Stephen Sinon is Head of Information Services and Archives in The New York Botanical Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

The Grand Concourse, stretching over four-and-a-half miles in the Bronx, is one of New York City’s lesser known architectural delights. Now its political and social history is the subject of a new book, Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, by New York Times City Desk editor Constance Rosenblum.

The thoroughfare, modeled after Paris’s Champs-Élysées, was completed in 1909 and saw the arrival of many Art Deco structures housing upwardly mobile Jews in the first five decades of the 20th century, followed by waves of Irish and Italian immigrants.

While Rosenblum explores various aspects of Jewish communal life near the boulevard, she also dissects the rivalry between the affluent West Bronx and the working-class East Bronx, and the racial tensions that led to white suburban flight and the decline and neglect of the area. The first major book to document the rise, fall, and current revival of this century-old Bronx landmark is a must-read for those interested in the cultural history of New York City, urban history, Jewish-American life, and yes, even baseball and the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. read more »

Designer of NYBG’s Rose Garden a Real “Artist and Hero”

John Suskewich is Book Manager for Shop in the Garden.

In Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes, Judith Tankard avoids the pitfall of turning a historical figure into a waxwork and brings to life this pioneering woman who was one of the first important American landscape gardeners. As someone who designed an important feature of The New York Botanical Garden, the magnificent Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, Beatrix Farrand (1872–1959) is of particular interest to us here.

Hers is a great “little Old New York” story. Farrand’s aunt was Edith Wharton, she herself was one of Mrs. Astor’s “Four Hundred,” and Henry James was often a household guest, so she could have coasted. Instead, to a great talent Farrand added diligent study and travel, hard work, a facility for networking, and—for that time and place—a kind of courage. The commissions she attracted after 1900 included some of the most notable country places of that era: Crosswicks in Pennsylvania; the Fahnestock estate in Lenox, Massachusetts; Bellefield, the Newbold family property in Hyde Park, New York; and a slew of blue-blooded landscapes on Long Island.

The author’s chapter on Farrand’s assignment at The New York Botanical Garden is especially noteworthy. This involved creating an elegant design for a public rose garden out of a tricky site while developing a collection of roses that would have aesthetic and educational merit. The ups ands downs and ups of this rose garden reflect in a way NYBG’s own story, and of the difficulties that make landscape gardening such a complicated art, as time takes its toll. But time also tells, and in a volume that contains pages of marvelous photography, this garden is beautifully pictured, here and now, in its current state of grandeur. read more »

Garden Horticulturist Appears for Booksigning as Co-Author

John Suskewich is Book Manager for Shop in the Garden.

The publication of Botanica Magnifica: Portraits of the World’s Most Extraordinary Flowers & Plants gives us an occasion to really celebrate the career of our wonderful orchid curator, horticulturist, and all-around plant enthusiast Marc Hachadourian, the book’s co-author.

As Manager of the Nolen Greenhouses here at The New York Botanical Garden, Marc helps provide the spectacular range of material for the flowering displays that amaze and astonish visitors to our 250-acre Eden in the Bronx. This season, thanks to his propagation skills, the discerning observer would have seen Meconopsis in the Ladies’ Border, the towering Echium pininana from this year’s Dutch Bulbs spring flower show, and the usual killer show of waterlilies and lotuses in the Conservatory Pools.

But of all the plant families, Marc seems to have the greatest kinship for the Orchidaceae. This relationship is beautifully expressed annually in the work he does curating The Orchid Show in the Haupt Conservatory, in the displays he puts on throughout the year in the Library building Orchid Rotunda, and now between the covers of the quite striking new book, Botanica Magnifica. But he doesn’t stop there; he goes beyond orchids and has written more than half the text for the book.

It is an understatement to call this a luxurious volume of flower photography. Botanica Magnifica contains 250 portraits of rare and exotic plants taken by Jonathan Singer “in a manner evocative of Old Master paintings” (ARTnews). He is a Hasselblad Laureate Award winner—like an Oscar for shutterbugs—and his orchid images are especially memorable: the cymbidiums, dendrobiums, and Polyradicion, better known as the ghost orchid, float and fly and drip and droop against their black background with a sculptural quality that belies their transient beauty. read more »

The Art and Impact of Lynden B. Miller’s Public Gardens

John Suskewich is Book Manager for Shop in the Garden.

New York City, famous around the world for its great art, is the site of more masterpieces than you can shake a stick at. The Metropolitan Museum has Monet’s Terrasse a Ste.-Addresse; the modernist icon Lever House graces Park Avenue; you can ponder Louise Nevelson’s Sky Cathedral at MOMA. Here at The New York Botanical Garden there is a masterpiece of garden design, the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden designed by Lynden B. Miller. It is a work of art.

For flower power alone it is astonishing, especially during its current late-summer and fall climax of anemones, astilbes, asters, and mums; of kniphofias, hydrangeas, phlox, and lilies. But like all great gardens it combines its inspired planting with strong design. There are axes and cross axes, themed rooms, grace notes, structural elements, repeated elements, and even whimsical elements like the three banana trees that have appeared this year in the “Hot Color Room.”

It’s all a painting really, a painting made of plants (I believe Ms. Miller was indeed trained as a painter). Look closely and it dissolves into its component plants, but step back and all the parts resolve themselves into one unambiguous image: a classic but unique mixed border that would be at home in the Cotswolds if it weren’t for its very American insistence on being individualistic, eclectic, almost impromptu, and diverse, ready to encompass the whole world with its exotic elements.

In a new book that is a summation of her long career as a public garden designer, Lynden Miller spells out the ethos of this garden and of her whole body of work, without which living in New York City in the 21st century would probably be unendurable. read more »

Richard Pickett is Director of Retail Operations.

At your next family reunion picnic you may run into some long lost relatives. Perhaps you’d think distant cousins, twice removed on your mother’s side, but in fact Lazy Housewife, Radiator Charlie, and Collective Farm Woman are beans, tomatoes and melons, respectively, more likely to be found on your plate next to grandma’s famous potato salad than out back bobbing for apples or spitting watermelon seeds.

By definition, heirloom vegetables are vintage varieties that have been preserved by passing seeds down from generation to generation. Heirlooms have often been selected for taste, appearance, and eating quality, and the demand for heirloom vegetables is rapidly increasing, especially among gardeners looking for unique flavors and freshness. While many heirloom vegetables are now available at farm stands, varieties of tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers are the most popular.

Among edible heirlooms literally thousands of varieties are available, many handed down, others swapped with fellow gardeners, and a growing number purchased from the ever-expanding selection of specialty seed purveyors. For The Edible Garden, the Home Gardening Center’s Lois Loeb Vegetable Garden has been redesigned by Rosalind Creasy into New York’s best heirloom vegetable garden. Using seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, this garden features a bountiful array of beautiful and delicious heirloom vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. Seed Savers Exchange is the foremost organization dedicated to preserving agricultural diversity through the preservation and sharing of heirloom seeds.

At Shop in the Garden, we offer a wide variety of heirloom seeds, exclusively from Seed Savers Exchange, as well a great selection of heirloom tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings. You can also find fabulous garden gear online. So whether you are a longtime heirloom vegetable advocate (and there are many) or simply a home gardener looking for more variety, flavor, and excitement in your harvest basket, give heirloom vegetables a try. Who knows, in our hectic day-to-day existence, it may just be time to find the Lazy Housewife in all of us.

John Suskewich is Book Manager for Shop in the Garden.

With apologies to Cicero but with respect to American eating habits: O tempura! O morels!

The Western diet—based on fats, processed foods and convenience foods, and industrialized agriculture—may be responsible for a host of ills. In the last hundred years or so, it “has changed in ways that are making us increasingly sick and fat,” one food journalist recently commented. Ever more frequently and from many quarters, it is being questioned, rethought, reinvented. So it is that The Edible Garden, the Botanical Garden’s summer-long celebration of growing, preparing, and eating great food, comes at a propitious moment. With the current debate and state of eating in the United States, what do our on-site exhibitions bring to the table? Here are a few sources for perspective on this issue.

Journalist/gardener Michael Pollan is one of the pioneers in sounding the alarm about the American diet. His most recent book, In Defense of Food, argues thoroughly, convincingly, and very readably that good health will come when we reject the current reliance on fast food, food substitutes, food byproducts, engineered food, overpackaged food, overprocessed food, or any comestible with an adjective attached. His manifesto is very close to the mission of this institution—to be an advocate for the plant kingdom—and it boils down to: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

What to Eat by Marion Nestle takes this advice and turns it into a field guide for the supermarket. What is fresh, organic, low fat, reduced fat, no fat, trans fat, polyunsaturated fat, fat free?? For the consumer trying to “do the right thing,” the grocery chain is ground zero in the food chain, but it is a mine field, with marketing, packaging, and processing tripwires that can land you with eggbeaters all over your face. What to Eat analyzes the claims, counterclaims, labels, small print, jargon, subtext, and easy-open cartons to uncover the real truth about the dairy case and the frozen food aisle to make shoppers more savvy. read more »

Stephen Sinon is Head of Information Services and Archives in The New York Botanical Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL), of which NYBG is a founding member, recently presented its 10th Annual Literature Awards. The awards, created to recognize significant contributions to the literature of botany and horticulture, honored three exceptional books this year, all of which acknowledge input from The New York Botanical Garden and all of which can be found in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library. The council is the leading professional organization in the field of botanical and horticultural information services.

The General Interest category was topped by Fruits and Plains: The Horticultural Transformation of America, by Philip J. Pauly. (This title is available at Shop in the Garden.) Genera Palmarum: the Evolution and Classification of Palms, by John Dransfield, Natalie W. Uhl, Conny B. Asmussen, William J. Baker, Madeline M. Harley, and Carl E. Lewis, won the Technical category.

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the awards, a Special Recognition Award was presented to TL-2, more formally known as Taxonomic Literature: a Selective Guide to Botanical Publications and Collections with Dates, Commentaries and Types, 2nd edition. This monumental work, the first edition of which was compiled by Frans A. Stafleu and Richard S. Cowan as a seven-volume set completed in 1988, is one of the most important resources in botanical literature. The current edition was updated by Laurence J. Dorr, Erik A. Mennega, and Dan H. Nicolson and was honored by CBHL for significant contributions to the literature of botany and the study of plants.

In compiling the massive 15-volume reference work, the authors of Taxonomic Literature used the collections of the Mertz Library; now, over 800 linear feet of their original research papers are in the Library’s archives. The CBHL award was given in recognition of the release of the final volume in this set.

TL-2 acknowledges the outstanding collections of the Mertz Library as well as the assistance provided by the staff, as does Fruits and Plains, whose author also consulted the collection several times while working on his book. The third work, Genera Palmarum, acknowledges the valuable input of two New York Botanical Garden Science staff members: palm expert and Institute of Systematic Botany curator Andrew Henderson, Ph.D., and postdoctoral research associate Thomas Couvreur, Ph.D.

Richard Pickett is Director of Retail Operations.

Salvia has been seducing gardeners for centuries. Roman scientist and historian Pliny the Elder was the first to use the Latin name Salvia. The name derives from salvare, to heal and save, and salvus, meaning uninjured or whole. But for today’s avid gardeners salvias, or sages as they are commonly known, are not only used for their culinary and medicinal properties but for their vibrant flowers and easy cultivation in almost any climate.

At the Botanical Garden, you can see several species of Salvia by visiting the Perennial Garden, the Rock Garden, and the Home Gardening Center. The Family Garden has planted a number of varieties as well, including one with dark violet flowers, Salvia ‘Indigo Spires’, and bog sage, Salvia ‘Ulginosa’. And, of course, Martha Stewart used plenty of Salvia in her recent redesign of the historic Herb Garden. You can even download a site plan of Martha Stewart’s Culinary Herb Garden, which will be a feature of The Edible Garden celebration this summer.

If you’re inspired to include salvias in your own garden, be it urban or suburban, you’ll find a wide variety of both perennial and annual salvias in Shop in the Garden, from Salvia officinalis, culinary sage, to Salvia nemorosa, perennial meadow sage, and the unusual annual, black-flowered Salvia discolor.

The genus Salvia has arguably the truest blues and brightest reds of any group of plants and their applications are endless—borders, baskets, herb gardens, and patio pots to name a few. There is room in any garden, terrace, or patio for a Salvia or two. They are deer-resistant, relatively drought tolerant, and attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies. What more could a gardener ask?

New Book by Garden Scientists Identifies Role in Seed Dispersal

Scott A. Mori, Ph.D., Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany, specializes in the classification, ecology, and evolution of the Brazil nut family and is especially interested in plant/animal interactions in tropical forests, including the pollination and dispersal of seeds by bats, the subject of his new book recently released by NYBG Press. Scott co-authored Seed Dispersal by Bats in the Neotropics with Botanical Garden post-doctoral fellow Tatyana Lobova, Ph.D. (now an Assistant Professor of Biology at Old Dominion University and an Honorary Curator of the Institute of Systematic Botany of NYBG) and student Cullen Geiselman (doctoral candidate in the joint program of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology of Columbia University and the Institute of Systematic Botany of NYBG).

This yellow-shouldered bat (Sturnira lilium) is carrying a fruit of Solanum rugosum (a member of the tomato family). The bat digests the pulp surrounding the seeds and passes the seeds unharmed through its digestive tract; thus, the bat receives an important source of food from the plant and, in return, provides a service to the plant by dispersing the seeds away from the mother plant. Photo: Merlin Tuttle, Bat Conservation International

One of my roles as a scientist at The New York Botanical Garden is to inform policy makers and the general public about the ways in which plants depend upon animals for their survival, because conservation programs that fail to take the co-evolutionary relationships between plants and animals into account are doomed to failure. That, in part, was the purpose for writing Seed Dispersal by Bats in the Neotropics, in which my co-authors and I demonstrate the vital role bats play in maintaining the diversity of plants in New World tropical forests.

Bats are especially important as pollinators of flowers and dispersers of seeds, and this has become increasingly apparent as more and more bat/plant studies are published. In the book we review the role bats play as seed dispersers for the first time since A.L. Gardner’s classic paper on the topic in 1977. We present a literature review of all plants known to be dispersed by bats and all species of bats known to disperse seeds. We also present a summary of our intensive field studies of bat seed dispersal in central French Guiana. Our sampling expeditions took us to disturbed rain forest habitats as well as to some of the most pristine rain forests in the world.

Doctoral candidate Cullen Geiselman carefully untangles a bat from a mist net used for capturing specimens for identification and study. Photo: Patrick Chatelet

For over five years, we reviewed the literature on Neotropical bat/plant interactions and carried out field trips to French Guiana. Our basic research technique was to capture bats in the same kind of mist nets normally used to catch birds (see photo), hold the bats in numbered cloth bags until they defecated, and then identify the seeds found in the bags by comparing them to seeds represented in herbarium collections. We would look at the specimens of plants we had collected on the same expeditions that we were netting bats (we netted bats at night and collected plants during the day) and would also use the descriptions and images of seeds we found in the reviewed literature to help us identify the seeds we found in the bats’ feces. Our book includes 32 color plates of seeds that we demonstrated to be dispersed by bats, and this will be useful to help other researchers identify fruits and seeds regardless of where in the Neotropics they are carrying out their studies. read more »

Douglas Daly, Ph.D., is Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany and B.A. Krukoff Curator of Amazonian Botany. He is the co-author, along with Beth Ellis, Leo Hickey, Kirk Johnson, John Mitchell, Peer Wilf, and Scott Wing, of the newly released Manual of Leaf Architecture, published by NYBG Press. In this blog entry, Doug describes the invaluable information the book provides.

Often we can distinguish two unrelated plants just from their leaves, even if the leaves are similar in size and shape, but how do we pinpoint those differences and put them into words? Similarly, foresters in the tropics need to be able to distinguish valuable timber trees from closely related tree species that may be endangered or have poor quality wood, but what characteristics can they use to detect those species? Other scientists who study the plants of the distant past need to be able not only to separate leaf fossils but also to quantify how many of the same species are found at a given site; how can they do that consistently?

Until now, plant classification and identification have relied heavily on flowers and fruits, but these structures are not present most of the year. Moreover, fossil leaves are almost never found together with reproductive parts. Leaves display a wealth of characteristics that can be diagnostic at the level of genus or even species, but there wasn’t a logically ranked system that defined, described, and illustrated these characteristics. My co-authors and I wrote the Manual of Leaf Architecture precisely to provide an exhaustive, comprehensively illustrated reference for thoroughly describing the leaves of flowering plants, especially their vein patterns.

In our reasearch and writing we were able to draw fundamental conclusions about the evolution, ecology, diversity, and management of ecosystems and plant resources, based on identifications and characterizations that in turn are based on leaves. This reference puts all that work on a more secure footing.

Editor’s note: Manual of Leaf Architecture is receiving rave reviews. Lawren Sack of UCLA considers it a major contribution that will “revolutionize the study of leaves” and says it is “analogous to the first manual on human anatomy.” Sir Peter Crane of the University of Chicago calls it “indispensable” for researchers.