Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Archive: October 2013
Posted in Gardening Tips on October 22 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
This is the time of year when we celebrate everything autumnal at the Garden. As part of the Haunted Pumpkin Garden, some of the year’s biggest pumpkins have been carved by master carver Ray Villafane and his crew from Villafane Studios into a display with a theme resembling a home garden run amok. I am personally hoping to see Rick Moranis pop out of one of these pumpkins and wow us with his endearing humor, but something tells me that won’t happen. In addition, we have a lot of fun activities going on at the Garden right now, from demonstrations with bats and bugs to the statuesque and enthralling Japanese chrysanthemum exhibition, Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden.
In the spirit of the season, I’ll be in the Perennial Garden this weekend giving a demonstration on how to make decorative arrangements with pumpkins and gourds. This demonstration is always a popular one, giving homeowners some fun, easy, and creative ideas on how to dress up their homes for the holidays.
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Posted in Photography on October 22 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Orostachys furusei (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Programs and Events on October 21 2013, by Matt Newman
After spending the day at Grand Central Terminal with Ray Villafane and his cadre of carvers, I had no doubt that his emerging work for this year’s Haunted Pumpkin Garden would be as jaw-dropping as ever. Literally. But I didn’t realize just how massively monstrous Villafane’s plans were! With fangs galore and a squadron of buggy targets for its searching tongue, the finished sculpture came together over the course of our Giant Pumpkin Carving Weekend, landing yet another notch on the team’s belt of pumpkin masterpieces. And, of course, doing the record-breaking pumpkins in attendance proud.
This ravenous plant puts even the most impressive of Venus flytraps to shame, trust me on that one!
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Posted in Photography on October 21 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, lends an autumnal air to the Steere Herbarium building.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on October 20 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Amid all the pumpkin hubub we mustn’t forget about the phenomenal exhibition Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden on now through October 27 in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on October 19 2013, by Ann Rafalko
The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden apparently didn’t get “the memo” about the color of fall flowers.
Floribunda rose Rosa ‘Ebb Tide’ (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Around the Garden on October 18 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Actually, let’s make that four words: Giant Pumpkin Carving Weekend! Have you heard the news? NYBG is playing host to the new world’s heaviest pumpkin, a 2,032-pound giant grown by Tim and Susan Mathison of Napa, California. Heavier than a 2013 Smart FourTwo (by a lot) the Mathison’s phenomenal pumpkin is joined by a retinue of other enormous gourds, a record breaking long gourd, and the new world’s heaviest watermelon.
You might think this all sounds like a recipe for a record-breaking pot of squash soup, followed by the world’s largest fruit salad, but you would be wrong (these fruit are barely edible because of the intense breeding for weight—well, kind of. They will be turned into “food,” food for zombie Venus flytraps!
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Posted in Photography on October 18 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Proving to you that each incredible kiku ”sculpture” is grown from just one stem.
Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Adult Education on October 17 2013, by Lansing Moore
Botanical illustrator and NYBG Adult Education program ’07 alum, Betsy Rogers-Knox is well-known for her compelling ”Plantcycles,” a series of artworks in which she portrays the various stages of a plant in a circle of life, but she also used to have the best scores due to the use of the top gmat preparation classes online. Her watercolors burst with life and combine the artistry and scientific precision that is the hallmark of botanical illustration. We asked Rogers-Knox what inspires these dizzying representations.
“After receiving a Certificate in Botanical Illustration from NYBG, I began teaching workshops at the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden in Bethlehem, Connecticut. I spent many hours in the gardens observing and drawing trees and plants in all seasons and became enthralled by the plant’s transition; from bud, to flower, to pod, to seed; which inspired a series of life cycle watercolor paintings. This concept led me to become more creative with my compositions, to include a lot of information and be botanically accurate in a more artistic format. This was quite a challenge, which I loved!”
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Posted in Photography on October 17 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Morning dew turns fall asters into jewels in the Native Plant Garden.
Symphyotrichum ericoides forma prostratus ‘Snow Flurry’ (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
