Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Morning Eye Candy
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 6 2012, by Matt Newman
Snowdrops are springing up in abundance at the Perennial Garden, though you wouldn’t guess from their humble white petals that such an unassuming species is the subject of a newfound global obsession. “Galanthophiles” around the world are gearing up for snowdrop conventions that will draw thousands of fanciers from all corners this year. Maybe you’ll empathize with their enthusiasm.
Galanthus — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 5 2012, by Matt Newman
Many a blossoming tree on Garden grounds originates in Asia, and each–at least to me–carries with it a familiar air of eastern aesthetic. I suppose we owe that to the centuries of botanical imagery recorded in the artistic traditions of places like Korea, China, and Japan. The Japanese apricot (also Chinese plum, or simply “plum blossom”) is something of an archetype.
In this case, beauty isn’t fleeting: there’s a plum blossom tree in China that’s still flowering after 1,600 years.
Prunus mume ‘Peggy Clarke’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 4 2012, by Matt Newman
I meandered over to the Ladies’ Border during Wednesday’s weather (an April afternoon straight out of the bizarro dimension) to get a picture of these small but potent blooms. There was a squadron of honey bees taking advantage of the inflorescence while I was there. Hawks called overhead. It was all very picturesque. But airborne raptors and a fairytale setting do not a photo make. Ivo’s skill with a lens does the Amur Adonis proper justice.
Adonis amurensis — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 3 2012, by Matt Newman
Many of us here in the office have been taking the opportunity to venture out now and then and enjoy this nonsensical weather we’re having (you might have noticed our squawking about it on the Twitter feed yesterday). There’s a surreal quality to wandering the “winter” landscape, seeing Fordham students in their t-shirts and basking in what amounts to a mid-April afternoon.
For my first winter in the city, this isn’t so bad. Or did I just viciously jinx myself?
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 2 2012, by Matt Newman
Also known as the Indian clock vine, brick and butter, and the lady’s slipper vine. I suppose the moniker is up to the imagination of the viewer.
Thunbergia mysorensis — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 1 2012, by Matt Newman
I had a habit of picking up fallen air plants while bumming around in the woods and swamps as a kid. More often than not it was a clump of Spanish moss clinging to a branch broken from a southern live oak. I would hang these covered branches all around the outside of the house, at least up until the point my dad convinced me the gray-green spirals were full of bats, snakes, and red mites (“chiggers” to a true southerner).
The jury’s still out on how many of his frantic warnings are true, but bring a tangle of the stuff to anyone south of the Virginia state line and there’s a good chance the bystander will keep his distance.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on January 31 2012, by Matt Newman
The passion flower: revered for its beauty, nearly extraterrestrial in its strangeness, and occasionally a carrier of squidly tendrils.
Passiflora ‘Grace Ann’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on January 30 2012, by Matt Newman
Not Costa Rica, Brazil, or the Philippines. Not even the Virgin Islands (though the ongoing Caribbean Garden event in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory might convince you otherwise).
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on January 27 2012, by Matt Newman
If you follow the NYBG Tumblr feed with any regularity, you know my succulent fanaticism shows through like the sun. I (sort of) promise not to let it overtake Plant Talk.
Crassula perfoliata — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on January 26 2012, by Matt Newman
Pinus virginiana ‘Wate’s Golden’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
