InternationalThe flower garden at the Cascade
by Gregory Lima
Published: Friday October 30, 2009 in Cafesjian Center for the Arts
Armenian carpets serve as a major source of inspiration for the design of the formal gardens at the Cascade. Vincent Lima
Yerevan - The flowerbed arrangements at the Cafesjian Sculpture Garden at Tamanyan Park are works of art in themselves. In the aggregate, as they climb up in formal floral beds from ground level to every level of the ascending Cascade, they comprise more than 80,000 precise plantings and the full-time attention of seven gardeners.
The arrangements are designed by the chief gardener, Hacob Hacobyan and his team. No relative of the distinguished artist of the same name, he is a graduate of Yerevan's agricultural college who further developed his expertise working with the municipal greens department. It helps that he has a remarkably green thumb and knows each of his flowers seemingly on a first-name basis.
The designs he implements are well composed, with strong lines and a musicality in the arrangements. One of the major sources of inspiration is the traditional Armenian carpet from the different regions of historic Armenia. A connoisseur of Armenian carpets would find much of the structure and design that is familiar.
But working with living and growing flowers in their seasons differs greatly from working the warp and woof of colored wool. Attractive possible designs are studied in pencil sketches and must be translated and adapted to appropriate plants. Here is the critical area of choice. All plants grow to various heights, some stay put and some spread, while some have glorious but short seasons and others are dependable over all or most of the year. It is the truly pleasant choice of contrasting plants and shrubs to give vivid color and definition as well as texture, fragrance and surprise that is the mark of these formal flower beds.
The effort is backed up by modern greenhouses. The gardens here produce their own seed and grow their own plants to meet needs of each variety and the vagaries of the seasons. Throughout the year there is a reserve in the greenhouses of back-up plants to keep the garden flowerbeds always looking tidy and blooming. The greenhouses are also a place for experiment. There was a brilliantly scarlet rose from China that looked like a promising addition for the gardens in the future.
But more exciting was a shrub called mimosa pubica. It responded to touch by folding its fernlike leaves. Stronger touch and even the stems seemed to cringe, bending away as the leaves fold.
This plant said emphatically that at least some plants have feelings. What kind of a world do we live in if possibly a tree as it is felled is screaming, or the rose we give as an offering of love is weeping as it is cut?
In the greenhouses the mimosa publica was being seeded for possible planting in the flowerbeds. One day the Cafesian Sculpture Garden may have plants so sensitive that they are not only beautiful, they understand the sculpture better than we do.
