What’s Beautiful Now: Spring

Posted in Around the Garden, Gardens and Collections on March 13 2012, by Ann Rafalko

It seemed too good to be true. All winter, I kept holding my breath; I kept thinking in the back of my mind that winter had to arrive eventually; that all these nascent flowers and blooms and buds would be pummeled, at last, by a snowstorm as equally freakish as the October 29 blizzard that blew in like some harbinger of an Arctic winter. But, it never came. It never happened. And now, in mid-March it is glorious. On several occasions it has been warmer in the Bronx than in Los Angeles. The birds are singing, the breeze is blowing, sweaters have been (mostly) relegated to the bottom drawer, and flowers are popping up all over the Garden.

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It’s spring inside and outside at NYBG. Inside, we are positively delighted by the gorgeous spectacle that is The Orchid Show: Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Gardens, and outside just a quarter-inch of glass, and a few steps away, beautiful daffodils, ambrosial Edgeworthias, and ethereal blooming cherries enliven the pre-spring landscape. Despite the return of Daylight Savings and these breezy balmy days, it’s still technically winter for another seven days, so why not enjoy this unique weather and come visit the Garden at this most incredible time. There’s so much to see and enjoy. Plan your visit now.

What do you think? Is it safe to exhale? Is spring here to stay?

Here’s a full list of everything currently in bloom:

AROUND THE GROUNDS: Cornus mas and Cornus officinalis – on Conservatory Drive near the Home Gardening Center, above the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden near the Tram Stop, and other locations.
‘Okame’ flowering cherry – at the top of Daffodil Valley.
Various elms and red maples.
Magnolia kobus –  near the Visitor Center just beginning to open fuzzy buds.
Daffodils – ‘February Gold’ still in flower.

LADIES’ BORDER: Adonis amurensis  – low to the ground, brilliant yellow daisy-like flowers open in the sun.
Camellia ‘Spring’s Promise’ – big single pink flowers.
Edgeworthia chrysantha – paperbush – shrub with bare stems and fuzzy white balls of flower buds now turned up and showing golden yellow fragrant flowers.
Mahonia belai – grape-holly – not a holly or a grape, evergreen holly-like leaves, fragrant spikes of yellow flowers at the top of the plant.
Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ – shrub with bare stems, clusters of fragrant pink flowers at the tips.
Hellebores – several different types starting to flower – a very good year for them.
Jasminum nudiflorum – winter jasmine – small yellow flowers on bare stems spilling over the curb – not fragrant.

PERENNIAL GARDEN: snowdrops, winter-aconite (small, bright yellow, low to the ground) and other small bulbs; hellebores; witch-hazel.

SEASONAL WALK: smaller bulbs including crocus, netted irises, and miniature bright yellow daffodils.

HOME GARDENING CENTER: Helen’s Garden of the Senses: Jasminum nudiflorum – winter jasmine – small yellow flowers; Prunus mume ‘Matsurabara Red’ – Japanese flowering apricot, this one with red flowers.
Lonicera fragrantissima – winter honeysuckle – big arching shrub along the path just past the Garden of the Senses – tiny white flowers on bare stems, very fragrant.
First pansies (grown in the Nolen Greenhouses) being planted out in the Wien Summer Garden.

WAMSLER ROCK: smaller bulbs flowering including snowdrops, netted iris, Van Tubergen’s squill, and Crocus tommasinianus–some with soft lavender flowers, others bright purple–small but intense color.

AZALEA GARDEN: Hellebores in flower. Smaller bulbs: Crocus tommasinianus in the lawn and in the meadow area. Rhododendrons and Azaleas: just starting. The first is always Korean rhododendron – look for pink flowers up near the Overlook.