STORY BEHIND THE ART OF SALLY PETRU

23rd Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists at Wave Hill

Evie Silk Tassel Bush

Garrya elliptica 'Evie'

While serving as board president for ASBA, I felt we had a wonderful opportunity to do something particularly special in celebration of our 25th anniversary. The board met the year prior and had breakout sessions to explore ways in which we could honor this organization. The result was our  Celebrating Silver  catalog, a collection of artwork by members of ASBA through an open call for entry. This was the specimen that I selected to paint. 

I had always wanted to begin a body of work that included natives. I was pleased that this option presented itself to me in such a perfect and timely way. I had just attended our local chapter’s annual exhibition in the Berkeley Botanical Garden and had been looking for an interesting ‘silver ‘subject for the 25th anniversary catalog - and there he was in resplendent silvery bloom! My next step was to procure a cutting. The Northern California chapter has had a 12-year partnership with the garden through our annual exhibitions there. This partnership includes the understanding that, if available, we can arrange for a cutting particularly if it is for an exhibition in the garden. My thanks go to Holly Forbes, curator for UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, who has always helped me when I needed a cutting. 

Garrya elliptica  is a California native, as am I. I came to know this plant while studying plant identification in college. It is found along the coast in California and Oregon and is widely used in landscaping. It became especially popular for ornamental use following the 1977-1978 drought in California as a drought and deer resistant cultivar. 

This specimen was in spectacular, full bloom in January 2019 when I stepped outside of the Julia Morgan Building at the University of California, Berkeley Botanical Garden. Most striking about this large shrub are its long, silvery, pendular male catkins that cascade from branch tips set against a backdrop of dark, dense leaves. The dioecious flowers are concentrated in inflorescences which manifest on separate male and female plants. The cultivar ‘Evie’ has catkins up to 10” in length and tends to be showier than other Garrya cultivars. On closer examination I noted that the silver color comes from a combination of purple, yellow and green features in this very complex set of flowers. 

As with all specimens, I had to act quickly to capture the bloom before it faded. As the flowers wither, they throw off quite a lot of pale, yellow pollen, dusting the entire shrub. Aside from its showy flowers are its waxy convex leathery leaves, arranged in an opposite pattern, with wavy margins. While the top side is quite dark, the underside is characterized by fuzzy, pale green hairs. I had to consider the required dimensions for the Celebrating Silver  publication - an essentially square format. Yet, these long catkins did not lend themselves to a square format. The specimen I was given by garden staff suggested to me that the cascading catkins could be offset by the striking arrangement of the stiff, leathery leaves on its mahogany-colored branch. 

The resulting painting was included in the catalog and shown at the Marin Art & Garden Center in our chapter’s Celebrating Silver  exhibition which hung alongside the ASBA 22nd Annual International exhibition in the fall of 2019. 

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