October was a hectic month of stunning Japanese floral displays, pumpkin zombies, changing foliage and a holiday weekend punctuated by tragedy. But if we’re pros at anything, it’s picking ourselves up by the bootstraps! Horticulture can–after all–be an unpredictable business.

After many long months of preparation, the NYBG‘s Fall Flowers of Japan exhibition continued throughout October with a focus on kiku, a centuries-old chrysanthemum tradition requiring patience, skill, and an eye for aesthetic. Our very own Ann Rafalko even took it upon herself to explain just how the talented horticulturists behind these artful blooms do it!

Take a Look Inside Fall Flowers of Japan

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The countdown has begun! At The New York Botanical Garden, we’ll be dropping a much smaller ball when the clock strikes midnight and we usher in 2012. Where will you be tonight when the ball drops?

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

In September, The New York Botanical Garden welcomed back much-loved chef and champion of orange Crocs, Mario Batali, for the rewards of his Edible Garden planted back in April. Mario’s recipes went up on Plant Talk throughout the following weeks, proving a delectable success!

Mario Batali’s Edible Garden Recipes of September
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No, I’m not going crazy, I do realize that it’s winter. But inside the Nolen Greenhouses our horticulturists are already getting ready for spring and summer, and that means daisies! Cheery, aren’t they?

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

In August, we took a paddle-with-a-purpose down the Bronx River, New York City’s only freshwater river.

Bronx River Clean-Up With the Bronx River Alliance

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Foliage is always prettier with water drops.

Joyce H. Newman is the editor of Consumer Reports  GreenerChoices.org, and has been a Docent with The New York Botanical Garden for the past six years.

An arrangement of Andromeda, paper whites, orange ranunculus and other careful selections

Fresh off her exciting holiday decor project for the First Family, floral designer Emily Thompson will be making time in 2012 to stop by The New York Botanical Garden and share some of her creative talents.

Thompson’s work is best known for its sculptural and naturalistic elements as inspired by her native Vermont. Her clients are not only among the internationally famous, such as the Obamas, but include her local Brooklyn friends and restaurants as well. Having studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and earned an MFA in sculpture at UCLA, Thompson eventually moved to New York, where she set up her shop–Emily Thompson Flowers–on Jay Street in Brooklyn’s DUMBO district, one of the city’s premier art havens.
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July at the Garden was hot. Very hot. And the animals that call NYBG home suffered–and coped–right alongside us humans and the plants we care for. Some had an easier time of it than others, like these cheery muskrats!

Chilling Out At the Garden: Wildlife

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I’m sure this little orchid could tell a whale of a tale. It’s too bad that orchids, unlike animals, don’t begin to babble at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve.

Macodes lowii in the Nolen Greenhouses (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is a symphony of color, aroma, and texture in June, so we sent our intrepid Visual Specialists way high up into the air to capture all the beauty.

The Air Up There

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