Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 13 2012, by Matt Newman
It’s not ready to make its way into a batch of s’mores just yet, but I’d say our cacao fruit is looking more and more delectable each day. You can catch it now in the rain forest of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
Theobroma cacao — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Monet's Garden on September 12 2012, by Matt Newman
Long before Lost Generation icons like Hemingway and Stein held court with Joyce and Fitzgerald, another cadre of artists called Paris home: “Les Mardistes,” named for the Tuesdays (in French: mardi) on which they often met. Imagine stepping into a parlor with Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, and none other than the Impressionist himself, Claude Monet–you get the idea. When it rains, it pours, and late 19th-century France saw a veritable flood of the creative spirit. At the NYBG, we’re hoping you’ll join us in recreating it through The Garden Anthology, and all poets are welcome!
More than an homage to Giverny or an exhibition of Monet’s art, Monet’s Garden is a seasonal celebration of that prolific muse. No static thing, it moved fluidly between the arts, touching the Impressionist painter just as it inspired the Symbolist poets. In the Perennial Garden‘s Poetry Walk, you can see the work of Monet’s lyrical forebears and contemporaries proudly displayed among our summer blooms. Better yet, the Salon Series regales visitors with the words of the French writers–Verlaine, Mallarmé, Baudelaire, Rimbaud–as recited by some of the finest New York poets to have studied them.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 12 2012, by Matt Newman
In the tropical pool of the Conservatory Courtyard: Victoria amazonica. Big. Bad. Lily pad.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Programs and Events on September 11 2012, by Matt Newman
Wednesdays are foodie days at The New York Botanical Garden, and the twelfth is no different! If your palate’s been hunting for something a touch more scintillating than what you can sniff out at your average midtown hot dog stand, it’s not a crime to look outside your borough–the Bronx, perhaps? As always, our Greenmarket is a cornucopia of home-grown goodies!
Peppers in many a color were last week’s highlights–orange, yellow, and red, all crisp and piquant–while apples flaunted sweetness among the pre-fall fruits. Even the fresh bitterness of dandelion greens was on call. Not to be outdone by the “two to four servings a day” crowd, The Little Bake Shop and Millport Dairy made a delectable point with fresh-baked breads, raisin oatmeal cookies, and berry pies to put any dessert tray to shame. Wash it down with a fruity juice from Red Jacket Orchards and you’re sending off summer with all the right flavors.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 11 2012, by Matt Newman
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on September 10 2012, by Matt Newman
It’s something of a quiet Monday here at the NYBG (we’re not open most Mondays; it’s best to give the horticulturists a clear space to do their weekly tidying-up), and the thermometer is dipping rapidly. I’m not going to say that fall has begun, necessarily, as it’s probably just a fluke weather pattern. But it puts me in the mood for looking forward! Thankfully, the prolific Ivo Vermeulen has left me with enough photographs to geek out on some pre-season imagery.
What carries me so often to the Benenson Ornamental Conifers is what you’d call the most subtle of beauties. But I guess that stands for the Garden’s evergreens in general. They’re not showy in the way that a rose presents, though many of them sport as much–if not more–fragrance. Instead, the conifer lands more in the territory of regal reflection. For most people in the northern hemisphere, nothing quite heralds the season like an evergreen dusted with snow. (Not that we had much opportunity to enjoy that kind of scenery this past winter.)
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 10 2012, by Matt Newman
It makes me want to dig up earthworms, skip rocks on the misting river, and any number of other campy childhood stereotypes. But spend 20 minutes on the Forest paths and tell me with a straight face that you don’t get the same feeling.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 9 2012, by Matt Newman
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 8 2012, by Matt Newman
Hemerocallis ‘Challenger’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on September 7 2012, by Matt Newman
It’s a bittersweet end of season for most home gardeners. There’s that brief interim of cool pre-autumn nights to look forward to, but the vegetable garden will probably start looking a little less like a bountiful Eden, and more like a bedraggled salad. Not that it has to be that way!
Join us this weekend for En Fin de Saison, Sonia Uyterhoeven‘s in-depth demonstration of how you can draw out your harvest just a little bit longer. As the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education, Sonia will offer insights into keeping your kitchen table stacked with hardy, late-season fare you might not have considered before. Even better, there’s no registration necessary, and the demonstration will run at 2 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday also highlights our latest lyric exploration in the Salon Series, delving into the oeuvre of Paul Verlaine through the interpretive recitations of three of New York’s most respected poets. Consider it a prelude to the next transition in Monet’s Garden, as we look toward moving from summer palettes to the colors of fall.