Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Archive: April 2012
Posted in NYBG in the News on April 16 2012, by Ann Rafalko
Sunday night, The New York Botanical Garden got a brief mention on AMC‘s hit TV show ‘Mad Men.’ The episode–full of more twists and turns than the Floral Flyer‘s route–was set in 1966. This got us to thinking: What was the Garden like in 1966? We did a little research and learned that in 1966 (on April 19, three-days from today!), the Stone Mill–then known as the Lorillard Snuff Mill–was designated a New York City landmark. But we couldn’t find more, so we turned to the archivists of the Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library, who, in surprisingly short time, uncovered a treasure trove of images that look as if they had been stills pulled from un-aired scenes of this dark and addicting drama.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Science on April 16 2012, by Matt Newman
Off on a side table, just inside one of the treated glass superstructures of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections, there stands a spray of stems headed with humble, star-shaped flowers. The aesthetic is nothing wildly exotic–a deep crimson defines the petals. The plant is otherwise unremarkable next to a common garden petunia. And yet the “DO NOT TOUCH” sign hand-written and jabbed in alongside the plant is evidence of its peculiar value. Is it fragile, or perhaps toxic?
Neither in particular. This plant, Petunia exserta, is one of incredible rarity.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 15 2012, by Matt Newman
The tulips are out and about! And contrary to what Holland’s classic advertising suggests, not all bulbs sprout cup-like, candy-colored petals. In some cases they fall more in line with the imagery of Poe.
Don’t worry, Holland. We love you.
Tulipa ‘Black Parrot’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Adult Education, Photography on April 15 2012, by Matt Newman
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 14 2012, by Matt Newman
Sorry–that title might have set a few of you on sudden edge. Too late for April Fools’?
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Programs and Events on April 13 2012, by Matt Newman
This weekend we enter the home stretch of the Orchid Show balanced on a bittersweet note. Thousands of visitors have had the opportunity to experience Patrick Blanc’s inspiring vertical architecture, stepping under, around, and between the reaching walls of tropical foliage and luxuriant orchid flowers. This year’s spring display is a masterwork only “The Green Man” could have conjured.
Going into the final week of our tenth anniversary exhibition, we encourage everyone who hasn’t yet made the short trip to the Bronx to put on some comfortable shoes and step out for a day at the Garden. Between the sunlit brilliance of these spring afternoons and the rare form of the Orchid Show, there are few excuses for missing out.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Gardens and Collections on April 13 2012, by Matt Newman
I remember my dad telling me, rather gleefully, of fall afternoons spent pelting his friends with rock-hard crabapples flung from his homemade slingshot. It’s a Dennis the Menace trope in its purest form. But it also seems a fitting use for a fruit some say is named for its disagreeable nature. And if you were to take the dive and snack on a crabapple off the branch, with few exceptions you would probably find yourself cringing as if you’d just sampled a wedge of unripe lemon.
With the cherry trees doffing their hats until next year’s flower effusion, the questionably edible crabapples are only too willing to steal away the spotlight with looks (and being in the rose family, the crabapples have them in spades). The crabby name belies the abundance of blossoms which spot the grounds with cloudy displays of ivory, fuchsia, and burgundy. And the history of crabapples at The New York Botanical Garden is equally as rich, beginning early in the Garden’s life with a planting of trees near Twin Lakes. Later, in 1930, the collection moved to its current home in the southwest section of the grounds. Placed in neat rows along Daffodil Hill, the many cultivars–rare and common alike–burst into effervescent color just after the daffodils have faded. This year’s bizarrely early spring has, of course, given us the benefit of both beauties sashaying through flirty florescence in tandem.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 13 2012, by Matt Newman
I’m continually amazed by the subtle but rapid changes the Garden undergoes, sometimes seemingly overnight. No two days walking the grounds are spent in repetition–there is something new to see between each moment.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 12 2012, by Matt Newman
More specifically, this is the Bronx! I’m led to wonder how many people step out of the subway station on Grand Concourse, fully aware of what lies just a few blocks east.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Wildlife on April 11 2012, by Matt Newman
From here to Pelham Bay Park, and straight on down to Central Park, the kinship of bird watchers is peaking. April and May are something of a pilgrimage holiday for the truly dedicated ornithological set, though few in New York hoof it far from home; they set out with their binoculars, their pens, and their dog-eared notebooks, taking time off from work to travel a scant few miles to the nearest stand of trees.
These dyed-in-the-wool avian aficionados don’t come to the NYBG in spring specifically for the Red-tailed Hawks, or for the Great Horned Owls. Their prize is far smaller. And as prizes go, these birds seem more of an indulgence than the rare and elusive species recorded with fingers scribbling furiously between the lines of a “life list.” Many New York birders–seasoned or green–instead come to see the little puffs of color and song known as warblers.
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