Taking place on Sunday, May 20, The New York Botanical Garden welcomes the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in hosting “Monet’s Friends,” an accompaniment to our exhibition that magnifies the art of the era through the strains of musical Impressionism. Your ticket to the chamber music series will also include access to Monet’s Garden, allowing a full-circle experience of the sights and sounds that France embodied in the late 1800s.
Beyond the masterful paintings that emerged from Claude Monet’s time at Giverny, the threshold of the 20th century brought with it a wealth of musical experimentation in Europe. From this innovative turn came revered French composers: Debussy, Roussel, Fauré. As contemporaries to the great visual Impressionist, their music–like Monet’s art–redefined genre boundaries, dipping into an atmospheric exploration of composition and technique that defied the conventions of the day.
How does that adage go? Would you rather be a big duck in a little pond, or a little duck in a big pond? Clearly, this lady mallard–who looks right at home in the Home Gardening Center‘s rather small pond–has made up her mind.
Paeonia lactiflora 'Kevin' (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
With apologies to T.S. Eliot:
The naming of plants is a curious matter;
It isn’t just one of those science-y things.
You may find me as mad as a rosy pink madder
When I tell you a plant must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First is the name of the plant’s closest family
Such as Viburnum or Lilium, Paeonia or Oxalis–
All of them sensible, Latinate names.
There are names that are fancier, if you think they sound geekier,
Some are for flowers, others for trees:
Such as or Eschscholzia or Hesperantha, Metasequoia or Crassulaceae–
But all of them sensible, Latinate names.
But I tell you a plant needs a name that’s unique,
A name that’s precise, and more descriptive,
Else how can a scientist keep her croci in a row,
Or catalog her samples, or publish her findings?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a few
Such as odoratum, elegans, or subedentata,
Such as lactiflora, stellata, or else cotyledon–
Names that along with the first never belong to more than one plant.
But above and beyond there’s still one name to go,
And that is a name that you may know best;
It is a name that only a human can bestow–
The reason behind it ONLY THE HUMAN CAN KNOW, and will never confess.
When you notice a plant in profound meditation,
The reason I tell you is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought of why did this human give me this
Ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
Mother’s Day is this Sunday! That might be a rude awakening for some of you. But don’t panic your way to the nearest florist just yet–I doubt forgetfulness is a capital crime. There’s plenty of time to give your mom the day she deserves, and you don’t even have to worry yourself over the schedule.
Rather than tying everything down for Sunday, the NYBG thinks the Mother’s Day Garden Party should be drawn out to at least a good, solid weekend. So head up here to the Bronx for a day or two of proper family time in the warmth and color of the New York sunshine. There are, of course, more flowers growing at the Garden than there are vases in the city, so forget the table setting. Hit some of the city’s best food trucks, and take in Nature’s Showplace with a picnic on Daffodil Hill.
We’ll have family photos, live music, food tastings and fun activities for the kids, meaning one thing for mom: no nagging responsibilities. It’s the least you can give her for all these years of putting up with you, right?
Ed. Note: Our delectable cooking adventures, botanical art primers, and flower arranging courses make the NYBG‘s Adult Education program one of the most robust horticultural experiences in the nation. True to form, we will soon offer courses for the amateur perfumer, introductions to what can only be called “plant alchemy.”
Read on for an interview with Julianne Zaleta, who brings her perfumer’s knowledge to the table in Natural Perfume Blendingand Aromatherapy 101. Each is an upcoming part of this summer’s Botanical Spa course series, bringing the sensuous and luxuriant side of gardening home.
How did you start and how long have you been making your own scents?
I’ve been making my own scents for about ten years, but my love affair with plants started a very long time ago, in my mother’s garden when I was a child. When I look back I can see that my whole life has been about taking the next logical step to understanding and appreciating the plants around me. I’ve been a gardener, floral designer, herbalist and aromatherapist and I feel it’s all led me to this.
The concept of a rock garden sounds amazingly dull, like it would be a garden full of well … rocks. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Plants are imminently adaptable, and those that adapt to the arid, hardscrabble life of grappling for nutrients in a barren biome tend to be, well, really cool. Need proof? Just check out the fractal fabulousness of these Hens and Chicks in the Garden’s WPA-era Rock Garden.
As the founder and director of the Growing Chefs field-to-fork education program, co-founder of the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, and the Assistant Manager of the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, Annie Novak knows her way around a vegetable plot. Join her on May 17 for The Art of Cooking in the French Garden, bringing the taste and sophistication of this world-renowned cuisine to the NYBG.
Coq au vin, Quiche Lorraine, and vichyssoise—nowhere in the world have culinary artists developed such a reputation for precision, passion and talent as in the French kitchen. From perfectly crusty baguettes to finely flavored vinaigrettes, the art of French cooking seems at first glance like an unachievable alchemy of herbs, creams, and knife skills. But as a green thumb enamored with the precise and beautiful public parks throughout Paris (and a compulsive Googler of Versailles’ vegetable gardens), I became obsessed with the idea that French food could be done well, yet with ease.
Claude Monet may have defined his career as a painter with the iconic irises and water lilies that sprung from his palette, but his garden at Giverny offered a menagerie of color and shape that reached far beyond his most common canvas subjects. And it does to this day: over a century later, a crack staff of gardeners still tends the dazzling variety of plants that makes up the Impressionist’s living legacy. This includes a collection of vibrant indigo flowers well-known to home gardeners, cattle ranchers, and one of the 20th century’s greatest creatives.
As May makes its case for cheerful spring weather, a prime example of the Impressionist’s varied tastes blooms at the NYBG‘s Nolen Glasshouses, awaiting the opening of Monet’s Garden. And if ever an eponymous color did its namesake proud, it would be that of “delphinium blue.” There are other hues in the plant’s repertoire, of course–lavender, white, red–but each understated alternate might seem almost banal in comparison.
Taking place on Sunday, May 20, The New York Botanical Garden welcomes the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in hosting “Monet’s Friends,” an accompaniment to our exhibition that magnifies the art of the era through the strains of musical Impressionism. Your ticket to the chamber music series will also include access to Monet’s Garden, allowing a full-circle experience of the sights and sounds that France embodied in the late 1800s.
