Gingko Lends Itself to Ephemeral Art

The ginkgo wheel from the ground level.

We’ve been having fun at the Garden this week. Maybe a little too much fun!

There are bikes hanging in trees, bike sculptures on their way, bikes in garlands and on holiday trees. There’s even a miniature version of historic Richmond landmarks made out of botanicals in the train display in the Conservatory. (That’s a whole different blog post — stay tuned!)  You can add to that — a giant yellow bike wheel on the ground  made from leaves from the ginkgo tree. If it had to guess, I’d say it’s 50 yards across. It’s that big!

The view of the ephemeral art from the roof of Bloemendaal House.

Earlier this year we wrote about how Director of Horticulture Grace Chapman had challenged the horticulture team here to ‘play’ in their gardens and create something magical, even if it was only temporary. Senior horticulturist Elizabeth Fogel  took it to heart and today took it to a whole new level incorporating yellow ginkgo leaves into bike wheel design. With all the bikes in the ginkgo tree it seems fitting! If you want to see it, come soon, it will be here as long as nature allows.

Bikes in trees and bike wheels out of leaves!

It’s really hard to capture the beauty of this art in a photo. Come see it and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Our executive director Shane Tippett asked the Bloemendaal House roofers to take a photo for us. They were happy to help!