Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Photography on December 26 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Well that was quick! Time to get back to the task at hand: Preparing for the winter! Or so our furry friends would have you believe.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on December 25 2013, by Ann Rafalko
We’re closed today for Christmas, but that doesn’t mean we cannot wish you and yours the very best at this festive time of year! Merry Christmas! We’ll see you tomorrow at the Holiday Train Show!
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Gardening Tips on December 24 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
During the holiday season, to put me in a festive mood, I rely on amaryllis, or wreaths decorated with berried juniper, variegated ivy, and incense cedar. But the other day, while I was walking through the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for a glimpse at the Holiday Train Show, I found a plant in the aquatic plants gallery that already looks like it is decked out for Christmas.
The sealing wax palm, Cyrtostachys renda, is frightfully festive, decked out in jewel tones of red and green! Indigenous to Malaysia and Sumatra, this palm grows in swampy habitats. It is a slow growing palm that reaches about 30 feet tall in nature, but only to about 10 to 15 feet under glass.
Posted in Photography on December 24 2013, by Ann Rafalko
You know the rest ….
Ilex verticillata (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Shop/Book Reviews on December 23 2013, by Joyce Newman
Joyce H. Newman holds a Certificate in Horticulture from The New York Botanical Garden and has been a Tour Guide for over seven years. She is a blogger for Garden Variety News and the former editor of Consumer Reports GreenerChoices.org.
For gardeners and those who love Virginia’s Woolf’s literary works, there’s a gorgeous new book with exquisite contemporary photographs, written by Caroline Zoob, called Virginia Woolf’s Garden: The Story of the Garden at Monk’s House, out this month from London publisher Jacqui Small LLP ($50.00) and available in NYBG’s Shop in the Garden.
Monk’s House in the Sussex village of Rodmell was Virginia and Leonard Woolf”s country retreat from 1919 until Virginia died in 1941. She wrote most of her major novels at Monk’s House and drew inspiration and comfort from the lush foliage and beckoning brick pathways weaving through various ‘garden rooms.’ A terrace with millstones, a fishpond garden, an Italian garden, a walled garden, and a flower walk were all created by the Woolfs over the years, starting from an overgrown three quarters of an acre behind a little house, with an orchard and an old tool shed that became Virginia’s writing room.
Author Caroline Zoob and her husband Jonathan actually lived and worked at Monk’s house for more than a decade beginning in 2000 as tenants of the National Trust, planting and tending the gardens, looking after all the buildings, and opening the house twice a week to the paying public. Their deep understanding of the place and what it feels like to physically be there makes this book very special.
Posted in Photography on December 23 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Graceful orchids, like graceful dancers. ‘Tis the season!
Encylia cochleota (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Photography on December 22 2013, by Ann Rafalko
The Garden is full of blooms! No seriously, it is! You just need to know where to look. (Hint, head for the glittering dome).
Aeonium arboreum var. holochrysum (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Photography on December 21 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Wishing you brightness and light in the year to come, on this, the shortest day of the year!
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on December 20 2013, by Ann Rafalko
It’s time for family and friends! Bring them all to the Garden this weekend, and then give them the gift that keeps giving, Garden Membership! Garden Membership grants free admission, Shop in the Garden discounts, Adult Education course discounts, and allows you to support this vital institution and our local, national, and international education and research initiatives! It’s a gift that does good and brings untold happiness. I would call that a surefire win!
This weekend is chock full of holiday cheer, featuring spirited singalongs, holiday film screenings, architectural tours, and of course, the Holiday Train Show and our very last Bar Car Nights. The weather is set to be anything but frightful (and in fact quite delightful) so strap on your boots and celebrate the Winter Solstice with a stroll through our stunning grounds!
And should you need to do a wee bit more Christmas shopping, Shop in the Garden is having a fabulous ornament sale. Combine a year’s Membership with one of our exclusive Enid A. Haupt Conservatory ornaments as a perfect gift for your very favorite Garden connoisseur.
Posted in Photography on December 20 2013, by Ann Rafalko
This showy bromeliad is also sometimes called queen’s tears. Given the colors, I must assume that the queen that shed these is one magical lady.
Billbergia nutans (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)