Morning Eye Candy: Heavenly Hellebores
Posted in Photography on April 14 2015, by Lansing Moore
Helleborus × nigercors ‘Honeyhill Joy’ in the Ladies’ Border – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Plant Talk
Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Bring Your Dream Garden to Life at the Antique Garden Furniture Fair
Posted in Programs and Events on April 13 2015, by Lansing Moore
Next weekend, NYBG is pleased to welcome back more than 30 established exhibitors from across the United States and Europe for the Antique Garden Furniture Fair, the country’s most renowned stage for authentic garden antiques and rarities. This year’s fair will run from April 24 through 26, displaying an expansive array of art and antiques for the home and garden alongside the ever-popular Specialty Plant Sale. Sourced by Shop in the Garden, a variety of shrubs and trees—including Japanese maples, Itoh peonies, and other perennials—will be available alongside annuals and herbs. This year’s Fair also features some all-new programs to enhance your visit! Read on for more.
Indoor Seed-Starting
Posted in Gardening Tips on April 13 2015, by Sara Katz
Sara Katz is the Community Horticulturist for Bronx Green-Up, the community garden outreach program of The New York Botanical Garden.
Now is the perfect time to start vegetable, flower and herb seeds in a sunny window indoors. You’ll get a jump-start on the growing season. You’ll save money starting from seed rather than buying transplants. You’ll grow what you like, whether heirloom, organic, or culturally-relevant crops you can’t find at the grocery store. One of my students, a Harlem community gardener, brought fuzzy cotton seeds to Bronx Green-Up’s Grow More Vegetables class. She’ll grow cotton to demonstrate the agricultural heritage of her ancestors.
Check out this time lapse of a radish seed sprouting, courtesy of Jacklyn Russell and Walker Howland:
Here is a quick guide to indoor seed-starting:
Morning Eye Candy: First of the Flowering Trees
Posted in Photography on April 13 2015, by Lansing Moore
One of our first flowering trees to herald the arrival of the beautiful cherry blossom season is the Japanese apricot.
Prunus mume ‘Matsurabara Red’ in the Home Gardening Center – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
This Weekend: Enjoy the Outdoors and Catch the Orchid Show
Posted in Programs and Events on April 10 2015, by Lansing Moore
The magnolias are just beginning to open, colorful blossoms are steadily spreading across the Perennial Garden and Ladies’ Border, and a few of our ever-popular daffodils are already trumpeting the long-overdue arrival of spring at NYBG! The forecast for this weekend is sunny and mild, so we have plenty of walks and tours lined up to enhance your experience of the Garden, from the Ross Conifer Arboretum to the Native Plant Garden.
Meanwhile, time is running out to see The Orchid Show: Chandeliers, which is on display in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory through April 19. Get your tickets today and don’t miss your chance to experience this captivating exhibition of beautiful and unique flowers! Tickets are also still available for tomorrow’s Orchid Evening, for those who want to enjoy a date night on this lovely spring weekend. Read on for more!
Morning Eye Candy: Spring’s Advance
Posted in Photography on April 10 2015, by Lansing Moore
A blanket of small blooms is spreading across Seasonal Walk, beginning with the netted iris.
Iris ‘Harmony’ in Seasonal Walk – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Table for Two? Presenting the Hudson Garden Grill, NYBG’s Latest Dining Experience
Posted in Around the Garden on April 9 2015, by Lansing Moore
Next Tuesday, April 14th, we are thrilled to announce that we will open NYBG’s first ever full-service, sit-down restaurant! Hudson Garden Grill will be open to both Garden visitors and the general public looking for a seasonal, locally sourced dining experience. The latest exciting phase in our partnership with Stephen STARR Events will feature a multi-course lunch menu of refined New American cuisine inspired by locally sourced and ethically produced ingredients. Visit the new establishment for a light breakfast, afternoon tea and light fare, or an early supper during an upcoming visit to the garden.
Hudson Valley farms and other regional producers such as Hudson Valley Duck Farm, Heather Ridge Farm, and Old Chatham Sheepherding Company will provide the highest quality ingredients to Executive Chef Julian Alonzo and his team. Julian attended the French Culinary Institute, honing his skills at both La Caravelle and Maxim’s under Chef David Ruggiero, and was later named “Alumni Chef of the Year.” After receiving praise from Crain’s New York Business and an invitation to cook at the James Beard Foundation, Julian seeks to bring innovative, restaurant-inspired fare to the world of catering and special events.
Morning Eye Candy: Dawn Breaks
Posted in Photography on April 9 2015, by Lansing Moore
Each day brings more blooms at NYBG! Spring is just around the corner.
Viburnum × bodnantense ‘Dawn’ in the Ladies’ Border – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Fashionably Late: Spring Flowers and Foliage are on the Way!
Posted in Around the Garden on April 8 2015, by Todd Forrest
Todd Forrest is the NYBG’s Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections. He leads all horticulture programs and activities across the Garden’s 250-acre National Historic Landmark landscape, including 50 gardens and plant collections outside and under glass, the old-growth Thain Family Forest, and living exhibitions in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
Everyone in our area is well aware that climatologists have determined that this winter brought some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded in New York. The professional horticulturists who care for The New York Botanical Garden don’t need official weather data to confirm our suspicions that spring is coming later this year than it has in recent memory. All we need to do is walk through the Botanical Garden to see what our magnolias, daffodils, then flowering cherries and other spring-flowering favorites are doing at the moment. Gardeners’ (and plants’) internal clocks are set according to plant phenology—the timing of natural events such as flowering, fruiting, and leafing out—and all indications are that spring is overdue.
As staff members of one of the world’s great scientific and educational institutions, we have access to a suite of resources we can use to confirm (or deny) our suspicions. Since 2002 Volunteer Citizen Scientists have walked regularly through the Botanical Garden and noted carefully if certain plants are flowering, fruiting, leafing out, or dropping their leaves. The data from these “phenology walks” tell us that on average over the past decade, our native red maple, which is one of the most common street trees in New York and my favorite harbinger of spring, has been in peak flower around the middle of March. As of today, the flowers on the red maples in our Native Plant Garden and Thain Family Forest are just starting to open.
A Commentary on New Plants: Profile of Kelly Norris
Posted in Horticulture on April 8 2015, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Last month I took my annual winter sojourn up to New England Grows, a regional tradeshow for the Northeast. I was surprised and pleased to see a humorous theme either consciously or subconsciously woven into the educational programming, and I laughed my way through three enjoyable days of lectures as I learned what others were up to in the field of horticulture.
Another theme which I have been exploring over the course of the winter was an environmental or ecological theme. Many speakers celebrated the close relationship that horticulture has with conservation and ecology. As one speaker aptly put it, ‘we are finally putting the green back into the green industry’.
A theme that I would like to discuss today is new introductions. In one of the lectures, Kelly Norris, the Horticultural Manager for the new Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, turned the topic of new introductions into a poignant commentary on our industry, our role as gardeners, and our relationship to plants. Norris presented a ‘partial manifesto’ for modern gardening and outlined potential paths for us to follow.