Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG’s Gardener for Public Education.
Last week we discussed disease resistant roses. This week we will continue along the same vein with a discussion of Earth-Kind® roses.
The concept of Earth-Kind® roses began in Texas in the late 1990s, when a professor at Texas A&M was asked for recommendations on roses that were attractive and low-maintenance. The professor realized that no systematic study had been done in this area and set about creating the Earth-Kind® trials.
The creators of the program set up strict protocols that could be followed all around the country. The goal of the program was to eliminate the use of fertilizer, reduce the use of insecticides and fungicides by 98%, eliminate annual pruning and deadheading and reduce supplemental irrigation by at least 70%.
With wintery weather on the way, it hardly seems like the time to be talking roses. The forecast looks chilly and the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden has been “put to bed” for the season, so what is there to talk about?
How about completely changing the face of rose growing for home gardeners in the northeast? That’s what rose garden curator Peter Kukielski hopes to accomplish with the EarthKind™ Rose Trials beds, located just south of Daffodil Hill. The goal of the EarthKind™ program is to identify cultivars that combine beauty with proven durability in the landscape, and that means they’ll receive no water other than what falls from the sky, nor fertilizers or pesticides of any kind.
Have you been looking for a good reason to visit the Garden this June? Well, if you need some motivation to visit New York City’s greatest garden, consider us your motivators: This weekend is going to be spectacular! We have flowers, food, dancing, music, poetry, and so much more in store!
Start in the historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where the best-smelling exhibition in New York City–complete with flowing fountains and elegant arches–is housed in the Victorian elegance of this landmark building. Be sure to visit the beautiful reflecting pool and its resident koi in the Conservatory Courtyard. A Garden Tour Guide-led guided tour of the exhibition is available Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Meet at the entrance to the Conservatory.
Flamenco Among the Flowers – 1, 2, and 3 p.m. in the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall The Garden comes alive with the sounds, rhythms, and movements of flamenco. Flamenco: Inside/Out introduces this traditional Spanish art form using live music and performers from various ethnic, cultural, and artistic backgrounds.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The Food and Culture of the Alhambra – 4 p.m. in the Perennial Garden
Join chef and culinary historian Maricel Presilla for a fascinating, and delicious, exploration of the cuisine and culture of the al-Andalús region of Spain, home to the Alhambra. Presilla, who holds a doctorate in medieval Spanish history from New York University, has received formal training in cultural anthropology, and is a Beard Award-nominated chef, will be talking about several aspects of Islamic agriculture and cooking in al-Andalús. She will focus on vegetables, grains, nuts, olive oil, fermented condiments, aromatic spices (and spice mixes) and flowers, particularly scented roses. Her cooking demonstration may include: a spice mix or sauce; an eggplant dish called alboronía or another thirteenth-century dish with eggplant served with aromatic lamb meatballs (albóndigas), and a rose-scented dessert that shows the connection between al-Andalús and the New World. She will also be talking about the Islamic roots of the popular sweet and sour Spanish dish known as escabeche.
Tour of Library Exhibition Historical Views: Tourists at the Alhambra – Meet at 1 p.m. in the Orchid Rotunda at the entrance level to the Library Building Join a Garden Tour Guide for a tour of Historical Views: Tourists at the Alhambra.
Flamenco Among the Flowers – 1, 2, and 3 p.m. in the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall The Garden comes alive with the sounds, rhythms, and movements of flamenco. Flamenco: Inside/Out introduces this traditional Spanish art form using live music and performers from various ethnic, cultural, and artistic backgrounds.
The award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden one of the world’s most sustainable and beautiful showcases for America’s flower, and it is in full bloom right now! Set aside ample time so that you have as many minutes as you need to stop and smell the roses. In the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, the roses smell as good as they look.
Rose Garden Tour – 12:30 p.m. in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden
Immerse yourself in the fragrance, color, and beauty of the award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden on a tour with a Garden Tour Guide offered each day in June; and with an ASL interpreter on June 18. Learn the differences between heritage and modern roses, and between floribundas and hybrid teas, as well as facts about rose history, cultivation, and folklore.
Q&A Sessions with Rose Experts – 1-4 p.m. at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden pergola Our rose experts will answer your questions on caring for roses, cultivars to try in your garden, the history of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, and more.
Home Gardening Demonstration: Life is Rosy – 1:30 p.m. in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden
Tour the sumptuous, award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. Learn standard rose-care practices, from fertilizing to pruning.
The Garden is a great place to get outside and enjoy nature: families can explore the natural world in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden and at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden; gardeners can gather inspiration for their own gardens throughout the Garden’s 250-acres, and learn about plant varietals in the Home Gardening Center; and naturalists can spot a variety of migratory and year-round birds throughout the grounds.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Bird Walk – meet at 11 a.m. at the Reflecting Pool in front of the Leon Levy Visitor Center
Bring your binoculars and walk the Garden grounds with our bird expert, Debbie Becker. On your walk you will look for the species that live here year-round as well as those just migrating through: owls, hawks, songbirds, and more. Learn about the bird-friendly plants and habitats that provide food, shelter, and nesting sites. Learn more about birding at the Garden in this short video.
Saturday, June 11 and Sunday June 12, 2011
Global Gardens Spring Harvest Celebration – 1:30-5:30 p.m. in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden Travel globally while eating locally! Celebrate the end of spring with our Global Gardeners. Travel to China, Korea, Ireland, Italy, and the Caribbean by visiting each Global Garden plot and earn stamps in your Garden Passport as you learn and explore.
Peter Kukielski is on a mission to rescue the rose’s reputation.
In transforming the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden into one of the world’s most sustainable and beautiful showcases for America’s flower, Peter is preaching a new rose gospel: Roses don’t need to be bathed in chemicals, they don’t need tons of water, and they can smell as beautiful as they look.
Peter is a wonderful evangelist for this misunderstood flower; he’s full of knowledge and always willing to share it. Stop by the Shop to meet Peter and pick-up your copy of this essential volume, then head to the Rose Garden to gain inspiration for your own home. Copy this list of all the garden’s roses onto your phone or iPad (try Evernote or print it out if you must), and mark your favorites. When your head is full of rose-scented dreams, head home, and with Peter’s wonderful book, turn your garden into your own rose-tinted paradise.
Guided tours give visitors an added boost of knowledge beyond exploring the Garden on one’s own. Each time I’ve embarked on one of our tours, I’ve learned bountiful gardening tips and scientific and historical facts.
That’s why I am especially excited and honored that Peter Kukielski, Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden Curator, has agreed to take groups on a tour of the award-winning, world-renowned Rose Garden during its spectacular fall bloom.
Peter’s passion for roses is inspirational. Over the past two years he and staff have replaced hundreds of roses with disease-resistant varieties, transforming the Rose Garden into one of the most sustainable public rose gardens in the world. Today 3,659 rose plants in 607 varieties thrive there. Earlier this year the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden was inducted into the Great Rosarians of the World™ Rose Garden Hall of Fame.
Peter will be available to lead one-hour tours of the Rose Garden on September 16, October 7, or October 14. Tours include a private tram ride to and from the Rose Garden. You don’t have to come with a group, as we are signing up individuals to form groups of at least 15. For more information or to sign up, call Group Tours at 718-817-TOUR (8687) or e-mail grouptours@nybg.org.
New Varieties Shine as English Grower and Garden Awarded this Weekend
Michael Marriott is Technical Director at David Austin® Roses, where he has worked for over 25 years.
The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is quite simply one of the very best rose gardens in the world, and so I am always very keen to have our new varieties planted there. The curator of the rose garden, Peter Kukielski, has been very generous with his allocation of space to the David Austin English Roses, with long stretches of them in the beds on either side of the garden’s entrance.
Each year David Austin Roses introduces several new varieties, and, hopefully, Peter will find space for three or four plants of each variety. Our latest introductions are Princess Alexandra of Kent, Young Lycidas, Wisley 2008, Sir John Betjeman, and Munstead Wood.
Princess Alexandra of Kent (above, right) is a particularly impressive variety with very large, full-petaled flowers that are a warm, glowing pink. They have a wonderful tea fragrance, which develops into lemon and, later, hints of black currant. It makes an attractive bushy shrub of about four feet tall.
Young Lycidas also has large impressive flowers but they are a much deeper color, being a wonderful blend of deep magenta, pink, and red. The outer petals tend toward light-purple, although, interestingly, this is in contrast to the outside of the petals, which are quite silvery. The growth is bushy, the stems tending to arch in a most attractive way. There is delicious fragrance that starts as pure tea but then changes to a blend of tea and old rose, with intriguing hints of cedarwood.
Wisley 2008 (left) has smaller flowers, but they are perfectly formed, the petals arranged in a rosette. The color is absolutely pure soft-pink, the color fading perhaps just a little toward the outside. It is quite vigorous and very bushy and makes a very good landscaping rose. The fragrance is fresh and fruity with hints of raspberry and tea.
Sir John Betjeman is quite modern in appearance, the color being a bright deep-pink and intensifying with age. It flowers particularly freely and has a very bushy habit. The fragrance is light and rather “green.”
Munstead Wood is arguably the most obviously attractive of the group. The flowers are large and a deep-velvety crimson, with a strong old-rose fragrance with hints of blackberry, blueberry, and damson. It will stay a compact rose even in the warmer parts of the United States.
Please do visit the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden—it is superb. You can see the whole range of roses, and they are most beautifully looked after.
This weekend in New York, at its 10th annual conference, the Great Rosarians of the World™ will honor world-renowned hybridizer of English Roses David Austin and present its 2010 Rose Garden Hall of Fame Award to the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. Come to the Botanical Garden on Saturday, June 12, for a lecture series on growing sustainable roses and for a reception in the Rose Garden. Through July 1, 2010, vote for the Rockefeller Rose Garden as American’s Best Garden.
The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden has been named as the 2010 Rose Garden Hall of Fame inductee by the Great Rosarians of the World™ (GROW). In announcing the award, GROW said the selection was based on the recent renovation of the Rose Garden, which has created “a sustainable public garden representing an outstanding collection of historic roses.”
“In the world of roses, this is like winning the Best Picture Oscar,” says Peter Kukielski, Curator of the Rose Garden.
To be considered for the award a rose garden must be open to the public, be recognized as having an outstanding design or historical significance, display an outstanding collection or broad display of roses, and/or promote rose growing with educational outreach programs.
The award will be presented at the 5th Annual New York Metropolitan Rose Council Dinner—in June, of course.
Last week we discussed disease resistant roses. This week we will continue along the same vein with a discussion of Earth-Kind® roses.
Start in the historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where the best-smelling exhibition in New York City–complete with flowing fountains and elegant arches–is housed in the Victorian elegance of this landmark building. Be sure to visit the beautiful reflecting pool and its resident koi in the Conservatory Courtyard. A Garden Tour Guide-led guided tour of the exhibition is available Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Meet at the entrance to the Conservatory.
The Garden is a great place to get outside and enjoy nature: families can explore the natural world in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden and at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden; gardeners can gather inspiration for their own gardens throughout the Garden’s 250-acres, and learn about plant varietals in the Home Gardening Center; and naturalists can spot a variety of migratory and year-round birds throughout the grounds.
