Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Photography on November 29 2014, by Matt Newman
The first snow of the season came down this past Wednesday, dusting the Garden with a festive—if wet—hint at what’s to come.
In the Visitor Center – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on November 28 2014, by Matt Newman
Goodbye, fall foliage. It’s been technicolor.
Siebold’s maple (Acer sieboldianum) – Photo by Amy Weiss
Posted in Photography on November 27 2014, by Matt Newman
The bees do a little dining of their own today. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone—our doors are closed for the holiday, but we’ll be open on Friday and all through the weekend. See you outside!
A bee feasts on Lamiaceae in the Perennial Garden – Photo by Amy Weiss
Posted in Horticulture on November 26 2014, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
They are ubiquitous during the holiday season—and for good reason. Poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) are affordable, colorful plants with an enormous amount of festive appeal. But, contrary to popular opinion, the flowers are actually minuscule. The beauty of the poinsettia comes from its large, colorful red bracts.
Poinsettias come not only in the traditional yuletide red, but in a selection of cream-colored and rosy pink varieties as well. Whatever your tastes, they adorn many public spaces and homes during the holiday season.
I wince when I see people walking down the street with an open poinsettia in hand, fully exposed to the elements. Do your part to be an informed shopper and insist that the florist or retail store you purchase your poinsettia from wraps the plant before you leave with it. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate affair—it can be as little as temporarily covering the plant with a shopping bag. You must remember that you’re dealing with a tropical plant, and it can’t handle our area’s cool temperatures.
Posted in Photography on November 18 2014, by Matt Newman
In the Ross Conifer Arboretum – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Horticulture on November 17 2014, 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.
Approximately thirty thousand trees add shade and scale to the Garden, including thousands of mature oaks, maples, sweet-gums, beeches, birches, tulip-trees, black-gums, and other deciduous beauties in the Native Plant Garden, Azalea Garden, and dotted across the hills and dales of our historic landscape. All of these wonderful shade trees make fall at the Garden a heart-breakingly beautiful mosaic of yellow, orange, burgundy, scarlet, and brown, particularly when late October and early November days are bright and nights are crisp but not freezing.
All of these wonderful shade trees also make the annual ritual of fall leaf pick-up a Herculean task for Garden horticulturists, who take up rakes, blowers, mowers, vacuums, and any other tool they can think of and spend the better part of three months each year in an elaborately choreographed leaf gathering and transporting dance across the Garden’s 250 acres. If all goes as planned, leaf pick-up begins in early October and is mostly finished before winter’s first substantial snowfall.
Posted in Horticulture on November 13 2014, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
When we think of autumnal shade in our gardens, we always look to woody plants. It is the season when trees monopolize our attention. In New England and the rest of the northeast, a thriving tourist industry kicks into full swing for three weeks around this time, paying homage to the brilliance of fall foliage. New Englanders pray for the warm days and cool nights which will provide the ideal conditions for a colorful show.
While most of us are looking up at this time of the year, looking down isn’t a bad idea, either. There are many perennials that compete with the brilliance of the trees. I was perusing the gardens two weeks ago admiring some of the best fall performers, and now I’d like to share some of the best fall candidates for the home gardener.
Posted in Programs and Events on November 7 2014, by Lansing Moore
This weekend is the culmination of NYBG’s Fall Forest Weekends! Winter will be here before you know it, so don’t miss your chance to come and admire our stunning fall foliage while enjoying a wide variety of seasonal programs and activities. Take a canoe through New York City’s largest remaining tract of old-growth forest via the Bronx River, see live hawks and owls, and watch a master woodcarver at work—whose handiwork will be for sale in the Shop in the Garden!
Next weekend will be the debut of all of NYBG’s winter programs and exhibits, including the 23rd year of the Holiday Train Show, so be sure to reserve your tickets soon before your preferred date sells out! In the meantime, click through for all the ways you can take advantage of peak color at NYBG!
Posted in Photography on September 30 2014, by Matt Newman
New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae ‘Andenken an Alma Potschke’) in the Home Gardening Center – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Wildlife on September 8 2014, by Debbie Becker
Debbie Becker has been The New York Botanical Garden’s resident bird expert for over 25 years, and continues to lead her popular Bird Walks on Saturday mornings throughout much of the year.
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is the best place to bird during the fall migration. With its diverse habitats it offers birders unique and spectacular views of migrating birds.
The great fall migration begins with the movement of shore birds in late July. The shores of the Bronx River and Twin Lakes often become a good stopover point for spotted and solitary sandpipers. They bob along the shoreline grabbing small insects and crustaceans. In the wetlands, Wilson’s Snipes stop to search for food and temporary shelter.
Warblers, ruby-throated hummingbirds, tanagers, and grosbeaks begin to arrive in late August and remain through early October.
The warblers are headed south with their immature offspring and many are no longer in breeding colors. Some are brown or olive green with one or two wing bars. This gives credence to the phrase “confusing fall warblers.” It is often a challenge to identify some warblers which adds a bit of mystery to birding.