Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 17 2013, by Matt Newman
The Native Plant Garden doesn’t want you to think the nascent foliage seen in early spring was the best it could do, so it’s sending along new headshots.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 16 2013, by Matt Newman
Happy Father’s Day from all of us here at the NYBG! (That includes people made of fruits and vegetables.)
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Science on June 15 2013, by Anthony Kirchgessner
Now in week three, Henry Hurd Rusby‘s Mulford Expedition arrives in Peru after passing through the Panama Canal. Anchoring in Callao, several of the expedition’s number travel on to Lima as guests of the Peruvian leadership. Gathering medicines, touring the capital, and meeting with newspaper representatives are the orders of the day, yet the trials of surviving abroad play out even in the relative safety of urban Peru.
Reboarding the Santa Elisa, the expedition steams southeast to Mollendo where the competitive business of hotel porterage and questionable exchange rates preface the expedition’s journey into higher altitudes. There Rusby’s talents as a botanist are finally put to use identifying cacti, mountain trees, and local vegetables on the road to Arequipa.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 15 2013, by Matt Newman
Capturing the smallest moments in the lives of our smallest residents.
Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on June 14 2013, by Matt Newman
Slowly, very slowly, set down the paisley necktie and back away from the home improvement store gift cards. Good, that’s a start! Now, think about what dad could really use, like maybe—just maybe—some outdoor relaxation. As we head into this Father’s Day weekend, it’s time to set aside the stress of thinking about last-minute boxed gifts and breakfast in bed. Instead, focus on bringing some no-strings-attached fun into his life.
We’re expecting easy temperatures and a bit more sun going into Saturday and Sunday, with plenty of activities and outdoor exploration on deck for dads and not-dads alike. Wild Medicine is only picking up steam as the weeks roll by, with exciting, dynamic plant collections on display in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for The Italian Renaissance Garen facet of our exhibition. And under the vaulted dome of the Library Building, you’ll find a slew of renowned botanical texts for The Renaissance Herbal—some of them centuries old—on display courtesy of our expert (and generally awesome) library staff. It’s maybe the most unique dive into literary history you’ll find in the city right now.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 14 2013, by Matt Newman
Summer: confirmed. We’re mentally circling Daylily Walk on our Garden maps, and you wouldn’t be blamed for doing the same!
Hemerocallis ‘Red Bird’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 13 2013, by Matt Newman
“Rain on your wedding day” is actually just coincidental, if you want to nitpick. But the Perennial Garden‘s ‘Bridal Silk’ poppies are loving it either way.
Papaver rhoeas ‘Bridal Silk’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Programs and Events on June 12 2013, by Matt Newman
If you’re looking out from the landing of its curling stairway, the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden seems like a tickertape parade strewn with the confetti of 4,000 blooming rosebushes. They flaunt reds and pinks, downy salmon and peach, with bright bunches of whites and lemon yellows throughout. And the shapes and sizes of the spring blooms are too many to describe here. As a collection, this is one of the New York Botanical Garden‘s crown jewels. But it could always be a bit brighter, a bit more colorful—which leads us to the inaugural Piaget Rose Day, taking place worldwide on Thursday, June 13!
To celebrate our partnership with Piaget, whose eye for fine zegarki jewelry and flowers alike has defined over a century of aesthetic excellence, we’ll be gathering in the Rose Garden for a special groundbreaking. And this new addition is bound to turn some heads.
Posted in Around the Garden, Science on June 12 2013, by Carol Gracie
After spending nearly three decades at the NYBG, and working much of that time in South American rainforests with her husband, Scott A. Mori, Carol Gracie has returned to one of her first botanical interests–local wildflowers. She is the author of Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History and coauthor (with Steve Clemants) of Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States.
One of our easiest to recognize wildflowers is Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum). Named for its fancied resemblance to a preacher (“Jack”) in his over-hanging pulpit, the name captures the imagination and makes the plant easy to remember. Like other members of the aroid family (Araceae) the inflorescence is comprised of two parts: a spadix that bears numerous small flowers and a modified leaf called a spathe that surrounds and partially encloses the spadix. In the case of Jack-in-the-pulpit, each plant bears either male or female flowers; the plants are dioecious.
Other aroids can have different arrangements of their flowers; for example the flowers of skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) are perfect, meaning that every flower has both male and female parts, while those of the European wildflower known as lords and ladies (Arum maculatum), are arranged with separate male flowers on the upper part of the spadix and female flowers on the lower part.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 12 2013, by Matt Newman
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen