Skip to main content
 

Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

This Week at the Greenmarket: Learning From the Pros

Posted in Around the Garden on November 20 2013, by Caitlin Rowles

This week’s Greenmarket dispatch comes to us from the Garden’s Greenmarket intern, Caitlin Rowles.

piesFor the past three months, I’ve worked at The New York Botanical Garden as the Greenmarket intern. I have gained a wealth of knowledge and experience regarding food, farming, and public education. With just over a week left until Thanksgiving and the end of the Greenmarket‘s season, I am thankful for all that I have learned from the Greenmarket, its vendors, and the shoppers who come by every week.

After studying Global Food Systems at NYU, I’ve come to consider myself pretty knowledgeable about produce. But one recent Wednesday—when Migliorelli Farm arrived at the market with the biggest assortment of squash I had ever seen—reminded me of how much I still have to learn. The vendors explained to me the difference between acorn and kabocha squash, how best to prepare a delicata squash, and what on earth anyone would want to do with a “cheese pumpkin.” And the best part? They’re all grown right on New York State land by the farmer I get to see every week!

I have even had the chance to talk to these farmers about aspects of agriculture that I’m learning in my classes, like how farms feel climate change and the huge effects of varying weather and extreme events on production, and bring these stories back to NYU. For one of my food studies classes, I will be writing my final research paper about food waste in the production chain using primary resources—stories from the farmers themselves!

Read More

Treasures of New York Spotlights the Holiday Train Show

Posted in Holiday Train Show on November 19 2013, by Matt Newman

Holiday Train ShowIt’s been over two decades since we first introduced New York City to the Holiday Train Show, and in that time we’ve pieced together one of the most impressive collections of miniature architecture ever seen—a cityscape of over 150 cherished landmarks hosting a constant parade of large-scale model railway trains. But the buildings don’t come ready-made out of a box; the bridges aren’t raised overnight, and the tracks can’t find their way without helping hands. It’s an enormous undertaking to unveil this seasonal treat each year, and thanks to our friends with THIRTEEN NY, the premiere of Treasures of New York: Holiday Train Show is throwing a well-deserved spotlight on all that hard work.

From American steam engines, subway cars, and modern freight trains to the natural architecture itself—each building painstakingly assembled using natural components like leaves, twigs, and bark—Treasures leads the viewer on a tour through the entire holiday production. You’ll join artist Paul Busse in Alexandria, Kentucky, where his Applied Imagination workshop has been crafting uncanny models of New York’s famous buildings since the Holiday Train Show first opened in 1992. Back then, our collection of models barely made up a tiny neighborhood—a far cry from the dozens of models that now call the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory home, surrounded by over a quarter-mile of G-scale train tracks.

Read More

An Annual Affair

Posted in Gardening Tips on November 19 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven

Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.

Nicotiana mutabilis
Nicotiana mutabilis

Evaluation is an important process in the garden. It teaches us to understand what grows well in specific sites and what struggles or fails; what combines well and what doesn’t; and it affirms our likes and dislikes between different species and varieties. That said, I always like to take a few minutes to reflect on the season’s best performers so I can add them to the expanding repertoire of stellar annuals for every gardening occasion.

One of my favorite annuals in the garden this year was the flowering tobacco Nicotiana mutabilis. This tender perennial (hardy in zone 8) flowers from June until first frost without slowing down or missing a beat, creating a colorful haze in the garden with dainty trumpet-shaped flowers that smother its wiry, 5-foot-long stems.

The specific epithet mutabilis means “changeable,” and it’s more than appropriate. The flowers on this flowering tobacco open white, morph into a pale pink, and finish dark pink, giving the impression that there are three different flower colors on the plant. The foliage has a tropical feel to it, adding to this gardening belle’s natural mystique. But can it possibly get any better? Of course! Nicotiana mutabilis is deer resistant, attracts hummingbirds, and is easy to seed around the garden.

Read More

Love Those Leaves

Posted in Gardening Tips on November 18 2013, by Joyce Newman

Joyce H. Newman holds a Certificate in Horticulture from The New York Botanical Garden and has been a Tour Guide for over seven years. She is a blogger for Garden Variety News and the former editor of Consumer Reports GreenerChoices.org.

Fallen leavesFall foliage is beautiful, until it hits the ground and turns into work, right? Wrong! All those fallen leaves are actually horticultural gold, so this year, leave your rake in the shed and consider “shredding-in-place.”

Shredding-in-place is the practice of mulching with leaves and is often cited by organic gardeners as a “free” and easy way to add nutrients to the soil. Sonia Uyterhoeven, the NYBG’s Gardener for Public Education explains: “In natural areas, leaving leaf litter to decay on its own is a healthy and natural way of composting.”

This fall many local towns, school districts, parks, and landscapers are saving money, energy, and the planet by leaving shredded leaves on the grass and in beds. Shredding and leaving the leaf litter on the ground saves money and manpower because there is no longer a need for leaf collection and removal.

Read More

Morning Eye Candy: Flaming Jade

Posted in Photography on November 17 2013, by Ann Rafalko

When you visit the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for the Holiday Train Show, be sure to detour through the other houses in search of this stunning vine, Mucuna benettii. Also known as the Red Jade Vine or Flame of the Forest, it is a member of the legume family, and along with its blue-green cousin Strongylodon macrobotrys a distant relative of the more familiar wisteria. To see Strongylodon in full bloom, come and visit us again in March and April for the Orchid Show. She’ll be putting on a show to rival the orchids by then!

mucuna

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen