Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education, and can often be found hosting gardening demonstrations on Saturdays and Sundays.

Hyacinthus orientalis

Next weekend, I will be teaching visitors to the Home Gardening Center how to properly site, plant and protect their bulbs from hungry critters. It is a demonstration that I enjoy giving every year. We examine a number of bulbs, learn all the basics and then find a few nice empty spots around the Garden to plant. It is one of the demonstrations where I like to get hands-on with visitors, encouraging them to jump in and help prepare a nice display for the spring.

Last week, I made the rounds with a few of the curators and gardeners asking them about their favorite bulbs and planting techniques. The first stop I made was to meet with Jody Payne, the curator of the Rock Garden. I asked her for some good recommendations for the homeowner.

Our discussion started with one of my favorite spring blooms for fragrance–hyacinths. Jody recommended the Festival Series as a good choice. Festival Series hyacinths have a more open form than your traditional hyacinth and they are not so prone to flop over once they are in full bloom. Each bulb produces several flower stalks providing a full display. The Festival Series comes in pink, white, and blue, with a delicious fragrance. They create a nice, naturalistic look in the garden.
read more »

Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education, often hosting live gardening demonstrations for visitors on Saturdays and Sundays.

The other week, I was with the Students of Professional Horticulture, taking them on a walk around the Home Gardening Center while discussing wildlife gardening. Technically, any time of the year presents the opportunity to lecture about attracting wildlife into the garden, but fall is a spectacular occasion.

We passed by one of my favorite asters, Aster tartaricus ‘Jindai’, that was smothered with bees and butterflies–monarchs and red admirals on this occasion. ‘Jindai’ is a compact tartarian aster that reaches three to four feet in height (the species can grow up to six feet tall). It was discovered at the Jindai Botanical Garden in Tokyo, Japan.

This sturdy variety has stolen my heart since it doesn’t require any staking. The large foliage of the aster is full at the base of the plant and then tapers nicely as it extends up the stem. In September and October a profusion of flowers adorns these tall stems, a lovely combination of medium purple ray flowers with bright, buttery yellow disc flowers. The complementary colors play off of each other exquisitely.
read more »

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

The other week I was out in the Home Gardening Center teaching Garden visitors how to divide their favorite perennials. The demonstration ended and several visitors lingered around the display table in the Ken Roman Gazebo, inspecting the divisions and their various root systems.

This is the informal part of the demonstration when we unwind by chatting informally about our gardens, comparing seasonal notes, and planning for our future. It was during one of these conversations that a woman suddenly exclaimed, “You know, what I would really like to grow next year is the moonflower!”

The funny thing is that I had been admiring a moonflower just several nights earlier while downtown in the Financial District. I passed around several pictures taken on my smartphone, listening to the “oohs” and “aahs” of the small crowd.

The moonflower (Ipomoea alba) is a night blooming member of the morning glory family. It is a tender perennial in the American tropics and is used as an annual in the north. It has heart-shaped (cordate) leaves and flowers that are in the typical saucer shape of a morning glory. Ipomoea alba’s pristine white blooms reach five to six inches in diameter and exude a delicious perfume.
read more »

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

It’s like we blinked and suddenly: fall color! For now, the effect is subtle. You might find a few more leaves than average blowing along the grass under the tulip trees. Make your way into the 50-acre Forest and you’ll see familiar reds, oranges, and yellows lighting up the trees here and there. We’re not complaining about the chill in the air, either. But whether the calendar confirms it or not, autumn is dancing its way into New York City, and the NYBG is the place to be.

This weekend is the perfect time to escape into nature and soak up what feels like a second spring. Saturday’s Bird Walk starts you off with a jaunt around the Garden, binoculars in hand, spotting creatures of every sort with our reigning birdwatcher extraordinaire, Debbie Becker. After that, I can’t talk up the Rose Garden Tour enough, especially now that the fall bloom is underway. We’ve had visitors from the four corners talking up the collection on Twitter, and their awe is not misplaced; it’s one of our most popular autumn displays.

We’ll also be joining Sonia Uyterhoeven on Saturday and Sunday for a wrap-up of water lily season. She’s an expert on the planting and care of aquatic plants, so home growers won’t want to miss these open demonstrations around the Conservatory water lily pool. And I should mention Saturday’s Season in Poetry session in the Perennial Garden, for those of you touched with an appreciation for the lyrical. But whatever you choose to do, think about making an entire day of it. No point in squandering this weather with the cold close on its tail!
read more »

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

New York City has made a wonderful commitment to greening up the neighborhood and the High Line is one of its finest examples. It is one of many local initiatives–such as Hudson River Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, A Million Trees, and Battery City Park–to bring nature back into the urban environment.

The High Line is the reclaimed site of an abandoned railroad track that has been turned into a vibrant park and a magnet for city dwellers. People swarm to the park during their lunch break or after work, and it has rapidly become a premier tourist attraction.

The park is emblematic of good city planning. It has user-friendly peel up benches that rise organically from the walkway and decadent chaise lounges that give a spectacular view of the Hudson. One of my favorite spots is the 10th Avenue viewing station. In an age where we are bombarded by electronic stimulation, the viewing station offers a place to congregate and quietly watch the city moving below.
read more »

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

Dusty Miller (Centaurea cineraria)

Sometimes the ordinary can look extraordinary just by making a few changes. This is the case with dusty miller (Centaurea cineraria) in the Home Gardening Center. In one of the beds we have ‘Gloucester White’ growing alongside Salvia ‘Wendy’s Wish’ and Petunia Supertunia® ‘Vista Silverberry’. This is how you would expect to see it in a display–partnered in a nice color combination with other annuals.

In an adjacent bed, however, we have done something different. The same dusty miller, ‘Gloucester White’, has been grown into a standard. The two specimens that you see are between four and five years old. Dusty miller is a vigorous grower and forms a woody stem fairly quickly, making it an ideal candidate for a standard.
read more »

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

As you walk through the Home Gardening Center and peer into the Trial Beds, you will see some unusual sights this year. The Trial Beds are well represented with plants from a number of exotic places such as New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Africa, and Thailand.

When you enter the Garden, the first bed is a riotous collection of oranges, chartreuse, and gold. One of the centerpieces of this display is a plant that is indigenous to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Flag bush, or Buddha’s lamp (Mussaenda frondosa), is a tender shrub. In this region it will grow to look more like a large perennial than a shrub, reaching about three or more feet in one season. It has large white poinsettia-like bracts and small, bright orange flowers. You can place the flag bush in full sun or partial shade. It likes rich, well-drained soil, so remember to amend your soil with organic matter such as compost before you plant.
read more »

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

The other day I was walking through Helen’s Garden of the Senses in the Home Gardening Center and I spied one of my favorite hydrangeas, Hydrangea macrophylla Mini Penny™. These days she is reaching about three feet tall and forms a solid four-foot-wide mass. A profusion of large, pale pink blooms spills over onto the walkway.

The intricate floral structure of this mophead hydrangea means that the blossoms have incredible detail and subtle color changes. Mini Penny™ is a dwarf hydrangea that is ideal for any homeowner’s foundation planting. She plays nicely with other shrubs and perennials and adds a sophisticated flair to any garden. If you plant her, all your neighbors will think you know how to garden–even if you don’t.
read more »

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

The Bedford Gate, opened in April

Last week we discussed the container displays at the Mosholu Gate entrance (the train station entrance) of the Garden. This week we will take a look at the containers that adorn the recently-opened Bedford Gate.

Bedford Gate was created in honor of the new parking garage that the NYBG built adjacent to the train station. Once you park your car in the garage, walk over the Bedford Bridge, cross the street and enter the Garden. The Perennial Garden walk, which takes you past the Home Gardening Center, Seasonal Walk, the Conservatory and the Perennial Garden, is right there. The Garden Café is also situated directly across from the Home Gardening Center. It is certainly a convenient point of entry.

While the Mosholu Gate containers are in full sun, the Bedford Gate is in a shady part of the Garden. Tall trees provide a cool canopy while rhododendrons, azaleas and variegated Japanese hakone grass create the understory planting. The containers at the Bedford Gate are two large, faux terra cotta containers. The display includes some of the annuals we discussed last week. Coleus ‘Red Carpet’ and the golden-leaved sweet potato vine named ‘Margarita’ spill over the edges of the containers. Repeating annuals in multiple container displays throughout the Garden creates a nice sense of continuity.
read more »