Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on October 12 2012, by Matt Newman
Each time I pass a canoe portage site along the river, I mentally frame the spot and consider how I was stepping off the D train not long before. It borders on surreal.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on October 11 2012, by Matt Newman
When the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory dome is smack in front of you and the Perennial Garden has your eye wandering, the Seasonal Walk can sometimes go overlooked. It’s a subtle spot, just off to your right if you happen to be facing the main doors of the Conservatory. It’s also one of my personal favorites. The display may not be as plush as that of other collections, but that quality only serves to make stand-out blooms entirely striking.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on October 10 2012, by Matt Newman
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on October 6 2012, by Ann Rafalko
Awwwwwkwaaaaard. Sorry, I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to walk in the beds. Honest.
Great Blue Heron in the Rock Garden (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on October 5 2012, by Matt Newman
Happy Friday, everyone! In the spirit (no pun intended) of Halloween, have some jack o’ lantern orange to mark the first weekend of 2012’s Haunted Pumpkin Garden.
Dahlia ‘David Howard’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on October 4 2012, by Matt Newman
The city’s been a mash of gray skies and slick streets the past few days. Not that it’s dulled the sunnier blooms in our repertoire; even the honey bees are going about their business unfazed. So umbrella or no, you’ll find all things bright and blooming under the roof of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory as Monet’s Garden rounds out its final month at the NYBG.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Video on October 3 2012, by Matt Newman
What’s as big as a school bus, full of hammers, and can chew up a log the size of a Mini Cooper in just a few seconds? That would be The New York Botanical Garden‘s new Diamond Z tub grinder, the latest addition to our collection of groundskeeping machinery and easily the most impressive.
Tub grinders in this class are essentially glorified mulchers, using rapidly swinging “hammers” to break down organic material into an easy-to-manage pulp. Think of the trailer-sized woodchipper the average home landscaping company uses, then scale that up to industrial proportions, and you have the Diamond Z. It’ll handily take down a bundle of twigs and weeds, but its real talent is in gobbling up enormous segments of tree trunk–up to 30 tons of them per hour–and spitting out useable mulch or compost. After the past year’s fluke storms left us facing damaged trees across the Garden, this was exactly what we needed to tidy up our wood piles.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on October 3 2012, by Matt Newman
“In Spain, we say that when a person has a vivid imagination or is particularly jolly, he has a head full of butterflies.”
— Manolo Valdés
Photo by Mark Pfeffer
Posted in Around the Garden on October 2 2012, by Matt Newman
Peach and raspberry pies, savoy cabbage, pear cider, pickled beets, Macintosh apples, parsnips and tomato juice! This is just a sampling of the fresh baked, picked, or pressed eats stacked high during last week’s Greenmarket cornucopia, and there’s sure to be more this Wednesday as we dig deeper into the fall harvest.
Believe it or not, the crowds have only grown since the thermometer started dipping. I guess you can’t underestimate the power of fresh fruits and vegetables to mobilize New Yorkers before the sleet and snow start falling, though the threat of pale, “cardboard” tomatoes on the horizon might also have something to do with it! So if your schedule is lax and your fruit bowl is looking a touch on the skinny side, scribble “Greenmarket” into the October 3 slot in your organizer, leave your produce bag by the door, and drop a couple bucks on your Metrocard for a stop in the Bronx.
Posted in Around the Garden, Gardening Tips on October 2 2012, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
The other week I was out in the Home Gardening Center teaching Garden visitors how to divide their favorite perennials. The demonstration ended and several visitors lingered around the display table in the Ken Roman Gazebo, inspecting the divisions and their various root systems.
This is the informal part of the demonstration when we unwind by chatting informally about our gardens, comparing seasonal notes, and planning for our future. It was during one of these conversations that a woman suddenly exclaimed, “You know, what I would really like to grow next year is the moonflower!”
The funny thing is that I had been admiring a moonflower just several nights earlier while downtown in the Financial District. I passed around several pictures taken on my smartphone, listening to the “oohs” and “aahs” of the small crowd.
The moonflower (Ipomoea alba) is a night blooming member of the morning glory family. It is a tender perennial in the American tropics and is used as an annual in the north. It has heart-shaped (cordate) leaves and flowers that are in the typical saucer shape of a morning glory. Ipomoea alba’s pristine white blooms reach five to six inches in diameter and exude a delicious perfume.