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Take the Flamenco Train
by DIG-IT
Take a sensuous day trip to Spain this summer. Immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, art, poetry and plants at New York Botanical Garden’s Spanish Paradise: Gardens of the Alhambra, a legendary, 14th-century Islamic palace and fortress in Granada, Spain.
First things first: FLAMENCO! To get there, hike on through the Ladies Border, past the Perennial Garden – well… not so fast. Stop and smell everything, small purple trees, obelisk tuteurs with flowering vines poking through fat hydrangea, spirea and the aptly named Ponytail Grass (Nassella tenuissima) that looks like silken hair. Touch it. Sky Pencil holly showboats above sword-shaped crocosmia, feathery cimicifuga, agastache and startling standards of silver Centaurea cineraria ‘Gloucester White’...
But hurry onward to the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall where FLAMENCO: inside/out, a musical and dance trio perform Flamenco Among the Flowers. Along the way you will certainly daudle in Daylily Walk, but tarry not for FLAMENCO awaits to transfix and transport you to Spain.
Silently, guitarist/vocalist, dancer and percussionist enter and face away. Slowly they turn to an almost primal wail, the a cappella lament of a Spanish blacksmith sung to the strike of his hammer. Excitement builds with Flamenco guitar and dancer clapping, straining to move, as percussionist beats a cajon. It is the song of the capitol of Andalusia danced by a pretty girl with a flower in her hair. An hour later – a heart-swelling, all-out, hot dang finale.
On to the gardens in the Haupt Conservatory where fragrant tropicals abound, representing the use of sensory plants in the original gardens of the Alhambra. Star jasmines, delicate dwarf pomegranate, two scrumptious gardenias that have long become trees next to sensuous large red anthurium. Blue throatwort, bear’s breeches and pots of double musk rose adorn a fountain. Down the exhibit hall the scented plants parade: bay laurel, lemon and grapefruit trees, calamondin, jasmines, coffee, Italian cypress, olive and oleander…
In Poetry Walk in the Perennial Garden, 16 boards of snippets of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poems relate to gardens and the Alhambra. Garcia lived near Granada from 1898 to 1936. These perennial gardens are a must see, no matter the event.
Take time to see Historical Views, a collection of prints, photos, art and objects taken by tourists to the Alhambra. They depict the Alhambra’s history and design.
Don't miss this gorgeous garden this summer and don't miss Spanish Paradise with its fun and very special exhibits.
Spanish Paradise: Gardens of the Alhambra is on exhibit now through August 21. FLAMENCO: inside/out performs only on weekends and special evenings.
More info at New York Botanical Garden: www.nybg.org
** All photos by Mary Jasch
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published July 22, 2011
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