And on Tuesday, Mingle with Martha at a Champagne Cocktail Party
The Garden’s newly renovated Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill will be open to the public again this Saturday and Sunday for a second and final weekend. Visitors can view the landmark building and tour the Stone Mill precinct, which is one of the largest, most varied historic landscapes in New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley.
In addition, this weekend visitors also can delight in cooking demos and fall activities for families as part of The Edible Garden as well as enjoy A Season in Poetry and more (details below)! You’ll also want to save the date Tuesday, September 21, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. to mingle with Martha Stewart at a Champagne Cocktail Party in the Garden.
Kip Wilcox is a chef at Moosewood Restaurant. She will present cooking demonstrations at The Edible Garden Conservatory Kitchen on Saturday, September 18, at 1 and 3 p.m. and will sign copies of her book, Sweetness and Light, following each demonstration.
Fennel is not exactly a household word. Indigenous to the Mediterranean, it is gaining greater visibility on the shelves of supermarkets and in the stalls of farmers markets on this side of the Atlantic. Often labeled with the misnomer sweet anise, a fennel bulb looks a bit like short, broad, greenish-hued, tightly packed stalks of celery with delicate leaves reminiscent of dill. In fact, fennel is a relative of anise and dill as well as cumin, cilantro, and caraway. As an ingredient in cooking, both the fennel bulb and seeds have many of us stumped: How do you slice it or cook the bulb? What does it taste like? What kinds of dishes can include fennel? How do you use the seeds?
There are two kinds of edible fennel. Common fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a hardy perennial herb that grows in the wild and is invasive in Mediterranean climates. It reaches about five feet tall with wispy leaves and beautiful yellow flowers that produce greenish-brown seed-like fruits. Its taproot is long and tenacious, not something you would want to eat. The oil from common fennel’s seeds has been used for centuries as a digestive, diuretic, cough suppressant, soothing eyewash, and breath freshener.
Learn About This Popular Urban Hobby in Dig in! Adult Ed Course
Sara Katz is the Community Horticulturist for Bronx Green-Up, the community outreach program of The New York Botanical Garden, and a hobbyist Bronx beekeeper. She will teach Beekeeping Basics at the Midtown Education Center.
Beekeeping is proving itself an urban hobby, with hives popping up on rooftops, in backyards, and in community gardens throughout New York City. Even the Botanical Garden has two hives in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden.
As a Bronx beekeeper myself, I regularly marvel at the detailed work of the colony: the bright colors of pollen brought back from so many flights, the hoarded honey, and the careful nursing of new life in the brood chamber.
The urban honeybee has faired well this summer, with ample sunshine, and in turn, abundant blooms of plants such as mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum). The leaves of this native perennial make a good tea or can be applied as mosquito repellant. Butterfly bush (Buddlea davidii), a shrub that can tolerate urban pollution and alkaline soils, has tufts of tiny purple flowers on show for months—a perfect plant for pollinators. These and many other flowering plants, from vegetables and herbs to street trees, are visited by bees and other pollinators in great numbers every season.
One Bronx beekeeper who keeps hives behind a rectory abutting the Genesis Park Community Garden has harvested 275 pounds of honey since July. It tastes floral, minty, and may originate in good part from the nectar of white clover, a spring bloomer found on lawns and other open spaces in the city.
Sutton Exhibition at Garden and two Other Shows Launch Concept
Robin A. Jess is Executive Director of the American Society of Botanical Artists, which has its national office at The New York Botanical Garden. She has had a long relationship with the Garden as a freelance botanical illustrator and as the first coordinator of the Botanical Art Certificate program.
It occurred to me earlier this summer that the opening of three major exhibitions of contemporary botanical art in New York City during the same week (September 13–17) would be cause for celebration. I thought that by combining the star power of the three and declaring “Botanical Art Week in NYC,” we could draw more attention to these exciting exhibitions. The hosts of the three exhibitions—Jeff Downing, Vice President for Education at the Botanical Garden, Chris Murtha at the Horticultural Society of New York (HSNY), and Francesca Anderson of Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG)—all agreed that it was a great idea. And so, Botanical Art Week was born.
This fall in New York offers an in-depth immersion in beautiful art that accurately portrays the world of flora. You’ll find works in these shows by noted contemporary botanical artists such as Jean Emmons, Derek Norman, Lizzie Sanders, and Jessica Tcherepnine. You’ll also find the work of talented artists who trained or who teach in NYBG’s Botanical Art and Illustration Certificate Program. Get inspired by viewing the work and then take a course at the Garden to begin your own creative journey.
An opening reception for the exhibition Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, The Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection will be held on Thursday, September 16, from 5 to 8 p.m. in theArthur and Janet Ross Gallery at the Botanical Garden (RSVP to 718.817.8598). Since his first acquisition in 1998, Brooklyn’s Isaac Sutton has continued to acquire or commission works, amassing the largest privately owned collection of contemporary botanical art in North America. Working with Curators Susan Frei Nathan and Alice Marcus Kreig, Sutton selected the pieces shown for their ability to raise awareness of our environment.
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.
As I was walking into work recently, I bumped into Scott Mori, the Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany at the Garden. I mentioned to him that I had just attended a wonderful workshop given by NOFA Organic Land Care on the organic management of invasive plants in the landscape.
Scott mentioned that the biggest nuisance in his northern Westchester neighborhood is Japanese stilt grass (Microstegium vimineum). Approximately seven years ago he noticed a few plants along the roadside, several years latter the plants had formed a continuous band along each side of many of the roads, and today this pest is abundant in the woodland understory in his neighborhood. In addition, lawns are now also being invaded by this aggressive pest.
Japanese stilt grass is an annual grass indigenous to Japan, Korea, China, and India. It grows 2–3 feet tall and has a dense sprawling habit that gives it the capacity to smoother its neighbors. During the summer it colonizes an area by spreading along the ground via adventitious roots, which form from the nodes on its gangly stems.
The Edible Garden Cooking Demos, Ballet Among the Blooms, and More!
Be among the first to take an inside look at the newly restored Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill, a New York City Landmark and National Historic Landmark built in 1840. In collaboration with The New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Garden is offering guided tours of the restored Stone Mill and surrounding landscape. Take a Tram tour of gardens and collections in the 100-acre Stone Mill Precinct, walk along the Bronx River with guides from the Bronx River Alliance, and visit the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden in fall bloom. Enjoy live music on the terrace above the picturesque Bronx River gorge. Don’t miss this first of two weekend opportunities to view the beautifully restored space.
Stone Mill Ongoing Tours
Saturday, September 11, & Sunday, September 12
10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill
This weekend visitors also can delight in cooking demos from chefs Peter Hoffman and Gillian Duffy, dance with New York City Ballet educators, and discover new fall classes for adults. Here are the details of some of the exciting events taking place:
Cooking Demos
Conservatory Kitchen Tent
Saturday, September 11, 1 & 3 p.m. Gillian Duffy
Culinary editor, New York Magazine
Sunday, September 12, 1 & 3 p.m. Peter Hoffman
Chef and owner of Manhattan’s Savoy and Back Forty restaurants
Ballet Among the Blooms
Sunday, September 12, 12, 2–5 p.m.
Everett Children’s Adventure Garden
Children learn ballet jumps and turns from New York City Ballet educators, watch School of American Ballet Dancers, and create wearable works of art inspired by the surrounding nature in an afternoon of fun and exploration.
Adult Education Free Open House
Saturday, September 11, 10:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
Watson Building Come be a student for the day and find out what’s new for fall in Gardening, Floral Design, Landscape Design, and more!
Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill Opens after $11 Million Restoration
After two years of meticulous restoration, the Stone Mill, one of New York City’s most picturesque extant pre-Civil War industrial buildings, reopens with a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony. Built in 1840, the Stone Mill was designated a New York City Landmark in 1966 and a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
The landscape around the Mill was also restored, including an intricate design that treats stormwater runoff into the Bronx River and utilizes native species in the extensive plantings. The Stone Mill precinct is one of the largest, most varied historic landscapes in New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley. Comprising 100 acres, it includes three mid-19th-century buildings; a camel-back bridge; eight gardens and collections, several from the first half of the 20th century; the ancient Native Forest; and the Bronx River and gorge, all set within the Garden’s 250-acre National Historic Landmark site.
The Stone Mill is available for community meetings, conferences, and social gatherings, and it provides much-needed office space for Horticulture curators. It was restored with the generous support of The Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust and The Amy P. Goldman Foundation. Major support was also received from The City of New York, Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor; Kate D. Levin, Commissioner, Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional funding was received from Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Nolen; New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation; New York State, Office of the Attorney General and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Bronx River Watershed Initiative; and The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
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.
At this productive time of year, borrow some of the beauty from the garden and from nature to adorn your dinner table. Look around your garden as well as farmers markets to see what interesting flowers and herbs are available to fill a vase. Ornamental grasses and interesting foliage from woody plants will add wonderful touches to your arrangements as well.
Recently I was at the Union Square Farmers Market perusing the vendors and admiring the kaleidoscope of cut flowers. I saw for sale bundles of sages, from culinary sage (Salvia officinalis) with its pungent, soft, fuzzy, silvery foliage to the ubiquitous mealy cup sage (Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria’). Silver is a great color to add to bouquets since it picks up light and creates drama. Gray intensifies other colors, making them glow. I love the combination of silver with red and orange. The intense blue of the Victoria sage is another good companion for autumnal colors providing wonderful contrast.
In my own garden I grow a beautiful and bountiful sage that is sometimes referred to as hummingbird, Texas, or scarlet sage, (Salvia coccinea). It also makes a nice cut flower. I often grow ‘Lady in Red’, ‘Coral Nymph’, or ‘Snow Nymph’. This ornamental sage produces an abundance of wispy spires of flowers up to the first frost.
The Garden’s newly renovated Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill will be open to the public again this Saturday and Sunday for a second and final weekend. Visitors can view the landmark building and tour the Stone Mill precinct, which is one of the largest, most varied historic landscapes in New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley. 
The landscape around the Mill was also restored, including an intricate design that treats stormwater runoff into the Bronx River and utilizes native species in the extensive plantings. The Stone Mill precinct is one of the largest, most varied historic landscapes in New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley. Comprising 100 acres, it includes three mid-19th-century buildings; a camel-back bridge; eight gardens and collections, several from the first half of the 20th century; the ancient Native Forest; and the Bronx River and gorge, all set within the Garden’s 250-acre National Historic Landmark site.