November 01, 2005
CHRYSANTHEMUMS!
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For the next week, and the next week only, it is worth a detour or, in fact, an immediate teletransportation up to the Conservatory Garden (105th Street and Fifth Avenue) to see the most glorious display of chrysanthemums that you could ever hope to see. The four sloping beds of the north garden are stuffed with two thousand single-petal Korean chrysanthemums of varying hues. These were planted in early June and are only now coming in to their full peak of color. Sadly, they will be pulled out on Wednesday, November 9th (and given away to community gardeners who will replant them in their own gardens for a fall display next year) by the garden volunteers, who will then plant 21,000 spring-blooming tulips for the May display, starting the cycle all over again. But, in the meantime, race up to the garden and enjoy the show!
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2005
Bittersweet Fall Garden
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It's miraculous how a good rainfall will revitalize a wilting and dying landscape (okay, maybe 6 inches in 24 hours is a little excessive). Grass and leaves have gone from brown to green over the weekend, and we are experiencing the last bittersweet gasp of our parks and gardens before the inevitable seasonal end.
Nowhere is this more true than at the Conservatory Garden in Central Park, where the last gasp is more like a great gulp. In the South garden, many of the annuals are still blooming, the grasses are at their best, and the foliage plants have almost eclipsed the flowers with their vivid colors and strong shapes. This is one of the best moments of the year at the Conservatory, and it's made more poignant by the fact that next Tuesday (October 18) it's going to be all over for another year. The annuals, still in their full glory, will be pulled out to make room for the spring bulb planting.
We at Citygardenguide feel that all of New York looks fabulous in the spring; much of it looks good in the summer; but only The Conservatory Garden is at its most spectacular in the fall.
Go visit before it's too late.
It's quite remarkable how vibrant the colors are right now at the Conservatory Garden, and how much of that impact comes from foliage plants. Pictured here are: Colocasia escuelenta 'Illustris',
Ipomoea b. 'Sweet Caroline Bronze' and 'Ace of Spades' and Coleus 'Sedona'. The three Salvias in the background are sinaloensis, mexicana 'Tula' and x 'Indigo Spires'.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2005
Plant Bulbs
Now is the time to think about bulbs, especially tulips and daffodils which deliver such a vital dose of color in the spring, and require no skill (or very little) to plant. Planting bulbs is one of the most satisfying of gardening tasks, and it's true gardening, in that you put something into the soil, and then wait. Real gardening is mostly about waiting. Buying an annual in bloom and putting it in a pot or in the ground is more like decorating...which is fun too, but not the same.
Tulips and daffodils planted in the next two months will bloom reliably in the spring. You can buy them at garden centers but it's far more inspiring to shop the catalogs, whether old fashioned paper ones or on line. The choices are vast, and the reputable catalogs are very reliable. If you order a red tulip and plant it, chances are that you'll have a red tulip just like the one in the picture blooming in your garden in the spring.
We thought we would share some of our favorite bulb varieties, this week we will talk about daffodils, next week we will discuss tulips.
Daffodils are great perennializers in our climate, which means that they will come back year after year, but only if - and it's an important if - the foliage is allowed to mature and die down. The foliage feeds the bulb so it's strong enough to bloom again the next year. Maturing and dying daffodil foliage is not a lovely site. It can be masked by daylily foliage or ferns growing up around it, but on it's own in is an eye sore for 6 weeks or so. When you plant daffodils keep this in mind, and either treat them as annuals which is what happens in big display gardens, or be prepared to live with the consequences.
Daffodils or narcissi, are divided in to 14 divisions, and each division has its own characteristics. There are long trumpets, split cups, cyclamen-flowered, etc. The classifications get complicated, and are most important to enthusiasts (and they are a legion). The crucial issue for the amature is period of bloom, so you can gauge what to plant with what. Narcissi bloom from the beginning of March in our climate to the middle of May for the very latest variety. They range in height from tiny 4"-6" to full and substantial 15"-20 ". For those of you who garden outside the city, one of the daffodill's great virtues is that they are deer and rodent resistant.
The following are some of Citygardenguide's all time favorite daffodils:
Early Blooming: Early April
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February Gold: one of the earliest daffodils to bloom, the second half of March in NYC
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Jet Fire: cyclamen shaped, yellow petals orange trumpet - perky perky perky!
Mid Season: Mid to end of April
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Salome: white with soft pink large cup
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Delibes: vivid yellow petals and orange rim on trumpet - very bright
Late blooming: Later April, early May
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Thalia: our all time favorite- delicate pure white, multi stem and fragrant..bliss
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Actaea: white petals, and flat yellow cup edged with red
RELIABLE CATALOGS
John Scheepers, Inc. (Van Engelen is the wholesale arm for ordering bigger quantities)
23 Tulip Drive PO Box 638
Bantam, Connecticut 06750 0638
Brent and Becky's Bulbs
7900 Daffodil Lane
Gloucester, VA 23061
804 693 3966
White Flower Farm
PO Box 50 Rt 63
Litchfield Connecticut 06759
800 503 9624
Breck's
US Reservation Center
PO Box 65
Guilford IN 47022-0065
513-354-1511
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2005
The Last Rose of Summer?
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Most people think that roses bloom only in June in time for graduations and weddings. In fact, many roses put on a second show at the end of summer, and these blooms can last well into a warm fall season. Some gardeners--like the rosarians at the New York Botanical Garden--cut their roses back hard in early summer to get an even more lush display in the fall. The cool nights seem to make the roses open more slowly, and then of course they last longer as well. This year, with all the 80 degree days in September and no frost yet in sight, the roses all over the city are particularly lovely, like this one, in front of P.S. 234 in Tribeca.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)