Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 26 2012, by Matt Newman
Rosarians can loose their bated breath, winter-long as it’s been. The single blooming rose from last week is joined by friends! Humble shrub roses now, yet so much more to come as the season wears on.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in From the Library on April 25 2012, by Matt Newman
Not many can recall the Liverpool Botanic Gardens. Though its glasshouse and extensive collection of orchids saw thousands of visitors pass through in the early decades of their existence, the middle years of the twentieth century were not kind. After over a century of high regard, the 1930s and ’40s brought the second World War, along with an errant German bomb that destroyed much of the botanic glasshouse and its contents. A decade-long effort to rebuild the architecture on a post-war budget proved shoddy, and within 15 years the replacement structure had fallen into disrepair. By the rapid decline of the 1970s, the glasshouse’s rotting wooden framework and broken glass panes had become emblematic of Liverpool’s floundering economy.
The Gardens closed without ceremony in 1984. With an unresolved labor dispute muddying the ground between the city council and the botanical workforce, Liverpool’s decision to shutter the space was labeled an act of political spite. What remained of the LBG’s extensive plant collection–now orphaned–was moved off-grounds. And, to some, the untold beauty and presence of a world-renowned paradise of exotic plants was lost to time.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 25 2012, by Matt Newman
I do believe I already mentioned how spectacular the lilacs are doing right now, up to and including those that aren’t quite “lilac” in color. But a reminder doesn’t hurt.
These columnar French jewels will put you in an aromatic trance.
Syringa vulgaris ‘Mme Lemoine’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 24 2012, by Matt Newman
The Azalea Garden hit 95% of the way to peak bloom over the weekend! Get here this week if you want to see it at its best, because how often do you really get to enjoy such an expanse of delirious color?
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 23 2012, by Matt Newman
Was Caitlin a coy Mona Lisa, or more of a Marilyn Monroe? Maybe a Tina Fey.
Iris typhifolia ‘Caitlin’s Smile’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 22 2012, by Matt Newman
The ‘Red Jade’ crabapple: living up to a very different name in spring.
Malus ‘Red Jade’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 21 2012, by Matt Newman
I had trekked over to the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden a few days ago to get a closer look at the tree peonies, passing by the lilacs on the way back. The aroma–it was like walking face-first into a pole, it was so sudden and powerful. Everyone gathered near the flowers was nodding and smiling contentedly, though whether in unspoken acknowledgement of one another, or in quiet appreciation of the perfume, I couldn’t say.
Syringa vulgaris ‘President Lincoln’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Programs and Events on April 20 2012, by Matt Newman
If you’re coming to the NYBG on Sunday for The Nature Conservancy‘s Picnic for the Planet, try not to overdo it during lunch! You’ll want to save room for an evening outing sure to have gourmands salivating, because long-time Friend of the Garden Mario Batali is jumping in with an event of his own.
Building on his success in last year’s Family Garden events, the legendary Babbo chef will once again join with the NYBG in raising awareness about the power of the foods we buy and eat. Along with Mario’s partners, Lidia and Joe Bastianich, the trio’s B&B Hospitality Group honors this year’s Earth Day with a special promotion at each of its restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, sending every patron of their fine B&B restaurants home with a special Earth Day gift. Not only will you leave well-fed, but you’ll do so with a packet of B&BHG’s organic Cherry Belle™ radish seeds. It also doubles as a two-for one ticket offer to visit the NYBG this summer, all in the name of bringing environmental responsibility home.
Posted in Around the Garden on April 20 2012, by Matt Newman
It’s been a whirlwind of excitement for the past two months, but the Orchid Show is soon to bid adieu to another successful year. More than successful, really–the tenth anniversary exhibition is being called one of the most triumphant showings our orchids have had to date, thanks in no small measure to the transcendent designs of botanist Patrick Blanc.
For any of our fans who spent the past few weeks bickering with themselves over the choice to take a day in the Bronx, now is absolutely your last chance to experience the vivid verticality of “The Green Man’s” living walls in person. And I can tell you without the shadow of a doubt that there’s plenty for you to see alongside the exhibition–as if the otherworldly flowers of several thousand orchids weren’t enough to get you on your feet and out the front door.
Posted in Around the Garden on April 20 2012, by Matt Newman
Moss covered paths between scarlet peonies,
Pale jade mountains fill your rustic windows.
I envy you, drunk with flowers;
Butterflies swirling in your dreams.
— Qian Qi, Tang Dynasty
In the words of poet Billy Collins, the lyricists of Imperial China had “nothing up their ample sleeves” as they scribbled down the world around them. There’s a candid linearity to the early Chinese wordsmiths. Never dawdling in the roundabout of ten dollar adjectives or subtlety, they explain what they see with directness and clarity, and in doing so pull the reader into a rich history of images.
Today, standing on the hill overlooking the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden among prim rows of rounded tree peony shrubs, I found the same honest verse in each flower. It’s right there in the names. From time to time I would crouch to part the branches in an effort to see the cultivar titles on the small signs below each plant. Behind the leaves I discovered shaped words, often as straightforward as dynastic verse, at other times more like flash fiction–short stories in a staccato of concrete nouns. Our tree peonies are a lyrical bunch, blooming as they are in this early spring.