Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 6 2012, by Matt Newman
Don’t stare too hard. Maybe you should defocus your eyes a bit. At just the right point of clarity, you’ll see the tumbled waters of the Bronx River frozen in the green-lit rocks.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 5 2012, by Ann Rafalko
Very special thanks to our ‘American Gothic‘ re-enactors, Elie Haber and Michelle Kehyaian.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen.
Posted in Monet's Garden, Photography on June 4 2012, by Matt Newman
Mallarmé and Rimbaud live here. Their words, at least. Monet’s Garden, beyond Giverny, is about exploring Impressionism as a movement, dipping into the lyricism of the era’s Symbolist poets. You’ll find selections from some of Monet’s gifted contemporaries placed throughout the Perennial Garden.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 3 2012, by Matt Newman
Oh, c’mon, admit it: he’s cute. It’s lucky for our plants that he’s a Monarch, and only eats milkweed.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 2 2012, by Matt Newman
This is what the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden looks like at its best! Can you believe those climbers scrambling over the pergola? And the white and pink clouds of shrub roses filling out the beds between every bordering path. The weather’s looking to be easy-going this weekend, and this kind of pomp and circumstance won’t stretch out forever–just a heads up, New York.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 1 2012, by Matt Newman
A box without hinges, key, or lid,
Yet golden treasure inside is hid.
And I thought I’d never get to quote Bilbo Baggins on this blog.
Sawtooth Stewartia (Stewartia serrata) — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, People, Photography, Wildlife on May 31 2012, by Matt Newman
What’s a forest without the chatter of songbirds, or a pond without a curmudgeonly duck or two? Tom Andres, an Honorary Research Associate at the NYBG, won’t even consider the possibility. He’s too busy snapping pictures of our avian population.
It’s no great secret that The New York Botanical Garden is a northern birder’s paradise, home to owls, hawks, herons, and woodpeckers. Debbie Becker’s Saturday Bird Walks remain a staple at the Garden, now over 25 years since she began guiding groups of amateur and veteran birdwatchers alike through our 250-acre landscape. Even so, populations change with the seasons–migrants flood the Garden with song and color one week, only to disappear the next.
Tom doesn’t let the fickle nature of the birder’s obsession hamper his photography, much less his fascination. “The Garden plays an important role for feathered visitors,” he writes, “especially as a refueling point during migration season.” The Bronx River Corridor–winding through the Garden–is a major draw for neotropical birds migrating toward northern breeding grounds, or heading south for warmer climates. This explains the sudden influx of loud and bright warblers arriving early in spring, making a much-needed pit stop before they move on.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography, Wildlife on May 31 2012, by Matt Newman
Look to have a bird-brained afternoon as we set aside this beautiful Thursday to celebrate the treetop tweeters of The New York Botanical Garden! We’re flora people, yes, but there’s a majesty (and, at times, comedy) to the diverse fauna of the Garden. Nothing speaks of elegance and grace quite like a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk fumbling its lunch all over Tulip Tree Allée.
If you’re looking to get better acquainted with our feathered friends, stop by on Saturday mornings for the weekly Bird Walk with resident expert Debbie Becker! Binoculars, cameras, and gasps of awe welcome.
Photo by Pat Gonzalez
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on May 30 2012, by Matt Newman
I have to wonder why we don’t have a spring groundhog popping up to predict six more weeks of chilly mornings and refreshing afternoons. Anyone who spent the Memorial Day afternoon in the boroughs will commiserate (at one point I felt compelled to fashion my jeans into capris–only the lack of scissors stopped me). But there’s relief beyond the swamp that is your conveniently central air-free apartment!
Get to the NYBG, find a patch of shade (there’s plenty), and note that an easy Forest breeze beats that rickety floor fan in your bedroom any day.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on May 29 2012, by Ann Rafalko
What are you growing? What are you loving? What are the bunnies loving?
French Breakfast Radishes in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)