Jessica Blohm is Interpretive Specialist for Public Education.

A chrysanthemum blossom, which appears to be a single flower, is actually made up of hundreds of tiny flowers.

Chrysanthemums are members of the Asteraceae (aster or daisy) family. All plants in the aster family are composites. They have flower heads made up of many tiny individual flowers. Other composites include asters, sunflowers, black-eyed Susans, dandelions, marigolds, and zinnias.

There are two types of composite flowers, ray and disc. Some composites have both ray and disc flowers; others have only ray or disc flowers.

The National Chrysanthemum Society defines 13 different classes of chrysanthemums with varying flower forms: irregular incurve, reflex, regular incurve, decorative, intermediate incurve, pompon, single and semi-doubles, anemone, spoon, quill, spider, brush and thistle, and unusual. Many of these 13 classes are on display at Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden. To see examples of each, click here.

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Follow this Step-by-Step Guide by NYBG Adult Education Instructor

John Capobianco, an instructor in the Adult Education Program of The New York Botanical Garden, is a four-time national gold medal winner for chrysanthemum bonsai display. He is president of the Long Island Chrysanthemum Society, a past president of the Bonsai Society of Greater New York, and a board member of the National Chrysanthemum Society.

As Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden makes apparent, chrysanthemums are among the most versatile woody perennials around. They lend themselves to being trained into many different forms.

You can try your hand at chrysanthemum bonsai by creating a slab planting—an arrangement done on a relatively flat stone to depict a lone tree on a cliff or a forest on an island or whatever you may imagine.

Unlike other forms of bonsai, slab plantings start with the container, in this case a flat rock or ceramic piece. It should be oblong; one with steps, crags, or an irregular outline makes it more interesting. Stones have movement and a flow to them. Examine the stone and choose the position you wish to highlight and harmonize with the planting.

Decide on the cultivar you want to grow, and get to work making cuttings or placing an order. Plan on growing more than you will need as some will get damaged and be unusable when it comes time to assemble the planting. Expect to reject about 50 percent of what you grow. You’ll want to use an odd number for the planting group, which makes for a more stimulating design.

To grow your chrysanthemum “trees,” put plants in a few different-size containers—2½ , 3, 4, and 6 inches. Much like the myth about goldfish, the mums will only grow to the size of their environment. Those in the small containers will have less water and nutrients and so won’t grow as thick or as tall. This will ensure that your trees will be of different heights and thicknesses in the group planting.

Pinch the plants to encourage branching into a tree form. If the line of a trunk needs to be altered, you may need to wire the plant to the desired form. This takes skill. Be careful not to break branches, and don’t trap leaves under the wire. Practice on your rejects. read more »

Both Battle Cold, Damp Weather in New York to Perform at Peak

The grounds crew in Yankee Stadium has not been the only team compensating for Mother Nature’s freakishness this month.

Across the Bronx at The New York Botanical Garden, the horticulture team is also doing some fancy footwork due to the weather—manipulating the Japanese-style chrysanthemum “sculptures” in the spectacular exhibition Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden.

For this year’s eagerly awaited flower show, cold temperatures and overcast skies have NYBG staff gardeners giving the mums needed extra light and warmth by bringing them back into the greenhouse.

Specific amounts of light and heat are needed to bring the chrysanthemums into flower. Those needs in this, the final year that the Garden is presenting its most elaborate show, are in direct contrast to what was needed in the first two years of the exhibition. Then, warm, late-summer temperatures persisted through October causing staff gardeners to scramble in order to shade and cool the plants to be presentable for the show.

Always anticipating change and preserving flexibility, the gardeners have grown a backup set of Kiku mums, keeping them outside in the chill all the time. This backup mum set can be moved into the show to replace the first set in case warm weather and bright sun send their flowers past peak before the show ends.

Visitors can appreciate this marvelous manipulation of Mother Nature and see the fruits of the horticulture team’s labor now through November 15. Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden showcases the spectacular autumn landscapes of Japanese gardens, with scarlet maples and golden bamboos against the backdrop of emerald conifers and, when the sun cooperates, clear blue skies. More chrysanthemums than ever are on display in traditional and contemporary display styles, with bonsai providing another fabulous element to the exhibition. On weekends, participate in guided tours, autumn gardening demonstrations, and taiko drumming performances.

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Special Display by Yama Ki Society on through November 1

Michael Pollock is Vice-President of Yama Ki Bonsai Society, whose members will display their bonsai in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory during Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden.

Bonsai’s beginning is shrouded in the mists of time. With origins in either China or India, bonsai (or penjing in Chinese) found fertile ground when visiting Buddhist monks brought potted trees to Japan. When Japan opened up to the West, interest in bonsai, which means “tray planting,” reignited throughout Asia and began to spread to other parts of the world. As the art form continues to reach new areas, new plants are used to create local bonsai. Whatever the climate, there are plants that can make beautiful bonsai.

I first studied bonsai in 1982 with Yuji Yoshimura at The New York Botanical Garden. I was immediately captivated by a mixture of feelings these trees elicited from me: tranquility, calmness, excitement. Unfortunately, a busy career prevented me from seriously practicing bonsai then and I gave up. Twelve years ago, I realized that if I could successfully raise children, I could probably grow bonsai, too. It has been a wonderful journey of discovery and creation ever since. Now I grow between 40 and 50 bonsai. In 2004 I won a prestigious “new talent” competition and was awarded a trip to Japan, where I visited many of the most famous bonsai nurseries, growing fields, and public and private collections.

There are many ways to create a bonsai: starting with seeds or cuttings, buying a plant from a nursery (Shanti Bithi Bonsai Nursery in Stamford, Conn, has been an important resource) or collecting a tree from the wild. Of course, for beginners it takes longer to establish an impressive bonsai, but someone with experience can create a “showable” tree within three to five years. Older bonsai plants bring their own stories with them as they are trained, whether it be the twisted and scarred trunks with old, flaky bark or the bonsai practitioners who have cared for the tree over generations, as is witnessed in Japan and China. read more »

Last Year to Experience this Fall Extravaganza

Chrysanthemums trained in a variety of growing styles, maples aglow in autumn colors, and the soft, rustling effects of grasses and bamboos showcase the splendor and diversity of Japanese gardens in Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden, from October 17 through November 15 in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Courtyards.

This is the Botanical Garden’s third and final showing of kiku—chrysanthemums meticulously trained by Garden horticulturists for up to 11 months and resulting in elaborate displays. Cultivated from tiny cuttings, the plants are pinched back, tied to frames, and nurtured to grow into particular shapes. The four traditional styles (single stem, thousand bloom, cascade, and driving rain) presented under special decorative structures known as uwaya are accompanied by large installations of contemporary styles such as cones, columns, and spheres.

Bonsai, a crowd favorite, is shown throughout the exhibition in the Courtyard and a special display of bonsai will be presented in the Conservatory through November 1. Other happenings during Kiku include educational children’s activities in Japanese Autumn Adventures, a Japanese Plant Tour throughout the grounds, weekend performances by taiko drummers, an art exhibition, Ex Libris: Treasures from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, and a photography show, The Presence of Trees.

Click here to watch video highlights of Kiku.

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Todd Forrest is Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections.

Jessica Blohm is Interpretive Specialist for Public Education.

With comparable latitude and climate as eastern North America, Japanese gardens and hillsides in fall become a dappled canvas of scarlet, gold, and orange, just as they do here. Millions of Japanese travel in cars, buses, and trains to reach a favorite viewing spot—often a rugged mountain landscape or a garden belonging to a temple or shrine—to view the changing leaves and flowers.

Maples (kaede) are the main source of stunning autumn colors along with emerald conifers, bamboo, chrysanthemums (kiku), and Japanese perennials, grasses, and ferns. Beginning October 17, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Courtyards will again come alive with two gardens that celebrate ancient Japanese horticultural traditions and the brilliant hues of chrysanthemums and Japanese garden plants in Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden.

For the past two years, chrysanthemums trained using traditional Japanese methods have been the centerpiece of the Garden’s autumn offerings. This year will be the final showing of this special presentation of kiku, and it will be combined with other elements that make viewing Japanese gardens in autumn memorable.

Garden design has been an important Japanese art for centuries. Many traditional Japanese gardens were closed to the public. Built by the elite for their own use or as temple gardens, they served as places for peaceful worship and quiet contemplation. Gardens in Japan are not simply a collection of plants; they are an interpretation of the natural landscape. Each element has a specific meaning and inspiration.

• Stone provides the framework of the landscape and is symbolic of Japan’s rocky shores and volcanic peaks;
• Water, or an expression of water created with raked sand and gravel, represents the sea, quiet ponds, and mountain streams; and
• Plants, which are a garden’s life-force, represent both physical and spiritual life.

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Holiday Train Show and Japanese Art Exhibit Take a Bow

Another exhibition season ends this weekend with the closing of the ever-popular Holiday Train Show as well as the stunning exhibition The Chrysanthemum in Japanese Art.

In fact, you have the value-added opportunity to see four remarkable exhibitions for the price of one All-Garden Pass admission ticket. In addition to these two shows, you can also see Moore in America, which has been extended to March 15, and The Heirloom Tomato: An Exhibition of Photographs by Victor Schrager.

What a deal—especially in these financially challenging times.

Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden.

Ogiku Swap from The New York Botanical Garden on Vimeo.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
“There are mums and then there are mums,” wrote Adrian Higgins of the Washington Post in describing the stars of the Garden’s exhibition Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthum.

Tens of thousands of visitors have discovered the same, awed by the exquisite beauty of these meticulously cultivated chrysanthemums in a traditional Japanese art form never seen before on this scale outside Japan. “If the stock market has you blue, go to the exhibition and drink in the uplifting display,” wrote Bill Cunningham in The New York Times.

But hurry. The spectacular flower show and cultural exhibition comes to a close Sunday. For an extra special experience, you may want to come this evening from 6–8 p.m. for Kiku and Cocktails, when you can view the exhibition under lights and with the authentic ambiance of live Japanese musical performances.

And while Kiku for Kids also ends this weekend, you may still see The Chrysanthemum in Japanese Art through January 11.

Nick Leshi is Associate Director of Public Relations and Electronic Media.

According to Technorati, the leading blog search engine, millions of entries are posted every day in the interconnected, online world of Web logs known as the blogosphere. As the world of journalism continues to evolve from the dominance of traditional print and broadcast media to the growing user-generated content of the Internet, The New York Botanical Garden has earned the attention of the growing new medium.

Many of the writers have been longtime friends of the Garden. Judy Glattstein writes for the Bellewood Gardens Gatehouse and recently shared news with her readers about Moore in America and Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum. Garden writers Ellen Spector Platt and Ellen Zachos recently debuted a new blog called Garden Bytes from the Big Apple and featured the Botanical Garden.

Many mainstream print publications are making the leap into the new digital frontier. One of the more popular blogs is City Room at The New York Times Web site, where Tina Kelley wrote about Kiku in a blog entry called “Shaping the Chrysanthemums, a Rare Art,” sparking some fun comments from the public. National Geographic’s News Watch blog posted a review by David Braun of Liverworts of New England: A Guide for the Amateur Naturalist, published by The New York Botanical Garden Press. (Order at 718.817.8721 or online.)

Journalists such as Bill Cary of The Journal News, garden writer Irene Virag, and many others have their own blogs. Even some of the Garden’s own staff have ventured into the blogosphere. Check out the personal journal of Chuck Peters, one of our top scientists, for some thought-provoking ruminations. Bookmark them all!

Looking for more? Check out OffManhattan.com, which describes itself as “a travel guide for native New Yorkers and tourists alike, in an effort to promote a ‘greener’ lifestyle,” or the popular BoogieDowner, a great portal for all wonderful things the Bronx has to offer.

There are blogs about art, like Studio-Online, which wrote about Kiku and Moore in America on October 27, and blogs about crafts, like Quaint Handmade, which also spotlighted the Garden in a glowing review about Kiku. Pick a topic and there’s bound to be someone out there blogging about it.

If you have a favorite blog or if you come across one that mentions The New York Botanical Garden, let us know about it. You can e-mail me or just post a comment below. The key to the explosive growth of the blogosphere, I believe, is the line of communication between fellow bloggers and the people reading them. So let us know what you think.

The polls have closed and the final results are in. Voters have made their choice. Time to announce the results of…our Kiku Poll!

Two weeks ago, we asked visitors to select their favorite kiku style and the race was tight. It seems all four display styles have their fans. In an extremely close survey, the dramatic single-stemmed ogiku pulled an upset, coming from behind for the win, earning 30 percent of the votes. In a very close second place was the dome-shaped ozukuri, with 28 percent. The new style, shino tsukuri, and the cascading kengai were tied for third, both with a respectable 21 percent.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote in our fun little election. Be sure to see the displays in real life by visiting Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum, which runs through November 16. This video gives you a preview of what you’ll enjoy.

Kiku 2008 from The New York Botanical Garden on Vimeo.