Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on July 14 2013, by Matt Newman
To see the Native Plant Garden in its current state is a joy. It wasn’t so long ago that it sat shy behind a fence as workers scurried about, planting thousands upon thousands of young plants. You can’t miss it now.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Gardens and Collections, What's Beautiful Now on July 11 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 the former editor of Consumer Reports GreenerChoices.org.
The Native Plant Garden‘s entrance decking, promenade, and benches are all made with lumber from native, sustainably harvested black locust trees (Robinia pseudoacacia)—a wonderfully durable, rot-resistant hardwood species with a long and colorful history.
Native Americans in Virginia made bows from black locust and are believed to have planted the trees moving eastward from the Southern Appalachians. Colonists at Jamestown reportedly used the trees to build corner posts for their first homes. The wood was also used by pioneers for fence posts, ship masts, and for pegs—called trunnels—in ship building.
When wet, the wood expands and becomes leak proof. So the ship trunnels were so strong that they lasted even longer than the ship hulls. According to naturalist Donald Peattie, after the War of 1812, the British claimed that they were defeated on Lake Champlain because of the superiority of the Americans’ “locust fleet” built with the trunnels.
Black locust trees grow rapidly by sending out underground stems that send up new shoots to form new trees. For this reason some considered them to be invasive or at best a nuisance. Because the tree spreads naturally, it is usually found in groves and these can be managed sustainably. For outdoor projects in the New York metro area, some progressive landscape architects seem to be using it more frequently as an alternative to tropical hardwoods.
Posted in Around the Garden, What's Beautiful Now, Wildlife on July 8 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 the former editor of Consumer Reports GreenerChoices.org.
Monarch butterflies are among the most popular and prominent insects in the Native Plant Garden, easy to spot with their dramatically dark orange and black patterned wings. One reason for their high visibility and large numbers is actually their relationship with the tall milkweed plants, which are flowering now in the dry meadow. Without the milkweeds, we wouldn’t have the monarchs.
In fact, monarchs (Danaus plexippus) depend on milkweed throughout their entire life cycle—when they lay eggs and when their larvae, in caterpillar form, feed exclusively on milkweed.
Many different species of native milkweed provide nourishment for monarchs, including swamp milkweed, green, purple, redwing, whorled, and horney spider varieties. The dry meadow contains a total of more than 500 milkweed plants. Of these, by far the most numerous are the butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa).
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 17 2013, by Matt Newman
The Native Plant Garden doesn’t want you to think the nascent foliage seen in early spring was the best it could do, so it’s sending along new headshots.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on May 31 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Step outside and one word springs to mind: Summer! And all signs point to it too–Memorial Day is in the rear view mirror, Manhattanhenge has graced the city’s famous grid, and the cicadas are appearing around the region. What does that mean at the Garden? It’s time to hang out in our gardens, that’s what! No need to hurry-scurry around; take a Tram ride, sit in the shade, stroll around an Italian Garden, loll by the waterlily pools, stop and smell the roses (literally), and saunter around in the shade of the Forest or the Native Plant Garden. Good times, I promise you!
If that’s not enough, and you’re looking for some brainiac mental stimulation instead, we’ve got that too! As part of this weekend’s World Science Festival we’re offering tours of our science facilities, special lectures, and concerts. Yep, that’s right, a science-based, cicada-centric concert! It doesn’t get more geektastic than that!
Posted in Learning Experiences on May 30 2013, by Sara Katz
As Community Horticulturist for Bronx Green-Up, the community garden outreach program of The New York Botanical Garden, Sara Katz works alongside resident stewards of the borough’s community and school gardens and urban farms. She is also a hobbyist beekeeper at Taqwa Community Farm.
A message one frigid morning in early spring, left in a fine British accent: “Hello, this is Jane Selberg from PS 105. I’m calling because our school received a grant to build a garden. We would really appreciate any advice or resources you might be willing to contribute. We’d like to use the garden to teach the children about pollinators and wildlife, and plant native plants to attract butterflies and things.”
I smiled when I heard that one on the Bronx Green-Up line. Days before, we were offered 2,000 native plants for an upcoming public workshop we do annually with Butterfly Project NYC. The plants themselves were particularly noteworthy: castaways from construction of the new Native Plant Garden, which opened on May 4th at NYBG.
In a bright schoolyard near Pelham Parkway, in the Northern Bronx, the concrete has a colorful maze painted on it, a mural on the ground. This is where I came to meet Jane Selberg and, well, most of her immediate family: two blond daughters and their husbands, all yanking out weeds in a long brown stretch of garden-to-be, about a hundred feet long and four feet wide.
Posted in Programs and Events on May 15 2013, by Ann Rafalko
The landscape of our new Native Plant Garden is evolving daily. Each day brings a new bloom, a new leaf, a new hue, or a new resident to this amazing 3.5-acre landscape. It is a celebration of the native plants of the northeast, of which wildflowers are the most delicate and ephemeral. And we’re very happy to be participating in the sixth annual NYC Wildflower Week!
On Friday, Wildflower Week participants are invited to a very special tour of the Native Plant Garden, Thain Family Forest, and Azalea Garden. The tour, Native Flowers, Forest & Azaleas of NYBG, will be conducted by Jody Payne, Director of the Native Plant Garden; Jessica Arcate-Schuler, Director of the Thain Family Forest; Deanna Curtis, Curator of Woody Plants; and Kristin Schleiter, Director of Outdoor Gardens. The tour–offered rain or shine from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on May 17–is free with paid admission and participants should meet at the Leon Levy Visitor Center Reflecting Pool.
Posted in Photography on May 11 2013, by Ann Rafalko
One of the centerpieces of the newly opened Native Plant Garden is Britton Rock, a monument to one of the founders of The New York Botanical Garden, Elizabeth Britton. Elizabeth was an advocate for native plants, especially in the form of wildflower preservation, so it is supremely fitting to have this monument to her in this gorgeous garden.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on May 10 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Mother’s Day is Sunday. Do not forget! Still searching for plans? We can help with our weekend-long Mother’s Day Garden Party in our brand new Native Plant Garden and surrounding gardens!
The Native Plant Garden–which opened last weekend–is a spectacular, 3.5 acre showcase of the beautiful and diverse native plants of northeastern North America, and it is the perfect place to celebrate your mom with fun and games, music and dancing, picnicking, photographers, expert tours, workshops, family activities, and more.
The family fun includes bird and butterfly walks, watercolor painting, a professional photographer’s booth where you can get a beautiful family portrait, lawn games and picnicking on Daffodil Hill (complete with food carts and free samples), music perfect for dancing from the Banjo Rascals, and on Sunday, a family concert presentation of Jack and the Beanstalk by the Bronx Arts Ensemble.
After enjoying the festivities, take mom for a stroll around our 250-acres where you will be dazzled by all the beautiful blooms. The Azalea Garden is as close to peak bloom as you can get, like stepping into a pink and red kaleidoscope! The tree peony and lilac collections–both located near the newly reopened Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden–continue to perfume the air with amazing aroma, and in the Home Gardening Center you can tiptoe among the tulips until your heart’s content. The Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden is verdant and green with vegetables and flowers popping up all over. Feel free to lend a hand, dig around, plant a little, and play in the dirt here. Everyone’s encouraged to give gardening a try in this one-acre veggie wonderland!
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on May 10 2013, by Matt Newman
Last week, Joel Kroin returned to the NYBG just in time for the opening of the Native Plant Garden. Naturally, he had his pinhole camera with him. Because of the nature of pinhole photography—the length of exposure and the time it takes to create an image—moving things often “ghost” in the final result. Of course, Joel assures us these are real ghosts and he’s just a recording medium for their presence, so we’re going to let the images speak for themselves here.
For your peace of mind, no, we don’t have the Ghostbusters on retainer.
[Not a valid template]Photos by Joel Kroin