Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Kiku, Photography on November 15 2012, by Matt Newman
Can you blame me for the flood of kiku imagery hitting Plant Talk lately? Well, you could, but I’m willing to bet that you understand my motivations on sight alone.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Exhibitions, Kiku on November 13 2012, by Matt Newman
Remember: it only lasts until Sunday, November 18!
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on November 10 2012, by Matt Newman
Our Fall Forest Weekend is a go! Join us all through Saturday and Sunday to celebrate what our 50-acre old growth Forest has to offer, as well as the particolored creations of Kodai Nakazawa in our stunning kiku installation, and the seasonal sculpture of Manolo Valdés. Check here for the event schedule!
Chrysanthemum ‘NYBG Series Orange’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Exhibitions, Kiku on November 5 2012, by Matt Newman
Captured under glass in an intimate snapshot of a generations-old artform, this year’s Kiku collection is now up and running in the Bourke-Sullivan Display House, a wing of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections at the NYBG. And as exhibitions go, this one–as always–is a vital testament to the heights of beauty and expertise that horticulture can reach.
Like so many of our exhibitions, Nolen’s master horticulturists have spent months behind the scenes, sculpting and training otherwise commonplace flowers into shapes unlike anything seen in a workaday home garden. Thousands of chrysanthemum blooms across a rainbow of colors now take on the forms of Ogiku, Ozukuri, and Shino-Tsukuri. Now, those names may strike mysterious chords at first, but they’re easy enough to understand–if not recreate–once you spend a little time with our handy, dandy primer.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on November 4 2012, by Matt Newman
Just a little peek at the chrysanthemums creating rainbows in the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections, where the Bourke-Sullivan Display House is now holding this year’s Kiku creations. If you’ve never seen botanical sculpture at its most essential height, visit the Ozukuri, Kengai, Ogiku, and many other stylistic mum masterpieces from now through Sunday, November 18.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on October 29 2011, by Ann Rafalko
Fall Flowers of Japan closes Sunday! See it while you still can.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Exhibitions, Exhibitions, Kiku, Video on October 20 2011, by Rustin Dwyer
The New York Botanical Garden didn’t just start growing traditional styles of Japanese chrysanthemum–called kiku in Japanese–on a whim. It’s a labor intensive process that the Japanese have been perfecting for centuries, passing down techniques from generation to generation. Some of the more complex display styles can take a team of gardeners almost a year to pull off, which also includes the fabrication of multiple sets of giant metal frameworks upon which the flowers are trained. Training the plant, forcing its buds, timing the blooms; kiku is most definitely not for novices.
Watch a short documentary about Fall Flowers of Japan and the art of kiku below.
Posted in Photography on October 13 2011, by Ann Rafalko
I was in the Conservatory yesterday giving a tour of Fall Flowers of Japan and kiku, and we all agreed that these gorgeous, enormous chrysanthemums look like a sky full of little fluffy clouds. What do you think?
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on October 5 2011, by Ann Rafalko
For a lot of people in the New York-area this weekend is a three-day weekend! To celebrate, the Garden will be open Monday, October 10, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. And you know what makes it even better? The weather forecast is looking gorgeous! Such a welcome change after so many grey, rainy, dreary weekends.
What is there to do on a beautiful fall weekend at The New York Botanical Garden? So much! There’s kiku and bonsai, leaf peeping in the Forest, the Haunted Pumpkin Garden, walking tours, birdwatching, home gardening demonstrations, music performances, and so much more (don’t forget to stop and smell the roses). The Garden is never the same two days in a row, so come spend a day in one of the world’s greatest urban gardens, The New York Botanical Garden! See the full schedule below, and plan your visit now.
Posted in Exhibitions, Exhibitions, Kiku, Video on October 5 2011, by Rustin Dwyer
Tropical Storm Irene and her friend Lee certainly left their mark across the northeast. They left a trail of downed trees, broken limbs, and leaves pretty much everywhere. Not only did it give the arborists and horticulturalists here at NYBG plenty of work, but it also provided a unique situation for a commissioned sculpture in the Palm Dome of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Internationally renowned installation artist Tetsunori Kawana–no stranger to working with natural materials–got the chance to try something new, recycling what would ultimately end up as compost or mulch into a sculpture, a “rebirth.”
See a documentary detailing Kawana's process in creating Tanjou below.