Back in the peaceful reaches of the Benenson Ornamental Conifers, there’s a question to be asked. Is there stock to be put in rarity, and does pairing that quality with beauty somehow amplify the “value” of what we’re looking at? I’m not about to try and delineate the boundaries of taste and worth; we work to preserve the future of plants, and that’s all there is to it. But there’s one species in mind that’s worth looking into.
Catalpa fargesii manages that unique combination of scarcity and beauty. A Chinese native found in regions such as Guangxi, Hunan, and Sichuan, even in its homeland it’s considered extremely rare in the wild, only “discovered” by Western dendrologists early in the 20th century. In the Western world, where few specimens have propagated in Europe or North America, it’s rarer still. Here in the U.S., for example, there are only two recorded Chinese catalpa trees of this kind. The Arnold Arboretum at Harvard has one, accessioned in 1914; The New York Botanical Garden is home to the other. In this case, “exclusive” is not a word to be tossed around lightly.
Why cover your work with a label when the food sells itself? Look for Millport Farms’ pickled everything when you stop by the Greenmarket this coming Wednesday (it’s every Wednesday, 9 to 3 p.m., every week through late November). For my two cents, the habanero pickles are life-changing–if you don’t mind your lips tingling.
In the immortal words of Jurassic Park’s Dr. Ian Malcolm, “Life finds a way.” …Not that anything has much of a struggle setting down roots in our 250 acres of greenery!
Wishing a wonderful July 14 to every one of our French friends! And everyone who’s just being French for the weekend, for that matter. Don’t forget that the NYBG will be on 60th street in Manhattan for the Bastille Day NY festivities tomorrow, from 12 to 5 p.m. There won’t be any storming of fortresses to my knowledge, but I figure food, music, and celebration will suffice. Vive le 14 juillet!
Hemerocallis ‘Siloam French Doll’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
“All beauties, like all possible phenomena, have something of the eternal and something of the ephemeral—of the absolute and the particular.” — Charles Baudelaire
The France of Claude Monet was a landscape beholden to the muse, not only in paint, but in verse, food, and music. Paris was the city of imagination! The city of Erik Satie and Rimbaud, and of the Lost Generation that arrived late in Monet’s life–Stein and Hemingway among them. This weekend, the NYBG partners with the Poetry Society of America to bring the Impressionist’s peers back into the spotlight. Here at the Garden, New York’s finest contemporary poets offer readings of the French Symbolists that inspired them most.
On Saturday, the focus falls on the oeuvre of Charles Baudelaire, an early figure in Monet’s time whose urban prose and verse set the foundation for many of the Symbolists who followed after. And on Sunday we switch gears, taking art to the table for our Family Dinner Event! With Mario Batali’s talented chefs on hand, we’ll venture abroad, looking beyond the recipes of France to bring you Continental flavor with local ingredients (many grown here at the NYBG). While you enjoy garden-inspired teas and wines paired with elegant dishes expertly prepared, the kids can busy themselves with Family Garden adventures. It’s about as high on the win-win scale as you’re ever likely to find yourself.
After I posted the relieving conclusion of the ‘Ray Davies’ saga, commenter Gene mentioned that another pond-dweller, this time a lotus, shared its name with yet another rock star–Scottish singer Maggie Bell. For those who didn’t catch the exchange, I dove in and found what I could of Nelumbo ‘Maggie Bell Slocum’, dubbed not for a rocker, but someone far more horticultural.
‘Maggie Bell Slocum’ was so named for the second wife of prolific water lily and lotus hybridizer Perry D. Slocum, a New Yorker and a long-lived icon in the pond plant world. This one still has stage presence, though, with or without the rock pedigree.
Nelumbo ‘Maggie Belle Slocum’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Montana may lay claim to the phrase “big sky country,” but New York is no slouch when it comes to panoramic vistas. Near a hilltop, or just beyond the boughs of the Forest‘s trees, you can catch the blue expanse above the NYBG without the cityscape that usually frames it. No radio towers, no skyscrapers marking up the periphery–just clouds of every shape and consistency.
It’s good for daydreaming.
On afternoons where the barometer reads high and the sun is clear, you see opal blue in rich or dusky shades. Other days, the sky is a scatter of swoops and ruffles that you’d have to climb pretty high to enjoy elsewhere in the city. But as I remember it, “show, don’t tell” is a rule you pick up in middle school language arts class. I suppose I should follow it, huh?
Not what you’d expect to find growing in the Bronx, is it?
If your love for New York’s hip-hop history runs smack into a penchant for urban gardening, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Literally. I mean, how often do you get to blend the defining musical stylings of the Bronx with the green thumb’s art?
It’s called the Bronx Urban Farm Tour, and this year’s trip leads you through some of our borough’s finest working farms, as guided by a pioneer of the hip-hop movement which started here in the 1970s. It’s an enlightening way to see and experience the food, music, and culture of the Boogie Down through the eyes of one of its most esteemed supporters–this year’s tour narrator will be none other than the prolific Grandmaster Melle Mel! For the uninitiated, that’s Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Or maybe The Sugarhill Gang rings a bell.
Peahen sighted! The subdued colors of the female aren’t so easily recognizable as the flamboyant frill of the male peacock, but the slight tinges of blue-green color (not to mention those Dr. Seuss-esque head feathers) should give her away.
What few realize is that these birds really can fly, though they’re often kept in open-air aviaries–it’s just easier to stay put than leave a reliable food source. Another fact, somewhat more hilarious: peacocks are used as “guard dogs” by some, as they have a tendency to let out deafening squawks at the approach of strangers. Just don’t expect them to tackle an intruder with any efficacy.
I was visiting the Conservatory while these planters–one after the next–were being filled in with summer flowers. Monet’s Gardencontinues to grow and change as the months pass, meaning what you see come October will be entirely different from what you find blooming now. It’s a nice change of palette from one week to the next.
Back in the peaceful reaches of the Benenson Ornamental Conifers, there’s a question to be asked. Is there stock to be put in rarity, and does pairing that quality with beauty somehow amplify the “value” of what we’re looking at? I’m not about to try and delineate the boundaries of taste and worth; we work to preserve the future of plants, and that’s all there is to it. But there’s one species in mind that’s worth looking into.
