Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 7 2013, by Matt Newman
Even for a group of specialized rose varieties bred for “roughing it” without the micromanagement that many popular roses need, the flowers in the Earth-Kind® Rose Trial beds are holding their own like you wouldn’t believe.
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 Around the Garden on May 21 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Rosa rugosa is one of the first roses to bloom in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. The species name comes from the Latin for “rough” in reference to the plant’s nearly-pleated leaves. It is also a tough plant, willing to grow in some pretty harsh habitats to the point of becoming a weed in places. And yet it is delicate and beautiful and smells amazing, like the finest of perfumes.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on May 16 2013, by Matt Newman
We’ll miss the cherry bloom now that it’s passed, though the pink petal carpets dotting the Garden are riotous reminders. Meanwhile, the Azalea Garden is in peak bloom and we’re checking our watches over the roses as they mull the idea of waking up. The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden usually hits peak in the early days of June, but Peter Kukielski assures us the color explosion is just around the corner. Of course, we don’t leave gaps; not far from the Rose Garden, opposite the mad-monikered tree peonies, lilac blossoms by the thousands fan that quintessential spring perfume.
We had someone ask us on Tumblr the other day if they’d already missed out on this year’s lilac bloom, so I puzzled together a few shots of the collection taken over the past week to put anxious hearts at ease. That said, no, these white and purple puffs are still very much en vogue and smelling delicious.
Posted in Photography on November 6 2012, by Ann Rafalko
Here’s photographic evidence that–despite the calendar’s advance into the eleventh month of the year–the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden continues to bloom. The blooms may be fewer and more far between, but doesn’t that just make them all the sweeter for their rarity?
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on August 23 2012, by Matt Newman
Stick your head out the window. You don’t have to be full-on family dog weird about it–just poke it out there and see what the weather’s like. Is it a warm day, no sidewalks buried in snow drifts or ice hazard traffic advisories? Then odds are good that the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden should be somewhere in the top three lines of your list of destinations. There are over 4,000 rose specimens in this collection alone, and while spring is the season when visitors are most often scrambling to get a peek (understandably, as roses are like smelling salts after the listless gloom of winter), many people don’t realize that there’s a confetti of colorful rose cultivars blooming at the NYBG for a solid six months out of the year.
Skip over to the Rose Garden right now (while the weather is almost confusingly decent, hence the skipping; I’m talking sit-outside-for-lunch pleasant) and you’ll find the stage set with a show of shrub roses in pinks, whites, and reds. Floribunda, grandiflora, hybrid tea–they’re all there, petaled like petticoats and parasols.
Posted in Around the Garden on June 19 2012, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG’s Gardener for Public Education.
Tuesdays on Plant Talk are generally a time for me to voice my opinions on what we have growing in our plant paradise at The New York Botanical Garden. From time to time, however, I like to interview my colleagues and badger them on their areas of expertise. Today, I am going to share with you a discussion I had with Gene Sekulow–one of the wonderful volunteers helping us to keep the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden growing beautifully.
I first asked Gene to name his favorite rose, and on this topic he waxed lyrical. His favorite bloom in the garden is a 2006 Meilland grandiflora introduction named ‘Mother of Pearl’. He likened the pale pink blossom on the rose to the color of Meggie Cleary’s evening dress in The Thorn Birds. For those of you with a penchant for sentimentality, this is the scene when Meggie glides down the stairs and the besotted priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart, realizes that she is no longer a child but a woman. The dress was a rose dress–as Father Ralph describes, “ashes of roses.”
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on June 8 2012, by Matt Newman
The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden may have the most stage presence, but off in the Earth-Kind® Rose Trial beds, understudies are practicing for their shot at the spotlight. These starlets aren’t pampered, either; they’re thriving without the chemical coddling that so many roses are notorious for.
When they’re done with their auditions (I’m really pushing the tasteful limits of this conceit, aren’t I?), those that make the cut could become available as choice breeds for rosarians frustrated with the tending trends of more high-maintenance varieties.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Photography on May 28 2012, by Ann Rafalko
On this American holiday, may your day be filled with beauty.
Hybrid Perpetual rose Rosa ‘American Beauty’ (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
Posted in Around the Garden, Gardens and Collections on May 23 2012, by Matt Newman
After last week’s press preview of Monet’s Garden, staff photographer Ivo and I took a short hike to see what we could of the rosarians’ handiwork. The mercury was climbing in lieu of an evaporating early morning chill. The tree shade, in turn, had the afternoon wavering in range of a decent spring temperature. We reached the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden a few minutes later.
Spring’s early arrival (in the middle of winter, no less) made an impression on the NYBG‘s roses, pushing them to bloom ahead of schedule and lining up their peak of color alongside the early days of the Monet exhibition. In fact, we’re hovering at around 90% bloom right now, making the Rose Garden a must-see stop over the coming weeks.
The fine geometry of the garden seems arbitrary at first, but you soon realize how carefully everything has been placed–just as the great landscape architect Beatrix Farrand intended. Airy perimeters of climbing roses encompass dense beds of Grandiflora, Hybrid Tea, Floribunda, and other sustainable cultivars. Bobbing in and about the blossoms are bumble bees, more accurate and methodical than their name suggests. The space is landmarked with concentric circle stonework at the corners and entrance, curving stairways, and a trellised gazebo at the center. Altogether a striking place to walk and reflect.