Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Wildlife on November 6 2017, by Patricia Gonzalez
Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG Visitor Services Attendant and avid wildlife photographer.
Today we take a look back at just a few of the animals that have made themselves known—especially in the Perennial Garden—over the last few months. The transition from summer to fall brought out all sorts of characters!
Posted in From the Library on November 6 2017, by Samantha D’Acunto
Samantha D’Acunto is the Reference Librarian at The New York Botanical Garden‘s LuEsther T. Mertz Library.
In the bustling streets of New York City, there are small details that are often drowned out by the sensory overload of the environment. One of the smallest of those details would be the ants of the five boroughs. At only a little over 100 pages, Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants of New York City is a rich resource that will satisfy curiosities about these small communities. Authors Eleanor Spicer Rice and Rob Dunn aim to highlight the remarkable strengths of these small animals and the large impact they have on our city.
Organized in fourteen chapters titled after individual ant species, each chapter offers a concise narrative packed with information. Before exploring the chapters, pay close attention to the preface and the introduction as they provide a base of information that will be useful as you read further. Each chapter begins with species name (scientific name), AKA (common name), size (mm), where the species lives, and what the species eats. The narrative is accompanied by the brilliant macro photography of Alex Wild, allowing the readers to experience the intricate visual details of the ants and their environments.
Posted in Around the Garden, What's Beautiful Now on October 30 2017, by Matt Newman
Fall is here at last, and you can feel it in the air (we actually have to wear jackets this week!). That means the collections are dressing up in their autumn finery, from the changing leaves of the Forest, to the fall blooms of the Perennial Garden. It’s a great time to enjoy the outdoor collections before everything buttons up for winter.
[Not a valid template]Posted in From the Library on October 26 2017, by Esther Jackson
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
Garden Renovation: Transform Your Yard into the Garden of Your Dreams by Bobbie Schwartz for Timber Press is a practical guide to giving an existing yard area a “make-over.” Homeowners can use Garden Renovation to assess current landscapes and decide on redesign projects of varying complexity. Especially interesting is a section on evaluating current hardscaped areas such as driveways and paths. Refreshingly, little in the book is dedicated to “plant palettes,” making Garden Renovation singularly focused on landscape assessment from a higher level.
In Garden Renovation Schwartz has created a resource for those who know that something in their landscape has to change but aren’t sure about the next steps. Whether the solution is a DIY project or hiring a professional, Garden Renovation will teach readers how to assess a landscape and make informed decisions about its future.
Posted in From the Library on October 25 2017, by Samantha D’Acunto
Samantha D’Acunto is the Reference Librarian at The New York Botanical Garden‘s LuEsther T. Mertz Library.
The LuEsther T. Mertz Library is very happy to feature our newest titles! Candied Plums is a start-up independent publisher that aims to create contemporary Chinese children’s books. Their books are offered in simplified Chinese, English, and Pinyin. Candied Plums achieves carefully illustrated and visually engaging stories for children of all ages and languages to enjoy. All titles listed below can be found in our circulating children’s collection and are available for check-out to library card holders. See you in the library!
Picking Turnips by Xu Zhou / Translation by Adam Lanphier (2017)
Picking Turnips reimagines Tolstoy’s The Gigantic Turnip in a surprising way! The tale is told from the perspective of a mouse. Of course, living among piles of books, the young mouse is familiar with the tale but he quickly admits that he prefers his uncle’s version much better. Each page reveals a split scene of the struggle to remove the turnip above ground and the efforts to pull the turnip underground. Both farmers above and the mice below want the turnip for themselves. So who will succeed in pulling the turnip?
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on October 23 2017, by Matt Newman
The Forest may only just now be hinting at its fall colors, but soon you’ll see all the reds, oranges, and yellows of this vivid season in action, sweeping across the canopy as cooler weather sets in. But do you really know why and how the leaves change colors? To answer that question, we put together a little video, spotlighted below now that the true fall scenery is beginning to make itself known. Learn a bit more about leaves this week!
Posted in Wildlife on October 19 2017, by Patricia Gonzalez
Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG Visitor Services Attendant and avid wildlife photographer.
A painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) at Twin Lakes – Photo by Patricia Gonzalez
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on October 16 2017, by Matt Newman
Hints of fall abound in the Garden—if you know where to look. Hit the Forest trails this week for the first of the changing leaves in NYC, with reds, oranges, and yellows beginning to peek through the canopy. In the Native Plant Garden you’ll find ferns and meadow perennials snagging the spotlight, while dahlias, decorative grasses, and asters paint our other collections. Head below for more highlights this week!
[Not a valid template]Posted in From the Library on October 12 2017, by Esther Jackson
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
The Living Forest: A Visual Journey into the Heart of the Woods is a new book from Timber Press written by Joan Maloof with photography by Robert Llewellyn. Living Forest is another in the line of more ecology-minded books from this popular publisher of gardening and garden design books.
First and foremost, The Living Forest is a beautiful book. Llewellyn, as some keen readers might recall, is the photographic mind behind the extremely appealing series Seeing Trees, Seeing Flowers, and Seeing Seeds, which I reviewed for Plant Talk earlier this year. As is the case in the Seeing series, Llewellyn’s photographs are detailed, brilliant, and immersive. With a mix of subjects including flora and fauna, shot both close-up and in landscape views, Llewellyn’s work and Maloof’s words evoke the forest on every page. My personal favorite photo is a landscape shot of beech trees (possibly Fagus grandifolia) in late autumn. Love for the woods knows no season, but, for me, autumn is the time that I like best. Llewellyn simply and eloquently captured one of my favorite forest scenes and all of the emotions such a scene inspires.
Posted in History, People, Shop/Book Reviews on October 3 2017, by Joyce Newman
Joyce H. Newman is an environmental journalist and teacher. She holds a Certificate in Horticulture from The New York Botanical Garden.
Most of us know Laura Ingalls Wilder as the author of The Little House series. But now a wonderful new book by NYBG instructor and garden historian Marta McDowell reveals little-known facts about Wilder’s other life—as a settler, farmer, and gardener.
In The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Frontier Landscapes That Inspired The Little House Books (Timber Press, $27.95), McDowell creates an intimate, colorful, and witty portrait of the writer who cherished her gardens and whose gardening life was shaped by the prairie lands that have largely disappeared today. (McDowell is also the author of Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, Emily Dickinson’s Gardens, and All the Presidents’ Gardens.)
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Wilder’s birth. Her life began in 1867 in a Wisconsin log cabin, a frontier baby whose pioneer parents had cleared a forest to make a farm—“the quintessential American beginning,” says McDowell. McDowell traces Wilder’s upbringing and adulthood in the first part of the book—several chapters follow her from Wisconsin, to Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri, and other places where Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane (her prairie rose), ultimately lived.