Gardens and Art--Ribbit the Exhibit

Putting art displays in public gardens is trendy. It adds novelty to familiar vistas. I like both plants and art, but often it seems to me that the relationship between garden and art is strained. But I was delighted by J.A. Cobb's fanciful statues, "Ribbit the Exhibit" seen at the Mounts Botanical Garden of Palm Beach County, Florida.

Mounts Botanical Garden was a lovely place. It was broken into a series of gardens with different themes. I liked them very much. For example there was a butterfly garden, a native (Florida) plant garden, a vegetable garden

winged beans

artichoke or close relative

And presiding over the vegetables, Cora the Gardening Frog

Cora the Gardening Frog

The frogs were about 4' tall, the sculptures 7' high if the frogs were reaching.

Farther on we encountered Trevor trimming the hedge

Trevor the Hedge Frog

And Diana, hunting

Diana the Huntress

One of the gardens was a low wet area where they had built an interesting metal walkway. Florida's rains are seasonal (summer) and often the ground doesn't drain well, so temporary wetlands are common. Here they made the wet spot into a garden featuring semi-aquatic plants.

I was there in the dry season. The white sand will be under water in a few months.

And there in the rushes and reeds, a frog

Zenny the Meditating Frog
(close up of her at top of this post)

Some of the little gardens were quite spectacular:

Other gardens showed me interesting plants, for example, stevia (also called sweet herb of Paraguay, Stevia rebaudiana)  the source of the sweetener stevia

stevia plant, Stevia rebaudiana                                      

and a vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia) in full bloom 

vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifera)

Then beside the path, there was Jacques Emile Blanchet, Painter in Plein Aire, at his easel.

Jacques Emile Blanchet, Frog and Plein Aire Painter

The garden had a sign

So I looked the direction Jacques was gazing and snapped the photo below, which I edited imagining Jacques was painting in the style of French impressionists.

"Visiting the Garden"
What Jaccques might have been painting

One last frog, in the insect garden.

Gardens--and life--benefit from whimsey!

Comments and corrections welcome.

Note: these are only some of the frogs in the Ribbit the Exhibit. See the exhibit through May 31 at Mounts Botanical Garden, check A. J. Cobb's website to see where it is after that. 

Kathy Keeler, A Wandering Botanist

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