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July 28, 2005
Black-eyed Susans
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The Black-eyed Susan is ubiquitous right now. Its Latin name is Rudbeckia, named for a 17th century Swedish botanist named Rudbeck. (Yes- we also thought that Linnaeus was the only 17th century Swedish botanist). There are 25 species of Rudbeckia, all of them native to North America, and the gaudy gold and bown flowers that we see in gardens are just sophisticated relatives of our familiar wildflower, known variously as Black-eyed Susan, Brown-eyed Susan or Gloriosa Daisy. The most frequently used variety in gardens is Rudbeckia fulgida var. Goldsturm, which means gold storm. Like many popular garden plants, Rudbeckia was discovered here in North America, taken to Europe, hybridized, and sent back to our shores, brighter and bigger. In the case of the variety Goldsturm, it was noticed in a nursery in the Czech Republic, developed in Germany, and then returned to us!
There are moments when we find the color of Rudbeckia a little strident and the plant overused, but not in the middle of a heat wave such as we have had this week. Rudbeckia stands up splendidly to crushing heat and humidity, and its intense yellow gold is more than a match for the mid-day sun. If you look around, most plants are drooping, and the tasteful pastels are washed out and sad, but the Rudbeckia looks as assertive and fresh as ever.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 05:29 PM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2005
Fresh Food at Rock Center
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Although it seems counter-intuitive, there is no reason not to "eat local" if you live in New York City, especially if you call Manhattan home. Consider, there are 47 greenmarkets in the city, 21 of them in Manhattan. The Council on the Environment of New York City's Greenmarket Program, which has been operating since 1976, ensures that all the food sold in the markets is indeed grown regionally by actual farmers. This means that this week there is almost nowhere in Manhattan, be it ever so urban, where you can't buy fresh-picked corn or delicious, tree-ripened peaches.
The most extreme example of this admirable urban/rural dialectic has got to be at Rockefeller Center. Three days a week in July and August, farmers set up in the Plaza behind the skating rink. This week the market features the most stunning selection of berries: blueberries, raspberries and lots and lots of gooseberries (we were reaching for our cookbooks to see what we could make with them). There are also piles of the sweetest corn and lots of peaches and plums. In the people-watching department, it's amusing to observe tourists watching men in suits and clutching briefcases, earnestly choosing tonight's vegetable or dessert.
The greenmarket at Rockefeller Center is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8-6.
For a complete listing and map of New York Greenmarkets go to the Council on the Environment of New York
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2005
Capitol Plaza Award
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Tom Balsley, whose firm is responsible for two of our favorite public spaces, Gantry Plaza State Park in Queens and Balsley Park on 9th Avenue and 56th street in Manhattan, has just won an ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architecture) award for Capitol Plaza. The plaza- more of a passageway between buildings than an open square-runs between 26th and 27th streets just east of 6th Avenue. Like all of Balsley's best work it's playful and bright. An orange painted corrugated metal wall with large decorative perforations masks the brick wall of the neighboring building. There are four discrete seating areas and lots of tables for eating lunch. Our only reservation is about the planting, which is pretty spotty. There are a few grasses and a lot of bamboo - some of it already dead. Who knows whether that's more of a maintenance problem than a design flaw. At any rate, the plaza is full of people./p>
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2005
Ken Smith at Cornerstone
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Found! in California's Sonoma Valley, a landscape installation by one of New York's most inventive and playful landscape architects. Ken Smith is one of an expanding group of landscape designers whose work is featured at "Cornerstone: festival of gardens" located about 3 miles south of Sonoma. The complex includes a cafe, a nursery and a garden artifacts shop, but the real purpose is exhibiting the work of forward thinking Landscape Architects and garden designers. The brochure explains that the gardens - 27 of them at this point - "have been envisioned as an inspiration and resource for everyone interested in gardens". The work here is about as far as you can get from the cozy "garden room" or the modernist city plaza that we usually associate with the discipline of garden design.
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Many of the designers are from the West Coast; Topher Delaney, Pamela Burton and Ancy Cao come to mind. But there are international stars like Martha Schwartz whose hilarious installation called Usual Suspects spoofs the work of the greats of landscape architecture, including her own.
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One of the most visually striking pieces is by Claude Cormier of Montreal. He has covered a dying tree with thousands of aqua colored Christmas tree balls. The resulting sculpture is both arresting and though provoking. Much of the work is serious and beautiful as in Pamela Burton's meditation on soil and earth called Earth Walk. Into this mix comes Ken Smith's Daisy Border, a series of plastic pinwheel daisies set in a green grid. It's incongruous in the middle of the dry California landscape but also funny. Smith, whose sometimes whimsical work grows out of a deep knowledge and love of historical landscape, often focuses on the distinction between artificial, metaphorical and real. His work varies from the clean modernist Lever Brothers Plaza in Manhattan to a schoolyard at PS 19 in Queens where he created a woodland educational garden and a play area with mini dumpsters used as planters. Smith proposed a similar grid of daisy pinwheels for a garden commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art for the Museum Tower. The daisy idea was shot down and replaced by an equally artificial but slightly more traditional design. It’s great to see them growing so well in California.
Link: Cornerstone
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2005
Hollyhocks
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The fullness of summer is upon us. Plantings have filled out, the leaves on the trees have darkened to the dull heavy green of mid summer, and flower beds are at peak. Horticulturally just as in all other ways, New York likes to be at the cutting edge, which these days means using tropicals as annuals to spice up traditional planting. Which is all well and good, because yes, there are too many impatiens, begonias and petunias out there, and a cana lily here and a banana leaf there can improve the picture. But here at Citygardenguide we have particular affection for old fashioned plants, plain and unimproved, and one of our favorites is the single (never the double) hollyhock. This week they are blooming wherever good old fashioned virtues are still valued; (joke!) in community gardens, in the Broadway Malls at 108th street, and in our public gardens like Bryant Park and the Conservatory.
The most picturesque display is surely in the perennial garden at Wave Hill, where stately groups of hollyhocks in pale yellow, pink and wine red preside over the summer garden. But there's a catch- lovely as they are- when they are over-they are very over; their papery blossoms shriveling into unsightly brown mush. So run don't walk to Wave Hill for an old fashioned treat.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)
What's up with the Public Library?
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Usually the annual beds in front of the Public Library are filled with pink impatiens or begonias by now. This year, as you can see, the oakleaf Hydrangeas are blooming nicely (as they are throughout the city) but the long beds on either side of the Library steps are bare naked save for a few weeds. Bryant Park is positively bursting with bloom, the planters on the front steps of the Library are stuffed, but all the pots in the world don't make up for what looks like lack of care in front of one of the city's greatest landmarks.
Citygardenguide is a relentless proseltyzer for NYC gardens, which we think are underappreciated and exceptionally fine-but this is an embarrasement.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)