A little break from the Halloween imagery (with just enough orange and black in the mix to keep us in the spirit).

Anemone x hybrida ‘Whirlwind’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

When the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory dome is smack in front of you and the Perennial Garden has your eye wandering, the Seasonal Walk can sometimes go overlooked. It’s a subtle spot, just off to your right if you happen to be facing the main doors of the Conservatory. It’s also one of my personal favorites. The display may not be as plush as that of other collections, but that quality only serves to make stand-out blooms entirely striking.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Seasonal Walk, located to the north of the Conservatory, near the Garden Cafe, is truly beautiful in all seasons.

Seasonal Walk (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

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Sweet smell of phlox drifting across the lawn—
an early warning of the end of summer.
August is fading fast, and by September
the little purple flowers will all be gone.

The End of Summer ~ Rachel Hadas

Seasonal Walk (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

Hello from Leah and Francesca! We are high school students interning for the summer here at The New York Botanical Garden. We are working on research projects for science competitions like the Intel Science Talent Search (Another NYBG high school intern’s project made it into the finals of this prestigious competition this year!). We will both be seniors in September, Leah Buchman at South Side High School in Rockville Center, and Francesca Giordano at Yorktown High School. This summer we are both working on an expansion of projects that we began in the summer of 2010.

Bee on the Seasonal Walk - Photo by Leah Buchman

Leah’s Project

Last summer, I did a study on the diversity of bees within different areas of the Garden. I caught bees in 10 areas of the Garden and learned to identify the bees with help from Dr. John Ascher at the American Museum of Natural History. Using four different indices of diversity–evenness, abundance, richness, and Shannon-Weaver diversity–I was able to conclude that there is a higher diversity of bees in areas that have a greater diversity of flowers.

The specific area of the Garden that has the highest diversity is the Seasonal Walk. This summer I am looking at the gender of bees to see if there is any correlation to the flowers visited. For example I am hoping to answer questions like: Do male bees go to certain flowers while females go to others? Feel free to come stop by and say “Hi!” I will be the girl with the net and bright colored bowls in the Perennial Garden, Ladies Border, Seasonal Walk, and Home Gardening Center this summer.

NYBG Volunteers Clearing Japanese Knotweed - Photo by Francesca Giordano

Francesca’s Project

My research is a study on management of the invasive plant, Japanese Knotweed. Now you’re probably thinking: What is an invasive plant? Little did you know, but plants can be pretty vicious, especially Japanese Knotweed. It is a non-native plant that grows rapidly and blocks sunlight from reaching desired plants. Japanese Knotweed is also known for having an underground stem called a rhizome. This rhizome contains the stores of energy that the plant uses for growing, plus additional reserves. The rhizomes contain enough energy to allow one plant to sprout over 250 shouts just from a single underground stem! Our goal is to increase the diversity of the native plants along the Bronx River by using best management practices to control the Japanese Knotweed.

What we found so far is that two treatments–cutting and grubbing the Japanese Knotweed–are equally effective. In phase two, which is the project I am working on this summer, we will be repeating the same treatments from last year in the hope that they will further weaken the persistent Japanese Knotweed and increase native plant diversity. These plots are located long the Bronx River bank just south of Magnolia Way Bridge. Come check it out and see for yourself! I am also being assisted in my field work by the Explainers and the School of Professional Horticulture, and by volunteers including groups from American Express, Goldman Sachs, and Christodora.

We hope to see everyone here this summer!

Seasonal Walk is an exuberant celebration of the seasons. Never the same two weeks in a row, this beautiful garden was designed by the famous landscape designers Piet Oudolf and Jacqueline van der Kloet. Bordering the Garden Cafe and the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, Seasonal Walk in the early Summer is a dazzling display of sun-loving dahlias, garden phlox, and a range of lilies. At the eastern end of the walk an assortment of plants that thrive in the shade like ferns and astilbes can be found under a stand of trees. Keep your eyes open for the many different kinds of butterflies that flock to this colorful, beautiful garden.

Seasonal Walk, June 30

Astilbe

Fern

Dahlia 'Arabian Night'

Hymenocallis 'Sulphur Queen'

Trumpet Lily 'African Queen'

Easter Lily 'Snow Queen' - Lilum longiflorum

Asiatic Lily 'Pink Twinkle'

Photos 2, 4, and 5 by Ivo M. Vermeulen.

No, not a sunflower. Just a little dahlia. She may be little, but she’s got a sunny disposition!

Dahlia ‘Mystic Illusion’ on the Seasonal Walk (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

We here at The New York Botanical Garden are thankful for you, our visitors. We’re thankful for the beauty that surrounds and inspires us all.  Thank you for being part of this amazing place.

Painting the Seasonal Walk (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. Join her each weekend for home gardening demonstrations on a variety of topics in the Home Gardening Center.

Traditionally, Seasonal Walk at The New York Botanical Garden has been a display of annuals, which kicked off with a massive colorful showing of tulips in spring and reached a crescendo in the summer with an imaginative arrangement of summer tropicals. The season closed with an autumnal mix of mums (Chrysanthemum) and ornamental cabbages (Brassica spp.).

For this year’s Seasonal Walk, the renowned Dutch designers Piet Oudolf and Jacqueline van der Kloet were invited to create a display that drew upon their areas of expertise: perennials, ornamental grasses, and bulbs. The result has been a transformation of the annual border into a multi-seasonal herbaceous paradise. Following, we explore some of the lessons that a design project of this scope has to offer the home gardener.

One feature that is immediately recognizable in the border is the intermingling of permanent and ephemeral plant masses. Perennials are skillfully placed in drifts that flow through the border. They hold the space in the spring as they slowly emerge and fill out until they are cut back as late as possible at the end of the season. They form the structural component in the border.

Tucked in the perennial drifts are irregular shapes that have been left open for the more ephemeral displays—tulips in the spring and annuals and tender bulbs in the summer. While these areas have irregular shapes—they are referred to as batwings and peanuts based on their form— the same shapes are repeated throughout the border, giving a sense of continuity that is important in any good design. read more »

Next year marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York. The New York Botanical Garden will be part of the statewide celebration, bringing a touch of Holland to the Bronx with a Dutch bulb flower show in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory in the spring and a four-season display, including bulbs, along Seasonal Walk. Here we take a look at the planning for Seasonal Walk, which today is celebrated with a ceremonial planting with the designers and HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, among others.

Karen Daubmann is Director of Exhibitions and Seasonal Displays.

Our mission was clear but nevertheless daunting: Design a garden that will look luscious from April to November 2009 and one that has Dutch overtones to fit with the Henry Hudson quadricentennial festivities.

The planning team mulled these thoughts and came up with an ideal solution. And so, with support from the International Flower Bulb Center, the Botanical Garden commissioned world-renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf, a Netherlands native known for his “new wave planting” style, who has paired up with Jacqueline van der Kloet, also from the Netherlands, who is known for her finesse with flower bulb design.

The location for the planting is along Seasonal Walk, two garden beds—one measuring 184 feet by 10 feet and the other 86 feet by 6 feet—nestled between the Conservatory Lawn and the Home Gardening Center. Garden installation began earlier this month and has continued through today’s ceremonial planting.

Since receiving the designs in July our horticultural staff has been busily growing and ordering the mixture of plants for this border. A complex spreadsheet controlled the frenzied process and kept track of sources, sizes, quantities, and inventoried amounts. The planting is an intense mix of favorites and new cultivars, including grasses, perennials and bulbs. In fact, several of the plants are Piet’s own introductions such as Echinacea ‘Fatal Attraction’, Geum ‘Flames of Passion’, and Salvia ‘Evaline’. We have planted 3,389 perennials and 12,100 spring-flowering bulbs. Next spring, we will plant and force 14,500 summer-flowering bulbs, which will add color to the border through the heat of summer.

The project has been exciting to work on. Each plant has been carefully researched and sourced. We tried our hardest to refrain from using substitutes, but in some cases Piet had selected cultivars not yet readily available in the United States.

Be inspired by our design team by reading about them in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune and by coming to see Seasonal Walk.