By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Photos by Joni Shimabukuro

Floral designer Françoise Weeks has wanted to make botanical shoes for a couple of years. Thanks heaven she finally got around to it: the results are wonderful. 

But what do you do with them before they wilt? Well, Françoise had her friend Joni Shimabukuro photograph them, and the pair turned them into note cards that should delight anybody, either with or as a gift.

You can order for $15 per box (eight cards, two copies of each design) here.

If you like this sort of thing, Carolyn Schmitz puts a Southwestern spin on the same subject (not shown) in acrylics in cactus. Sharon Cohoon blogged it a couple of years ago.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Illustrations courtesy Lowry-James Rare Prints & Books, ABAA 

Botanical prints are an endless delight—especially the old ones. Many are hand-colored lithographs or engravings made not long after subject plants became known, or when there were big enough collections of plants like roses to merit a pictorial catalog.

All make wonderful holiday gifts, when you can find them. Lowry-James Rare Prints and Books is a Northwest source I've recently learned about. Operated by Priscilla Lowry-Gregor and based on Whidbey Island, the business has about 100,000 images, so what you see online represents just  the tip of the iceberg. Nearly all were made during the Age of Discovery (1500–1900). You can get a wide selection of illustrations, matted, for $150 or so, but prices run into the thousands.

I asked Priscilla to name some of her favorite pieces, and she gave me some links you might enjoy following:

Sir Joseph Paxton's Magazine of Botany London 1836-45
Van Houtte's Flore des Serres; Ghent, 1845–1888
Miss Giraud's Flowers of Shakespeare; London, 1845
Miss Giraud's Flowers of Milton; London, 1846
Fruits of New York State; Albany, 1851
George Brookshaw's Pomona Britannica; London, 1817

She also offers a collection of botanical books.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Fall is my favorite time of year, in part because I love the variety and colors of autumn leaves that color up almost every garden. But I want them to color up the indoors too, so I press them.

My technique is simple: I just put dry leaves in a flower press like the one pictured at right and let them dry still further and flatten out before I arrange them. If you don't have a press, put leaves between the pages of an old book (do they make phone books any more?), or even between layers of newspaper with a book on top.

I've put leaves in a shadow box and framed them to hang on a wall, but one of my favorite designs, which was assembled by April and Annette Shelton, is on a round mirror covered with cut-to-size glass that holds the leaves in place. A candle goes on top, where it makes a perfect seasonal tabletop decoration.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Thanks to a tip from Sharon Cohoon, we found these ghostly dancing dresses on Cindy McNatt's wonderful Dirt Du Jour blog. These seem to be made from bent chicken wire "fabric" cut and formed to dress shape, then spray-painted white. As always, your success will depend upon your own artfulness. Good luck: it's a perfect Halloween-weekend project.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

As I mentioned in a previous post, Descanso Gardens planned to install two giant "paintings" composed of plants at their new Sturt Haaga Gallery.

When I paid a visit while construction was still going on in late August it looked like they had an awful lot left to do to meet their deadline.  (The Gallery opens this Saturday, September 17.)

I wasn't sure they were going to make it.  Clearly they have.

A closer look (click on the image to make it bigger) so you can appreciate the textures.

For a preview of the Sturt Haaga Gallery's opening show -- an exhibition of Andrea Baldeck's black and white botanical photographs -- click here.

By Johanna Silver, Sunset associate garden editor

You still have two days to make it to The Sonoma County Fair Grounds in Santa Rosa to check out The National Heirloom Exposition hosted by the folks from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. A team from Sunset was up there yesterday, and we were all blown away by the spirit of the event. It is NOT to be missed.

Here are a few shots I snapped on my phone.

Heirloom apples

Heirloom winter squash display

This guy won the giant pumpkin contest. 

A heritage rooster

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Sounds scary, doesn't it?  But the big bugs that have invaded Arizona aren't going to alarm anyone.  They're pure delight.  They are the way, way, larger-than life sculptures of insects created by the Long Island, New York artist David Roberts.  And they have been a hit wherever they've landed ever since Roberts introduced the series at the Dallas Arboretum in 1994.

Today the Big Bugs arrive at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. 

The ten giant sculptures--the ants, for instance are 25 feet long and 12 feet high, and the dragonfly has a wingspan of 17 feet--will be dispersed throughout the Garden waiting for you to find them. Shouldn't be hard.

The Big Bugs will remain in Phoenix through Sunday, January 15, 2012, and the Desert Botanical Garden has planned several events to make the most of the exhibit.  Big Bug Movie Nights sounds like the one not to miss. The series begins the night of October 1 with Ants and concludes with Arachnophobia on November 16. 

If this sounds like as much fun to you as it does to me--I'd put the 1958 version of The Fly on the top of my list--sign up now.  Space is limited and reservations are required for these screenings.  Call 480-481-8188.

The Moonlight Masquerade sounds like fun, too.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

aerial photo by Scott Dressel-Martin

Above is the form the Corn Maze at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield will take this year.  The 8-acre!! cornfield pattern was inspired by the Exhibition, Native Roots/Modern Form, which is a tribute to the sculptor Allan Houser, whose pieces are showcased throughout the Gardens on York Street.

Now to dazzle your friends, all you have to do is commit this pattern to memory and race through the complex maze with impressive speed.  And, to be on the safe side, maybe download a map to hide in your pocket just in case.

Other options: enjoy the Corn Maze from one of the two 15-foot-tall illuminated bridges overlooking it. Or use a child as an excuse and tackle the mini-maze instead.

The Corn Maze opens to the public on September 9th and will be open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday thereafter through October 30th.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Photo of Gallery by Jill Mamey

The first strokes of the giant plant "paintings" have begun at Descanso Gardens.  See my previous post for more about the Sturt Haaga Gallery, the Gardens' newest addition, shown below, and about the grids which in two weeks' time will be supporting dramatic vertical gardens.

While we're waiting for photos of the fully planted grids, let me share a few photos of Andrea Baldeck, whose giant prints -- not as big as the grids but still huge -- will be the subject of the first exhibition at the new Gallery. 

 Ranunculus

Moonflower

Garlic Scapes

Amaryllis

More about Andrea Baldeck

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge is less than a month away from the grand opening of their newest attraction, the Sturt Haaga Gallery.  The Gallery, adjacent to the Boddy House, is blossoming forth from the old garage.  

There will be two galleries in the footprint of the garage, as shown below.

The new addition to the garage, which burrows into the hill behind it, shown below, will hold a third gallery.

And those enormous--the larger is 20' x 10', the smaller 11' x 8'--grids?  They'll be supporting hanging gardens soon. The plants have been grown and are ready to pop in.

Modular units such as the one on the left will be planted and hung on the grids.   When finished the larger grid will look something like a kelp bed does when you snorkle over it, says Brian Sullivan, the director of horticulture and garden operations at Descanso and the designer of the Sturt Haaga Gallery gardens.  "

"A ribbon effect, loose and flowing."  The smaller grid will be "painted" in a complimentary pattern, also wave shaped but with tighter plants.

Because the support system for the modules is slightly angled, the finished products will look like giant paintings propped against the wall, says Sullivan.  And, like exhibitions in a gallery, the "paintings" will not be permanent.  New versions will be substituted every year or so.

Thought it looked to me like Sullivan had a lot to do before the grand opening of the Gallery on September 16, he says they're right on schedule. 

Though he promised to send me photos as soon as these grids are planted, I was too jazzed about the project to wait.  So consider this a teaser.  When his completion photos arrive, I'll do a follow-up.