Re: Acanthus
gardenchat@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: Acanthus
  • From: Z* <z*@comcast.net>
  • Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2012 13:47:25 -0600
Lucky you!

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 3, 2012, at 10:29 AM, "Johnson, Cyndi D Civ USAF AFMC 412 CS/SCOSI" <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil> wrote:

> I have acanthus growing in a northerly corner next to my house. I'm always
> surprised it does so well because it looks like a plant that doesn't like
> heat. But it's done very well for almost 20 years, getting bigger. It
> flowers regularly, then the foliage dies out in late summer for a brief
> period. Starts growing again in the fall and now it is quite lush. The
> freezes don't make it look good but they don't seem to kill off the foliage.
> 
> 
> Cyndi  
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
> Of Aplfgcnys@aol.com
> Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2012 7:20 AM
> To: gardenchat@hort.net
> Subject: [CHAT] Acanthus
> 
> Yesterday we were taken by a younger couple to see the newly opened Matisse
> exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum.  Chet allowed himself to be pushed in a
> wheelchair, and I took advantage of benches when I could.
> It is a fantastic exhibit which shows paintings of the same subject but in
> different stages or forms side by side, with several showing photographs
> of the developmental stages.      
> 
> In his later life, Matisse had used many botanical motifs - most frequently
> palms, but in his late book illustration period other leaf patterns.  At one
> point the explanatory signs said he was using Acanthus.  My friends asked me
> what an Acanthus flower looked like.  I could not immediately call to mind
> what the flower was, but assured them that it was the foliage that was a
> standard feature of ancient columns.  I guess my art history education goes
> back farther than theirs.
> 
> I have now checked and confirmed that Acanthus is what we popularly call
> Bear's breeches, and I'm still not certain that I have ever seen its bloom.
> It was very interesting to compare the classic examples I remembered to the
> abstracted forms conceived by Matisse.  But as ever, botany is a major
> element in art.
> 
> Auralie
> 
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