At the end of January, our 14th Annual Winter Lecture Series kicked off with the first of three presentations as given by Brian Huntley, emeritus professor, renowned conservation scientist, and former CEO of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Huntley was instrumental in shaping South Africa’s most famous garden, Kirstenbosch, from the ’90s and into the ’00s, and was a key figure in post-apartheid conservation across South Africa.
The Cape Floral Kingdom populating Kirstenbosch is incredibly diverse and unique, full of color and contrast. The poster child of South African flora is the protea (Proteaceae). As the country’s national flower, it has since become a huge success in the cut flower trade worldwide, but apart from this iconic South African plant, the country is also famous for its unique collection of geophytes (bulbs of all colors and shapes), irises (Iridaceae), heathers (Ericaceae), and a variety of colorful succulents and grass-like restios (Restionaceae). A few of the internationally-known plants from this region are the ubiquitous geranium (Pelargonium), the Kaffir lily (Clivia), African lily (Agapanthus), and gladiolus (Gladiolus).
I arrived at the lecture expecting to be captivated by the many South African floral treasures discussed by Professor Huntley, but even I couldn’t anticipate such beauty. I further came away with a profound appreciation of the country’s botanical history. Huntley intertwined the famous flora of South Africa with stories of conservation efforts and a history of their premier botanical garden—Kirstenbosch. His leadership was clear as he provided us with a vivid history, mission, and vision of the famed garden.
Last week I began a discussion of some of the drivers and dynamics behind gardening trends, and I continue here with some of the trends that David Culp, author and Vice President of Sales at Sunny Border Nursery in Kensington, Connecticut, covered in a lecture during Plant-O-Rama. We have been following many of these trends for the past several years, and will continue to do so for some time.
While the enthusiasm for vegetable gardening waned slightly in the past year, it has grown in such magnitude over the past few years, and with such glamor and entrepreneurial attitude, that we can hardly call it a slip. Vegetables have always captured the hearts of homeowners due to their overall ease and impressive, family-pleasing results. The boom has been propelled even further by growing awareness and a trend towards fitness, general health, and a cooking fad that’s been boosted by the support of major television networks.
Along the same lines of thought is the “organic revolution.” Wait… haven’t we seen that one before, like in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s…? Let’s face it: we seem to be stuck in a perpetual industrial, chemical, and technological cycle where we proceed to destroy the environment and then recoil, implementing new, safer measures (which are often just old measures rehashed for the modern day). Organics is not only trendy these days, but an important part of branding, a potent money-maker, and hopefully an area where people “put their money where their mouth is.” Credibility over commercialism in this arena is always preferred.
Winter is a wonderful time not only to peruse catalogs and feast our eyes on new introductions, but to spend the quieter moments searching out our favorite venues for congregating with like-minded people.
I have several conference and lecture series that I attend to liven up my mind and shake off the winter cold. Of them, one local favorite is the Metro Hort Group’sPlant-O-Rama, which takes place every year on the last Tuesday in January. Metro Hort is an association of horticultural professionals in the New York City tri-state area, and this annual conference is hosted every year in Brooklyn and made available to everyone at an affordable price.
This year the main speaker was David Culp, author and Vice President of Sales at the well-known Sunny Border Nursery in Kensington, Connecticut. Culp spoke on new directions being taken in horticulture, looking both backwards and forwards along the timeline of plantsmanship with an eye toward gardening trends. I came away with some new insights intro drivers and dynamics behind those trends. What struck me most is that there’s a two-way process between the consumer and the supplier; consumers are critical in driving demands and creating trends, but the industry—the producers—often has the upper hand, and uses it to effect its own ends.
This is the time of year when gardeners like to cruise the seed catalogs looking for something new, hoping to create a renewed palette of edibles for their garden in the coming months. For those of you that like to delve into the world of vegetables, there are a few fresh faces on the market representing a favorite of mine that’s as good fried on its own as it is stealing the spotlight from chicken parmesan.
Today I thought I would give you a glimpse into some of the new offerings on the market to whet your appetite for the upcoming gardening season. On the eggplant scene, Johnny’s Select Seeds is offering two new Indian types this year—‘Suraj’ and ‘Raja’.
Both ‘Suraj’ and ‘Raja’ are small eggplants that average 2 ½ – 3 inches long and 2 inches wide. ‘Raja’ is a white eggplant while ‘Suraj’ is a pretty, medium to light purple. The plants are compact and high-yielding. Due to the diminutive size of the eggplants, this new duo is recommended for stuffing.
Banana inflorescence in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory
Continuing from last week’s discussion on growing bananas, I thought I would put together a few recommendations for over-wintering them in our neck of the woods. Just remember that if you are letting your banana go dormant for the winter, you need to cut back on the watering and fertilizing late in the growing season to ensure the plant begins its slow shut down. Towards the end of the season, give it a light pruning to remove some of the foliage.
If the banana is not hardy and has been planted in the ground, you’ll need to dig it up—either before the first frost or after a light frost. Keep the soil around the root ball and drop it into a snug plastic pot, then clean off any dead foliage you find. You can either cut the banana’s pseudostem back to 6 inches or leave the plant alone and let it dry out naturally. If you do the latter, you will be cutting it back in the spring.
Once you’ve got your banana in a pot, store it away in a dark, frost-free space until spring. The goal is to let it go dormant. You’ll also need to keep it on the cool side (below 55 degrees), and leaning toward dry. The banana will rot if it stays too wet. That said, you do not need to water the potted banana; just be sure to check on it occasionally so it doesn’t dry out completely.
Bananas are a glorious tropical plant that can be grown indoors in a container or outdoors in summer as part of a tropical display. And since we’re just in time for Tropical Paradise, taking place here at the Garden between January 18 and February 23, I’m going to talk about growing these familiar plants at home. Their enormous, paddle-shaped leaves act as a focal centerpiece for any seasonal display, and planting one just might have you hearing steelpans in the distance.
While most bananas are tropical plants that need to be brought indoors during the winter months, other bananas are actually hardy in the New York area. They can be left in the ground to over-winter—dying back with the cold–only to come back in the spring, forming a progressively larger, more awe-inspiring clump each year. However, unless grown indoors, these plants will not bear fruit in our region. They need at least 12 months of warm weather to flower and produce those familiar edible (sometimes) bundles.
From January 18 through February 23 the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory will be hosting Tropical Paradise, an exhibition of our permanent collections that encourages you to take refuge from the chilly winter weather and indulge in a tropical retreat! On weekends and select holiday Mondays the Garden will also be hosting Tropical Interactive Encounters, allowing you to see, taste, and smell tropical plants such as coconut, nutmeg, and annatto. During this warming winter treat, visitors are invited to learn the historical and cultural significance of many tropical plants while enjoying the sensory experience of these unique species.
And back again for another year, photographs from the International Garden Photographer of the Year contest will be on display in the Conservatory to highlight tropical plants and landscapes from around the globe. This photography collection, entitled The Beauty of Paradise, will be complemented by our annual Tropical Paradise Photography Contest, where eager shutterbugs can enter their own images for a chance at an NYBG prize!
While many of us are spending the last day of 2013 furiously editing our list of New Year’s resolutions into something manageable, The New York Botanical Garden is still running full steam ahead with holiday cheer. There are no signs of diets, abandoned gym memberships, or disorganized files to be found—quite the opposite, in fact! The Holiday Train Show is running through January 12 with some marvelous new attractions sure to capture the imaginations of first-time and frequent visitors alike. And for those of you looking to entertain small children, All Aboard with Thomas and Friends returns this Wednesday, January 1, for nearly a month of mini performance adventures featuring sing-alongs and photo opportunities with the famed locomotive.
Meanwhile, it’s a beautiful time of the year to bundle up and take a leisurely walk around the Garden grounds. The Benenson Ornamental Conifer Collection is looking its boreal best with its extensive collection of unusual evergreens suited to both sunny and shady locations.
I was recently sent a number of questions from readers still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in their gardens. Many of the questions pertained to planting privacy screens that can withstand the perils of the sea. These protective plants are broken into primary dune plants; plants that commonly grow on the dunes closest to the ocean, and secondary dune plants; plants that grow on the backside of dunes and on dunes that are protected by primary dunes.
When planning a seaside garden, this privacy screen serves a secondary purpose in protecting more sensitive plants from wind and sea spray. Despite this protection, it is still important to choose your garden plants carefully, as they must be able to withstand sea spray, bright sunlight, periodic dessication, intermittent inundation, and poor soil nutrition. I discuss these considerations and give a list of good plants for these conditions here.
Evaluation is an important process in the garden. It teaches us to understand what grows well in specific sites and what struggles or fails; what combines well and what doesn’t; and it affirms our likes and dislikes between different species and varieties. That said, I always like to take a few minutes to reflect on the season’s best performers so I can add them to the expanding repertoire of stellar annuals for every gardening occasion.
One of my favorite annuals in the garden this year was the flowering tobacco Nicotiana mutabilis. This tender perennial (hardy in zone 8) flowers from June until first frost without slowing down or missing a beat, creating a colorful haze in the garden with dainty trumpet-shaped flowers that smother its wiry, 5-foot-long stems.
The specific epithet mutabilis means “changeable,” and it’s more than appropriate. The flowers on this flowering tobacco open white, morph into a pale pink, and finish dark pink, giving the impression that there are three different flower colors on the plant. The foliage has a tropical feel to it, adding to this gardening belle’s natural mystique. But can it possibly get any better? Of course! Nicotiana mutabilis is deer resistant, attracts hummingbirds, and is easy to seed around the garden.
