Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Photography on January 8 2015, by Matt Newman
While no doubt grumpy at this morning’s 7° weather, the magnolia outside the Library Building nonetheless looks pretty and delicate in its winter colors.
Magnolia outside the Library Building – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Horticulture on January 6 2015, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
For the plantaholic, the New Year brings new vices. Fortunately, most of them are harmless and the conundrum gardeners are most often faced with is finding a good home for this year’s novelties in an already crowded garden.
One person who is always ready to play to our weakness is nurseryman Dan Heims of Terra Nova Nurseries. Terra Nova is a wholesale nursery situated just 25 miles south of Portland, Oregon; for sourcing plants from them in your area, this page will direct you to a store near you.
When it comes to color, curiosity and the “wow” factor, Heims’s breeding program has developed a formula for success. This year, leading the charge for “something completely new” is Mukgenia Nova™ ‘Flame’. It may sound like you are knee deep in sludge, but Mukgenia is actually the first ever intergeneric hybrid between a Bergenia (pigsqueak) and Mukdenia ‘Crimson Fans’.
Mukdenia (the parent) is essentially a coral bell (Heuchera) with palmate leaves. Their foliage colors beautifully as the season progresses. The green palmate leaves become tinged with a brilliant red. The only problem, here in our New York climate, is that the foliage senesces rapidly in late summer; particularly when it has been a hot summer.
Posted in Horticulture on January 5 2015, by Christian Primeau
Christian Primeau is the NYBG‘s Manager of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
The historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is well known for extraordinary seasonal exhibitions. The Holiday Train Show delights winter-weary visitors with festive lights, New York landmarks artfully crafted from natural materials, and myriad model trains chugging through a whimsical tropical landscape. The Orchid Show electrifies the senses, offering a veritable jungle of astonishing colors, forms, and perfumes. The annual spring-autumn exhibition showcases kaleidoscopic plantings and has recently paid homage to Monet’s garden at Giverny and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller garden in Seal Harbor, Maine. Beginning May 16th, 2015, the vibrant Mexican garden of artist Frida Kahlo will find an ephemeral home right here in the exhibition houses.
All of these shows certainly warrant a visit, but I strongly encourage visitors to delve into the permanent glasshouse plant collections as well. This incredibly diverse assemblage, comprised of over 20,000 plants from around the globe, is the soul of the Conservatory. Since the grand building’s completion in 1902, many of these specimens have been collected by some of the most distinguished botanists and horticulturists of the era—from our founder Nathaniel Lord Britton to Sir Ghillean Prance.
Posted in Photography on January 5 2015, by Matt Newman
The first signs of 2015’s coming Orchid Show are cropping up in the greenhouses of late. There’ll only be more from here!
Lady’s slipper in the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Programs and Events on January 2 2015, by Vanessa Sellers
On November 7, 2014, the Symposium The Changing Nature of Nature in Cities was held to a sold-out crowd in Ross Hall. It was the 2nd Symposium hosted by The New York Botanical Garden’s new Humanities Institute. Organized in collaboration with Todd Forrest, Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections, and Jessica Arcate Schuler, Director of the Thain Family Forest, it brought together a diverse group of scientists, botanists, landscape and garden design professionals, urban planners, architects, and general public to discuss the development of novel ecosystems in our rapidly growing metropolitan areas—a timely and often contentious subject in current conversations on the topic.
Posted in Photography on January 2 2015, by Matt Newman
Minute cactus specimens cover tables in the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections. I wonder how many of them will make it into our summer exhibition, FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life.
Cacti in the Nolen Greenhouses – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on January 1 2015, by Matt Newman
Happy New Year to you and yours from NYBG! It’s winter, sure, but we can look forward to spring a little early.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on December 31 2014, by Matt Newman
Every tiny seed primed for flight, and just a puff of air away.
A dandelion in the Ross Conifer Arboretum – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Horticulture on December 30 2014, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
I am not sure how we managed to get to the end of this year so quickly—perhaps I never am—but like all the others, this year seemed to gallop as it approached the finish line. I generally like to finish off my year of blogging with environmental topics, so that we can reflect on our role and renew our commitment to preserving the natural world in small yet significant ways.
This year, these larger-than-life contemplations will have to wait until after the New Year. My topic today is light, airy, and fragrant. Everyone seems to be growing paperwhites (Narcissus papyraceus) and amaryllis (Hippeastrum sp.) this year. I will describe how easy it is to grow these two winter wonders and inspire you to try—if you haven’t already.
Based on the classification given by the American Daffodil Society, paperwhites come from Division 8—Tazetta Daffodils. The members of this division are incredibly floriferous with some producing up to 20 blossoms per stem (range 5–20). They prefer warmer conditions than many of their bulbous brethren. While some members of this division are hardy to zone 5, the paperwhites that you force in the winter months are only hardy from zones 8–10.
Posted in Photography on December 30 2014, by Lansing Moore
In the Ladies’ Border, it’s certainly this Camellia.
Camellia ‘Winter’s Star’ in the Ladies Border – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen