A Class 9 chrysanthemum 'Trendy Time,' 2009

On Wednesday, October 5, dozens of Japanese chrysanthemums, or kiku, trained into a variety of styles and displays will join Fall Flowers of Japan in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory! Don’t miss this mesmerizing floral display. In anticipation, we’re taking an in-depth look at these fascinating flowers.

Learn all about spoons, quills, and anemones (chrysanthemums, of course) below.

Kengai display in the Leon Levy Visitor Center, 2010

On October 5, kiku will join Fall Flowers of Japan in the historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory! Don’t miss these magnificent Japanese chrysanthemums trained to grow in a mesmerizing variety of shapes and styles. In anticipation, we’re taking an in-depth look at these fascinating flowers.

What grows up, must come down, at least when you’re growing kengai. Learn why below.

A Class 7 chrysanthemum in the Nolen Greenhouses, 2010

A display of kiku, the mesmerizing art of trained Japanese chrysanthemums, will join Fall Flowers of Japan in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory on October 5! In anticipation, we’re taking an in-depth look at these fascinating flowers.

Head below the jump to learn about pompom mums, and more.

An ozukuri display in the Nolen Greenhouses, 2010

A dazzling display of kiku will join Fall Flowers of Japan in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory beginning October 5. Don’t miss these magnificent Japanese chrysanthemums trained to grow in a mesmerizing variety of shapes and styles. In anticipation, we’re taking an in-depth look at these fascinating flowers.

One plant, hundreds of flowers. Find out how it’s done below.

Japanese chrysanthemums in the Nolen Greenhouses, 2010

Beginning October 5, Fall Flowers of Japan will feature a dazzling display of kiku in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory! Don’t miss these magnificent Japanese chrysanthemums trained to grow in a mesmerizing variety of shapes and styles. In anticipation, we’re taking an in-depth look at these fascinating flowers.

Learn more about these fascinating flowers below.

Today is the Member’s Preview Day of our latest exhibition, Fall Flowers of Japan. And while entrance to the exhibition today is Members-only, we figured we would offer a different kind of sneak peek to our friends in cyberspace. As part of Fall Flowers of Japan, world-renowned ikebana master Tetsunori Kawana has created a gorgeous installation–TANJOU, which means rebirth–in the pool of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory’s Palm Dome. TANJOU is created of materials gathered from Garden grounds in the aftermath of Tropical Storms Irene and Lee.

Head below to see a slideshow of the creation and installation of TANJOU.

Ed. note: Sandy Wolkenberg is a Citizen Scientist who has been working in the Thain Family Forest for three and a half years. Over the course of a week on Plant Talk, Sandy will share a five-part series of posts on The New York Botanical Garden’s Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology Program. If Sandy’s experiences motivate you to want to know more about becoming a Citizen Scientist, check out the Garden’s Volunteer Program page.

The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber.
The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Wisdom of the Sands, (translated from French by Stuart Gilbe.)

Following a major wind storm in the spring of 2010, the volunteers that make up the Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology program walked the trails of the Thain Family Forest scrutinizing each tree. We were mystified by the fact that Tuliptree #93, a giant tulip poplar, appeared to have vanished. We walked back and forth searching for the tree, and then searched again. Where could it be? We noticed a huge root ball attached to a large upended tree that had fallen back into the Forest. We speculated that this fallen giant must be Tuliptree #93. Our suspicion was confirmed during a walk with Jessica Arcate Schuler, Manager of the Thain Family Forest, when she found tag #93 on the reclining giant.  Alas, our first–but not our last–loss.

The circle of life comes full-circle in the Forest.

Ed. note: Sandy Wolkenberg is a Citizen Scientist who has been working in the Thain Family Forest for three and a half years. Over the course of a week on Plant Talk, Sandy will share a five-part series of posts on The New York Botanical Garden’s Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology Program. If Sandy’s experiences motivate you to want to know more about becoming a Citizen Scientist, check out the Garden’s Volunteer Program page.

In the fall of 2008, at the beginning of the Citizen Science Tree Phenology program, the Volunteer Office encouraged those of us participating to find partners to work with. Because of my variable schedule at the Garden, I ended up walking the Spicebush Trail in the Thain Family Forest by myself. These walks often occurred in the early morning when intense sun glare or mist made identification of phenological phases difficult. In retrospect, although I treasured those quiet phenology walks, I had so little history with the program and so very many questions about what I was seeing, or hoped I was seeing, or imagined that I was seeing, that the prospect of walking with other volunteers was compelling. So it was a fortunate time when, in the spring of 2008, phenologists received the following email from Volunteer Services:

The Citizen Scientists band together below.

Ed. note: Sandy Wolkenberg is a Citizen Scientist who has been working in the Thain Family Forest for three and a half years. Over the course of a week on Plant Talk, Sandy will share a five-part series of posts on The New York Botanical Garden’s Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology Program. If Sandy’s experiences motivate you to want to know more about becoming a Citizen Scientist, check out the Garden’s Volunteer Program page.

Now, imagine that it is early to mid-March, the beginning of the spring season. Citizen Scientists excitedly descend upon the Thain Family Forest! We scan the designated trees looking for “emerging leaves.” Protocols describe ”emerging leaves” as follows: ”In at least 3 locations on the plant, an emerging leaf is visible. A leaf is considered emerging once the green tip is visible at the end of the leaf bud, but before it has fully unfolded to expose the leaf stalk (petiole) or leaf base.”

Aching necks and high fives! Learn more about the joys of phenology below.

Ed. note: Sandy Wolkenberg is a Citizen Scientist who has been working in the Thain Family Forest for three and a half years. Over the course of a week on Plant Talk, Sandy will share a five-part series of posts on The New York Botanical Garden’s Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology Program. If Sandy’s experiences motivate you to want to know more about becoming a Citizen Scientist, check out the Garden’s Volunteer Program page.

As volunteer phenologists, we are tasked with observing and entering data on ten different trees in the Thain Family Forest, usually two or three trees on each of the three Forest trails: The Spicebush, Ridge, and Bridge Trails. We monitor these trees weekly for three seasons, winter being the exception. It was all very new and a little intimidating. Sometimes even finding the trees can be daunting after spring leaves reach full size and each tree’s marker becomes obscured. Each tree in the Citizen Scientist Tree Phenology program is marked with a tag about 6 feet from the ground–these tags correspond to the tree’s numbers on the data entry sheets.

So here, come and meet tree #95, Acer rubrum, the Red Maple: