Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Photography on April 30 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Say that it is a crude effect, black reds,
Pink yellows, orange whites, too much as they are
To be anything else in the sunlight of the room,
Too much as they are to be changed by metaphor,
Too actual, things that in being real
Make any imaginings of them lesser things.
Bouquet of Roses In Sunlight ~ Wallace Stevens
Posted in Photography on April 29 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Some of this year’s class of tulips seem to be exhibiting a rebellious streak.
Posted in Photography on April 28 2013, by Ann Rafalko
No we haven’t replaced the iconic dome of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory with a conifer, it’s just a trick of the landscape.
 Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on April 27 2013, by Ann Rafalko
If Ferdinand the Bull were ever allowed into the Perennial Garden, I think he would make a beeline for this ‘Taurus’ rhododendron. He is a true flower connoisseur after all …
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on April 26 2013, by Ann Rafalko
This weekend brings a beautiful event to the Garden, the Garden Sculpture and Antiques Fair: 1750-2013! Vendors and artists from across the country and across the Atlantic are gathered together under the Conservatory Tent with a gorgeous range of functional and artistic decoration for your garden, patio, solarium, and home. In addition, enjoy complimentary wine tasting with the Naked Grape 12-5 p.m. each day as well as special tours and demonstrations.
Wares range from incredible contemporary kinetic sculpture, to tiny colonial lanterns, giant sprouting shallots, Majolica kittens, Grecian urns, mossy otters, and everything in between. The star of the show, however, seems to be a beautiful set of chairs featuring a peacock-motif that were once owned by the woman whose name graces our stately Conservatory, Enid A. Haupt. If your mother is a gardener with impeccable taste, the Garden Sculpture and Antiques Fair: 1750-2013 might just be the perfect place to pickup an unforgettable Mother’s Day present!
As if that weren’t enough, the Garden is just glorious right now. Cherry blossoms, daffodils, tulips, and a very special rhododendron are stopping people in their tracks across our 250-acres. There’s a palpable sense of happiness and ease wherever you go, with incredible scents wafting on the air, and smiles everywhere. And as if that weren’t enough, the lilacs seem set to pop at any moment! Just the thought of lilacs in this springtime sunshine makes me shoulders feel less tense.
Posted in Around the Garden on April 26 2013, by Carol Gracie
After spending nearly three decades at the NYBG, and working much of that time in South American rainforests with her husband, Scott A. Mori, Carol Gracie has returned to one of her first botanical interests in retirement–local wildflowers. She is the author of Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History and coauthor (with Steve Clemants) of Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States.
Of the many spring ephemerals cropping up in the Garden, the plant known as “spring beauty” in the genus Claytonia is one that can be seen without taking a walk through the woods. It is commonly found at the edge of woodlands, or along mowed roadsides. Like many spring ephemerals spring beauty flowers close at night and remain closed on overcast days. This tendency, combined with the plant’s grass-like leaves, make it easy to miss spring beauty if you do not look closely.
The beauty of spring beauty is best enjoyed by looking closely at the flowers with a hand lens. This allows you to appreciate the delicate pink lines that lead insect visitors to the source of nectar at the base of each petal. Insects–among them small bees, flies, and wasps–are further guided to the nectaries by a bright yellow spot; they are attracted by both nectar and pollen. The tiny flowers do not produce enough nectar to warrant a visit by the large queen bumblebees that fly in early spring, but small bees drink their fill and pack their pollen baskets with the anthers‘ creamy white pollen. The anthers themselves are pink and open before the female reproductive parts, thus helping to promote cross-pollination.
Posted in Around the Garden on April 26 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Muscari planted en masse to look like a little pool of water below the Perennial Garden’s armillary sphere. Garden design at its most pleasant.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Science on April 25 2013, by Scott Mori
Scott A. Mori is the Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany at the The New York Botanical Garden. His research interests are the ecology, classification, and conservation of tropical rain forest trees. His most recent book is Tropical Plant Collecting: From the Field to the Internet.
Studying plants in the field is the best way to acquire knowledge about them. Unfortunately, when a specialist does not live where the plants grow, it is difficult to study them in situ. In this modern age, the availability of digital photography and the internet makes it possible for local botanists to collect and photograph plants, then send the data and images to specialists. Although I prefer to see plants in their natural environments, new technology yields information that I could never have collected on my own!
One of my collaborators is Alex Popovkin, a Russian-born editor who works remotely from his small cabin in rural Bahia, Brazil. Alex has been passionate about plants since kindergarten, where he made daily observations of the development of a potted nasturtium planted by his teacher. He also observed the house plants his father cultivated on window sills in their St. Petersburg home. As a high school student in the early ’60s, Alex cared for tropical plants, and among other tasks penciled their Latin names on wooden labels at the Botanic Garden of the University of St. Petersburg as part of his work-study curriculum. His first botany mentor there was Dmitri Zalessky, the garden’s director at the time.
Posted in Photography on April 25 2013, by Ann Rafalko
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Posted in Adult Education on April 24 2013, by Lansing Moore
![photo (5)[2]](https://www.nybg.org/blogs/plant-talk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/photo-52.jpg)
In New York City, where space comes at a premium, it helps to live by the mantra “Great things come in small packages,” even when it comes to gardening. Container gardens, tree well plantings, and terrace gardens are the easiest way to add a small-scale garden to the average city apartment, and they can be beautiful, too.
Over the course of two sessions in March, Daryl Beyers showed his class how to get the most out of placing a few plants in a simple pot. The results were these charming, self-contained gardens, perfect for even the most space-starved New Yorker.
If you would like to try your hand at container gardening, the Garden’s Adult Education program is offering two special Saturday sessions in May! “All About Containers” is a daylong boot camp on May 4 in the Bronx and will cover all the basics of container gardening.