Indigo Imposters

I posted back in May 2009 about how the False Indigo had captured my imagination and gone on to garner the attention of others, the image from my first post about it in 2007 even ending up on a shampoo bottle. Incidentally that first post remains the second most popular post on this site, ever.

In April 2010, Charleston Mag contacted me for permission to use that very popular image to illustrate their article Meet the Imposter and with perfect internet manners credited me as the author of that image and added a link to my site.  I say 'that very popular image' because I've discovered, since google now allows you to search for an image by it's url (or by dragging the image into the searchbox), that image has been used by quite a lot of people without the exquisite manners of Charleston Mag.

I don't have a *huge* problem with this as I subscribe to the notion of Dandelion Thinking ie if you are going to put 'work' on the wild web then you should allow the winds of the Internet to toss your works to every corner of the globe. It actually makes me happy to see 'my' images illustrating discussions on forums, or being posted as a source of inspiration. In these cases, proper credit is nice but, I get it- maybe you dragged it into a folder and forgot its original source. No big deal. Neither is it necessary to reach out to me to seek permission or even add a link, I'm perfectly fine with just a text credit simply because a random search sometimes digs those up too.

However, when I google 'False Indigo' and see 'my' image in the first page of results but it links to a commercial garden center it gets to be a little peeve worthy. If you are going to profit from it's use, I think a proper credit is called for. Or even better, an offer for a packet of seed would have been nice. If you are a journalist or a respected garden blogger, I think some effort should be made to either name or link back to the author especially if in the case of the former, you state at the end of each post that your own material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I do realize, the onus is on me to protect my own work. I don't however love the idea of slapping a huge copyright or name in the middle of the photo. I used to post a bigger version of my framed post image, which is probably how that original image self seeded all over the web, but have since discontinued that practise. I also understand that where the line is drawn in these matters is also relative to your personal views. I 'curate' or 'aggregate' things by other people I like on the web myself,  always with a link to the source but not necessarily by contacting the author first. I think this is ok but there may be others who don't.

It's also worth noting that it's getting easier to use someone else's image albeit with the ability to easily link or credit via inherent software of tumbling or reblogging or the latest player - Pinterest. This is, I think, a good thing as the value of images drops in relation to the vast amount that is produced and floating around on the interwebs. When someone thinks your image is good enough to pin or tumble or talk about or mash it up into a new expression or idea then I'm all for it.

Also worth noting that taking pictures and posting on the web aka 'sharing' is now a completely new experience from before. Point and shoot quality images can be taken with your phone and immediately sent to the web. With Google plus, it does it automatically and then you decide later if you want to share it. Again, I like this, as an important facet of 'gardening', the 'looking at' part, is now something you can do online. Also, researching, thank goodness for all those images and accompanying titles and posts to help discover what that plant was that you saw. On that note I'll end positively to say I am thrilled to see that 'my' image of Baptisia Australis has played a noteworthy role in helping people identify and enjoy this lovely plant - perhaps you even bought one because of it.

Indigo Chronicles

I discovered the virtues of Wild Blue Indigo or False Indigo by accident. I bought a plant one weekend up in Rhode Island and stuck it into the front border of our shared summer house asking it to perform what every plant in that border had to do - survive on care and watering only once a week when we were there. It did quite magnificently so it was an easy shoo in for the Mamaroneck garden years later.

Probably with conditions that suited it a little better, lots of afternoon light but not as exposed as it was in Westerly, its been one of the star performers, returning every year for a spectacular show. It's become a source of inspiration- its color driving the selection of all other blue flowers in the flower beds - I've been restricting them to only blues with a lavender or indigo cast. I've made graphic art, photographed flowers in this color scheme, and made a flipbook called Mood Indigo that has had close to 5000 views.

The word search for this plant is probably the most frequent draw to this blog - when I occasionally look at the analytics- it's almost always in the top five. I've had success with not just it's name - one day this image caught the attention of the owner of Pure Life Soap who was looking for an image to put on their product Wild Indigo Shampoo and Conditioner. And there it landed. Last weekend, the deep indigo buds in the picture above kicked off a new season , a few days later, my parcel of goodies arrived. I bartered the use of the image for a supply of quite delightful organic, botanical shampoos, creams, conditioners, lotions and soaps - they're listed here.

What next for the fair Indigo, who knows, its been a pretty cool ride so far.

+ GreenKraft:Design for a living World

Mood Indigo

I posted back in December that I really liked Pantone's color of the year a blue purple that I had an interest in. I want to expand on that with a theme I'm calling Mood indigo. Indigo is technically defined as the color between blue and violet so I'm using that term loosely to look at flowers that span the color range between blue and purple.

Sometimes going back to a subject reinforces certain ideas- one here is that blue flowers look really good together in a monochromatic border. This is borne out in some of the private gardens in Provincetown pictured here as well as the Shakespeare garden in Central Park. Its interesting to read that this held true back in 1901 when Old Time Gardens was published. See this excerpt- where the author reknown North Eastern gardener Alice Morse Earle, writes about "The Blue Border" and names many plants pictured above and many more.

I've been using this blue purple in my work recently - combining it with yellows that tend green and oranges that tend yellow. If you look at page 4 with the Alchemilla Mollis and and at page 6 with the purplish asters with yellow, orange-ish eyes, you can see how well these colors harmonize. One thing I noticed in the moment of taking some of those photos was how luminous the bluer end of this range looks in shade or contrasted against a dark wall or background- see the delphiniums on page 11 or the pansies at the feet of the hostas on page 16. The best example is actuallly the last page- the photo doesn't really do justice to how those Tradescantia glowed in the deep shade. Something that occured to me after I put the photo series together is how much I like the purple Artichoke and Clematis Jackmanii against a white wall or paintwork on pages 12 and 13.

Of all the gardens, I really liked the part of the Shakespeare garden where this color palette was planted in almost a glen like setting with plenty of cool upright ferns, the sculptural shapes of the purplish alliums and intense shots of color from the pansies. The overall effect was beautiful but calming and meditative.

False Indigo

Without fail, every year the False Indigo or Baptisia Australis returns and puts on a spectacular show at around this time. Its commanding size and gorgeous spikes of indigo flowers are really a show stopper going head to head with the peony thats right next to it (which will take its turn in the spotlight very shortly). I discovered this plant years ago when I put one into the flower border at the summer house in Westerly and discovered its tenacity which of course is largely due to it being a native plant, and particularly suited to its environment.