Hello Jo Anne your borders are stunningly beautiful! May the Lord give you those 40 years more of health and strength to pursue what you do. I love the fragrance of tall garden Phlox. I had some in the garden many years ago but I was unable to keep them for long. I will definitely try to get some seeds of these again. I looked at your blog about art. My wife was a professional painter. Sadly she passed away after battling C. 9 years, almost 7 1/2 years ago. She was a great student of colour and she left behind studies in colour that resemble Paul Klee's cubist paintings where she placed in small squares varying colours together to search for chromatic harmony. She had a little book by Ittem that she refferenced in her classes. Then she would chose one and her next painting ( she painted mainly oil on canvas) was painted following that specific palette. We always wanted to translate that technique into the garden. Naturally, gardens so simple in some ways but much more complex than trying to fill an empty piece of canvas has much greater challenges. She's no longer here but the challenge is yet to be attended. Looking at your work I thought that perhaps you could assist me at least how to do that translation. She used that material also for teaching her students how to study colour combinations. The closest I can recall from the art world is that a garden thought of as art form is a passing installation. It is three dimensional much more than plannar. Like an installation the observer is immersed... Modern gardening allows such diversity of colour, diversity and structural /foliar texture that it may be possible to use also her initial colour scheme as elements of colour choice before actually planning the flower beds or borders....Perhaps my quest is an impossible one. I wouldn't be bothered that someone like you that really understands both ( art & gardening) will tell me so. On the other hand those studies are there to be used by someone some way and I thought that perhaps you can give me advice. Thank you Arturo
