Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Photography on November 16 2010, by Plant Talk
This enormous fern hangs from the ceiling in the Nolen Greenhouses where you can currently see an amazing display of Japanese chrysanthemums through this weekend.
Stag Horn Fern (photo by Ann Rafalko)
Posted in Photography on November 15 2010, by Plant Talk
The Stone Mill was recently renovated to a LEED-certified Silver Standard. The beautiful native plantings were part of achieving that certification.
The Stone Mill (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen).
Posted in Photography on November 14 2010, by Plant Talk
Phormium ‘Pink Stripe’ in the amazing, colorful Perennial Garden.
Stripes (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen).
Posted in Photography on November 13 2010, by Plant Talk
A Forest denizen makes a rare daytime appearance.
Barred Northern Saw-whet owl (Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen).
Posted in Around the Garden, Science on November 12 2010, by Plant Talk
The New York Botanical Garden contains not just an amazing array of flora, it is also home to an amazing diversity of fauna. There are hawks and owls, Jose the beaver, squirrels of many colors, bunnies, tiny mice, various migrating birds, and I hear tell of a duet of turkeys (though I haven’t yet seen them for myself). But it is one of the Gardens smallest animals that was our attention a few weeks ago: salamanders.
The Garden’s native Forest is home to two distinct populations of these small amphibians: Plethodon cinereus, the terrestrial Redback Salamander and Eurycea bislineata, the aquatic Northern Two-Lined Salamander.
Learn more about what salamander can teach us about the environment below.
Posted in Photography on November 12 2010, by Plant Talk
How do you move a tree from point A to point B? Very carefully (and with a really big crane).
The root ball tied up (Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen).
The Katsura tree goes up (Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen).
Look who popped out of the root ball! (Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Around the Garden on November 10 2010, by Plant Talk
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Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden. |
The New York Botanical Garden is usually closed to the public on Mondays, but that doesn’t mean our groundskeepers and horticulturalists get the day off. Quite the opposite actually. Mondays are the days when the huge projects get done; projects that would interfere with guests enjoyment of the grounds or require large, heavy machinery.
Here’s a short video highlighting the move of a katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) from this Monday. It was a pretty big job that required a lot of hands (especially when this little guy jumped out of the rootball!).
Enjoy!
Posted in Learning Experiences on November 9 2010, by Plant Talk
| Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content. |
I love bulbs. When we bought our house upstate a few summers ago, I couldn’t wait to see what would come up in our yard come spring. After several chilly gray months, my impatience … I mean patience, was rewarded with a dazzling display. It turns out our front garden is a perfect place for naturalizing not just daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses, but also tulips!
And so for the past two falls I have diligently supplemented the beautiful display entrusted to us by our old farm house’s previous owners. But the thing I’m realizing now is that I don’t really know how to plant bulbs. I mean, sure, I can dig a little hole and stick the bulb in (and the plantings have become much more successful now that my husband knows which end of the bulb goes up), but I don’t know anything about designing my bulb plantings. And don’t even get me started on integrating bulbs with perennials!
So it is with great anticipation that I am looking forward to a class being offered here at the Garden on Tuesday, November 23 with acclaimed landscape architect Jacqueline van der Kloet and renowned Dutch bulb expert Frans Roozen. I absolutely love the Seasonal Walk here at the Garden which was designed by Jacqueline and her collaborator Piet Oudolf (with whom she worked on Manhattan’s High Line). It is a gorgeous, long stretch of a garden that intermingles bulbs and tubers, perennials, flowering shrubs, trees, and amazing ornamental grasses. Jacqueline will offer insight into this wonderful technique while Frans will offer technical advice on planning, planting, and naturalizing bulbs.
The class is being held here at The New York Botanical Garden. It’s from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. and costs $28 for members, $31 for non-members. You can sign-up here.
Posted in Gardens and Collections on November 5 2010, by Plant Talk
| Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content. |
The Gray Lady read our mind with today’s feature on leaf peeping in some of New York City’s hidden forest gems!
We’re thrilled and honored to have the Garden‘s Native Forest included in this piece, and couldn’t agree more that the City is a fantastic place to get out and marvel at the autumnal beauty of trees.
Posted in Programs and Events on November 3 2010, by Plant Talk
There are many ways to get to the top: you can work long hours, ignore your family, sacrifice, lose sleep, and take classes. But few classes can guarantee as swift a path to the top as the Garden’s Recreational Tree Climbing Workshop. In this amazing class, along with the popular elective Chainsaws – Safety and Maintenance, students learn valuable skills all while getting the best view of the Garden possible.
The Tree Climbing Workshop returns to the Garden this Saturday and Sunday. The Chainsaw class will be offered Saturday, November 13. The classes will be taught by instructor David Fedczuk.
In the meantime, check out this interview with tree climbing expert and longtime instructor of the Garden’s tree climbing courses, A. Wayne Cahilly, manager of The New York Botanical Garden’s Lionel Goldfrank III Institutional Mapping Department. To see a tree climbing student in action, check out this video from Travel + Leisure where portions of this interview were originally published.
Raccoons, squirrels and bee's nests, oh my! Read the full interview below.
