Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 11 2012, by Matt Newman
The tropical water lily pool is filling in nicely with what look like enormous green bottle caps, capsized and floating about. The Victoria lily pads are nothing if they’re not attention getters.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on August 10 2012, by Matt Newman
We’re looking forward to a chill schedule of French poetry, summer color, and a heap of foodie fun at the NYBG this weekend, with poets in the poppies and pickles in the Family Garden!
In the Perennial Garden, join a few of New York’s most talented wordsmiths as they honor the heights of classic French verse, reciting the lilting and lyrical Symbolism of Rimbaud, Verlaine, and Mallarmé. Surrounded by plush plantings, it’s nearly a painted scene in itself. And for those hoping for more hands-on inspiration, our gardening demonstrations spotlight the ideal techniques and cultivars that go into keeping a perennial display at home.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 10 2012, by Matt Newman
Late summer plantings in Monet’s Garden set the precedent for our fall displays–rich, colorful, elegant. We’re as anxious to see the autumn arrangements as our visitors are.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in How-to, Video on August 9 2012, by Matt Newman
There’s a notion floating around that growing water lilies is a hobby best left to conservatory curators and nursery managers. Maybe it’s driven by the fact that Nymphaea are so alien to what the average home gardener is comfortable working with; aquatic plants are a far cry from the ever present office philodendron. Or maybe it’s because Claude Monet built an entire artistic movement on the exploration of their fragile elegance. “I’d have to refinance my house to dig that!” you think, looking at Giverny’s carefully-arranged water lily pond.
Relax. You won’t even need a trowel, much less a construction team with a backhoe.
As we slip into the late summer height of our water lily display, Christian Primeau–Manager of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory–is ready to share a few key pointers with Nymphaea hopefuls. All you’ll need is a basic soil blend, some pea gravel, a large container, and a spot in or around your house with full sun exposure.
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on August 9 2012, by Matt Newman
New York might not strike many as a hibiscus state. Not at first. But set foot in the Home Gardening Center in August, and you could find yourself fooled (however briefly) into thinking you’ve landed in Hawaii, or Florida–spots where locals have an easy time landscaping their homes with these flowers. They show up in sunny yellows, punch bowl pinks, and whites punctuated with contrasting reds. In our trial beds, however, we’re spreading the word that hibiscus aren’t limited to places with palm trees; some species are just as suitable for your native plant garden here in the Empire State!
Like the water lilies in the Conservatory pools, species of hibiscus are divided into two groups: hardy and tropical. The latter, with its broad scope of color, does well outdoors in the beach states mentioned above; they’re not big fans of frigid temperatures. But here at the NYBG, we cultivate the former variety: hardy hibiscus, equipped to handle the weather patterns New Yorkers are used to, while boasting all the cocktail umbrella charm of their tropical counterparts. A few species, such as Hibiscus moscheutos, can even be found growing natively in New York’s wetlands.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 9 2012, by Matt Newman
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on August 8 2012, by Matt Newman
When you’re home to more than 250 acres of flora, you don’t have to stray far to uncover a virtual menagerie of fauna within it. Cormorants and wood ducks draw zig-zags in the duckweed of Twin Lakes, while Red-tailed Hawks hunt skinks and black squirrels from far overhead. There’s even a cranky snapping turtle or two. But for every rabbit or warbler out to make itself seen in the NYBG, there’s another species living out its life away from our cameras! As Director of the Forest, Jessica A. Schuler has turned some of her focus toward the elusive creatures living in our woodland.
Through a collaboration with Jason Munshi-South of CUNY Baruch College and Mark Weckel of Mianus River Gorge Preserve, Jessica is doing her part to help the pair document the many animals living throughout the city and Westchester county, as well as the effects of the urban environment on evolutionary biology. In the case of the NYBG, this is done by arranging four motion-activated, all-weather cameras in locations throughout the Garden’s 50-acre Forest, ready to capture the movements of any and all woodland wanderers that might amble by. And after only a month on site, capture they did! Calibrated to go off at even the slightest hint of a passing animal, these cameras accurately snapped shots of several familiar species lurking in our woods.
Posted in Programs and Events on August 8 2012, by Matt Newman
If the grow-at-home herb garden went over with your child about as well as that “educational” video game you got him for his birthday, and dinner salads are essentially your little Superman’s kryptonite, there’s hope yet for any parent: the Urban Farm Tour series. Last time out, we explored the borough that hip-hop built (depending on which generation you speak with, anyway), guiding visitors through a few of the most well-established and promising Bronx farms to support the urban agriculture movement. Now, we’re getting the kids in on the act.
On Saturday, August 18, the Bronx Trolley sets out to celebrate the influence of youth on our gardens. This time, we’ll be featuring two significant community plots, Brook Park and Drew Gardens, along with the school garden of C.S. 211. These are only a handful of the major hubs in our borough for greening, growing, and outdoor summer programming. And there’s more than enough activities during our daytrip to turn your kids into miniature green thumbs, with introductions to vegetable growing, a beekeeping mini-workshop, and time spent learning the ropes as urban chicken farmers.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 8 2012, by Matt Newman
Monet’s Garden keeps changing with the season! As summer wears on, the vert Monet architecture mingles with new and complementing florescence.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Programs and Events on August 7 2012, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
New York City has made a wonderful commitment to greening up the neighborhood and the High Line is one of its finest examples. It is one of many local initiatives–such as Hudson River Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, A Million Trees, and Battery City Park–to bring nature back into the urban environment.
The High Line is the reclaimed site of an abandoned railroad track that has been turned into a vibrant park and a magnet for city dwellers. People swarm to the park during their lunch break or after work, and it has rapidly become a premier tourist attraction.
The park is emblematic of good city planning. It has user-friendly peel up benches that rise organically from the walkway and decadent chaise lounges that give a spectacular view of the Hudson. One of my favorite spots is the 10th Avenue viewing station. In an age where we are bombarded by electronic stimulation, the viewing station offers a place to congregate and quietly watch the city moving below.