Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Photography on April 18 2013, by Ann Rafalko
What’s in a name? Ask dogtooth and bloodroot. Together they kind of sound like the beginning of a Shakespearean curse or insult, no? And yet, they’re such beautiful ephemeral spring wildflowers!
Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis ‘Multiplex.’
Dogtooth Violet Erythronium americanum
Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on May 12 2012, by Ann Rafalko
With apologies to T.S. Eliot:
The naming of plants is a curious matter;
It isn’t just one of those science-y things.
You may find me as mad as a rosy pink madder
When I tell you a plant must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First is the name of the plant’s closest family
Such as Viburnum or Lilium, Paeonia or Oxalis–
All of them sensible, Latinate names.
There are names that are fancier, if you think they sound geekier,
Some are for flowers, others for trees:
Such as or Eschscholzia or Hesperantha, Metasequoia or Crassulaceae–
But all of them sensible, Latinate names.
But I tell you a plant needs a name that’s unique,
A name that’s precise, and more descriptive,
Else how can a scientist keep her croci in a row,
Or catalog her samples, or publish her findings?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a few
Such as odoratum, elegans, or subedentata,
Such as lactiflora, stellata, or else cotyledon–
Names that along with the first never belong to more than one plant.
But above and beyond there’s still one name to go,
And that is a name that you may know best;
It is a name that only a human can bestow–
The reason behind it ONLY THE HUMAN CAN KNOW, and will never confess.
When you notice a plant in profound meditation,
The reason I tell you is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought of why did this human give me this
Ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
Posted in Photography on September 17 2011, by Ann Rafalko
Rosa ‘Queen of the Musks’
Lobularia ‘Snow Princess’
Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on August 11 2011, by Ann Rafalko
Some plants have such boastful names. If you’re calling a plant as humble as the bean ‘King of the Garden’ it had best be a great bean!
Phaseolus lunatus ‘King of the Garden’ (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Behind the Scenes on July 6 2011, by Ann Rafalko
| Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content. |
I have been editing a lot of articles for nybg.org recently that involve long lists of the names of the many hybrids and cultivars we keep on Garden grounds. Anyone who has ever edited a long list in HTML can tell you that it is one of those tasks where it really is okay to let the mind wander a little. It has given me a lot of time to daydream about what kind of plant I would like to have named after me, if, you know, someday I just happen to meet the right hybridizer …. And I know I’m not alone in thinking about this, because when I posed the question yesterday on Twitter, “What would you most like to have named after you? A rose? A daylily? A hosta? Tell us!” the responses came fast and furious.
NYC_Living would “love to have a Tree named after me…a very large strong tall with deep green leaves and a long life!”
jmarkowski0 wants “an ornamental grass that thrives in clay and laughs at the nearby deer” named after him. (If you can breed that, we’ll help you lobby for the name!)
thinkingstomach would do with “a fruit tree, some kind of crazy-good nectarine.”
electrobloom wants “a moss! mark the moss has got a nice ring to it!” (It does, actually.)
graceyhearts is a girl who knows what she wants, and it’s “a white lily, like this one.”
garrickdetroit stays true to his urbanist roots and hopes that “any of the cityfied volunteer trees that sprout on (or in) poorly maintained buildings!” could be named for him.
ashleywillhite is hoping for the ‘Ashley Willhite’ hyacinth so that she can be planted in “a garden full of tulips of every color imaginable!” (Sounds divine!)
michele_owens goes subterranean with her wish to give her name to a “New parsnip variety, for sure.”
BloominChick shows her wild side in dreaming of “Something hardy, strong & beautiful. A tiger/wild Lily? (Those striking orange ones).”
There were also votes for a hosta, an orchid, a waterlily, and a butterfly (not technically a plant, but since so many plants can’t live without flowers, we’ll allow it).
And finally agardendiary, RedneckRosarian, AvasFlowers, ambianceflorals, and quite honestly, your blog editor, would all like to have a rose named after us. Rosa rafalko has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
So now it’s your turn, blog friends. Tell us: If you could have any new plant cultivar or hybrid named after you, what would it be?