Autumn is often an under-appreciated season in the garden. Natural light casts deep shadows and illuminates the garden with silvery hues. Fall foliage adds fire to the drama. While many flowers are fading, statuesque tropical salvias are coming into their own.
In the Perennial Garden, the main entrance is lined with some magnificent salvias. The prominent star of the promenade is the Mexican sage, Salvia ‘Phyllis’ Fancy’, which differs from the straight species in that she flowers earlier and for longer. Her foliage is greener as opposed to the wooly silver tinge of the species.
What she has in common with her predecessors is her beauty. The flowers are the classic velvety purple and white flowers of the Mexican sage. They remind me of pipe cleaners in their texture and appearance. Her most outstanding feature is that she is a hummingbird magnet. Whenever I frequent the location—morning is the best time—I see hummingbirds flitting around the blossoms with their iridescent bodies traveling at the speed of light.
The same location is home to the velvet sage (Salvia confertiflora) whose fuzzy red inflorescences are as soft as the name advertises. She is accompanied by Salvia ‘Blue Chiquita’—a compact salvia with quilted leaves and a white underside. The azure flowers are out from late summer until frost.
The Rock Garden is dense with greenery right now, and insular, but it’s only open through November before we button it up for the winter. You may want to find your way there with an All-Garden Pass for some zen time in the next month or two.
Summer bows out this weekend as we pack away our sandals, margaritas, sunscreen and park picnics and ready the scarf-and-peacoat ensembles. Officially, the first day of autumn is this Sunday. And nothing screams the merits of fall like jack-o’-lanterns, scarecrows, bugs, bats, and snakes, right? Emphasis on the “scream,” though it’s all in good fun!
Saturday is the opening day of The Haunted Pumpkin Garden, so of course we’re doing things big with spooky Halloween events and activities in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden and the Clay Family Picnic Pavilions, to start. You’re welcome to sit in on an expert carving as gourds become ghouls in the Discovery Center, or interact with some of the skittering, slithering creatures that make the holiday what it is in the pavilions.
Elsewhere in the Garden, we’re all about demos. Our gardeners for public education will be on deck in the Home Gardening Center with enlightening how-tos on the late-season, under-the-radar beauties known as salvias. And in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, we’re all about cooking demonstrations with seasonal, fresh-picked edibles twice a day on Saturday and Sunday. It should give those of you joining us for Saturday night’s Family Dinner with Mario Batali’s Chefs a tasty glimpse into the coming feast.
Toward the close of Saturday afternoon, you’ll also want to make your way toward the Perennial Garden, where poets Patricia Carlin, Adam Fitzgerald, and John Murillo will recite classic verse and original works to give these summer nights a proper send-off.
The coming months promise a cornucopia of new events and exhibitions, so stay tuned!
At its core, botany revolves around the study of plants and how they function, all in order to appreciate the massive role they play in our lives. Maybe that causes your brain to jump to associations with greenhouses and laboratories. But, just for a second, step away from the thought of picking your way through a hothouse or leaning over a microscope and consider the industries and passions that rely on plant knowledge to exist. Without some understanding of botany under the brewer’s belt, your go-to dive bar would like as not be non-existent. And the organic lotions, infusions, and supplements sold for a premium in body boutiques around the city wouldn’t be an issue, either. Not many people understand this quite so well as our Adult Education staff.
You can even relate this to your favorite stories. A famous if apocryphal anecdote attributed to the writer Vladimir Nabokov tells of a student who declares, in Nabokov’s office, that he wants to be a writer. Nabokov glances up and points out the window. “What kind of tree is that?” he asks. “I don’t know,” says the student. “Then you’ll never be a writer.”
A harsh lesson, maybe, but the fact stands that botany influences our lives more often than we give it credit for, be it tangibly or in the small, creative details that make up the world around us. Thankfully, our instructors aren’t nearly so brutal as Nabokov, and our botany courses offer fun, down-to-earth routes to engage the immense importance of plants.
When monster masks, vampire make-up, and shuffling the kids around the neighborhood with candy-laden pillow cases won’t cut it anymore, it’s time to step up your Halloween game! And this weekend, starting September 21, The New York Botanical Garden does exactly that. We’re launching into one of our favorite holidays a little early this year with a Haunted Pumpkin Garden full of creepy, crawly events and activities, and there’ll be no shortage of spiders, bats, snakes and jack-o’-lanterns here to make your twilight adventures frightfully memorable.
No, seriously—we’ll be showcasing actual bugs and bats. Why would we miss an opportunity like that?!
Check out the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden this Saturday for the return of intricately carved pumpkin sculptures, parades, and more. Your little ones will have free reign to play in our “gourd-geous” Pumpkin House (no pun apologies here) and put on a show in our Pumpkin Puppet Theater. Or, if they’re especially daring, they can join some of our Discovery Center staff on the hunt for wriggling earthworms under rotting logs. And on Saturday and Sunday at 12 and 2 p.m., we’ll be joining our friends from The Nature of Things at the Clay Family Picnic Pavilions for live animal presentations featuring the “stuff of nightmares,” creatures that really aren’t so terrifying if you give them a chance—in fact, these lizards, tarantulas, and sneaky snakes can be downright cute.
Over the past few weeks, I have been coordinating with one of my colleagues at the Shop in the Garden regarding some attractive fall options for containers and the garden. We perused the availability lists from one of her vendors and came up with some refreshing changes for late season color. Traditionalists need not venture into our Shop with trepidation—my colleague also ordered plenty of the stalwart fall mums. I, however, was looking for something beyond mums. Here are a few suggestions that we came up with.
One of my first picks was Euphorbia x martinii ‘Ascot Rainbow’. It is an intoxicating variegated spurge that looks good from spring until frost. The variegated foliage is a green-grey color (more green with smoky overtones) with creamy yellow edges. In the fall, the foliage takes on a pinkish orange autumnal hue. This 20-inch perennial is hardy from zone 5 – 9 and is deer and rabbit resistant, as well as being drought tolerant. It makes a wonderful addition to a mixed container display as well as growing beautifully in your mixed perennial border.
Van Cortlandt Manor was the first Holiday Train Show miniature that I saw, not long after I started working at the Garden. It’s still at the top of my list, I suppose–I’m a sucker for wraparound porches.
Bring on the winter! Tropical Paradise is just around the corner, meaning the snow will only make the Conservatory’s jungle plants and island flowers that much more brilliant to look at.
This week, we’re back with Kevin Character to recap a few of the holiday events taking place at the NYBG through this weekend and beyond, including the very last of this year’s Bar Car Nights. The turnout this year has been massive, and while that makes for a top notch party, it also means that tickets to these special evening engagements are becoming scarce. If procrastination has been your status quo for the first two Bar Car Nights, now is the time to get jump on the opportunity! Register your tickets online to be sure you get a spot for December 22’s night of cocktails, elegance, and the glow of the Holiday Train Show–one of New York’s most beloved seasonal traditions.
In other major news, the Garden’s ongoing events are drawing such impressive crowds that we have decided to free up our schedule, opening the gates on Mondays through the end of the year to accommodate all of our visitors. That means you can join us a full seven days a week, at least up until the Holiday Train Show packs it in for the season.
Of course, Kevin’s rounds don’t limit him to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, much as our Plant Talk fans love to catch him there. Over in the Shop in the Garden, he joins Maria Colletti for an introduction to our terrarium selection, something home horticulturists and gift givers alike are welcome to take advantage of. If you’re interested in piecing together your own plant world under glass, but can’t make it to the Shop to consult our experts, Conservatory Manager Christian Primeau is more than glad to get you caught up in this video.
