May 16, 2013

We’re mostly moving away from specific plants this week, in terms of what’s beautiful now, in favor of landscapes. Bright, pulsating, incredibly dramatic, gorgeous, stunningly beautiful landscapes, to be specific.

That said, there are a few standout flowers that you should look for, including that peachy peony and her friends, lily of the valley, and ‘Hinomayo,’ one of the most outstanding shrubs on our grounds.

So what about those landscapes? First there’s our new exhibition, Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World, Featuring The Italian Renaissance Garden in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Nearby in the Conservatory Courtyards (also home to The Four Seasons) you’ll find the hardy waterlilies bursting open in these first warm days of spring.

In the Perennial Garden tulips are making way for charming garden plants like bleeding heart and irises. Walk up the path for the charmingly idyllic Rock Garden, then walk around the bend for the wild beauty of the new Native Plant Garden, and then just a little further to the bombastic pinks and reds of the Azalea Garden.

Everywhere you turn there’s a sight to behold and a perfume on the breeze (just watch out for the Davidia). The lilacs are holding strong, the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is slowly coming along, and the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden looks like a patchwork quilt of greens and earthtones.

Things are definitely settling into a pattern here in terms of what’s beautiful. If you check last week’s report, and even the report from two weeks ago, many of the same gardens are holding strong. What can we say? It’s been an extraordinary spring!

So come visit us in the Bronx! You can plan your visit here. For day-to-day updates on what we’re seeing around grounds, be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter where we post daily updates from our staff and visitors. Also, need help getting around? Our iPhone app can help out there. It’s free and available in the App Store. ~AR

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Filed under: Wild Medicine Flowers Plants What's Beautiful Now The New York Botanical Garden The Bronx New York City Spring Peonies Medicinal Plants Azaleas Waterlilies End A. Haupt Conservatory Wildflowers Perennial Garden Rock Garden Lily of the Valley Family Activities Gardening 
May 16, 2013

I can’t remember the last time I saw an advertisement for a funeral home in the U.S.—with any luck, few have to dwell on these considerations often. But if the undertaker set were to take a shot at public market competition, I can think of worse memento moris to confront than this “living” skeleton composed entirely of pressed flowers.

The work was commissioned by Nishinohon Tenrei of Japan, a funeral home that, from what I gather, sought to break the monochromatic mold of the average funeral concept. The resulting advertisement is crookedly beautiful, if a little forward. Click through for a few more close-ups. —MN

(Source: Laughing Squid)

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Filed under: flowers plants memento mori funeral skeleton 
May 16, 2013

uglytomatoes:

jojoworksout:

isnaberoman:

-My Nerdy Nerdiness expresses itself :)

As a chemist, this makes me smile!

Huh, kinda interesting in a “I have no idea what this means” sort of way.

I will admit to having looked a few of these up to be sure I was interpreting them correctly. What you see are the chemical formulas of various substances used to mimic plant-based aromas and flavors. Pretty, and pretty neat. ~AR

(Source: kilikilipowers)

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Filed under: Organic Chemistry Botany Science Flavorings Aromas Plants Spices 
May 15, 2013

the-archer-girl:

Botanical Garden

Recently, a bit of a controversy broke out after a prominent garden writer was seen as taking a too-light tone in talking about the downy mildew epidemic attacking the cheery garden flower. Impatiens, in case you don’t know, are one of the few garden annuals happy to bloom in shade. They are beloved by gardeners for adding color under trees and in shady corners. And apparently in India they are used in massive mass plantings to construct colorful pyramids! Now there’s an idea for real curbside appeal!

As an aside, the bottom photo shows a mass planting of wax begonia, a flower that is frequently recommended as a good alternative for impatiens. ~AR

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Filed under: Impatiens Downy Mildew Plant Pests Plant Diseases Plants Gardening 
May 14, 2013
Truth be told, my stomach for green things had a threshold sitting somewhere below sea level until I was into my early twenties. Shameful, I know. Since then, I’ve been anxious to at least try new vegetation (I didn’t say I’d like it), and fiddleheads—the furled fronds of young ferns—are high on my list. There are some caveats to harvesting these adolescent springtime delicacies yourself, up to and including potential food poisoning and natural toxins if you don’t know your way around a woodland harvest. But one of our own experts, John Mickel (NYBG senior curator emeritus, fern expert, and secretary of the New York Fern Society for decades) was on hand to put at least one concern to rest in this quick rundown of the latest trend in foraged food. As always, don’t eat anything wild without knowing what you’re doing. And be sure to have a thorough understanding of your area’s collection laws; if you don’t know the status of what you’re picking, and it’s not your land, best to leave it alone. Click through for the fiddlehead rundown, complete with preparation tips. —MN

Truth be told, my stomach for green things had a threshold sitting somewhere below sea level until I was into my early twenties. Shameful, I know. Since then, I’ve been anxious to at least try new vegetation (I didn’t say I’d like it), and fiddleheads—the furled fronds of young ferns—are high on my list.

There are some caveats to harvesting these adolescent springtime delicacies yourself, up to and including potential food poisoning and natural toxins if you don’t know your way around a woodland harvest. But one of our own experts, John Mickel (NYBG senior curator emeritus, fern expert, and secretary of the New York Fern Society for decades) was on hand to put at least one concern to rest in this quick rundown of the latest trend in foraged food.

As always, don’t eat anything wild without knowing what you’re doing. And be sure to have a thorough understanding of your area’s collection laws; if you don’t know the status of what you’re picking, and it’s not your land, best to leave it alone. Click through for the fiddlehead rundown, complete with preparation tips. —MN

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Filed under: fiddleheads ferns plants food eating John Mickel 
May 13, 2013
Our colleagues in Atlanta have just opened what sounds like a really cool exhibition. Called “Imaginary Worlds: Plants Larger Than Life” it features enormous living sculptures made up of thousands upon thousands of plants. The sculptures include an ogre, a unicorn, and largest of all, the Earth Goddess. The sculptures are created by a company in Montreal, and contain specially made internal irrigation systems to help them last through Atlanta’s punishing summers. ~AR (via Neighbor Newspapers - Atlanta Botanical Garden opens exhibit of enchanted creatures)

Our colleagues in Atlanta have just opened what sounds like a really cool exhibition. Called “Imaginary Worlds: Plants Larger Than Life” it features enormous living sculptures made up of thousands upon thousands of plants. The sculptures include an ogre, a unicorn, and largest of all, the Earth Goddess. The sculptures are created by a company in Montreal, and contain specially made internal irrigation systems to help them last through Atlanta’s punishing summers. ~AR

(via Neighbor Newspapers - Atlanta Botanical Garden opens exhibit of enchanted creatures)

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Filed under: Atlanta Botanical Garden Topiary Sculpture Plants Gardening Botanical Gardens 
May 11, 2013
"The rocks are beyond slow, beyond strong, and yet yielding to a soft green breath as powerful as a glacier, the mosses wearing away their surfaces, grain by grain bringing them slowly back to sand. There is an ancient conversation going on between mosses and rocks, poetry to be sure. About light and shadow and the drift of continents. This is what has been called the ‘dialectic of moss on stone - an interface of immensity and minuteness, of past and present, softness and hardness, stillness and vibrancy, yin and yang.’ The material and the spiritual live together here."

—

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (via mossofthewoods)

Tools in the passage of time adopt myriad forms and states of matter. It’s not often you stop and dwell on the bare stone, and yet we’re constantly finding reason to reflect on the Garden’s past. The exposed rock marking the landscape—from the ridges sectioning the Azalea Garden to the monolithic “Split Rock” of the Native Plant Garden—puts each moment of wear on display in scars and striations, recalling the kinetic push of glaciers, rivers, and trees long gone.

Nature is so often an archive of itself. Just stop and look. See how even the smallest of living things, down to the lichens and dripping mosses, share the duties of erosion with the wind and rain. —MN

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Filed under: plants nature natural history stone 
May 9, 2013

What’s beautiful now? If you ask our horticulturists they’ll say one thing: rain. It’s been a pretty dry spring, and while we have the ability to water deeply, there’s just nothing a plant loves more than an old fashioned rain storm. And like the adage says: May showers bring May flowers …. er, or something.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, we’re seeing a real turn towards the later spring flowers now, away from the cherry blossoms and daffodils of early spring. This week is all about flowering shrubs like lilacs, azaleas, and tree peonies. And then there are the tulips. Oh sooooo many tulips! In an absolute riot of color all over the Home Gardening Center.

In the newly opened Native Plant Garden things are a little more subdued, but still so lovely. Expect lots of beautiful dogwoods and gorgeous drifts of foam flower, Tiarella cordifolia. In the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, the Otto Pizza Garden beds, part of Mario Batali’s Kitchen Gardens are looking unmistakably pizza-like.

What’s still beautiful from last week? The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden has another bloom every day. On Tuesday it was Rosa nutkana. By this weekend there should be a handful more in bloom. The Azalea Garden just gets better with each passing day, and the Native Plant Garden is just awesome, the perfect place to celebrate your mom on Sunday.

So, ready to come hang out with us in the Bronx? Here’s everything you need to know. For day-to-day updates on what we’re seeing around grounds, be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter where we post daily updates from our staff and visitors. Also, need help getting around? Our iPhone app can help out there. It’s free and available in the App Store. ~AR

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Filed under: New York City Plants Flowers Mother's Day Native Plants Vegetable children's Gardens Lilacs Tree Peonies Azaleas Tulips Rain Weather Landscape 
May 8, 2013

astronomy-to-zoology:

Happy Birthday to David Attenborough!!

87 years and still going strong!

A very happy birthday to one of our very favorite naturalists! ~AR & MN

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Filed under: David Attenborough Nature Plants Animals Science 
May 8, 2013

cindykrikawa:

Tulips & Pansies at the New York Botanical Garden, NYC.

Yup, yup, yup. Uh-huh. This. —MN

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Filed under: NYBG New York Botanical Garden tulips plants flowers pansies spring 
May 7, 2013
"Bussmann’s work to develop crops from Plukenetia species seems to go beyond the traditional role of a scientist. But Ina Vandebroek, an ethnobotanist at the New York Botanical Garden, says that it is typical of the field. “Ethnobotanists should also have a social responsibility. Our task is not just to record knowledge and publish it in science papers, but to give something back to the people you are working with.” Crop development can be one way to do that."

— Amazon plant discovery could yield green cash crop : Nature News & Comment

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Filed under: Ethnobotany Botany Peruvian Amazon Plants Science Omega 3 Fatty Acids Cash Crops Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture 
May 6, 2013

designcloud:

Dilston Grove by Ackroyd & Harvey

Dilston Grove (formerly known as Clare College Mission Church) located on the edge of Southwark Park in Bermondsey, London was transformed into a green chamber of living grass in collaboration with sound artist and composer Graeme Miller, Ackroyd & Harvey. This church was originally designed in early Italian style with an austere exterior which gave way to the dramatic difference created by the liveliness of the fabrics of growing grass. The clay, germinating grass seeds, water and natural light presented the sharp contrast between growth and decay, reverie and renewal. Through the interplay of light, sound and growth, this project brought resurrection to this old, inert and nonfunctional building, bringing back spiritual memories for local residence over a three week period.

I wonder if Patrick Blanc would appreciate the vertical minimalism. —MN

(Source: cosascool)

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Filed under: plants green architecture living wall grass Dilston Grove 
May 4, 2013
The tulip impresario of Park Avenue has humble beginnings and an abiding love for the most famous flower of his homeland: Holland. This is a wonderful story of hard work and its sometimes rich payoff. New York City really is home to a million daydreams. It’s amazing how many of them can come true! ~AR (via A Gardener Whose Field Is Park Avenue - NYTimes.com)

The tulip impresario of Park Avenue has humble beginnings and an abiding love for the most famous flower of his homeland: Holland. This is a wonderful story of hard work and its sometimes rich payoff. New York City really is home to a million daydreams. It’s amazing how many of them can come true! ~AR

(via A Gardener Whose Field Is Park Avenue - NYTimes.com)

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Filed under: Tulips Holland Park Avenue New York City Plants Flowers Public Parks 
May 4, 2013
Exciting carnivorous plant news everybody! An unusual aquatic bladderwort last seen on the Isle of Man in 1998 has been rediscovered in a pond. The plant lives in very nutrient poor conditions, and makes up for it by using small sacks (the bladder in the name) to capture tiny aquatic invertebrates like water fleas. The plant is also common to the other British Isles.  Always fun to get introduced to a new carnivorous plant though, isn’t it? ~AR (via BBC News - Carnivorous plant rediscovered in the Isle of Man)

Exciting carnivorous plant news everybody! An unusual aquatic bladderwort last seen on the Isle of Man in 1998 has been rediscovered in a pond. The plant lives in very nutrient poor conditions, and makes up for it by using small sacks (the bladder in the name) to capture tiny aquatic invertebrates like water fleas. The plant is also common to the other British Isles.  Always fun to get introduced to a new carnivorous plant though, isn’t it? ~AR

(via BBC News - Carnivorous plant rediscovered in the Isle of Man)

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Filed under: Carnivorous Plants Isle of Man British Isles Adaptation Extinct Species Plants Aquatic Plants 
May 2, 2013
summerpierre: A Garden of Neurosis on Flickr. Some people find gardening soothing to their psyche. Others, well … don’t. We’re here for you! If you’ve ever got a gardening conundrum, feel free to drop us a note and we’ll see what we can do to help out. Remember to include your location, a description of the problem, and the name of the plant if you know it. We’re best at dealing with problems in the mid-Atlantic, so do keep that in mind. ~AR

summerpierre:

A Garden of Neurosis on Flickr.

Some people find gardening soothing to their psyche. Others, well … don’t. We’re here for you! If you’ve ever got a gardening conundrum, feel free to drop us a note and we’ll see what we can do to help out.

Remember to include your location, a description of the problem, and the name of the plant if you know it. We’re best at dealing with problems in the mid-Atlantic, so do keep that in mind. ~AR

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(Notes: 31)
  
Filed under: Gardening Plants Gardening Questions Plant Problems 
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