Essays
We will be regularly placing essays by O2 Landscapes staff members or associates in this section of the website. These reflect our respective interests, and cover subjects relating to design, philosophy and horticulture. Amongst these, we will be continually adding plant profiles of native species, to provide a source of information for those wishing to learn somewhat more about the New Zealand flora.
The most recent plant profiles to be added, in June and July 2010, regard the North Cape houpara, Pseudopanax lessonii (ii), a rare Hawke's Bay endemic, Pimelea aff. aridula (iv), the popular groundcover, Pimelea prostrata, the large mountain daisy, Celmisia semicordata ssp. semicordata, the Marlborough Rock Daisy, Pachystegia insignis, the bright green shrub, Melicytus obovatus, and a small flowering shrub, Pomaderris amoena. We have also posted a new essay on the landscape work of the Greek architect, Dimitris Pikionis, at the Athens Acropolis, during August 2010.
Also appearing over the course of the following months will be transcriptions of an eleven-part series of articles, by Christopher Dresser, which appeared in 'The Art Journal' in 1857 and 1858, on the subject of 'Botany as adapted to the arts and art-manufacture'. It is an important examination of a field that O2 Landscapes is interested in; the adaptation of botanical form to art and design.
List of Essays
- Adaptation of archaeological form to paving patterns
- Cultivating Northland's Threatened Plants
- Daisen-in (Kyoto) + Bagh-i Fin (Kashan)
- Dimitris Pikionis and the Acropolis paths
- Northern European naturalistic planting design as a prototype for NZ
- Scrub aesthetics
Carlo Scarpa Essays
- The Architecture of Carlo Scarpa
- Brion Monumental Tomb
- Entrance to the Venice University Institute of Architecture
- Monument to the Female Resistance Fighter, Venice
- Museo di Castelvecchio
Articles by Christopher Dresser, 1857-1858
Plant Profiles
List of Plant Profiles
The profiles of native plants that are provided above are based on our experience of growing these species and, in many cases, of having viewed them in the wild. It is important to see plants in nature, to gain an understanding of the conditions that have shaped them, and also of the aesthetics of natural plant communities.
Each page is devoted to one genus (for example, Clematis), and within a single page there may be descriptions of several species - for example, within the page on Clematis, we currently have profiles on Clematis paniculata, C. forsteri and C. foetida (with more to be added in the future).