Sherman Gardens: Sculptura Botanica

I've been planning to visit Sherman Gardens for months now.  Under normal circumstances, I visit this small 2.5 acre botanic garden in Corona del Mar three or four times a year.  It's just about an hour's drive south and I generally combine the visit with a spin through Roger's Gardens, one of my favorite SoCal garden centers.  But the last several months have been anything but normal in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic and I've been wary of venturing far from home, especially as reports have indicated that residents of Orange County have been more resistant to public health precautions like wearing a mask and social distancing than residents of Los Angeles County, where compliance is bad enough.  However, a couple of friends visited and were comfortable in the garden so, masks in hand, my husband and I headed that way on Monday morning to see the Sculptura Botanica exhibit before it closes on September 15th.  I took too many photos to share in one post so this one focuses on Dustin Gimbel's sculptures in the garden.  I'll feature additional shots of the garden in a second post next week.

We entered through the back gate off the south parking lot, checked in at gate, and walked into the Central Garden.

Plants in the area surrounding the fountain and the rest of the Central Garden are changed out seasonally

The sculptures in this area are ceramic representations of pollen spores

Blue and orange flowers, including Eustoma grandiflorum (Lisianthus), Gomphrena globosa, Salvia 'Mystic Spires', and dark-foliaged bedding Dahlias were planted throughout the area.  The orange butterfly, probably a painted lady, got with the program.

There's an impressive fishtail palm (Caryota obtusa) in one of the beds surrounding the Central Garden

as well as three very tall palms along the back border

We turned in the direction of the Tropical Conservatory, checking a couple of displays before we entered that structure.

These sculptures in the Perennial Garden border represent anthers, the part of the flower stamen where pollen is produced

Even the Carnivorous Garden got its own sculpture

I missed the sign describing these but they remind me of plants in the Arum genus with a spathe forming a hood above the flower

I adore Sherman's Tropical Conservatory and have more photos to share but that'll have to wait until next week.  For now, we'll proceed to the Formal Garden.

These sculptures represent grass blades

This is an example of the signs posted throughout the exhibit.  I didn't include more of them as the bright sunlight made the photos hard to read.

These sculptures represent the Equisetum described in the sign

We passed a small wedge-shaped garden area before proceeding to the Sun Garden.

It's always hard for me to get a good shot of this area because there's little room to back up

This area features seedpod sculptures and Senecio candicans 'Angel Wings'

This is the Sun Garden.  The sculptures represent the whorls characteristic of many Salvias.

This close-up photo shows some of the while-flowered and silver plants that dominate the bed, including white Dahlia flowers and Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' (or a relative)

Instead of water flowing into the pond through a hose held by the garden's otter mascot, water flowed from a sculpture in the center of the pond

Next, we ducked into the Shade Garden, which is covered by a large lath structure.  This structure was the inspiration for my own lath/shade house, built on a much smaller scale by my husband.  Again, I took a lot of photos in this area but I'll hold most of those until next week.

The sculptures were more inconspicuous among the densely planted shade specimens

This decorative bed was dressed up with more sculptures

I couldn't help admiring the impressive tree aloe (Aloidendron barberae) in the background here