Jaime Morin is The New York Botanical Garden’s Assistant Curator in horticulture. She works with the plant records and curation teams to help keep the garden’s information on its living collections up to date. She also oversees the details of the garden’s Living Collections Phenology Project.
Stewartia rostrata
Ever since my journey into the world of plant obsession began, one my favorite times of the year has always been what I affectionately call “Stewartia season.” This delightful stretch always reminds me of summers spent immersed in unique plant collections, but always being drawn back to this one fascinating group of plants.
The genus Stewartia contains a handful of large shrub and tree species native to eastern Asia and two indigenous to the southeastern United States. Stewartia species all have beautiful white flowers with an obvious tuft of anthers in their center. Their floral show takes place in early to mid-summer, but many species also put on a fantastic display of orange to crimson fall foliage, extending the plants’ season of interest.
I happened to be catching up with Ivo by the Stone Mill when one of our groundskeepers rolled by on his way to the next job site. “Have you seen the mountain laurel yet?” he asked. “I’ve never actually seen it in bloom until now. Worth the wait, though.”
We’re all on the look-out for good camera fodder here.
Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia ‘Carousel’) by the Stone Mill – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Encouraging families to eat better and live healthier lives is a matter of reconnecting people, especially city-dwellers, with where their favorite fresh fruits and veggies come from and how much better they taste when grown with local care. NYBG has long offered such programs to let kids see their greens at all stages of growth before they end up on their plates, and to meet the growing demand for garden-based educational programs we launched the Edible Academy initiative.
While our array of educational and family programs, including Mario Batali’s Kitchen Gardens, continue to make a difference in the community, the ultimate aim of the Edible Academy is to double the number of those we serve through the opening of a three-acre, state-of-the-art complex on the Garden grounds. Including an amphitheater, children’s garden, and educational greenhouse, the Edible Academy is our vision of the bright future for family nutrition and educational outdoor fun. And, once again, our friends at Whole Foods Market are helping to make that vision real.
Did I mention the Rose Garden was beginning its bloom? You can actually keep up with the color via our Rose Watch page, which we update each week to reflect the current state of the flowers. And, of course, you can check it out in person next weekend, June 7 and 8, during our Rose Garden Celebration!
Remember that all-important scene in The Wizard of Oz where the Wicked Witch of the West traps Dorothy and her cadre of heroes in a sprawling field of poppies, sure to sleep forever? It was memorable not for the witch’s conniving plan, or the fact that Glinda the Good Witch bails out our adventurers, but for the imagery itself—the smallness of the characters when surrounded by such immense (if deceptive) technicolor beauty is undeniable. And while we’re not quite ready to break out a poppy field of our own, we have something just as grand (and guaranteed to keep you awake) in the Azalea Garden.
At this very moment, thousands upon thousands of cheery azaleas are blooming in their eponymous collection, filling the newly greened forest surroundings with pinks, purples, reds, and whites. Seriously—it’s like we borrowed a rainbow and brought it to earth. Under the shifting net of sunlight cast through the canopy, the colors pop even more! But, as with everything that comes of spring, this dreamlike color can only last so long.
There’s at least a week or so left of this transcendent color before things quiet down, so make a point of stopping by!
The spring trout lily (Erythronium americanum) is one of several native perennial wildflowers blooming now in the Native Plant Garden. Its flowers appear in sunny patches in the forest woodland area. At the base of each plant are its telltale leaves—speckled, elongated, and looking like brown brook trout.
The flowers come up quickly in the early spring, then produce fruit and create new leaves, all before the tall, deciduous trees leaf out and block much of the sunlight. In the heat of summer, the flowers and foliage disappear, which is why they are called ephemerals.
Some other examples of native ephemerals are blood root (Sanguinaria canadensis), liver’s leaf or hepatica (Hepatica nobilis), and Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). But the trout lily is by far my favorite for there are so many stories about it.
This year’s cherry blossoms announced the arrival of spring at the Garden in great bursts of white and pink. When a light breeze picks up the petals in a candy-colored flurry, you are reminded of the winter blizzards that are thankfully behind us.
Several beautiful varieties are scattered throughout the Ross Conifer Arboretum, with elegant weeping cherries framing the Haupt Conservatory. The best cherry blossom walk on grounds, though, is definitely Cherry Valley, just past the Thain Family Forest on the path to the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. There the billowing trees surround you in a celebration of spring’s arrival. Click through and brighten up your day with a peek at the Garden’s cherry trees at the height of their flowering season!
