Here are some unique upcoming classes if you’re feeling crafty:

Artisan Soap-Making
Saturday, February 25, 10AM–Noon
What is the “cold-process” method of making soap? Find out during our Artisan Soap-Making class with Barb Jenness, owner of Dogwood Farm and Dancing Goat Creamery, and make soap the old-fashioned way. Personalize your handmade soap with essential oils and scents to your liking and take home soap making recipes and resources!  Member and non-member fees apply.

Find Barb Jenness’ website or add her on Facebook.

Springtime Arrangements
Tuesday, March 6, 6–8PM
Are you a budding gardener or interested in making beautiful arrangements for your home? Join us on Tuesday, March 6 and get ideas on how to put together a fun spring arrangement. Learn how to use household materials to create an impressive floral piece for very little cost. Member and non-member fees apply.

Follow the link and search for “soap” or “springtime” to sign up for these classes today: https://tickets.meijergardens.org/public/search_results.asp.

You can also check your next Seasons Magazine or head to our Education page to find a list of current and upcoming classes. Happy crafting!

Mike from Missouri shared how he “popped the question” to his wife, Julie, just days after we opened in 1995. He even met Fred! Here is his story:

“I attended college at Cornerstone University and basically watched Meijer Gardens built from the ground up. At some point, I decided that I wanted to get engaged at The Gardens. The day of its big ‘Grand Opening,’ I walked the grounds to look around for a nice place to ask my girlfriend to marry me.

“I told an employee my plan and she thought it was a great idea, so she gave me an extended tour of the gardens. She even suggested the bench near the orchid wall as a perfect place to ask the question. While we were standing around, a man came up to us.

“The employee said, ‘Oh, this is Fred Meijer!‘ She introduced me to Fred and explained to him my master plan. After heart-felt congratulations, Fred gave me four tickets to use at Purple Cow.

“That following Sunday, my roommate and I took our girlfriends to Meijer Gardens—one to become my future bride. Julie and I sat down on the bench I had specifically picked out the previous week. It was time.

“‘This would be a nice place to get engaged,’ I said. I took out of my pocket a fake ring I had purchased from the vending machine at Meijer. ‘Do you want to practice?’ Julie didn’t like the ring much (nor my joke for that matter!).

“I proceeded to put that ring away and then took out the real ring box, opened it and said, ‘How about this one?’ I think it was a good surprise. She, of course, accepted.

“We then left the Gardens and went to the Purple Cow for ice cream—our special treat from Fred.

“We’ve only been back to the Gardens a couple of times since then and each time it brings back great memories.”

Here is Mike, Julie and their beautiful family on that same, special bench.

Thanks to Mike for sharing his proposal story and for creating that special moment at Meijer Gardens.

Do you have a special Meijer Gardens engagement story? Write on our Weddings at Frederick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park‘s wall and share your love story with us!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Cattleya

While orchids are best known for their beauty, some orchids are also wonderfully fragrant.  Perhaps the orchid best known for its fragrance is the Cattleya, with large flowers and a heavy, sweet fragrance. It is one of the most popular flower for corsages; if you ever received one, a single sniff can instantly take you back to that moment. Fragrance can do this—our sense of smell is the best memory trigger.

A variety of other orchids are also fragrant, with essences that vary from fruity, spicy and pungent to minty, chocolaty or musky. Some emit their fragrance all day, while others are fragrant for specific periods of time.

Angraecum

The Angraecum orchid, with pure white flowers, releases a jasmine-like fragrance only at night. Others release their scents for just a few hours in the morning while many reach their peak in the middle of the day.  The timing and characteristics of the scent can be tied directly to the type of pollinator the orchid is trying to attract—bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, and even gnats and flies. The Angraecum attracts a night-flying moth.

In the past, orchid breeders largely ignored fragrance and instead selected for other traits—flower size, shape, number and color. Many breeders are now recognizing that fragrance is a quality that many people value and are creating more crosses with this in mind.

Oncidium 'Sharry Baby'

If you would like to purchase a fragrant orchid be sure to find out how much light it requires. In Michigan, our short, cloudy winter days can make it difficult to provide enough light for orchids requiring high levels of light, such as many cattleya orchids. Oncidium ‘Sharry Baby’ is easy to grow and produces a sweet, luscious chocolate scent. Phalaenopsis (moth orchids) are one of the best choices for beginners with low to medium light conditions.  While many lack fragrance there are some varieties with a light or spicy scent.

With hundreds of gorgeous orchids available for purchase at the upcoming Orchid Show, there is bound to be one that will capture your attention with its beauty and fragrance.  The orchid vendors can help ensure it is also a good match for your home.  The Orchid Show, presented in collaboration with the Grand Valley Orchid Society, will take place at Meijer Gardens on January 28 and 29, 2012.

• Visit a participating museum, garden, zoo or science center during the any eligible “Museums on Us” weekend (first full weekend of each month)
• Each cardholder receives one admission ticket for the day
• Photo ID and your Bank of America card must be shown at the time of admission
• Enjoy!

Meijer Gardens is one of three participants in Michigan. Be sure to let us know if you visit!

Bank of America's "Museums on Us"

Even in books for adults, pictures can be important.  After reading The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by Patricia Klindienst, our Art & Gardens Book Discussion Group agreed that we would have loved to see pictures of the gardeners and their gardens and even to have some recipes using the unique foods they grew.

In this series of essays on the gardens of ethnic Americans, from Native Americans to Japanese and Italian immigrants among others, the author shows the strong connection to the land that these groups of Americans hold.  Though many of us thought the book missed the mark in terms of garden descriptions and discussion of the unique plants each gardener cultivated, we all really came to like each of the gardeners and so wanted to see them and their gardens, see the land and plants they so lovingly cared for…and pick up some new recipes!  During our discussion we even chose favorite gardens or gardeners. Our choices ranged from the gardens of a community of descendants of slaves living on St. Helena Island in South Carolina to a group of Khmer gardeners who had escaped Cambodia’s civil war and genocide by coming to America in 1982 to the vineyard of a Polish immigrant living on Bainbridge Island in Washington.  But even without the recipes and photographs, we found this book to be a great introduction to some very interesting people and their gardens.

Next month we will shift our focus to the art world, reading and discussing Edmund deWaal’s The Hare with the Amber Eyes:  A Family’s Century of Art and Loss.

Art and Gardens Book Discussion Group is open to members of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. Great discussions of great books take place the first Tuesday of each month from 1-3 PM.

RSVP to Shelly Kilroy at 616-957-3144 or skilroy@meijergardens.org

Lying Man

If you attended a concert this summer or had a chance to walk through our newly renovated amphitheater, you may have noticed what looked like a man laying in some shrubbery, gazing thoughtfully at the sky. The larger-than-life figure is actually one of our newest sculptures, Lying Man by Sean Henry.

Sean Henry's studio

Henry’s work is recognized around the world and he is often credited with reviving the tradition of polychrome (painted) sculpture. His innovative approach centers around the human figure paused in quiet contemplation or captured in a moment of simple daily activity.

On Tuesday, October 25, Sean Henry will be the featured speaker at the C. Schoenknecht & W. Paul Sculpture Lecture as part of the Master Lecture Series. The lecture begins at 7 pm.

He will be sharing the history and development of his work along with influences and approaches that define his work. He’ll reflect on his most recent exhibition, “Conflux: A Union of the Sacred and the Anonymous,” currently on display at Salisbury Cathedral in England. Since opening in August, “Conflux” has already drawn 75,000 visitors.

Conflux exhibition

According to the Cathedral’s web site, “‘Conflux’ is a modern update of the pre-Reformation tradition of displaying polychrome figures and is believed to be the biggest single collection of polychrome sculpture in the Cathedral since the Reformation.” Henry himself, in various interviews, has described his sculptures “memorializing the everyday” and “drawing the viewer’s attention to the significance of the here and now.”

Another noteworthy effort is Henry’s Couple, his 13-meter-high sculpture that sits 300 yards out in the North Sea in Northumberland, England. It is Britain’s first offshore artwork. Check out this YouTube video of Couple:

Henry’s October 25 lecture is included with regular admission to Meijer Gardens.

For our guests, we have posted photos of each work in the exhibition. These are intended for personal use only and to aid in ArtPrize voting.

Although this policy may seem restrictive to some visitors, our photography, accessibility and “no touch” policies are meant to provide the best viewing experience for all of our guests, and to protect the artists’ intellectual property rights.

Why Photography of Artwork Is Restricted

The three-dimensional works and installations displayed at Meijer Gardens must be experienced in person—photography and other two-dimensional depictions of the artwork simply cannot capture the many layers of meaning intended by the artist.

Although the ArtPrize competition allows photography of exhibited artwork in many other venues, all exhibitions at Meijer Gardens are subject to our policies.

For complete photo policy, click here.

View photos of all ArtPrize works on display at Meijer Gardens.

“Beauty In the Beast, a Kids’ Tram Tour of the Sculpture Park” is an imaginative and fun way to learn about our sculpture park. The story brings to life a character named Beast, a personified sculpture by Lynn Chadwick featured in our permanent collection. During this interactive tour, kids will learn why Beast is sad and how the other sculptures try to help him. Starting in the Children’s Garden, children and their parents will journey with the Beast sculpture through the rest of park and “talk” to the other sculptures as they try to help Beast.

More than just a tram ride, this interactive experience will have children exploring the sculpture park and learning while they have fun. Sing, act, and dance to help make Beast happy and learn the importance of “just being you!” Parents and children alike will love this engaging tour with its fun activities and upbeat message about self-esteem.

Now through August 27, you and your little ones can enjoy this engaging experience every Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Tours are at 10:30 am, 11:30 am, and 1:30 pm, and cost $3 for adults and $1 for kids.

Check back for more details about our autumn Kids’ Tram Tour!

After three decades together, Los Lobos is still turning out records that are fresh yet true to their roots. Their most recent album, Tin Can Trust, was released August 3^rd and is the group’s first collection of new original material in nearly four years. Starting as a small rock band out of East Los Angeles in the 1970s, Los Lobos hit their stride when they started experimenting with sounds from their Mexican heritage. Their success would eventually lead to tours with Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, U2, and The Clash, several albums, and three Grammy awards. With a long career rarely seen in today’s music scene, Los Lobos is still just as fresh, exciting, and rocking as they were 35 years ago.

Los Lonely Boys first started performing with their father before they were even teenagers. Now well out of their teens, the Los Lonely Boys are more like Los Lonely “Men,” and even more passionate. Under the wing of mentor Willie Nelson, the group found success with 2004’s smash single “Heaven” from their self-titled album. “Heaven” went on to earn Los Lonely Boys a Grammy for Best Pop Performance. Their soulful and raw music mixes with a self-described “Tex-Mex” sound and is sure to delight and entrance concert- goers Thursday night.

Tickets are still available for the August 11 show. Gates open at 5:30 PM and the show starts at 6:30 PM.

“Meijer Gardens is an exciting and fun place for kids and families because there are so many engaging activities,” says Linda Thompson, director of education at Meijer Gardens. “In the Children’s Garden there are artists, musicians, story-times, classic games and ‘storybook characters.’” Now through August 26 is A Classic Summer in the Children’s Garden. Kids can explore the classics in new ways, like during “Stories and Games” every weekday at 10 am.  Classic stories are read and paired with favorite games like Duck, Duck, Goose, hopscotch, and more.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday at 2 pm in the Children’s Garden, kids can engage their creativity and curiosity for music and art by joining a musician with instruments or creating a whole rainbow of garden colors with a local artist.

Have your kids ever wondered how Jack grew such a tall beanstalk? Have they wanted to help Little Red Riding Hood find her way to her grandmother’s house? With an interactive storytime in the Children’s Garden on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30 pm, kids can see classic stories come to life with characters played by student actors from Civic Theatre’s School of the Arts.

Out at the Farm Garden, every Friday is packed with activities. In true 1930s-era style, kids can quilt, experience farm chores, and play old-fashioned games from 1-4 pm.

Every month features a new special family weekend. “Meet Me at the Fair” on August 13 and 14 will feature live farm and traditional fair activities like beanbag toss, sack races and ice cream eating. The “Heirloom Tomatoes” weekend on September 3 and 4 will focus on heirloom varieties with cooking demonstrations, sampling and tomato-inspired games.

Take the fun indoors to the Snell Sculpture Education Gallery where kids of all ages can create their own sculpture park. Arrange the sculptures throughout the miniature park and decide how to landscape around them. When the kids are finished, they can give a tour of their creation using little wooden trams. This unique and interactive activity provides an engaging opportunity to learn about the Sculpture Park and develop critical thinking skills, all while having fun.

Note: All activities occur through the end of August.