I experience our industrial and post-industrial society as having an orientation towards squares and rectangles. These are prevalent around us in every day things - mores than circles, ovals, and waves. Our houses, tables, pictures, paper - all kinds of things are square and rectangular - so many things come in those shapes. The folders on my computer and the window I am typing in - these follow the pattern. What makes this predominant?
The predominance of the right angle in architectural plans is the topic of Why are most buildings rectangular? by Philip Steaman. He answers the question:
"A geometrical demonstration comparing room shapes and room arrangements on square, triangular and hexagonal grids indicates that it is the superior flexibility of dimensioning allowed by rectangular packings that leads to their predominance". His article is HERE.
So rectangular it is for many things - efficiency. There might be more than this. In a tutorial on how to use shapes creatively at visme.co the ideas and feelings of shapes are outlined :
Squares and rectangles are reliable, give stability and suggest order
Circles represent completion, wholeness and harmony
Pentagons, hexagons, octagons give designs a unique feel. They can also be used to portray an already known use of the shape.
So in addition to efficiency, we get reliability, stability and order. Squares and rectangles seem to be our chosen sensibility. I would think this has been the case since ancient Greece and Rome when geometry was explored and recorded. I wonder what would change this progression? Can we evolve to another set of shapes? I don't see easy answers in my search, so will pursue this in the future.
We move to our pictures today - taken in the Niagara Street arboretum where the weeping cherry tree is located. It is the subject of the last picture.
We don't usually think of November as a 'highlights in the garden' month. And yet this is the start of Autumn colours for Japanese Maples, Dawn Redwoods, Cypress, and Weeping Willows. Our pictures show the turning colours of Hosta leaves in my garden.
The Chrysanthemum is the 'birth flower' of November. Longwood announced its Thousand Bloom Chrysanthemum Tree has more than a thousand blossoms again this year - 1,523 flowers on a single stem. The link takes you to a youtube video showing the growing technique over its 18 month life.
Close by to me are the Chrysanthemum Festivals of Gage Park in Hamilton (finished October 30th), the Niagara Falls Showcase Greenhouses (all of November), and then Allan Gardens and Centennial Greenhouses in Toronto. Their growers have been to Longwood for training and expert guidance, and the results are displays of beautiful, large blossoms standing tall on single stems in many colours and shapes.
