centre piece.

Summer Shot

Lonicera makes a great hedge, it is easily planted from cuttings and is fast growing. However there is an obvious drawback with this too, it being that, it needs regular trimming. I made the mistake of offering to cut it once, with a hedge streamer, it’s quite a lot of maintenance.

Another big job is mowing the grass, there's no short cuts so when you get to the centre and your mowing is complete, you get to push the mower all the ways around back out again. But it's worth it, and for some people it’s even a pleasure!

The Labyrinth in its second year growing.

Winter Shot

The labyrinth's creator, inspecting the hedges

Video of a swift walk through the Labyrinth

What are labyrinths

'A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. The Labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.

This labyrinth carving 'Hollywood Stone' found lying face down in a grassy lane near the village of Hollywood in County Wicklow, dates back to around the sixth century.

A labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. We can walk it. It is a metaphor for life's journey. It is a symbol that creates a sacred space and place and takes us out of our ego to "That Which Is Within." '

Labyrinths and mazes have often been confused. When most people hear of a labyrinth they think of a maze. A labyrinth is not a maze. A maze is like a puzzle to be solved. It has twists, turns, and blind alleys. It is a left brain task that requires logical, sequential, analytical activity to find the correct path into the maze and out.
A labyrinth has only one path. It is universal. The way in is the way out. There are no blind alleys. The path leads you on a circuitous path to the center and out again.

For all those who wish to see more Irish labyrinths or fancy to walk one, this one and many more around the country can be found on Labyrinths Ireland http://www.labyrinthireland.com/irish.html


And for those of you who are reading this from abroad, you can find labyrinths from all over the world on the World-Wide Labyrinth Locator. http://labyrinthlocator.com/

 Below are a few other living labyrinths from around the world