Morning Eye Candy: This Way and That
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 8 2012, by Matt Newman
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Around the Garden
From the Field: Bill Buck in Cape Horn, Day 6
Posted in Around the Garden on February 7 2012, by William R. Buck
January 22, 2012.; Unnamed sound on Isla Gordon behind Cabo El Gorro, approximately 55º02’S, 69º48’W
We were traveling last night until well after 9 p.m., so I decided to just go to bed (yes! I even got to bed earlier than hoped) and put my collections on the dryer in the morning.
At one point when I awoke in the night, it was like a flashback to last year; it rained almost all night, became cold, and the wind picked up. It now seems my reluctance to mention the weather sooner for possibility of jinxing us has proven true. Of course I fully understand that I have no influence over the weather, but the coincidence is nevertheless curious. Despite the weather (or maybe because of it!), I am anxious to get into the field.
Morning Eye Candy: Red Leather
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 7 2012, by Matt Newman
Loropetalum chinense f. rubrum ‘Zhuzhou Fuchsia’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
A Giant in the Rainforest: The Kapok Tree
Posted in Around the Garden, Exhibitions on February 6 2012, by Joyce Newman
Joyce H. Newman is the editor of Consumer Reports’ GreenerChoices.org, and has been a Garden Tour Guide with The New York Botanical Garden for the past six years.
One of the most dramatic specimens in the NYBG‘s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory rainforest is the gigantic Kapok tree, now part of the Caribbean Garden exhibition. A man-made version–looking very real–arches over the lowland rainforest path, showing off numerous epiphytic plants–orchids and bromeliads–that cling to its sides. Visitors are usually amazed to learn the tree is man-made. Two other examples (one real, one man-made) in the rainforest gallery reach high atop the rainforest canopy.
Morning Eye Candy: Subject of a Mad Collector
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 6 2012, by Matt Newman
Snowdrops are springing up in abundance at the Perennial Garden, though you wouldn’t guess from their humble white petals that such an unassuming species is the subject of a newfound global obsession. “Galanthophiles” around the world are gearing up for snowdrop conventions that will draw thousands of fanciers from all corners this year. Maybe you’ll empathize with their enthusiasm.
Galanthus — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Morning Eye Candy: Outside Osaka
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 5 2012, by Matt Newman
Many a blossoming tree on Garden grounds originates in Asia, and each–at least to me–carries with it a familiar air of eastern aesthetic. I suppose we owe that to the centuries of botanical imagery recorded in the artistic traditions of places like Korea, China, and Japan. The Japanese apricot (also Chinese plum, or simply “plum blossom”) is something of an archetype.
In this case, beauty isn’t fleeting: there’s a plum blossom tree in China that’s still flowering after 1,600 years.
Prunus mume ‘Peggy Clarke’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Morning Eye Candy: Adonis
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 4 2012, by Matt Newman
I meandered over to the Ladies’ Border during Wednesday’s weather (an April afternoon straight out of the bizarro dimension) to get a picture of these small but potent blooms. There was a squadron of honey bees taking advantage of the inflorescence while I was there. Hawks called overhead. It was all very picturesque. But airborne raptors and a fairytale setting do not a photo make. Ivo’s skill with a lens does the Amur Adonis proper justice.
Adonis amurensis — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Clicks and Whirrs in the Conservatory this Weekend
Posted in Around the Garden, Exhibitions, Photography on February 3 2012, by Matt Newman
I have this sneaking suspicion that the spaces under “Saturday” and “Sunday” are sitting blank in your planner right now. If you’re not dashing onto a plane to escape the return of chilly weather to New York, I’m going to make a solid suggestion: get your camera. You probably have one sitting on the shelf somewhere, pitifully neglected, waiting for the day you make the commitment to get out and start learning the craft.
If you haven’t etched your plans in stone, put a few bucks on your MetroCard and head to the Bronx with your Nikons, your Canons, your Fujis or whatever else you can come up with. We’re actually going to reward you for participating in our Caribbean Garden photography contest, not just with the chance to come back for a course or workshop of your choosing with our NYBG educators, but for tips and tricks provided by professional garden photographers this Sunday afternoon. You can’t keep making excuses! Because who knows? Wait too long and the steamroller of technological innovation just might make your camera format obsolete.
Growing a Stone
Posted in Around the Garden, Gardening Tips on February 3 2012, by Matt Newman
They’re inconspicuous almost to the point of invisibility, assuming you’re looking for them in their natural habitat. You might pass an entire stand of these plants without being the wiser were you to find yourself wandering parts of southern Africa. But when a grazing animal happens by, camouflage is the best natural defense in a landscape where food comes scarce and water borders on mythological.
Picking out lithops from the patches of pebbly ground where they grow is a simple task if you’re attentive–just look for misplaced symmetry. The thick leaves of the small, bifurcated plants resemble patterned stones, as evidenced in the breakdown of the name itself: lithos means “stone” and -ops means “face” in ancient Greek. But they’re not the subjects of any geology professor. You might guess that from their sometimes vibrant patterns and strange colorations.
Morning Eye Candy: Odd Outings
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 3 2012, by Matt Newman
Many of us here in the office have been taking the opportunity to venture out now and then and enjoy this nonsensical weather we’re having (you might have noticed our squawking about it on the Twitter feed yesterday). There’s a surreal quality to wandering the “winter” landscape, seeing Fordham students in their t-shirts and basking in what amounts to a mid-April afternoon.
For my first winter in the city, this isn’t so bad. Or did I just viciously jinx myself?
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen