Other than a few valiant (or confused) snowdrops peeking up from under the soil, the bulk of the NYBG‘s outdoor flowers continue to sleep it off until the early days of spring. That makes the Garden’s beauty less reliant on the landmarks of a map, and moreso on the simple love of exploration! The Forest, home to such a thick canopy in summer, now shows off the linework of its illustrated branches. The warm gradient of the grasses and reeds stands in for bobbing flower heads. And in months like January, the landscape takes on iced-over contrasts with a dab of the noir aesthetic.
2012’s winter offering proved closer to an endless fall than anything climatologists would have preferred, creating some interesting consequences in plant behavior. But this year, climate change aside, winter is making at least the tiniest effort to act the part! For one, buying these boots was hands-down my best decision of 2013–I’ve already saved myself a few embarrassing falls in the snowdrifts we get every few days. Even the fast-flowing Bronx River is still sloughing off the ice that crept in over the course of last week’s dipping thermometer.
This post is a bit of an anomaly for our “What’s Beautiful Now” series. Usually, we cobble these together to show our fans and visitors what’s worth slipping into the agenda during a trip to the NYBG; each post is a rundown of what you should go and enjoy at its peak flower or aroma, depending on the season. But some of the collections we have growing here at the Garden aren’t always open for public consumption–not yet, anyway. They’re too early in their growth, or still being primped for coming exhibitions. And most of these plants fall within the purview of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections, where preparation begins for coming events many months (if not years) before opening day rolls around.
Seeing as I already teased you this past weekend with some of the jungle jewels sprouting up under the glass of the Nolen Greenhouses, I figure there’s no reason to keep the rest of Ivo’s recent photo shoot cooped up in our files. Standouts among the photos taken are easily the orchids, a few of which we expect to steal the spotlight in 2013’s spring Orchid Show. And while we can’t spill the entire layout of the exhibition just yet, I’m all too happy to pass along a gallery of eye candy in the meantime.
We gush over green for so much of the year that a quick break from the norm is more than welcome. So this week, I’m shifting focus for something a little more in line with the exuberance of the Halloween season, a hue that our resident photographer, Ivo Vermeulen, is all too willing to champion–at least if his favorite pair of garish pants has anything to say about it. I’d show you a picture but I’m under the impression we had to put a ban in writing to keep him from blinding visitors (though it certainly doesn’t stifle this Dutchman’s nationalism). In any case, it’s tough to live year-round in the northeast and not have at least the shadow of a soft spot for the fiery orange of autumn.
The changes around the NYBG are not always subtle. The tulip trees have slipped into their lemon yellows, and the boughs fringing the Forest follow suit with a citrus spectrum of their own. In the Home Gardening Center, neon orange chrysanthemums carry the torch for the flowers. It won’t be long now before we’re walking the Garden trails beneath an entirely different canopy, one splashed with all the painted warmth that winter tends to be so stingy with. But for now, we’ll take in all this early orange wonder while the weather’s still playing nice enough to leave our galoshes and down coats stuffed in the closet.
Nearing spring, we find plenty to be excited about as we walk through The New York Botanical Garden’s outdoor collections. Not that there isn’t a faint sense of curiosity, too; as Sonia Uyterhoeven has explained before, the weather patterns this winter have tricked certain plants into breaking dormancy early, resulting in a few blooms that will end up missing their spring date. But regardless, we appreciate the beauty whenever it happens to come around. And many of these flowering plants are proving right on time.
Gloves, hat, scarf–I brought none of these things when I went wandering the Garden during lunch yesterday. The climate was just so perfectly suited to a stroll. And the greatest benefit of working at the NYBG is that–no matter the climate–there’s something out on the grounds worth visiting. It’s true there’s no luck of a permanent spring with buds and blooms sprouting up from corner to corner, but winter has its own subtle and touching charm.
This season’s odd patterns of sun and darkness make for confusing daytime walkabouts; I hadn’t expected to step out of the office at 3 p.m. only to find dusk creeping along at the edges of the afternoon. Adjusting to this kind of Norse winter is a slow process. (Being a southerner, anything north of Georgia is practically Norway to me.) But I decided that I was already out and about, and despite the settling dark I was going to soak up as much enjoyment as I could from the remains of the day.
Today I sauntered down Daylily Walk at lunchtime. Daylily Walk runs from Perennial Way (the road that goes in front of the Conservatory), past the Garden Cafe, down a little hill, and then takes a jag to the left running parallel to Garden Way (the road in front of the Library Building where the Greenmarket is held) (map). Daylily Walk is currently a riot of color and a study in fabulous plant names. Come check out the amazing diversity of daylilies!
The peonies that line Perennial Garden Way are getting set to explode into a riot of color and aroma. There are a few out, and hundreds more just waiting for the perfect weather to burst forth into a profusion of petals. Here’s a few of the early peonies to get you set for peony prime time!
‘Do Tell’
‘Kevin’ – Isn’t it great that there’s a peony named Kevin?
‘John Harvard’ – This peony which bears the colors of the Ivy League school founded by the man it is named for was one of the first to open this year, and is still going strong.
One of the most common questions we get at the Garden is, “What should I see?” Apparently the answer, “Everything!” is a little too broad for some people. So we try to let you know through this blog, through our What’s Beautiful Now feature, through Flickr, Twitter, and Tumblr what we’re seeing that is astoundingly beautiful right now. And right now, we have two words for you: Tree peonies.
Other than a few valiant (or confused) snowdrops peeking up from under the soil, the bulk of the NYBG‘s outdoor flowers continue to sleep it off until the early days of spring. That makes the Garden’s beauty less reliant on the landmarks of a map, and moreso on the simple love of exploration! The Forest, home to such a thick canopy in summer, now shows off the linework of its illustrated branches. The warm gradient of the grasses and reeds stands in for bobbing flower heads. And in months like January, the landscape takes on iced-over contrasts with a dab of the noir aesthetic.
