Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden on July 17 2012, by Ann Rafalko
It’s hot, I cannot lie. Another thing I cannot lie about: I’m really bad at dealing with the heat. My favorite ways to cope include sitting in the shade along Tulip Tree Allée, drinking lots of cold water, indulging in an occasional popsicle, and staying as far away as possible from the stove; in other words, it’s time to eat lots and lots of salad.
But, as I’m sure you know, plain old iceberg and tomatoes can get a bit repetitive. What’s the solution? Hit the weekly Wednesday NYBG Greenmarket for inspiration (and check out our recipes below)!
This week, in addition to the usual abundance of fruits and veggies, you will also find representatives from the Montefiore Office of Community Health and Wellness offering advice and screenings, and educators from St. Barnabas Hospital offering advice on healthy habits and staying well. And though it may seem hard to motivate in this intense heat, a bit of gentle exercise is still important, so pull on your sneakers and go for a walk with the members of the Weekly Walking Club.
Admission and parking are free to shop at the Greenmarket and EBT, WIC, and FMNP and NYC Health Bucks are accepted. The weekly NYBG Greenmarket near Tulip Tree Allée happens every Wednesday through November 21, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Read More
Posted in Around the Garden on July 17 2012, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
The other day I was walking through Helen’s Garden of the Senses in the Home Gardening Center and I spied one of my favorite hydrangeas, Hydrangea macrophylla Mini Penny™. These days she is reaching about three feet tall and forms a solid four-foot-wide mass. A profusion of large, pale pink blooms spills over onto the walkway.
The intricate floral structure of this mophead hydrangea means that the blossoms have incredible detail and subtle color changes. Mini Penny™ is a dwarf hydrangea that is ideal for any homeowner’s foundation planting. She plays nicely with other shrubs and perennials and adds a sophisticated flair to any garden. If you plant her, all your neighbors will think you know how to garden–even if you don’t.
Read More
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on July 17 2012, by Matt Newman
It tends to remind us of Hawaii, but this hibiscus cultivar hails from the Fleming Brothers of Nebraska, of all places.
Hibiscus ‘Kopper King’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Gardens and Collections on July 16 2012, by Matt Newman
Back in the peaceful reaches of the Benenson Ornamental Conifers, there’s a question to be asked. Is there stock to be put in rarity, and does pairing that quality with beauty somehow amplify the “value” of what we’re looking at? I’m not about to try and delineate the boundaries of taste and worth; we work to preserve the future of plants, and that’s all there is to it. But there’s one species in mind that’s worth looking into.
Catalpa fargesii manages that unique combination of scarcity and beauty. A Chinese native found in regions such as Guangxi, Hunan, and Sichuan, even in its homeland it’s considered extremely rare in the wild, only “discovered” by Western dendrologists early in the 20th century. In the Western world, where few specimens have propagated in Europe or North America, it’s rarer still. Here in the U.S., for example, there are only two recorded Chinese catalpa trees of this kind. The Arnold Arboretum at Harvard has one, accessioned in 1914; The New York Botanical Garden is home to the other. In this case, “exclusive” is not a word to be tossed around lightly.
Read More
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on July 16 2012, by Matt Newman
Why cover your work with a label when the food sells itself? Look for Millport Farms’ pickled everything when you stop by the Greenmarket this coming Wednesday (it’s every Wednesday, 9 to 3 p.m., every week through late November). For my two cents, the habanero pickles are life-changing–if you don’t mind your lips tingling.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on July 15 2012, by Matt Newman
In the immortal words of Jurassic Park’s Dr. Ian Malcolm, “Life finds a way.” …Not that anything has much of a struggle setting down roots in our 250 acres of greenery!
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography, Programs and Events on July 14 2012, by Matt Newman
Wishing a wonderful July 14 to every one of our French friends! And everyone who’s just being French for the weekend, for that matter. Don’t forget that the NYBG will be on 60th street in Manhattan for the Bastille Day NY festivities tomorrow, from 12 to 5 p.m. There won’t be any storming of fortresses to my knowledge, but I figure food, music, and celebration will suffice. Vive le 14 juillet!
Hemerocallis ‘Siloam French Doll’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on July 13 2012, by Matt Newman
“All beauties, like all possible phenomena, have something of the eternal and something of the ephemeral—of the absolute and the particular.” — Charles Baudelaire
The France of Claude Monet was a landscape beholden to the muse, not only in paint, but in verse, food, and music. Paris was the city of imagination! The city of Erik Satie and Rimbaud, and of the Lost Generation that arrived late in Monet’s life–Stein and Hemingway among them. This weekend, the NYBG partners with the Poetry Society of America to bring the Impressionist’s peers back into the spotlight. Here at the Garden, New York’s finest contemporary poets offer readings of the French Symbolists that inspired them most.
On Saturday, the focus falls on the oeuvre of Charles Baudelaire, an early figure in Monet’s time whose urban prose and verse set the foundation for many of the Symbolists who followed after. And on Sunday we switch gears, taking art to the table for our Family Dinner Event! With Mario Batali’s talented chefs on hand, we’ll venture abroad, looking beyond the recipes of France to bring you Continental flavor with local ingredients (many grown here at the NYBG). While you enjoy garden-inspired teas and wines paired with elegant dishes expertly prepared, the kids can busy themselves with Family Garden adventures. It’s about as high on the win-win scale as you’re ever likely to find yourself.
Read More
Posted in Around the Garden on July 13 2012, by Ann Rafalko
‘Mario Batali’s Kitchen Gardens‘ in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden features vegetables and herbs used in the restaurants of chef Mario Batali. An audio tour and Mario’s Menu Mystery game help children of all ages explore these verdant garden plots.
On Sunday, July 15 join two chefs from Mario Batali’s restaurants, Andy Nusser of Tarry Lodge and Anthony Sasso of Casa Mono, for the first of four Family Dinners with Mario Batali’s Chefs in the Family Garden. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s growing in their patches!
Read More
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on July 13 2012, by Matt Newman
After I posted the relieving conclusion of the ‘Ray Davies’ saga, commenter Gene mentioned that another pond-dweller, this time a lotus, shared its name with yet another rock star–Scottish singer Maggie Bell. For those who didn’t catch the exchange, I dove in and found what I could of Nelumbo ‘Maggie Bell Slocum’, dubbed not for a rocker, but someone far more horticultural.
‘Maggie Bell Slocum’ was so named for the second wife of prolific water lily and lotus hybridizer Perry D. Slocum, a New Yorker and a long-lived icon in the pond plant world. This one still has stage presence, though, with or without the rock pedigree.
Nelumbo ‘Maggie Belle Slocum’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
It’s hot, I cannot lie. Another thing I cannot lie about: I’m really bad at dealing with the heat. My favorite ways to cope include sitting in the shade along Tulip Tree Allée, drinking lots of cold water, indulging in an occasional popsicle, and staying as far away as possible from the stove; in other words, it’s time to eat lots and lots of salad.
