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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Kiku

This Weekend: Bonus Fall Fun!

Posted in Around the Garden on October 11 2013, by Ann Rafalko

weekend4For many, this weekend is a three-day weekend and we’ll be open on Monday to help you pass the extra day in one of New York City’s most beautiful natural spaces. That means an extra day of fall fun for everyone!

Fill your weekend with spooky fun in the Haunted Pumpkin Garden and the cultural immersion of Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden. Our two fall exhibitions come with a plethora of fun activities including pumpkin carving demonstrations, taiko drumming, wildlife encounters, and tours. And don’t miss the opening of Close: The Photography of Allan Pollok-Morris, going live in the Ross Gallery this weekend.

Start your Columbus Day weekend off right by joining our free Saturday bird walk around the grounds. It’s migration time, so you never know who you’ll spot in addition to our regular flock of raptors, turkeys, little brown jobbers, and colorful characters.

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Bringing the Japanese Garden Home

Posted in Adult Education on October 9 2013, by Ann Rafalko

japenese-maple-bonsaiKodai Nakazawa, the horticultural genius behind our current exhibition, Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden, learned his trade at Tokyo’s Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. And while it might be hard for you to replicate his genius at home (11 months of careful tending to one single plant would probably be challenging to all but the most dedicated of home gardeners, disregarding entirely the fact that some of these plants are huge!), that doesn’t mean you can’t replicate a little bit of Japan’s amazing horticultural heritage at home, and we’re setting out to prove it.

During the months of October and November, the NYBG’s acclaimed adult education program is offering a selection of classes dedicated to teaching you a variety of Japanese gardening traditions.

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This Weekend: Fall Perfection

Posted in Around the Garden on October 4 2013, by Ann Rafalko

The NYBG WeekendThe weather forecast for this weekend looks equally as wonderful as our slate of weekend activities. Blue skies and golden sunshine pair perfectly with Japanese chrysanthemums, pumpkin carving demonstrations, bird walks, and garden tours. It just doesn’t get better than early October in New York City! So get outside and soak up this perfect weather in the Garden!

Children of all ages can join a bird walk (Saturday only), get pumpkin carving tips, thrill to the sounds of Japanese taiko drumming, and learn about the bugs and creepy creatures of Halloween. Adults hunting for horticultural knowledge will love our Bulb Basics demonstration in the Home Gardening Center, ikebana demonstrations in the Conservatory Courtyard, in-depth tours of Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden in the Conservatory, and an expert-led tour of the Native Plant Garden.

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Kiku in the Conservatory, Pumpkins in the Garden

Posted in Around the Garden, Exhibitions on October 3 2013, by Ann Rafalko

kiku3You probably know (or at least think you know) all about bonsai, the Japanese art of growing, tending, and shaping miniature trees in trays. But do you know about kiku? Where bonsai is small, kiku is large. Where bonsai is about long life, kiku is about ephemerality. Where bonsai is about a minimal aesthetic, kiku is about color, pattern, and profusion.

Or at least that is how we interpret this tradition of shaping and tending chrysanthemums in Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden, opening Saturday in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Many of these huge chrysanthemum “sculptures” begin as one single stem, despite looking like brilliant tapestries of many flowering plants woven together. They are tended for months on end to bloom for just a few weeks. There is no way for us to extend kiku beyond their natural lifespan, so to see them in their full glory, you have got to act fast!

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This Saturday: Kiku 2013

Posted in Kiku on September 30 2013, by Matt Newman

KikuA couple of us hopped a golf cart over to the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections last Friday, hoping to catch a peek at Kodai Nakazawa’s chrysanthemum sculptures before horticulture carefully moved them off to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. I use the word “sculptures” because it’s the most accurate way to explain Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden—a simple “flower” designation doesn’t do the plants justice in the context of this exhibition.

Each mountain, or waterfall, or burst of fireworks begins as a single young chrysanthemum, tediously cared for and trained into myriad forms by Nakazawa. Some designs are original, some informed by centuries of tradition. But each one is the end result of one of horticulture’s highest arts, a discipline our visiting gardener learned from experts at Tokyo’s Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.

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Poetry in Passing

Posted in Around the Garden on September 12 2013, by Matt Newman

Every now and then our visitors step up to surprise us, and this is certainly one of those times. Our Director of the Thain Family Forest, Jessica Arcate-Schuler, was making her way across the grounds this week when she came to the waterfall overlook of the Bronx River. It’s not a roaring cascade, but calm and picturesque, with a talkative rush that even the Garden’s caretakers seldom hurry past without a pause.

Bronx River

Standing at the rail, Jessica noticed the corner of a note poking out from a gap behind the sign there, but it wasn’t trash. Someone had wedged the paper there to be found. So she plucked it out from its hiding place and read it.

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Morning Eye Candy: Specialized

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 6 2013, by Matt Newman

Kodai Nakazawa’s tools are as integral to his work as the know-how he puts behind them. Last week, I teased his efforts in the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections as the return of a Garden favorite. And those who chimed in were right—Kiku is coming! We’ll have more for you in the coming weeks as we draw nearer to this meticulously prepared Japanese chrysanthemum exhibition.

If you appreciate the implements of a specialized artform as much as I do, you’ll understand why these leaf cutters—with their subtle dimensional differences—are so fascinating.

Tools of the Trade

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen