Planters Show Gets Off The Ground

LongHouse Reserve's 6th annual “Planters: On + Off The Ground” show, a collaboration between LongHouse’s Jack Larsen and the Garden Committee, opens this Saturday.

From 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. the public is welcomed to the Lear Memorial section of the reserve to view the show’s 24 submissions from invited architects, landscape designers and gardeners. General admission is $20 but only $10 for LongHouse members.

Not only are the plants hand picked, but also each participant designs their containers. Some are carved with human faces, others are made with unusual materials and strange angles and others bear vibrant, bright colors. Every submission seeks to stretch the limits and imagination of how one thinks about a planter.

“It’s definitely our most popular show,” said assistant director Joanne Sohn. “Who doesn’t like flowers?”

Though the submissions will be anonymously judged by the trio of Tovah Martin, Paula Deitz and Jack deLashmet the night before show opens to the public, visitors are encouraged to vote for their favorite — the public ballots will decide the recipient of the “People’s Choice Award.”

Apart from the show itself, visitors are encouraged to stroll the 16-acre grounds starting at 2 p.m. LongHouse, located off Hands Creek Road, opened its doors in 1991. Founded by textile designer Jack Larsen, it serves as an ornamental garden and sculptural art museum as well as Larsen’s own private residence.

The garden works from the likes of Yoko Ono, Willem de Kooning, Dale Chihuly and others and features a walk — past immense chessboards, concrete towers and wooden Stonehenge replicas — LongHouse's director could only call meditative.

 In the words of LongHouse’s Director for the past 17 years, Matko Tomicic, “Get lost or find yourself.”