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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Perennial Garden

Morning Eye Candy: Friday’s Finery

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on July 20 2012, by Matt Newman

Pleasant things for a pleasant Friday. Even though we’re probably looking at a bank of rainclouds throughout the day, we kind of needed the downpour–and it’s still a Friday. Yesterday’s overcast skies, while threatening, left us with hours of easy breezes and popping color from the flowers, so maybe we’ll fare as well this afternoon.

Got any plans for the weekend?

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Past in Focus: Change of Plans

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 28 2012, by Matt Newman

Back in January, I began posting photos in a new series tentatively titled “Past in Focus.” I had an aim of seeking out archived Garden images and recreating those scenes as they exist now–to see in today’s landscape hints of the last century. The photographers and I made the decision to wait until the NYBG was in its full spring growth to set out, though; we figured the pictures would carry more drama and gravity if the contrasts ran high, and now that everything is lush and lively, we come to find out that our well-meaning plan wasn’t quite feasible the way we envisioned it.

Last week, Ivo, Mark and I set out with tripods, cameras, a stack of lenses and a crumpled sheaf of old photo copies in hand. I’m not exactly Man Ray, so the other two did the hard work while I tagged along as a notebook-wielding nuisance; certainly they knew the ins and outs of the Garden’s layout better than I did at this point. After only 10 or 20 minutes and a few head-scratching shuffles around the front of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, we were already stymied. Not only were the spring trees too leafy in places for us to tie in many of the landmarks seen in the original photographs, but the actual landscape of the Garden had changed. Hills had been raised, pathways rerouted, new collections added.

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Morning Eye Candy: Subject of a Mad Collector

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.

Snowdrop NYBG

Galanthus — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen