Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 10 2012, by Matt Newman
Late summer plantings in Monet’s Garden set the precedent for our fall displays–rich, colorful, elegant. We’re as anxious to see the autumn arrangements as our visitors are.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in How-to, Video on August 9 2012, by Matt Newman
There’s a notion floating around that growing water lilies is a hobby best left to conservatory curators and nursery managers. Maybe it’s driven by the fact that Nymphaea are so alien to what the average home gardener is comfortable working with; aquatic plants are a far cry from the ever present office philodendron. Or maybe it’s because Claude Monet built an entire artistic movement on the exploration of their fragile elegance. “I’d have to refinance my house to dig that!” you think, looking at Giverny’s carefully-arranged water lily pond.
Relax. You won’t even need a trowel, much less a construction team with a backhoe.
As we slip into the late summer height of our water lily display, Christian Primeau–Manager of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory–is ready to share a few key pointers with Nymphaea hopefuls. All you’ll need is a basic soil blend, some pea gravel, a large container, and a spot in or around your house with full sun exposure.
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on August 9 2012, by Matt Newman
New York might not strike many as a hibiscus state. Not at first. But set foot in the Home Gardening Center in August, and you could find yourself fooled (however briefly) into thinking you’ve landed in Hawaii, or Florida–spots where locals have an easy time landscaping their homes with these flowers. They show up in sunny yellows, punch bowl pinks, and whites punctuated with contrasting reds. In our trial beds, however, we’re spreading the word that hibiscus aren’t limited to places with palm trees; some species are just as suitable for your native plant garden here in the Empire State!
Like the water lilies in the Conservatory pools, species of hibiscus are divided into two groups: hardy and tropical. The latter, with its broad scope of color, does well outdoors in the beach states mentioned above; they’re not big fans of frigid temperatures. But here at the NYBG, we cultivate the former variety: hardy hibiscus, equipped to handle the weather patterns New Yorkers are used to, while boasting all the cocktail umbrella charm of their tropical counterparts. A few species, such as Hibiscus moscheutos, can even be found growing natively in New York’s wetlands.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 9 2012, by Matt Newman
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on August 8 2012, by Matt Newman
When you’re home to more than 250 acres of flora, you don’t have to stray far to uncover a virtual menagerie of fauna within it. Cormorants and wood ducks draw zig-zags in the duckweed of Twin Lakes, while Red-tailed Hawks hunt skinks and black squirrels from far overhead. There’s even a cranky snapping turtle or two. But for every rabbit or warbler out to make itself seen in the NYBG, there’s another species living out its life away from our cameras! As Director of the Forest, Jessica A. Schuler has turned some of her focus toward the elusive creatures living in our woodland.
Through a collaboration with Jason Munshi-South of CUNY Baruch College and Mark Weckel of Mianus River Gorge Preserve, Jessica is doing her part to help the pair document the many animals living throughout the city and Westchester county, as well as the effects of the urban environment on evolutionary biology. In the case of the NYBG, this is done by arranging four motion-activated, all-weather cameras in locations throughout the Garden’s 50-acre Forest, ready to capture the movements of any and all woodland wanderers that might amble by. And after only a month on site, capture they did! Calibrated to go off at even the slightest hint of a passing animal, these cameras accurately snapped shots of several familiar species lurking in our woods.
Posted in Programs and Events on August 8 2012, by Matt Newman
If the grow-at-home herb garden went over with your child about as well as that “educational” video game you got him for his birthday, and dinner salads are essentially your little Superman’s kryptonite, there’s hope yet for any parent: the Urban Farm Tour series. Last time out, we explored the borough that hip-hop built (depending on which generation you speak with, anyway), guiding visitors through a few of the most well-established and promising Bronx farms to support the urban agriculture movement. Now, we’re getting the kids in on the act.
On Saturday, August 18, the Bronx Trolley sets out to celebrate the influence of youth on our gardens. This time, we’ll be featuring two significant community plots, Brook Park and Drew Gardens, along with the school garden of C.S. 211. These are only a handful of the major hubs in our borough for greening, growing, and outdoor summer programming. And there’s more than enough activities during our daytrip to turn your kids into miniature green thumbs, with introductions to vegetable growing, a beekeeping mini-workshop, and time spent learning the ropes as urban chicken farmers.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 8 2012, by Matt Newman
Monet’s Garden keeps changing with the season! As summer wears on, the vert Monet architecture mingles with new and complementing florescence.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 7 2012, by Matt Newman
Planters like those arranged alongside our hardy water lily pool were often used by Claude Monet to test color schemes before moving his plants into his garden proper. Ours are…thriving, to say the least.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Mario Batali's Edible Garden on August 6 2012, by Matt Newman
It’s not often I get the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden to myself, but last week, before the school groups arrived, I snuck a peek at what was happening in Mario Batali’s Kitchen Gardens ahead of the coming Edible Garden Festival. The sun was high and bright, yet the sight of ripening vegetables, familiar varieties tucked in among the somewhat more exotic heirlooms, made it easy to deal with the summer heat.
I picked my way around the garden plots, noting leafy greens and sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, flowering artichokes, and a few ready globes of garlic. And dangling in friendly groups above them all: new tomatoes, plump and prolific in the sunshine. Some are already settling into that quirky adolescent phase, not yet ripe, blushing with spots of bright reds and oranges on one side while still a shy green on the other. Certain varieties are lumpy and rustic-looking, others smooth and plum-shaped, and all of them have been hand-selected by Mario Batali’s top chefs–some of the finest culinary minds in New York.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 6 2012, by Matt Newman
What’s the collective noun for a group of artichokes? A “gang” of artichokes, or a “barony?” Maybe a “band” of them.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen