Brian Sullivan is the Vice President for Landscape, Gardens and Outdoor Collections. He oversees the care, presentation, and development of the outdoor gardens and landscape management of the Garden’s 250 outdoor acres.
If you visit the Garden this summer and walk down Perennial Garden Way to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, you will find a tidy planting bed that runs parallel to the roadway, edged with a short iron wicket fence and filled with robust perennials. If you were lucky enough to find yourself walking here three to four weeks ago, around Memorial Day, you would have been immersed in the flowers of the newly renovated Matelich Anniversary Peony Collection.
Now in its second growing season, this collection of herbaceous peonies, Paeonia lactiflora, showcases the fragrant pink, white, red, and coral blossoms of one of the most popular garden plants and cut flowers.
The tradition of growing herbaceous peonies near the Conservatory dates back to the early 1900s, when peonies were grown in double borders along pathways surrounding the elegant glasshouse.
Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum ‘Variegatum’
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.
Red feather clover (Trifolium rubens) Photo by Franz Xaver
Over the years, I’ve often given tours of the High Line to NYBG Members as part of our Membership tour programs. In fact, I’ve already given several this year and have more planned for August and October. And as I lead the groups through this unique space, we discuss architecture, ecology, design, and garden-worthy plants. Perennials in particular are always a hot topic.
I often warn the participants against some of the more rambunctious perennials, as they tend to have a thuggish habit. Instead, I recommend many of the other outstanding selections that you can find in the planting scheme created by Piet Oudolf, the High Line’s designer. The perennials planted there are chosen for their durability. Growing in 18 inches of porous soil atop abandoned railroad tracks that stand 30 feet above the ground, these plants are regularly exposed to intense urban heat, sunlight, and heavy winds—they have to be tough.
Piet Oudolf’s naturalistic planting style fits in superbly with the unstructured urban environment. He designed the High Line with plant communities in mind, using primarily native, resilient, and ‘low-maintenance’ plants that provide great diversity, seasonal change, and height and color variation.
The spring trout lily (Erythronium americanum) is one of several native perennial wildflowers blooming now in the Native Plant Garden. Its flowers appear in sunny patches in the forest woodland area. At the base of each plant are its telltale leaves—speckled, elongated, and looking like brown brook trout.
The flowers come up quickly in the early spring, then produce fruit and create new leaves, all before the tall, deciduous trees leaf out and block much of the sunlight. In the heat of summer, the flowers and foliage disappear, which is why they are called ephemerals.
Some other examples of native ephemerals are blood root (Sanguinaria canadensis), liver’s leaf or hepatica (Hepatica nobilis), and Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). But the trout lily is by far my favorite for there are so many stories about it.
If you visit the Garden this summer and walk down Perennial Garden Way to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, you will find a tidy planting bed that runs parallel to the roadway, edged with a short iron wicket fence and filled with robust perennials. If you were lucky enough to find yourself walking here three to four weeks ago, around Memorial Day, you would have been immersed in the flowers of the newly renovated Matelich Anniversary Peony Collection.
