Glenstone Buildings

A few of the exterior buildings of Glenstone are presented. I am not sure if they were all constructed at the same time. The main museum building is called the Pavilions and houses 11 galleries arranged about an interior water garden courtyard. A few views of the expansive meadows are also allowed from inside some galleries.

The pavilions are landscaped with native vegetation. But, turfgrass is found around another smaller gallery building, administrative offices and pond. Rainwater, the source for all irrigation, is collected and managed.

A small cafe building surrounded by native grasses and paper bark birch.

I think this is an admin building with lots of turfgrass.

Sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly along the pond.

Inside the opening of a sculpture by Richard Serra.

I was yelled at for taking a photo inside, but I was aiming outside to the interior water garden courtyard.

Integrate Art and Landscape

Saturday, our Master Gardeners had an opportunity to visit the new Glenstone museum in Maryland outside Washington, DC. New is a relative term since it officially opened in 2006 with its first building. Others followed over the past few years, and the landscaping continues today. It occupies 300 acres (120 hactacres) of land in the uber-weathly, semi-rural suburb of Potomac, MD and its buildings display 20th century art.

"Glenstone is a place that seamlessly integrates art, architecture, and landscape into a serene and contemplative environment ...Guided by the personal vision of its founders, it assembles post-World War II artworks of the highest quality that trace the greatest historical shifts in the way we experience and understand art of the 20th and 21st centuries. These works are presented in a series of refined indoor and outdoor spaced designed to facilitate meaningful encounters for our visitors."

An urban museum cannot create a rural setting. Landscaping the property began in 2010. On the visit, we recognize sustainability as a major objective through the building materials, permeable pavements, native planting, reforestation, stream rehabilitation, and even the cafe consumables.

These photos give a glimpse of the trails, paths, and landscape. The next post will present some of the spaces around the buildings.


Contour by Richard Serra
All rolling meadows are landscaped with native wildflowers, grasses, and sedges that support the native wildlife and "nurture a native ecosystem."


Split-Rocker -- Jeff Koons
All museums need a little whimsy. This sits atop a hill and is probably the most photographed.



Close-up with its irrigated geraniums, marigolds, begonias, few of which were blooming.

Fallen trees lay where they naturally fell or were cut to support the ecosystem. Lush, green, super-invasive Japanese stiltgrass forms a problematic forest carpet.

Restored stream bed along the woodland trail.

Natural sculpture identification. The "sculpture" was two partially buried sinks.



Native blue flag (Iris virginica)

Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

Native paper bark birch (Betula papyrifera)

Careful little buddy. Don't get run over on the path.

Iris Experiment Disappointment

Several more crossed iris bloomed throughout the past two weeks. The results were a little disappointing. Of the seven or so flower stalks that were produced from the various plant combinations, all but two seemed like spitting images of one of their parents -- either Fantasyland or Frank Adams (from the previous post). There seemed to be no sharing of color combination of the cultivars I was mixing.

This was one of the crosses that appeared a little differently. I see traits of the iris 'Quaker Lady' in the falls of the flower -- they are more horizontal than falling or pointing down. The color is also similar to Quaker Lady. The falls are a lighter purple than the Fantasyland, and the top petals are more lavender than white or the bland color of Quaker Lady.

A conclusion I can draw from this year's results is that crossing the different cultivars I did produced only slight shifts in the bloom colors if at all. And, two of the cultivars either dominated the genetic traits, or the resulting offspring from the other cultivars produced sterile seed that never germinated from the batch that was planted.

For the next experiment, this year I crossed pollen from the black iris with 'Clarence'. Both have ruffled petals, but the pollinator has dark almost black coloration, and the recipient has white tops and light blue falls. I see two seed pods that have developed. Check back in a few years.

Black Iris		Clarence		Quaker Lady