Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

The Azalea Garden hit 95% of the way to peak bloom over the weekend! Get here this week if you want to see it at its best, because how often do you really get to enjoy such an expanse of delirious color?

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

This just in: The first rose of the year has bloomed in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. Let’s hear a round of applause for Rosa blanda!

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Korean rhododendron (Rhododendron mucronulatum) — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Mediterranean spurge (Euphorbia characias 'Glacier Blue')

Gloves, hat, scarf–I brought none of these things when I went wandering the Garden during lunch yesterday. The climate was just so perfectly suited to a stroll. And the greatest benefit of working at the NYBG is that–no matter the climate–there’s something out on the grounds worth visiting. It’s true there’s no luck of a permanent spring with buds and blooms sprouting up from corner to corner, but winter has its own subtle and touching charm.

This season’s odd patterns of sun and darkness make for confusing daytime walkabouts; I hadn’t expected to step out of the office at 3 p.m. only to find dusk creeping along at the edges of the afternoon. Adjusting to this kind of Norse winter is a slow process. (Being a southerner, anything north of Georgia is practically Norway to me.) But I decided that I was already out and about, and despite the settling dark I was going to soak up as much enjoyment as I could from the remains of the day.
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Remember how we promised you, way back in April, that the Azalea Garden is still beautiful in fall? Here’s proof!

Rhododendron ‘Autumn Belle’ in the Azalea Garden (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

Who says azalea gardens are only for spring? Not us. Our new Azalea Garden is beautiful 365-days a year. See for yourself!

Azalea Garden panorama (click to enlarge) – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

In the Azalea Garden

Wamsler Rock

Daffodil Hill

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Arusaema Sikokianum

As you stroll through the Azalea Garden you will see a large number of North American native species and their closely related Asian cousins. Many of these plants share a genus, but have different species names. For example, the garden contains many interesting Asian Arisaema commonly known as Jack-in-the-pulpits.

In botanical nomenclature, plants are identified by a two-part, or binomial, name. A plant’s genus denotes that it belongs to one group, while the species name marks it as a member of a sub-group of the genus. There are many Arisaema in the world, yet Arisaema triphyllum refers solely to a specific Jack-in-the-pulpit, one of North America’s native Arisaema.

Why are there so many closely related species on two continents separated by a large ocean? Many of these Asian/North American counterparts come from a common genetic pool. It is possible to imagine that over time seeds have been dispersed by glaciers, wind, birds, or other animals. While this certainly has occurred it would be more likely to have happened on a contiguous landmass.

The most compelling theory for why these closely related floras are found on the opposite sides of an ocean comes from the scientific theory of continental drift, the process by which the continents have moved apart over millions of years. About 250 million to 65 million years ago, during the Mesozoic era, the landmass Pangaea began to split apart; the northern part of the supercontinent broke off into Laurasia (North America and Eurasia). As Asia and North America drifted away from each other, the plants that had been one genus began to evolve. Time, combined with changes in climate, and range fragmentation helped these once related plants to diversify and evolve into new species. Why are there so many Asian Arisaema compared with only two Arisaema native to North America? During the last ice age, parts of eastern Asia remained ice-free. This resulted in a greater diversity in the flora there.

How do botanists know that these plants are closely related? Just looking at the plants can be deceptive, so they also collect evidence from the fossil record and analyze the plants’ genes in order to determine relationships.

In this video Kristen Schleiter, Curator of Outdoor Gardens and Woody Plants, discusses many of the Azalea Garden’s geographically diverse perennials.

Here’s a closer look at some of the plants in the Azalea Garden.