Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden on December 22 2014, by Matt Newman
The winter solstice having come and gone, there are nonetheless a few autumn holdouts still boasting their color around the Garden.
In the Ross Conifer Arboretum – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on November 4 2014, by Lansing Moore
It’s difficult to say which part of this cutleaf Japanese maple is the most beautiful—the foliage or the branches.
Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’ near the Rock Garden – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on August 29 2014, by Matt Newman
As one of the last gasps of summer, Labor Day weekend is a chance for NYBG to throw open its gates on a Monday and welcome everyone for what tends to be the closing week of our summer exhibition. And this year, things are no different—we’re rapidly approaching the September 7 end of our Groundbreakers exhibition! If you haven’t found a moment to get away and visit us here in the Bronx, now’s as good a time as any and maybe even better.
Those of you with kids in tow will be happy to know that we’re going full-tilt in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden with our SousaKazooza events, the last of the season. Bring your little ones for some music, marching, and crafts to keep them busy. And for the adults, we’re still offering our full suite of Groundbreakers events alongside a sweeping schedule of tours—Azalea Garden, Rock Garden, Conservatory, Native Plant Garden and Garden Highlights among them—to help you make the most of your afternoon.
Head past the jump for the full schedule, and don’t let the last few weeks of warm sunshine get away from you!
Posted in Around the Garden on August 6 2014, by Lansing Moore
Wednesdays mean free grounds-only admission to the Garden, and of course the return of the NYBG Greenmarket. This week our specialty vendors are offering okra, purple basil, red amaranth, eggplants, cantaloupe, potatoes, and more! Just in time too, because we have really been working up an appetite reading the special menus that have been announced for our series of Family Dinners with Mario Batali’s Chefs. These visiting luminaries of Italian cuisine are using the freshly grown produce of the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden to prepare some garden-to-table recipes that sound absolutely delicious.
Tickets are still available for those who would like to enjoy one of these special evenings of cooking demonstrations and activities for the whole family! For us amateur cooks, we have chosen a simple recipe that still makes the most of the Greenmarket’s bounty. Gazpacho, that Spanish staple of summer, can be a speedy and refreshing treat that would taste outstanding with the fresh tomatoes and cucumbers available today! Read on for the recipe.
Posted in Around the Garden on August 3 2014, by Matt Newman
A Sunday for the colors of wine and gold.
Hemerocallis ‘Bridget’ along Daylily Walk – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on July 14 2014, by Lansing Moore
As summer heats up, the Native Plant Garden moves into the height of its beauty. What makes this exquisitely designed showcase of flora native to Northeastern North America particularly stunning is that its beauty is the beauty of our own region.
This ever more colorful collection is a haven for pollinators of all stripes—and spots!—from bees to butterflies. There are many blossoms and types of foliage to admire, from the waving fronds of the shady ferns to the magenta spots of Bush’s poppymallow (Callirhoe bushii) dotting the sunny meadow.
Click through for some eye-popping images from the meadow and elsewhere in the Native Plant Garden!
Posted in Around the Garden on July 11 2014, by Lansing Moore
This humid week is finally giving way to a pleasant weekend, and it is the perfect time to visit NYBG! Groundbreakers continues to guide visitors through the monumental history of America’s gardening culture, and the summer season brings more color to the grounds each day.
Come check out the Perennial Garden and Seasonal Walk as they enter new and ever-beautiful stages of growth. Admire the lotus blossoms and water lilies emerging in the reflecting pools outside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Enjoy a summer walk beneath the pleasant shade of trees in the Native Plant Garden or the Thain Family Forest. There is a wealth of ways to enjoy the Garden this summer for people of all ages. Upcoming after-hours events include Jazz Age Evenings and Family Dinners with Mario Batali’s Chefs. For this weekend’s program offerings, read on!
Posted in Around the Garden on June 19 2014, by Matt Newman
At the heart of our Groundbreakers exhibition stand six women—three of them designers, three of them photographers—who, through combined efforts, effected a sea change in the style and popularity of the American garden. From Beatrix Farrand’s opus of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, Maine, to Marian Coffin’s timeless creations here at NYBG, formerly staid home gardens in the U.S. shrugged off western Europe’s stylistic dominance for new and exciting influences from other cultures—not to mention those found right here at home.
Groundbreakers: Great American Gardens and The Women Who Designed Them is an homage to that renaissance of the early 20th century, when these six women established themselves not only as successful designers, but as pioneers along a fresh course for the country’s green spaces.
Posted in Around the Garden on June 17 2014, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG’s Gardener for Public Education.
When you come to visit the Garden, more often than not you’re getting a view of the final product. Only seldom do our guests have the unexpected privilege of seeing all of our work in progress.
You may have come for a visit in the spring or the fall and seen us ripping out beds of bulbs or annuals, replacing them with other seasonal displays. We’re busy making what I call a “tidy mess”—or sometimes, depending on the personalities at play, “controlled chaos.” Everything gets ripped out. Perennials are given a new home, spent annuals dumped in the back of a Toro (our little, red, environmentally-friendly electric carts) and taken away to the compost heap. The bed is then raked smooth, fertilized, and its edges tidied in preparation for the new planting.
Carts of annuals and tender perennials are brought down to the work area, looking like nursery on wheels. A discussion then ensues on the placement and the number of plants available for each area. The bed is measured and divided into quadrants, the annuals are spaced, and each plant placed in the bed.
Posted in Around the Garden on June 12 2014, by Matt Newman
In a not quite accurate recitation of William Blake, “A robin red-breast on a post makes a perfect Garden host.”
A robin in the Native Plant Garden – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen