Too much of a good thing? Delphinium overdose! (a philosophical treatise of sorts)

Matt Mattus in Delphinium land...

 At some point or another, this gentleman will undoubtedly blog about this garden as well--if you don't know Growing with Plants, do click on that link and check in on it from time to time. This picture was taken last Saturday at the International Horticulture Expo in Kunming, Yunnan, China. I attended the EXPO in 1999 (the year they had either 6 million or 21 million visitors) and marveled that such infrastructure could be built for just one summer. Well, I was wrong: it was designed to be permanent and is still there--a sort of overlooked, underrated and simply amazing place. I hope to do justice to the REAL heart of the place eventually, but right now, I want to overdose on delphinium...

Perhaps you live in England, Seattle or Vail, and grow Delphinium hybrids like weeds: we actually do pretty well with them in Denver too (I had one 9' tall in my border this June), but seeing these vast parterres full of them, well, it was a first.

I actually prefer the closeup to the mass--these are really nifty plants. I have never had enough delphinium in my life: I'm crazy about this genus.

I am sure that they don't have these every year--you can see a rogue Cleome in the middle of this bed where there may have once been mass plantings of  those one year here as well...they didn't have Delphiniums here the 20 years ago when I visited...

I think this shot does justice to the mass planting effect. Of course vast drifts of a single plant may please Landscape Architects or Color Field painters, but futzy wutzy Edwardian-era taste types like me are apt to chafe: we like detail and complication...but there's a bit of that in here too!

I believe the columns in the distance are actually planted to begonias and not plastic...I could do without the flags--although it does paint a bit of a picture by contrast...

A little too much white perhaps in this parterre: there were parterre after parterre of the damn things....

You may be bored by now--hang in there: there may be a lesson here...

Only one more picture of delphiniums to go...

I regret I didn't take pictures of the many young people, old people, middle aged people who were taking selfies around the bed and gawking: I was too focused on the furious blues myself on a perfect, somewhat overcast day...

Uniform they weren't--I came to appreciate the mix of blues, lavenders and whites...I think this tour-de-force in Kunming will linger in my heart: I admire the hutzpah of whoever said "let's plant a few acres of delphiniums for the heck of it!"..

Botanic Gardens struggle with the angel of pure botany and horticulture on one shoulder, whispering "be pure, be good--everything wild collected and labeled  and accessioned." On the other shoulder sits a devil--or perhaps it's a seductive, nearly naked goddess who whispers "SPECTACLE, Sex, bring in the crowds and rake in the cash!"

She's the one responsible for this sort of thing at Kunming:

Can we blame them for adding My Little Pony to placate the kids whose parents are doting on delphiniums? We had fun kidding Matt about this (he was at Hasbro when the ponies were trotted out--and was one of their trainers)...he is pretty sure this is a good example of Copyright infringement! Not just kitsch but criminal kitsch!

And Disney likely hasn't authorized Snow White and her retinues appearance among the Gaillardias..
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Matt dubbed this Begoniasaurus--and we all decided consequently that it was kosher garden art.

This might have passed the test IF the sails were real flowers: they settled for plastic there, but the actual junk itself is living floral flesh. The flags have gotta go, however. (I must scan the picture I took of this junk twenty years ago and put it here for comparison)...

We're almost at the end--where I hope I can deliver a Zen slap of sorts... meanwhile, I can't help but smile at the shot above: the monkey is the avatar of the Park--Monkeys and China have a long literary and profound cultural history: so we must give this a pass. Especially since the lovely lady is so gracefully posing with traditional costume along with them.

I tried to photograph the kite he was guiding: there were a bevy of kite flyers at the park--adumbrating the reason I consider this EXPO to be one of the best gardens I've ever visited. It's a hard sell after all the korny kitsch and mass bedding, I know--I had to get that out of the way (which they do too--they've concentrated most of the krap in the first quarter mile or so: there are hundreds of tasteful acres beyond.)

But kitschy or tasteful, the tug-of-war between the purity of vision, the integrity of mission and the need to appeal to the lowest common denominator--this battle is played out in cultural facilities every day. Rarely is this shown so clearly or so well as it was last Saturday at one of the most astonishing public gardens on the planet...hang in there--and I think you'll be convinced!

Meanwhile, forgive me if I dally among delphiniums a tad....