Samantha Buck is an Interpretation Intern for Public Education.
Recently, I took a Forest Tour with the very knowledgeable Garden Tour Guide Ken Lloyd. For those of you who don’t know what a Garden Tour Guide is, as I didn’t, they are expertly trained volunteers who are essential to the Garden’s success.
It was a nippy day to say the least, especially since I was unprepared for the tour and as such hadn’t dressed in layers as I normally would have had I known (I take pride in my preparedness being a Mainer born and raised). So off I went with Ken in my dress pants and sneakers, braving the chilly air and our runny noses to explore some of the trees in the Garden.
Our first stop was at the umbrella pines that, as Ken pointed out, were planted in the very early 1900s. Their red-colored bark and multi-stemmed trunks made them a unique stop on our adventure. Just past the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, we stopped at the Chinese elms along the road. Ken explained how Dutch elm disease, an introduced fungus, had decimated the American elm population. He also stated that there are some elm species that can be treated for the disease and others that are resistant to it.
On entering the Forest, I felt I was in the most peaceful place in the city. The Forest is kept as natural as possible—there is no snow removal from the paths, no native trees are cut, and life is allowed to take its course. However, invasive species that encroach the area are removed and fires that start are put out. None of the descriptive signs I encountered elsewhere on the Garden grounds were present in the Forest, but Ken was able to discern the species from their bark or the form of the tree itself, by the way the branches grow and the shape of their buds. The only signs present were placed only on a few trees in order to track changes that occur over time. Volunteers record these changes once a month.
I also learned the reason why the trees aren’t any bigger or older in the Forest, despite the lack of human involvement. During the last Ice Age, a fair bit of the soil was removed by glaciers and deposited into the ocean. As a result of this shallow soil, it is difficult for the trees to establish a good root system that would allow them to reach monstrous heights.
I highly recommend taking one of The New York Botanical Garden’s many Tour Guide-led tours—it was definitely one of the highlights of my internship here. I learned a substantial amount despite my damp, cold feet. Just be sure to dress appropriately for the weather so you’re able to immerse yourself completely in the experience.
A guided Forest Tour will be held on Saturday, January 31, at 12:30 p.m. Meet at the Reflecting Pool in the Leon Levy Visitor Center.
The Botanical Garden’s living collections is among the greatest in the world and contains more than 1 million plants. Jon Peter, Plant Records Manager, periodically shines the spotlight on a particular species that can be found within our 250 acres.
Botanical Name:Ilex verticillata
Common Name(s): Winterberry
Family Name: Aquifoliaceae (Holly family)
Native Range: USA—Maine to Florida, west to Minnesota and Texas
Canada—Newfoundland to Ontario
USDA Hardiness Zones: 3 through 9
Location(s) within NYBG: Native Plant Garden, Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, Home Gardening Center
Site Requirements: Sun to partial shade; well-drained, moist, organic soil; can tolerate extended periods of flooding
Interesting Note: This native species is one of a small number of hollies that are deciduous, losing their leaves in the autumn to reveal the orange to red berries that persist into winter. The berries become an important food source for birds when other sources diminish. Like all hollies, this species is dioecious, meaning it has separate male and female plants and both need to be present for pollination of flowers and subsequent production of fruit.
In a previous video entry, The Garden’s own Sonia Uyterhoeven talked about winterberry and other types of plants that provide beauty and food for wildlife.
Editor’s note: Though winter is not even a month old, birds have already eaten all the fruit from the Garden’s winterberry shrubs.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden. What a glorious sight to come upon: the beautiful orchids displayed in the Orchid Rotunda on the second floor of the Library Building. Brilliant hues, fantastic shapes, lovely arrangements.
The continuous show of these colorful gems that brighten any gloomy day had been on hiatus since mid-April of 2008, when the display case was installed with the maquettes and found objects of sculptor Henry Moore in conjunction with the Moore in America exhibition across the Garden grounds.
Though Moore in America has been extended to March 15, the artist’s scale models, tools, and collection of bones, rocks, and other natural bits and pieces have been removed to make room, once again, for the spectacular, delicate orchids. And just in time. These magical flowers whet our appetite daily for the upcoming annual Orchid Show, which opens February 28 in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
In the meantime, on a cold, gray day—or any day—come marvel at this display, which is refreshed twice a week. It is sure to lift your spirits.
Karen Daubmann is Director of Exhibitions and Seasonal Displays.
Planning for the holiday celebrations at the Garden starts long in advance. At this time last year the holiday display in the Reflecting Pool in the Leon Levy Visitor Center was evaluated and decisions were made concerning additions, deletions, and upgrades for this year’s display.
In August, our Director of Arboretum, Grounds, and Gardens, Kurt Morrell, traveled to the mountains of North Carolina to select the trees that would be used. Since big trees are hard to come by, the location of the farm must be kept a secret. We use a 28-foot tree in the center, surrounded by eight smaller trees. Always working well in advance of each project, Kurt has earmarked several trees that are being groomed for the years to come. Fraser fir, Abies fraseri, is his tree of choice. It lasts well from mid-November through mid-January, has nice structure and color, and the branches are stiff enough to support the weight of the large ornaments and the huge pine cones, which are from Pinus lambertiana, sugar pine, native to California.
To reduce energy use, we decided to change over to LED lights this year; the orders had to be placed earlier than usual, beginning in early summer. The lights arrived by early autumn and awaited installation—more than 19,000 bulbs just for the Reflecting Pool trees. Vendors were selected for the lighting and the decorating, and all waited for the November 10 arrival of the trees, ready to put the plan in motion.
The trees left North Carolina early Saturday morning, November 8, on a special, extra-long trailer. They arrived at the Garden two mornings later and were met by a crew from the outdoor gardens staff and a large crane. After the trees were placed in special steel tree stands, the crew from Frost Lighting leaped into action. It took three days to add the LED light strings to the trees. Meanwhile, the crew from Bowman Dahl Floral and Event Design arrived to clean and prep the ornaments, both those that were recycled from past shows and those that would be new additions.
Just five days after delivery, the vignette of trees was ready for its unveiling.
Charles M. Yurgalevitch, Ph.D., is the Director of the School of Professional Horticulture.
Each year the School of Professional Horticulture—a professional gardener-training program at The New York Botanical Garden—allows its first-year students to practice what they have learned in the classroom and in the field through the design and implementation of a student garden. It is an opportunity for students to use their newly acquired skills in a creative manner. Students split into three design teams, each of which drafts a plan for the student garden, which is situated in the Home Gardening Center, a place frequented by the public. A panel of the Botanical Garden’s horticulturists chooses one winning design and suggests alterations; the design is then installed and maintained by all the first-year students the following summer.
The proposals for each team from the Class of 2010 are described below. Make sure to visit the student garden next summer to see the implementation of the selected design.
Natives & Neighbors
We wanted to focus on native plants with an emphasis on plants of North America, but also including plants of Central America and northern South America. There are no Asian or European species. We are especially fond of the work of Piet Oudolf, who has designed the recently planted Seasonal Walk here at the Garden. We sought to design a garden that would partially serve as an educational tool within the larger context of the Home Gardening Center to show native plant specimens, some of which may be surprising (native canna, native rose, native marigolds). However, we’ve included Central American and South American natives to provide color early in the season and to put the garden in the larger context of a real show/display garden. The main colors will be violet, lilac, purple, and rose-pink, with accents of chartreuse and yellow. We expect this garden to offer color from the end of May to early November; it will also provide excellent and exciting fall color (Solidago canadensis, Muelenbergia, Echinacea, Eupatorium purpureum, Callicarpa americana, Salvia leucantha, Hydrangea quercifolia). —Peter Couchman, Amanda Knaul and Alyssa Siegel
The Sunburst Garden
We aimed to create a garden that gives a sunburst effect, like a morning sunrise, with colors going from yellow to orange to pink to purple. There will be flowers throughout the summer season, with a greater textural component in late summer/early fall due the grass inflorescences. Textural effects will come from the sweeping movements of feather grass (Nasella), Panicum, and Veronicastrum. An amphitheater-like impact will be achieved with lower plants in the front and larger and fuller plants spreading out toward the sides and back. —Ashley Burke, Gabriela Marin, and Barbara Pearson
The River Bed
In creating this design, we wanted to represent of a river or streambed, with rocks, moss, and plants growing along the banks; we were influenced by the Dutch garden of Keukenhof. Think of an English cottage sitting on the banks of a stream. The rocks (three clusters of small-sized boulders) will provide contrast with plants. Grasses like Miscanthus and Pennisetum will be on the left side; the right side will be anchored with oak-leaf hydrangea. Along the back side will be Panicum and pampas grass. In the middle there will be a broad sweep of blue-flowering Ageratum. The front edge will have Ajuga, moss, and Mexican feather grass. The sequence of bloom will begin with Irises and dwarf daylilies in early June, followed by Hemerocallis. The peak will be in July and August with perennials like Rubdeckia and Monarda and Echinacea. The plants have been selected to add texture, height, and color for late-season interest. —Christopher Bale, Naftali Hanau, and Brian Kennedy
Next year marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York. The New York Botanical Garden will be part of the statewide celebration, bringing a touch of Holland to the Bronx with a Dutch bulb flower show in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory in the spring and a four-season display, including bulbs, along Seasonal Walk. Here we take a look at the planning for Seasonal Walk, which today is celebrated with a ceremonial planting with the designers and HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, among others.
Karen Daubmann is Director of Exhibitions and Seasonal Displays.
Our mission was clear but nevertheless daunting: Design a garden that will look luscious from April to November 2009 and one that has Dutch overtones to fit with the Henry Hudson quadricentennial festivities.
The planning team mulled these thoughts and came up with an ideal solution. And so, with support from the International Flower Bulb Center, the Botanical Garden commissioned world-renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf, a Netherlands native known for his “new wave planting” style, who has paired up with Jacqueline van der Kloet, also from the Netherlands, who is known for her finesse with flower bulb design.
The location for the planting is along Seasonal Walk, two garden beds—one measuring 184 feet by 10 feet and the other 86 feet by 6 feet—nestled between the Conservatory Lawn and the Home Gardening Center. Garden installation began earlier this month and has continued through today’s ceremonial planting.
Since receiving the designs in July our horticultural staff has been busily growing and ordering the mixture of plants for this border. A complex spreadsheet controlled the frenzied process and kept track of sources, sizes, quantities, and inventoried amounts. The planting is an intense mix of favorites and new cultivars, including grasses, perennials and bulbs. In fact, several of the plants are Piet’s own introductions such as Echinacea ‘Fatal Attraction’, Geum ‘Flames of Passion’, and Salvia ‘Evaline’. We have planted 3,389 perennials and 12,100 spring-flowering bulbs. Next spring, we will plant and force 14,500 summer-flowering bulbs, which will add color to the border through the heat of summer.
The project has been exciting to work on. Each plant has been carefully researched and sourced. We tried our hardest to refrain from using substitutes, but in some cases Piet had selected cultivars not yet readily available in the United States.
Autumn is my favorite time of year. The nip in the air fosters a more solitary turn of mind, and I look forward to my fall stroll in The New York Botanical Garden. It is here, among the varied collections and gardens, that I breathe in the sweet woodsy scent of autumn and attune myself to the season’s slower pace of life.
This year I was going to the Garden with a specific goal in mind—I wanted to find a special place where I felt a truly enhanced sense of well being. You could say I was on a mission of discovery to find what encouraged feelings of contentment and serenity in a garden setting. This was a tall order considering that the Botanical Garden is chock-full of wonderful and calming places in which to relax.
I found the place I was looking for in the Rock Garden. As I walked past the flower-rimmed natural pond, I spied a dark green bench with large round armrests set in front of a large andromeda. It seemed to call out to me. As I sat down, I could feel the stress of the week evaporating.
The garden bench’s protective perch offered what I call “The Lure of the Sheltered Corner.” With the andromeda behind me and a truly magnificent rock garden to admire, I was as serene as can be. The most alluring spot of all was the waterfall. The sun shone brightly on the splashing water as it tripped down the rocks. Low-growing evergreens and graceful ferns edged the cascade. Here, I felt an exquisite sense of “stop time” that the quiet world of earth, rocks, trees, and plants offers. This sublime feeling of connection is why I treasure The New York Botanical Garden.
The Botanical Garden’s living collections is among the greatest in the world and contains more than 1 million plants. Jon Peter, Plant Records Manager, periodically will shine the spotlight on a particular species that can be found within our 250 acres.
Botanical Name: Liquidambar styraciflua
Common Name(s): Sweetgum
Family Name:Hamamelidaceae (Witch-hazel family)
Native Range: USA—Massachusetts to Florida, west to Illinois and Texas; California;
Mexico to Nicaragua
USDA Hardiness Zones: 5B through 10A
Location(s) within NYBG: Library building lawn, Forest, Native Plant Garden
Site Requirements: Sun to partial shade; well-drained, moist acidic soil; can tolerate extended periods of flooding
Interesting Note: The glossy star-shaped leaves turn a range of colors in autumn, from purple and red to orange and yellow. The tree forms a park-like conical shape and develops thick, deeply furrowed bark. On some trees the twigs grow strange-looking corky bark ridges that add to its winter interest. The unique fruit of the sweetgum attracts an array of birds and other wildlife.
Year of the Rabbit and Fall’s Finale at the Family Garden Annie Novak is coordinator of the Children’s Gardening Program. Sun-Tzu tells us “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Two thousand years later, the Family Garden recently took the opportunity to follow the familiar adage with the latest addition to our garden: Newton, the Family Garden rabbit. Unlike the brown, sleek, and rapid rabbits that pillage the cornucopia within our walls, Newton, a domesticated Dutch dwarf, was rescued by Group Tours staff, who found him wandering the Botanical Garden last month.
Despite the reputation of rabbits, the adoption of Newton is a welcome one. Instructors and students on a recent class field trip to the Family Garden discussed the perils of abandoning domesticated animals in the Botanical Garden forest, gracefully making the segue into a discussion of ecosystems. Later, the students were rewarded with the opportunity to feed Newton pea shoots, the last crop of legumes before cold weather finishes the garden’s growing season. Magnetized by the hutch and the adorable rabbit within, it seems the spotlight has turned away from the Family Garden’s waning fall vegetables.
Newton also has the privileged position of living under what may be The New York Botanical Garden’s first “green roof.” A collection of sedums and sempervivums (hens and chicks), the green roof will help to keep the hutch warm in the winter and cool in the summer. As Toby Adams, the Family Garden Manager, explains, Newton’s new home illustrates the potentials of creative and efficient gardening. “The hutch shows how our visitors, too, might tend a garden despite the limited ground-level space in the city.”
The only thing missing from Newton’s nest is a pumpkin. In anticipation of Halloween, the rest of the Family Garden is festooned with gourds and squash. This Sunday, October 26, during Halloween Hoorah, visitors to the Family Garden can present an apple sticker and a pumpkin sticker, distributed during the Halloween Parade, to earn a cup of freshly pressed cider and a pumpkin to color with markers. In the Family Garden, staff will be on hand to help make marigold jewelry, frame fruit sketches with seeds, and reminisce about the three beautiful growing seasons that preceded the fall farewell to their vegetable plots. Costumes are encouraged. It is rumored that Newton, with his brown bandit-mask fur, will be dressed as Zorro.
The Halloween Parade meets at the Rose Garden entrance at 12, 2, and 4 p.m. and heads to the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, where you can decorate pumpkins to take home and press your own apple cider.
Since receiving the designs in July our horticultural staff has been busily growing and ordering the mixture of plants for this border. A complex spreadsheet controlled the frenzied process and kept track of sources, sizes, quantities, and inventoried amounts. The planting is an intense mix of favorites and new cultivars, including grasses, perennials and bulbs. In fact, several of the plants are Piet’s own introductions such as Echinacea ‘Fatal Attraction’, Geum ‘Flames of Passion’, and Salvia ‘Evaline’. We have planted 3,389 perennials and 12,100 spring-flowering bulbs. Next spring, we will plant and force 14,500 summer-flowering bulbs, which will add color to the border through the heat of summer.
