Sonia Uyterehoven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.

I read somewhere that a hummingbird’s wings beat between 70 and 80 times a second, and can accelerate up to 200 beats per second during courtship. They can fly at an average speed of 25 to 30 miles per hour, but can dive at 60 miles per hour. With all this hyperactivity, these birds need sugary nectar to support their high-energy bursts.

Fortunately for them, some flower nectar has about two times as much sugar as the average soft drink. The blooms these birds favor tend to be bright red, pink, and orange–flowers in the shape of long tubes that are adapted to the hummingbird’s narrow bill. However, like other avian species they have a poor sense of smell, so the colorful flowers they pollinate do not have strong fragrances.
read more »

A few of the well-kept secrets growing in the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections, just next door to the Benenson Ornamental Conifers. If you’re lucky enough to be granted access during a Member’s tour, you’ll find about as much behind-the-scenes color and magic as you can handle, and then some.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Sometimes, two photographs end up next to each other in our photo database, and all I can think is, “I wish I had a wardrobe made exclusively from these color palettes and shapes.” Such is the case with these two.

Magnolia x wieseneri (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

Shrub Rose ‘Lady of Shalott’ (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

read more »

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!

read more »

Off on a side table, just inside one of the treated glass superstructures of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections, there stands a spray of stems headed with humble, star-shaped flowers. The aesthetic is nothing wildly exotic–a deep crimson defines the petals. The plant is otherwise unremarkable next to a common garden petunia. And yet the “DO NOT TOUCH” sign hand-written and jabbed in alongside the plant is evidence of its peculiar value. Is it fragile, or perhaps toxic?

Neither in particular. This plant, Petunia exserta, is one of incredible rarity.
read more »

Your vanity garden is scarcely the first place you look for salad toppings. Instead, most turn to the leafy standbys–lettuce, cabbage, kale, spinach. Throw in a few slices of zucchini or a handful of cherry tomatoes, maybe sprinkle the bowl with a few herbs to push the salad toward “exotic.” But what if I told you that eating the florid, elegant blooms that might otherwise end up in a vase is as natural as dousing your Caesar with dressing?

I’m not saying you should go right out and make a trial-and-error buffet of your window planter. There are only certain flowers that you would have any desire to eat, as many are poisonous or taste beyond awful. And that’s all the disclaimer I can give: don’t eat anything unless it is properly identified.
read more »

The flowers get all the glory, but the stems that hold them up can be picturesque, too.

Daffodil Stems (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

To punctuate the beauty of the tenth annual Orchid Show with a glimpse of the prismatic flower pageant taking place outdoors, Friend of the Garden Jim Franco was generous enough to share some of his latest video footage with us. The man clearly has a knack for capturing just what it is that embodies the perfect spring day (and I can say without question that today is one of those days–the packed tour trams are a pretty good indicator if the blue skies aren’t enough).

There are so many flowers bursting to life throughout the Garden that we’re almost having trouble keeping track of them all. But that’s our job. All you have to do is show up, explore, and take in spring’s colors.

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

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