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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden

Morning Eye Candy: Inside the Nolen Greenhouses

Posted in Photography on April 10 2011, by Ann Rafalko

The Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections are extraordinary. Not open to the public, these state-of-the art greenhouses are where many of the plants that will eventually be displayed on the Garden’s grounds are cared for. This time of year they are an explosion of color! Here’s a peek inside.

Inside the Nolen Greenhouses

Inside the Nolen Greenhouses

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen

A Flower to Stop and Smell: Edgeworthia chrysantha

Posted in Around the Garden on April 8 2011, by Ann Rafalko

Since no one has yet been able to invent the scratch and sniff Internet, you’ll have to come to the Garden in order to smell this incredible plant.  Currently blooming on the Ladies’ Border on the southern end of the Conservatory Edgeworthia chrysantha, commonly known as the oriental paper bush is currently in bloom and suffusing this small garden with an ethereal perfume. A detour to visit this unassuming plant is an absolute must if you’re coming to the Garden this weekend to see The Orchid Show: On Broadway.

Edgeworthia chrysantha

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Here’s a quick Edgeworthia slideshow from our Flickr Photostream, where you can find thousands of the plants featured here at the Garden.

We Want You …

Posted in Around the Garden, Behind the Scenes on April 7 2011, by Ann Rafalko

Image via Wikipedia

To write for Plant Talk!

We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries lately about writing for this blog, and we’re thrilled! So whether you’re a Garden Member, first-time visitor, volunteer, a farmer, someone from the community, or even Garden staff, if  you have an idea for a Plant Talk blog post you’d like to write, we would like to hear from you! You can leave a comment below, you can tweet us, you can post your idea on Facebook, you can submit it on Tumblr, or you can email us at: blog AT nybg DOT org.

But before you put pen to paper (or, more likely, fingertip to keyboard), pitch us your idea first to make sure we’re interested. After we have let you know that we’re interested please:

– Keep it sweet, simple, and topical. Try and keep your post to under 300 words.

– We might edit your text, so please be open to that.

– If you’ve got photos, we’d love to post them. Just make sure you have the right to give us the rights to do so.

– We would love to see your NYBG-inspired artwork.

So there’s our pitch. We can’t wait to see what you’ve got up your sleeve!

 

Morning Eye Candy: In the Rose Garden

Posted in Photography on April 7 2011, by Ann Rafalko

Curator Peter Kukielski teaches School of Professional Horticulture students in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden.

Peter Kukielski and School of Professional Horticulture Students in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden

(photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

Planting bare root roses in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden

Planting bare root roses in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

Want to plant bare root roses yourself at home? Learn how from Peter himself! Hurry, because the best time for bare root rose planting is almost over in our area (for those of you who purchased a rose in a pot don’t worry — Peter says a potted rose can be planted anytime).

Window Garden Wednesday: Douglas C. Daly

Posted in Window Garden Wednesday on April 6 2011, by Plant Talk

Ed. note: Here at the Garden, we are surrounded by plants and knowledgeable plant people, which means that even the average Garden employee/cubicle dweller tends to soak up a lot of information about how to best care for our plants. To many at the Garden, this immersion, combined with a nascent love of plants plus easy access information has driven us to practice what we preach in the form of tending a windowsill garden. Doug DalyOn occasional Wednesdays, we’ll introduce you to some of the Garden’s many windowsill gardeners. We hope you enjoy this look at what our window gardeners grow.

Who are you and what do you do at the Garden?
My name is Douglas Daly and I run one of the departments in the Science Division here called the Institute of Systematic Botany.  I am also responsible for the aspects of our research programs that relate to the flora of the Amazon region.

What kind of plants do you have in your windowsill garden?
Any plants that are going to make it in my windows have to be tough and irrepressible, that is, they have to want to grow there, because I’m not going to pamper them.  Here they get bread and water, minus the bread …

Doug Daly's Windowsill Garden

Any good stories about where the plants come from?
I have an oversize cycad native to Mexico called Dioon spinosa; somebody gave me a seed about 25 years ago and now it rules one corner of my inner office.  A corner of the outer office is ruled by a Philodendron that was orphaned during the previous renovation of the Haupt Conservatory; they told me if I could find a way to lug it to my office I could have it.  I have a Protium tree I grew from a seed someone brought me from Belize a long time ago; I have cut it back three times and it’s ten feet tall again.  Finally, I have some really sad-looking, undersized, droopy San Pedro cactus plants I grew from seeds given to me way back by the late, great botanist Tim Plowman; I keep those for sentimental reasons.

Doug Daly's Windowsill Garden

Learned any good windowsill gardening tips while working at the Garden?
Not too much crowding; give a couple of plants some elbow room to strut their stuff.  And when you travel, ask Alejandra Vasco (a post-doc here) to look after your plants, because as soon as she touches mine, they all germinate and recover and grow and flower like crazy.

Doug Daly's Windowsill Garden

What’s your favorite thing about working at the Garden?
When you work on the identification and classification and conservation of plants, every day is a detective story, full of mysteries, puzzles, hypotheses, some dead ends, some discoveries.  What is it?  Why?  Why does it grow there? How is it related to other species, and what characteristics distinguish them?  Is it endangered?  What are the most important places to do field work?  How can you alert people to their importance?  Botanists tend to live to a ripe old age because we can’t afford to die early; there’s too much to do!

NYBG for the Wildlife Photographer: Part One

Posted in Members, Photography, Wildlife on April 5 2011, by Patricia Gonzalez

Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG Member and avid amateur wildlife photographer. She is especially fond of taking photographs at the Garden.

You do not have to leave the five boroughs of New York to see wildlife. In fact, you’re only a train, subway, or bus ride away!

For the last three years that I have been a Member, I have had the pleasure of photographing different members of the animal kingdom at The New York Botanical Garden. The garden is a wildlife photographer’s dream. Within the Garden’s 250-acres you will find a forest, wetlands, streams, and two lakes–each one home to all manner of creatures–from cardinals to wild turkeys, from rabbits to red-tailed hawks, from mallards to muskrats. One can easily go through an entire camera battery (or two) trying to shoot them all (with your camera, of course).

Hooded Merganser

Here is an example of one of my recent mornings taking photos at the Garden:

Several weeks ago, I was walking down Azalea Way which is one of the garden’s main roads with camera in hand. To my left was the edge of the Native Forest and to my right the Azalea Garden. I was talking on my cellphone when I noticed the distinctive silhouette of a red-tail hawk on a tree to my right, just before Azalea Way meets with the Stone Mill Road.

I told the person on the other end that I’d have to call them back and switched my phone to vibrate so that if it rang, the sound wouldn’t scare the hawk away. I tip-toed ahead to a point where the sun was to my back and began shooting. The hawk stayed there for a bit and pretty soon I was right below him. I kept on shooting. After about five minutes, he crouched down and I knew he was going to take off. He then leaped right over me. For the second that it took him to do that he was only about four feet above my head. He glided on to the other side of the road, over the wooden fence with his talons extended, and landed on the forest floor with a light thud. I assumed that he had caught something, so I waited for the meal to begin. When a red tail captures prey, they will typically begin looking around, darting their head left and right. As the hawk was doing this with has his back to me, I slowly moved in closer all the while shooting between the fence posts.

Sometimes a young hawk will mistake an inanimate object for prey, which is what I think happened here. Eventually realizing that there was nothing there, he took a few steps and scrunched down as if to fly off again. Instead, he hopped on to the fence. I eased closer until I was about 15 feet away. That’s when I shot this. Ladies and gentlemen, look into the eyes of the natural world. He was even nice enough to let me shoot some video. As you can see, vehicles and distant sirens don’t seem to phase him either.

Red-Tail Hawk

I shot about 50 photos while he was on that wooden fence. I’d never been this physically close to a red-tail before. I could see the color of his eyes, the detail in his feathers, his talons. I was truly in awe of this winged hunter. Further up Azalea Way I could see a group of four talking loudly. The hawk turned his head to look at them and I knew he was about to leave, so I just kept shooting. Seconds later he took off. I then ran home to look at the photos on my computer. It was there that I noticed the blood on his beak, most likely from a previous meal.

Muskrat

This was just one of the many events of nature that I’ve been blessed to witness during my photographic adventures at the Garden. Looking into the eyes of that magnificent raptor is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I encourage all photographers–amateur or pro, wildlife or scenic–not just to visit the Garden, but to become a Member. For the cost of an annual membership, you get unlimited entry to the grounds, the Conservatory, the exhibits in the Library Building, and all the other wonderful events that take place there throughout the year. Just don’t forget to bring your camera!

Next up: Pat gives us some practical tips for getting the most out of your photographic safari at the Garden. Stay tuned!