Morning Eye Candy: Creeping, Crawling
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 18 2013, by Matt Newman
Halloween is inching its way into the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. More on that later today!
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Pumpkins
This Weekend: The Great Pumpkin Carving!
Posted in Programs and Events on October 19 2012, by Matt Newman
It’s an early weekend update today! This Saturday and Sunday, the NYBG plays host to an event that never fails to have us bouncing off the walls with anticipation: the Giant Pumpkin Carving Weekend. But before we set up New York’s most original Halloween horrors here at the Garden, Ray Villafane and his crew of sculptors are taking their talents–and one or two giant pumpkins–to midtown. Naturally, we’re not about to let them gallivant through Manhattan without us, so a few of us from the Plant Talk offices are picking up and shipping off to join in on the fun.
If you happen to be in midtown through this afternoon, you’re welcome to stop by! We’ll be setting up shop at Grand Central Terminal this morning outside the west entrance, just off Vanderbilt Avenue. You can watch as Ray’s team carves up a display pumpkin of gargantuan proportions, while Ray himself works on the centerpiece of our Halloween spread–the pumpkin patch zombie. Each sculpture will then shuffle its way to the Garden proper to become part of the main event this weekend.
2012 Pumpkin Update: A Ton of Zombie Goodness
Posted in Programs and Events on October 1 2012, by Matt Newman
It’s October 1, and that means exactly one thing: you can throw the unwritten embargo on Halloween decorations out the window! No more tamping down the urge to buy orange string lights. No more nibbling your nails as you scurry past the candy aisle. Free reign to stake your front yard with frightful scarecrows and tombstones, whether your neighbors scowl or not. And at the NYBG, we get to ramp up our coverage of the season’s holiday excitement! You may not think there’s much to celebrate in a simple gourd, but trust me, there’s nothing simple about a one-ton pumpkin.
Don’t bother with a double-take–that wasn’t a misread. Early predictions from farmers close to the Garden hinted that drought and heat would lead to a disappointing harvest, but pumpkin crops have pulled out a clutch win, with some gigantic gourds already smashing weight records in our neck of the woods. Included is the latest champion, a 2009-pound behemoth out of Rhode Island that took the title for grower Ron Wallace on Friday, September 28, at the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts; that’s nearly 200 pounds heavier than last year’s winner. But the challenge isn’t settled just yet! Rumor has it there are still a few contenders lurking in the wings, not only in the northeast, but on the west coast and the continent, as well. We could see the record snapped more than once before 2012 crowns its prince of pumpkins.
Heads Up from the Pumpkin Patch
Posted in Programs and Events on September 6 2012, by Matt Newman
I can say with sureness that this upcoming October will be a big month for The New York Botanical Garden. And I mean that in as literal a sense as possible. “But how big is it?” you most certainly ask. Well, if we need to get down to brass tacks, we’re talking about squash waaaay bigger and badder than anything you’ve seen in your neighborhood market–pumpkins trucked in from around the globe that weigh in at nearly a solid ton (that’s 2,000 pounds by U.S. standards). In other words, they make your porch jack o’ lanterns look like carved grapes in comparison.
Each of the growers that contributed mammoth pumpkins to 2011’s Halloween in the Garden–members of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth hailing from California, Pennsylvania, and even Quebec–supplied a home-grown monster the likes of which most have only seen in The Nightmare Before Christmas or Cinderella. I’m talking record-breaking squash weighing 1,600, 1,700, and even as much as 1,800 pounds in some cases. After the weigh-ins and the awards, each found its final resting place in the Garden, where Ray Villafane took knife to squash in an artful if ghoulish manner.
Halloween Horror Shambles Back to the Bronx
Posted in Programs and Events on August 28 2012, by Matt Newman
Bats in the trees, ghosts in the garden, and jack-o’-lanterns every which way you look–Halloween is soon to creep its way back into the NYBG. And even for someone like me, who’s usually too busy to realize what time of year it is until the spirit is sneaking up behind me (the best way to experience the holiday, I suppose), there’s too much incoming excitement for us to let it wait until later.
This year, the Garden’s madcap Halloween events are back and even bigger than 2011’s. That’s if you can imagine us topping a cadre of record-breaking pumpkins carved into the stuff of nightmares. But we absolutely plan to! Plans are in the works to again feature the gargantuan gourds of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, which will once again go under the knife of master carver and ghoul-whittler extraordinaire, Ray Villafane. Together with his team of skilled pumpkin sculptors, he’s on track to top last year’s masterpieces a few times over.
Looking Back: October 2011
Posted in Around the Garden on December 31 2011, by Matt Newman
October was a hectic month of stunning Japanese floral displays, pumpkin zombies, changing foliage and a holiday weekend punctuated by tragedy. But if we’re pros at anything, it’s picking ourselves up by the bootstraps! Horticulture can–after all–be an unpredictable business.
After many long months of preparation, the NYBG‘s Fall Flowers of Japan exhibition continued throughout October with a focus on kiku, a centuries-old chrysanthemum tradition requiring patience, skill, and an eye for aesthetic. Our very own Ann Rafalko even took it upon herself to explain just how the talented horticulturists behind these artful blooms do it!
Festive Seasonal Arrangements
Posted in Around the Garden, Gardening Tips on November 8 2011, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Last week we spoke about the art of growing giant pumpkins. Now, we will take a look at some of the creative things that you can do with your pumpkins once they have been pulled from the vine.
The chef will recommend pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, or a slice of pumpkin bread washed down with a pumpkin latte. The entertainer and the homemaker have another option, though–pumpkins crafted into splendid temporary vases. Every year I do a demonstration on festive seasonal floral arrangements intended to give visitors to The New York Botanical Garden some simple and fun home craft ideas, a few of which I have detailed here.
Not Your Average Pumpkin
Posted in Gardening Tips on November 1 2011, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
For the past two weekends, The New York Botanical Garden has been abuzz with the return of the giant pumpkins. We had four mega pumpkins shipped in from different parts of the U.S. and Canada. Their weight ranged from 1,693 to 1,818.5 lbs. With colors ranging from a cheerful orange hue to pale orange, green, and silver gray, it made for a fascinating variety of size and color.
They were all reclining on multiple bales of hay like Ingres’s Odalisque in a somewhat regal and enticing fashion, surrounded by a harem of smaller heirloom pumpkins and gourds.
Before the exhibition opened, I arrived early one morning to see the pumpkin aficionados carve an opening in the back of the pumpkin and carefully remove all the seeds. De-seeding the pumpkins is an integral part of the process. Not surprisingly, the seeds are jumbo sized, just like their parents. Seeds of these record-sized pumpkins go to an auction where they are generally sold for $300 a seed. Just last year one of the seeds sold for $1,600.
In The News: Scott Cully on NPR’s Weekend Edition
Posted in NYBG in the News on November 2 2010, by Plant Talk
| Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content. |
We wanted to share this great interview that Weekend Edition host Scott Simon did with master pumpkin carver Scott Cully.
In the interview, Scott divulges how he became a giant pumpkin carver, and one deep, dark secret. It’s not to be missed.
You can read the transcript, listen to it, or download it as a podcast.
It’s Still a Great Pumpkin in Our Book
Posted in Programs and Events on November 1 2010, by Plant Talk
| Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content. |
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Gravity, it seems, will always win. Whether it’s in the war against wrinkles, when you drop your buttered toast, or when you’re carving the world’s heaviest pumpkin. Here on earth, we’re all a slave to it.
And while Chris Stevens’ 1,810.5 pound world record-holder did succumb to Newton’s most famous force, the other two fabulous pumpkins are still on view here at The New York Botanical Garden, and should be around through Friday.
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And here’s hoping Scott Cully‘s heroic effort will be considered great by another book: The Guinness Book.