A DAY IN TULSA –

LINNAEUS TEACHING GARDEN

AND

CIRCLE CINEMA

 The hillside stream at the Linnaeus Teaching Garden, Tulsa.

Photo by Nancy Condit

                                                                        

By Nancy Condit

A year ago this writer heard Barry Fugatt, director of horticulture at the Linnaeus Teaching Garden in Tulsa speak at the Oklahoma Gardening School.  Through a link on the Oklahoma City Museum of Art cinema email, this writer has also been receiving weekly emails on Circle Cinema, an art house cinema in Tulsa.  Lured by the prospect of 500 bulbs in bloom or about to bloom at the garden, mentioned on the website, and the promise of sunny warm weather, I was off.  The weather was chilly, the bulbs had been planted, and eaten a year or so ago, but the trip was a worthwhile.

Linnaeus Teaching Garden

The Linnaeus Teaching Garden is part of the Tulsa Garden Center in Woodward Park at

2435 S. Peoria Avenue

, behind the garden center.  The teaching garden focuses on designs ranging from an English garden to a vegetable garden to a well-planted hillside stream with a little waterfall, and cutting edge garden materials and plants.  The gardens were named for the “father of botany,” Carl Linnaeus.

Without all those pesky bulbs blooming, the hardscape was clearly visible.  The greenhouse was built from rumbled bricks – bricks tossed in a tumbler to knock the edges off them.  Pavers and retaining walls were built from pavestone.

Barry Fugatt, senior horticulturatist, and Julie Powere, assistant horticulturalist,

in front  of the outdoor fireplace made from manmade stone.  Photo by Nancy Condit

The new fireplace was built with lightweight manufactured stone from Impressions in Stone.  “It wasn’t like stone, and it was flat on the back.  The installers from Tulsa Brickworks could plaster it on the back and stick a stone in the middle of the wall (for the fireplace).  It wouldn’t buckle because it was so lightweight,” Julie Powers, assistant horticulturalist said. 

“It’s just as pretty, lighter, and a less expensive way to go,” Fugatt said.  Including the fireplace,  the space for wood storage and the outdoor kitchen, the $30,000 donated outdoor kitchen and fireplace was “a good example for our limited space from six corporate donors.”

The gardens will celebrate their fifth anniversary on Saturday, June 4, with a speaker who owns the genetics right to hundreds of perennials speaking at 10 a.m. in the Tulsa Garden Center, and industrial friends of Linnaeus showing their products.

“This garden is the result of industrial friends, and 250 volunteers,” said Fugatt.

For more information, see the website at linnaeusgarden.com, or call 918.746.5125.  Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with the grounds opening on Mother’s Day from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. through Labor Day. Admission is free.

Circle Theatre

Currently showing at the Circle Cinema is

"The Little Traitor," with Alfred Molina

Circle Theatre, 12 S. Lewis, is a 1928 historic theatre for films, direct showings like the recent HD live broadcast from London of the National Theatre’s production of a new play, Frankenstein, limited release films like the recently shown Casino Jack with Kevin Spacey, and the current film with English subtitles The Little Traitor.  The theatre is still being renovated to expand from two theatres areas to three.  It’s a good space for parties.  This reviewer went to one held two years ago by the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers,

 

The couple I met coming out of the theater “loved The Little Traitor.” Placed in 1948, the film is about a little Palestinian boy who wants the British to leave his home.  A British sergeant (Alfred Molina) catches him, and they become friends.  The Little Traitor is based on Amos Oz’ novel Panther in the Basement.  With English subtitles.

Also showing through Thursday, March 31, are The Last Lions, The Shining, Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, and Winston Churchill, Walking with Destiny, narrated by Ben Kingsley.  Some of these shows may run longer.  Check the website, circlecinnema.com, to see the next week’s showings, beginning each Friday.  Admission is $6.50 to matinees to movies, and about $20 for special events.

Coming up are two events:

On April 1, The Found Footage Festival features footage from VHS tapes found in garage sales, dumpsters, and thrift stores around the country. “Creators and hosts Joe Picket and Nick Pruiher condense countless hours of training videos and instructional tapes into ‘the most sublime spectacles…’  The interactive comedy has been touring the country since 2004.”

At 5 a.m., April 29 – a Friday, which could be a three day weekend, The Royal Wedding will be broadcast LIVE.  Watch it FREE, as Britain’s Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton are married on the big screen in HD.  An English style breakfast will be available from Queenie’s of Utica Square – crumpets, bangers and so on.

Concessions also offer coffee, tea and biscotti,

with assistance from Mary Donnelly.  Photo by Nancy Condit

The comfortable open discussion and HD screen viewing area is completed, as is the bigger smaller theater.  There is also a concession stand, including tea and coffee.  The largest theater is expected to be completed within the year, and the boarded up windows under the marquee will be unblocked then.

The theater was easy to find, since it was a straight shot down S. Lewis Avenue from 21st – coming from the Linnaeus Gardens, with parking in the back.  It’s across the street from a red brick library.  The phone number is 918.746.5156. 

To join the email list, sign up on the website, circlecinema.com for one email a week.

c. Nancy Condit