This painting was ordered as a gift for a beloved mother who has a green thumb and has kept many ferns which were passed down in the family over many years. Designing the painting was particularly fun for me because of my own memories of the multiple types of ferns I was surrounded by for 30 years.
In Gary's garden he had a series of outdoor "rooms." Each area was a different theme. The back yard was tropical, with a koi pond, palms, and a cabana, and the front yard had woodland plants. When you walk through the front gate, underneath a large buckeye tree, planters with ferns and azaleas were at your feet. Because there are ferns that live in forests AND the tropics Gary used ferns as a transition from the woodland to the tropical areas.
On the wall of our house he grew a "staghorn fern" along with "maidenhair" ferns. These flourished with the "drip system" which was activated with the sprinkler timer. On a typical day when he arrived home from work he grabbed the hose in the front yard and watered to "unwind" from the day. No wonder the ferns were so lush there. Our friends, Greg and Diane, called it his "hydro-therapy"!
