Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Photography on June 29 2016, by Matt Newman
Not quite enough candles to mark our 125th year, but this mullein along the Ladies’ Border certainly fits the bill as far as birthyear beauty goes.
Nettle-leaved mullein (Verbascum chaixii ‘Sixteen Candles’) along the Ladies’ Border – Photo by Brian Sullivan
Posted in Photography on June 19 2014, by Matt Newman
The mullein (Verbascum) in our “Mrs. Rockefeller’s Garden” display is getting pleasantly overzealous in its efforts to outdazzle the rest of the planting.
Groundbreakers in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Monet's Garden on June 18 2012, by Joyce Newman
Joyce H. Newman is the editor of Consumer Reports’ GreenerChoices.org, and has been a Garden Tour Guide with The New York Botanical Garden for the past six years.
Yes, it’s a weed, it’s a biennial, and it’s called mullein (Verbascum bombyciferum). So many visitors asked me about this plant during a recent Conservatory tour of Monet’s Garden that, as soon as I got home, I went straight to the computer to look up more information.
When it comes to weeds, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” And it seems Monet’s keen eye was quick to see those virtues in mullein, especially when its wooly, whitish leaves were placed near the foliage of poppies.
For our exhibition, Monet’s spring flower garden features lots of poppies in many colors alongside–you guessed it–mullein. Rising over four feet high, the showy yellow flowers really stand out, prompting visitors to ask, “What’s that?”