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April 27, 2005
What's Blooming 4/27
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Tulips and Crabapples! Crabapples and tulips! This is the week to visit the double allees of pink crabapples in the Conservatory Garden (the tulips in the North Garden have not yet started to bloom), or the multi-trunked beauties in Riverside Park at 91st Street, or just enjoy the crabs that anchor the median planting along Park Avenue and Broadway. There are tulips everywhere as well, but the prettiest stretch of tulips you are likely to see anywhere are alongside the Pond in the southern section of Central Park.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2005
Jefferson Market Garden
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Happy 30th birthday to the Jefferson Market Garden, a Greenwich Village treasure at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 10th Street. The garden celebrated its birthday this week with a party honoring Lynden B. Miller, NYC's public garden designer par excellence. Ms. Miller is the first recipient of the Jefferson Market Garden's Brooke Astor Award for Outstanding Contributions to Urban Gardens.
Jefferson Market, which adjoins the landmark Jefferson Market Library (originally a courthouse), was created on an empty lot that was the former site of the Women's House of Detention. (Have you seen David Duchovny's new film, House of D? Well, this was the place.) The garden has magnificent magnolias, which literally stop traffic on Sixth Avenue when they come into bloom in April, and lovely woodland plantings. Although the garden has always been a special place, there was a long period when it was open to the public only sporadically and the plantings looked more and more tired. All this has changed over the past few years, however, under the sure hand of horticulturist Susan Sipos and a group of dedicated volunteers. The garden now looks just spectacular: there is a large rose garden along the Sixth Avenue side, a small fish pond and a gracious center lawn that invites lazing. Even more importantly, the garden is now always open, with a big gate opening up onto Greenwich Avenue.
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The garden committee could not have chosen a better person to honor with its first award. Lynden B. Miller has dedicated her career to creating public gardens all over New York City, and in her work at New Yorkers for Parks, she also focuses on advocating for the 28,000 acres of parks in the city. You may well have seen her work in the 300-foot-long shrub and perennial borders in Bryant Park, or at the Conservatory Garden (where she began her design work), or in the gardens at Wagner Park, or perhaps in the many new plantings that have spruced up the Columbia University campus. She is an extraordinary force for good in the city, and we have all benefited from her efforts. To honor Ms. Miller, a special guest, Hans Van Waardenburg of B&K Flowerbulbs, announced that the Dutch had named a tulip for her. In years to come, the lovely, peony-flowered Lynden B. Miller tulip will be seen in city gardens everywhere, reminding us all of Ms. Miller's achievements and her particular message: that if you give people beautiful places, they will care for them and their lives will be better.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)
Windowboxes, 4/26
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All over the city, tulips and daffodils are spilling out from windowboxes and tree pits. But the owners of this townhouse on West 11th Street have taken the windowbox idea and exploded the conventions, putting together this eye-popping display for all to enjoy. Daffodils of many different varieties in painted-wood planters cheerfully march up the front stairs.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2005
Kwanzan Cherries
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Snobbism is as rampant in the gardening world as anywhere else, and the Kwanzan Cherry which has burst into pink powderpuff blooms all over the city this week is the object of a certain amount of derision among gardening sophisticates. Complaints are many; it's showy (yes) stiff (yes) over-used (yes), and its intense pink fluffiness does make it look like Barbie's favorite tree. But, as the late, great Henry Mitchell once said, you can miss a lot by being snobbish, and a Kwanzan in full bloom is an awesome, if very pink, sight. This week they are everywhere.
The most compelling displays are at the United Nations and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. At the UN, the lower lawn is edged by 200 Kwanzans underplanted with 25,000 narcissus. The cherries were given to the UN by philanthropist Dorothy Lasker in 1954. The combination is a sight not to be missed, and the only time this rather stiff garden is really worth a trip.
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Over in Brooklyn, 70 Kwanzans in two double rows border the main esplanade at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Home to the largest collection of Japanese cherries outside Japan (42 species and varieties), BBG takes its cherries very seriously. One of the Garden's most anticipated annual events is the Sakura Matsuri Festival or Japanese Cherry Festival, which takes place this year on April 29th and 30th. As we said, cherries are serious business at BBG and its excellent web site boasts a Cherry Watch Blossom Status Map. Each cherry is charted, and the map indicates whether it is pre-peak, peak or post-peak. The map is updated regularly during the season, and an interactive feature allows you to click on each tree symbol and discover the name of that particular cultivar. At this moment, 4/23, the Kwanzans are at first bloom and the weeping cherries are at peak...Get going!
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 04:21 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2005
Make a Trough Garden at Wave Hill
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Trough gardening is going mainstream. For many years these miniature landscapes created in stone-like basins were the domain of dedicated alpinists, gardeners who specialized in finicky rock garden plants, and rock gardening at its highest echelons closely resembled serious bird-watching in that both of them were almost contact sports and competition could be fierce.
Troughs, originally made from stone but now often created from hypertufa (much lighter!), are ideal for alpines, but also for succulents...and succulents are In. Recently, all of the major gardening magazines have featured spreads on them, from Horticulture to Landscape Architecture. They are xeric, come in lots of interesting shapes and sizes, and grow in very little soil. An explosion of hens and chickens and sedums is upon us. One reason for this is that they are the preferred plant for green roofs, where they make neat but attractive patterns, and green roofs are are in. But succulents are also a super choice for troughs, and the combination is ideal for space-deprived city gardens. Trough gardens filled with succulents don't have to take up much room, they can be very decorative and if you forget to water them they won't die instantly.
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One of the prettiest displays of troughs we've seen is at the Summit Street Community Garden in Red Hook, where for years an attractive collection has graced the entrance. The grouping makes a sophisticated statement about the garden. They are just as interesting but somehow more subtle than conventional pots.
The most impressive group of trough gardens anywhere--in the world? well, at least in New York--is at Wave Hill. The collection, located beside the alpine house, is a delight. Naturally, the plant pallet varies, and includes alpines that only an expert could grow, but it also includes many succulents, which are much harder to kill. This Saturday (4/23), Wave Hill is sponsoring a trough-making workshop. There will be demonstrations and participants can try and create their own troughs to take home and plant. So fun!
The trough-making workshop is part of Wave Hill's Earth Day activities, which also includes a community garden clean up. This year the clean-up will be at the Enchanted Garden at JFK High School in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. Founded by students who wanted to transform a blighted lot in front of their school, the garden has nurtured countless kids and was instrumental in creating an important environmental learning program at the high school (you can read all about it in our book, Garden Guide: New York City). The kids are great, the garden is impressive, and cleaning it up should be fun as well as worthwhile.
Link: Wave Hill
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2005
Keith Corlett
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Keith Corlett has a genius for transforming small, urban spaces into sophisticated, perfectly proportioned gardens. We first saw his work on a rather formal terrace in Greenwich Village, but then discovered him again at the Children's Storefront School and, down 129th Street, the Ricardo O'Gorman pre-school, where he had created elegant yet friendly and playful little gardens where children and adults could feel equally at home. More recently, Corlett has re-designed the Biblical Garden at St. John the Divine. And now we have his book, which promises to tell us how to practice the art of illusion from backyards to balconies to rooftops. Illustrated with many photographs (Corlett's own) and helpful design drawings, Corlett turns us all into urban garden designers, ready to tackle even the most difficult spaces.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)
Big Burst of Spring, 4/18
Two weeks of glorious spring weather has made everything in the city pop, and since we have had cool nights, our early-blooming magnolias and daffodils are still going strong. Throughout the parks, you can see both pink and white cherry trees blooming--there is a particularly fine stand of Yoshino cherries on the eastern side of the reservoir--and Bradford pears are blooming in almost every neighborhood. You know the tree we mean; all year long you think it is just an ordinary street tree, but then for a brief moment in mid-April (and that means right now!) the trees explode into white blooms that create a virtual fairyland tunnel on some city streets. With a little warm weather, we will have tulips and crabapples before long, so make sure to plan some time for a walk outside sooner rather than later.
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As we said, Bradford pears are blooming on almost every block, but definitely the most unusual display is a hundred feet above the street, on a corner of Trump Tower at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street. We think the pears, especially in full bloom as they are this week, are a welcome relief from the frenzy of midtown. It also helps that the "You're Fired!" sign has been taken off the front of the building.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2005
Eye Candy, Greenwich Village
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Windowshopping in New York is always great, but in the spring every store window has delicious displays of flowers and bright spring colors. When we spotted this little handbag from Lulu Guinness, we knew we had found just the thing to banish the winter blues--even though it might be too big of an indulgence to actually buy one of these bags, the message alone cheers us up: Gardening is Good for the Soul. Happy spring!
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
25th New York International Orchid Show
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Citygardenguide approached the New York Orchid Show in Rockefeller Center with some trepidation. We don't really "get" flower shows and how many Phalanopsis does one really need to see anyway? The answer at the Orchid Show is that you need to see every one of them! When you step into the display tent after paying your $5, the confusion of color and form is overwhelming, but once you start examining the individual specimens wonder and enchantment take over.
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There are orchids of every size, color and shape, from giants the size of a dinner plate to the tiniest of dainty specimens. The colors range from blues, pinks and purples of such intensity that you'd swear that they weren't from nature, to the scary black, brown and green of the Cerasetum "Black Night" pictured here.
This is a flower show, and a big one at that: 600 ribbons, 25 trophies and 52 plaques awarded, and only a true expert can figure out why one variety gets a blue ribbon and an equally or even more beautiful one only deserves third place. We soon gave up trying to understand the ranking system and focused on examining the exotic, the bizarre, and the beautiful. For those of us with no willpower this is a dangerous place; behind the orchid tent there is the biggest orchid mart imaginable, with thousands of the usual and unusual for sale, as well as an awful lot of orchid paraphernalia (who knew?).
The orchid show, located in a tent set up over the Rockefeller Center skating rink, runs from April 12 to 17th.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2005
Magnolias 4/11
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Magnolias improve with age and judicious pruning, and their elegant habit seems to work particularly well in the city. Right now, New York's magnolias are in full bloom, and can be seen up and down the Broadway malls and throughout Central Park. Three of the most magnificent specimens are located on Fifth Avenue at 71st Street in front of the Frick Collection. As is so often the case in this city, what makes the site special is the combination of trees and architecture. The two Magnolia x soulangiana and one Magnolia stellata are old and beautifully sculpted, and they complement the limestone facade of the Frick, which was designed in the Beaux Arts style by the firm of Carrere and Hastings and built in 1913. (Carrere and Hastings also designed the New York Public Library). Another name closely associated with the city, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., who designed Fort Tryon Park, consulted on the creation of the front garden in the mid 1930s when the mansion was converted to a museum.
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At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Magnolia Plaza is at its peak, with seventeen different, sweetly scented varieties in various stages of bloom. The Plaza, which was installed in 1932, is located in front of the Beaux Art Administration building, which was designed by McKim Mead and White. You have to assume that the prevailing aesthetic at the time was to pair the elegant magnolia with the classically regular Beaux Arts buildings, but the combination is definitely too pleasing to be called a cliche. Although magnolias are usually pink or white, BBG has developed a now famous yellow variety called "Elizabeth" which you can see there or buy at your local nursery.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
Mail-Order Raised Beds
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Bad earth--compacted, contaminated, rubble-filled, or all of the above--is the scourge of the city gardener. The solution to the problem is often raised beds. For those of us who aren't too handy with tools, or who can't see ourselves struggling home on the subway with building supplies, this raised bed system could be a godsend. It is available by mail order, versatile, aesthetically fairly inoffensive, and we think even we at Citygardenguide could probably put it together!
Link: Scenery-Solutions
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2005
Not Forsythia
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The yellowy green blooms of Cornus mas, or Cornelian cherry dogwood, can easily be mistaken from a distance for the deeper yellow blooms of the more common shrub forsythia. The tough and hardy Cornus mas blooms before forsythia, in very late winter or early spring, and grows to be the size of a small tree, sporting fruit in the fall to attract birds. Its blooms form a gentle haze, which can be seen right now throughout city parks, and are the perfect foil for early-flowering daffodils and tiny blue scilla. A particularly fine, mature pair of Cornus mas grace the entrance to the Conservatory Garden in Central Park, at Fifth Avenue and 105th Street.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)
The Daffodil Project
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All over the city--along highways and busy streets, in parks and community gardens--yellow daffodils are beginning to bloom. Thanks to the Daffodil Project, which was begun in 2001 to commemorate September 11, over 2,500,000 bulbs have been planted by volunteers and the Parks Department, and April is when they put on their show. Along with their cheerful color, which just shouts spring, the great thing about daffodils is that they are very reliable and they naturalize and multiply each year. Clumps of bulbs are getting bigger, and this year there seem to be yellow flowers everywhere, which is just what the Parks Department and New Yorkers for Parks hoped would happen when they accepted the first donation from a generous Dutch bulb grower, Hans Van Waardenburg of B&K Flowerbulbs.
Link: NYC Parks and New Yorkers for Parks
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2005
What's Blooming 4/4
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Although most garden lovers are desperately looking for the first daffodils, there are a number of quiet, unassuming shrubs whose delicate perfume announces the onset of spring. Mahonia aquifolium or Oregon Grape Holly is one. It's what people call an "architectural" plant, which is sometimes a euphemism for a homely one. It flowers early in the spring, this week at the Clinton Community Garden in Hell's Kitchen. The blossoms are a not too remarkable yellow, but it has a clean, sweet scent that sails over the damp earthy smells of the early spring garden.
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Another early pleasure is Sarcococca houkerana humilis, or Sweet Box. A low-growing (12"), shade-loving shrub with small glossy leaves somewhat reminiscent of abelia, its flowers are insignificant to the point of being almost invisible....but its delicious scent can perfume a garden. It is well worth getting down on your knees to get a noseful. In warmer climates sarcococca is known as a winter-flowering plant, but it has been blooming for only a week here in the Northeast.
A little later in the season, possibly next week, we will see Abeliophyllum distichum, or White Forsythia, which appears just before the ubiquitous yellow Forsythia. Although commercial descriptions often refer to Abeliophyllum's showy white flowers, they could never be called spectacular. The smell is another story. Strong and sweet, it seems to travel long distances and more than makes up for the the plant's untidy habit and smallish flowers.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)
Garbage Flowers
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Citygardenguide usually disdains artificial flowers, but came upon several unusual fakes attached to some tree grates in midtown Manhattan. Garbage Flowers are made from "recognizably recycled" products. These witty riffs on our throwaway culture are reminiscent of some of the funkier designs in community gardens. (Check out the fence, made out of flattened, cut-out cans, at La Plaza Cultural on East 9th Street and Avenue C to see what we mean.) While we wait for real flowers to bloom, go to the Garbage Flowers website and get in the mood for spring. As their motto says "unlike regular flowers garbage flowers do not die!"
Link: Garbage Flowers
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)