With summer’s warmth and the verdant greenery that fills the landscape around this time of year, it’s almost a given that most of us will spend at least one night enjoying an al fresco meal in view of the setting sun, soaking up the benefits of shorts-and-sandals weather while there’s still time to spare. Of course, dining outdoors with the benefit of a top-tier chef at the helm is that much better, right?
Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG Visitor Services Attendant and avid wildlife photographer.
I found this elusive creature down the slope from Wamsler Rock. I had heard rumors from other Garden staff that opossums were regulars at NYBG, but never thought I would actually see one!
An opossum (Didelphis virginiana) near Wamsler Rock – Photo by Patricia Gonzalez
Our Flickr group continues to be a source of inspiration—not just for the photographers who populate it, but those of us here in the NYBG offices, too.
Meadowsweet (Filipendula rubra ‘Venusta’) – Photo by Amy Weiss
Among our many extensive botanical collections in the Garden, the daylilies have a story that is very close to the heart of The New York Botanical Garden. Considered the “father of the modern daylily,” Dr. Arlow Burdette Stout (1876–1957) spent a majority of his career as a scientist at NYBG. The daylilies that bloom along Daylily/Daffodil Walk this time of year include Hemerocallis species, Stout’s own hybrids, and selections of the tens of thousands of named cultivars that Stout’s work has inspired.
A mainstay in American home gardens and a common sight along our roadways in the summer, daylilies are actually not native to the Americas but rather introductions from Asia via Europe. As European settlers moved ever westward across North America, they brought daylilies with them as reminders of home. Stout grew up in the midwest, and as a child became interested in the bright orange flowers that his mother grew in their yard. Prior to his breeding program, very little work had gone into improving and diversifying cultivated daylilies. Stout saw potential in these plants, and a stroll along Daylily/Daffodil Walk in July is a testament to his vision.
The passion flowers growing around the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory—both inside and out—are consistently some of the most fascinating blooms to join us in summer. But their frizzy, tentacled forms are surprisingly commonplace in many tropical climates, where they’re often hybridized or cultivated for their flowers and fruit.
Passion flower (Passiflora) in the Haupt Conservatory Courtyard – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
The seasons may paint the Native Plant Garden with whites and browns, yellows and reds, or—as is the case in summer–blues and greens, but Split Rock is nothing if not stubbornly static.
Gardeners use screens to measure distance between seeds they’re sowing in their garden plots.
On a recent misty Saturday morning, I found myself boarding a Garden tram bound for the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden along with 96 children enrolled in the Edible Academy’s Children’s Gardening Program for Crafters, an opportunity for kids ages six to 12 to experience gardening first-hand and to learn about the science behind plants and food.
Parents waved as their kids claimed their seats on the tram, one girl quickly asking whether her mom had packed her a change of clothes for later. She had, and told her daughter, “Have fun. Get dirty!”
The tram pulls away and steers us through low hills and around age-old trees until we arrive at the Family Garden. Eager children disembark and head toward the main garden gates, beyond which they gather with their small groups, divided by age.
It is in these small groups that they do special activities—learning about Gregor Mendel and plant genetics; writing in field notebooks they bound earlier in the program; and making crafts.
