The neat thing about the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is that it has no concept of Mondays; no dread of the week to come, or need for three cups of coffee just to clear its inbox. It plugs along, 24/7, looking like a technicolor mosaic until its season is up.

Shrub rose ‘Audubon’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

We’re in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden this weekend with Sonia Uyterhoeven, Gardener for Public Education, chatting about all things roses–basic grower tips, late-season care, and award-winning varieties included. Stop by at 2 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday for the enlightening demonstration.

Rosa ‘Julia Child’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

If you’re moping around your desk on this gray Friday with daydreams of dry shoes in your head, rest assured you’ve got a kindred spirit here at the NYBG. But if there’s any kind of karmic balance in the universe, this weekend should be the payoff, because forecasts are promising a mostly sunny Saturday and Sunday in the city with temperatures to make you think spring is throwing an encore.

In the Perennial and Rose Gardens, that spring sentiment has never been stronger. These spots are home to some of the Garden’s most vibrant fall blooms, as well as many of the last outdoor flowers you’ll see before winter sets in. You’ll want to shuffle your schedule book around to make room for our tours and demonstrations, where expert docents and Garden horticulturists–Sonia Uyterhoeven included–dish out tips and info on rose gardening, autumn chrysanthemums, and everything in between.
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Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is still sashaying through summer with plenty of color! It’s not far from the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, so make a point of stopping in when you come for the “Pickle Me!” activities taking place daily through the end of this week.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Back in January, I began posting photos in a new series tentatively titled “Past in Focus.” I had an aim of seeking out archived Garden images and recreating those scenes as they exist now–to see in today’s landscape hints of the last century. The photographers and I made the decision to wait until the NYBG was in its full spring growth to set out, though; we figured the pictures would carry more drama and gravity if the contrasts ran high, and now that everything is lush and lively, we come to find out that our well-meaning plan wasn’t quite feasible the way we envisioned it.

Last week, Ivo, Mark and I set out with tripods, cameras, a stack of lenses and a crumpled sheaf of old photo copies in hand. I’m not exactly Man Ray, so the other two did the hard work while I tagged along as a notebook-wielding nuisance; certainly they knew the ins and outs of the Garden’s layout better than I did at this point. After only 10 or 20 minutes and a few head-scratching shuffles around the front of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, we were already stymied. Not only were the spring trees too leafy in places for us to tie in many of the landmarks seen in the original photographs, but the actual landscape of the Garden had changed. Hills had been raised, pathways rerouted, new collections added.
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Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG’s Gardener for Public Education.

Gene Sekulow with Bernie Conway, Assistant Gardener

Tuesdays on Plant Talk are generally a time for me to voice my opinions on what we have growing in our plant paradise at The New York Botanical Garden. From time to time, however, I like to interview my colleagues and badger them on their areas of expertise. Today, I am going to share with you a discussion I had with Gene Sekulow–one of the wonderful volunteers helping us to keep the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden growing beautifully.

I first asked Gene to name his favorite rose, and on this topic he waxed lyrical. His favorite bloom in the garden is a 2006 Meilland grandiflora introduction named ‘Mother of Pearl’. He likened the pale pink blossom on the rose to the color of Meggie Cleary’s evening dress in The Thorn Birds. For those of you with a penchant for sentimentality, this is the scene when Meggie glides down the stairs and the besotted priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart, realizes that she is no longer a child but a woman. The dress was a rose dress–as Father Ralph describes, “ashes of roses.”
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Loitering in the Rose Garden? Not a crime (during open hours, anyway). In fact, there may be no better place to dawdle. Now’s the time, too–the roses are reaching their peak this weekend!

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

After last week’s press preview of Monet’s Garden, staff photographer Ivo and I took a short hike to see what we could of the rosarians’ handiwork. The mercury was climbing in lieu of an evaporating early morning chill. The tree shade, in turn, had the afternoon wavering in range of a decent spring temperature. We reached the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden a few minutes later.

Spring’s early arrival (in the middle of winter, no less) made an impression on the NYBG‘s roses, pushing them to bloom ahead of schedule and lining up their peak of color alongside the early days of the Monet exhibition. In fact, we’re hovering at around 90% bloom right now, making the Rose Garden a must-see stop over the coming weeks.

The fine geometry of the garden seems arbitrary at first, but you soon realize how carefully everything has been placed–just as the great landscape architect Beatrix Farrand intended. Airy perimeters of climbing roses encompass dense beds of Grandiflora, Hybrid Tea, Floribunda, and other sustainable cultivars. Bobbing in and about the blossoms are bumble bees, more accurate and methodical than their name suggests. The space is landmarked with concentric circle stonework at the corners and entrance, curving stairways, and a trellised gazebo at the center. Altogether a striking place to walk and reflect.
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Just try and find a couturier who can stitch together ruffles like these! The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is once again making a name for itself as spring rounds its way toward summer. More to come later in the day!

Shrub rose ‘Sharifa Asma’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen