NYBG's LuEsther T. Mertz Library and the Nolen Greenhouses
There’s always so much to see at the New York Botanical Garden - I encourage you to stop and visit the next time you’re in the New York City area.
This week, following my presentation for NYBG’s 19th Annual Winter Lecture Series: The Education of a Gardener, and my book signing for “Martha’s Flowers”, I was given a private tour of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, one of the largest and most important botanical and horticultural research centers in the world. The library contains more than 800-thousand accessioned items, including books, illustrations, and catalogs, and more than three-thousand linear feet of archival materials. Some of us also walked through the Nolen Greenhouses, the most sophisticated behind-the-scenes greenhouses in the United States - complete with a network of eight growing zones in two linear glass buildings covering an area of nearly one-acre of space.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
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- The Nolen Greenhouses are filled with rare, unusual and beautiful plants. This is an amazing suite of tropical plants getting ready for the summer exhibition, The Living Art of Roberto Burle Marx – the famed Brazilian plantsman, landscape designer, and artist.
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- In just a couple weeks, the New York Botanical Garden will present its annual Orchid Show. This year’s show is a tribute to Singapore, the vibrant “City in a Garden”. These orchids are getting ready to make their debut. All the plants must be timed for blooming so they are at their peak of perfection for the show.
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- There are so many beautiful orchid plants. This is just one aisle full of thousands of amazing specimens.
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- Thousands of specimens in these houses are being grown for upcoming displays and exhibitions for the coming spring and summer seasons. The dwarf variegated Pandanus in the foreground looks especially bright on this sunny cold winter day.
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- In this area – cold season vegetables. Despite being indoors, this greenhouse is kept colder than the others with tropical plants. Here you can see the striking dark maroon foliage of the Japanese mustard.
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- This is the Nolen Head House. Flexible workspaces are essential for efficient potting of the thousands of plants that are grown and produced in this space every year.
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- Ryan loved the flowers of the Syzygium jambos, also called Rose Apple, which were blooming in this greenhouse.
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- This huge specimen of a Myrmecophila is more than 36-inches in diameter. It is a huge epiphytic orchid native to the Carribean. I’ll have to come back to see it in bloom later this summer. The flower spikes, which can reach almost 10-feet long, are just beginning to develop.
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- This greenhouse contains cacti of every size and shape imaginable.
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- This is a group of rare and precious Ariocarpus cactus. It is easy to see why they get their name, Living Rock Cactus. These specimens are being rehabilitated as a part of a conservation program in the botanical collections.
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- Ariocarpus species are very slow-growing. Plants have thick tuberous tap roots, and are solitary. They vary in color from white or yellow to pink, purple or magenta.
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- Although they look tiny right now, these Victoria ‘Longwood Hybrid’ water lilies will eventually get enormous. The individual leaves can easily reach over six-feet in diameter. Native to the Amazon, it needs to grow in heated water at this young stage.
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- And looking more closely, this tiny little floating fern called Azolla made the most delicate carpet on the surface of the aquatic plant pools.
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- Here we are in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, an amazing research and public library that is used as a scholarly resource and a general plant information service. Stephen Sinon is the William B. O’Connor Curator of Special Collections, Research & Archives at the Library – he showed us many beautiful books and illustrations. (Photo by Marlon Co for NYBG)
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- Here is an illustration of Iris kaempferi, Tokyo, circa 1899.
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- This is called Albertus Seba, Cabinet of natural curiosities, Amsterdam 1734-65.
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- This is a page from Circa Instans, Salerno, circa 1190.
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- Here is an interesting Eruca sativa print seen in Mattioli Herball, Prague, 1562.
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- This is a Wolfgang Meyerpeck woodblock of Eruca sativa, circa 1560.
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- I loved this statue of Charles Darwin, H. Montford, 1897.
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- Stephen showed us this Charles Darwin letter, Down House, Kent, 1845.
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- This work is by Johannes Gessner, Tabulae phytographicae, Zurich, 1795-1804.
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- This is an amaryllis in Hexandrian plants, London, 1831-4.
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- Stephen also showed me an original Humphrey Repton redbook from 1796. Humphry Repton was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century. (Photo by Marlon Co for NYBG)
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- Here is an original Humphrey Repton business card, circa 1790.
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- This is a copper plate, which was made for Audubon’s Birds of America, London, circa 1830.
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- We also examined this beautiful nurseryman’s specimen book, J. W. Thompson, circa 1885. (Photo by Marlon Co for NYBG)
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- It is filled with a plethora of fruits, including apples, pears, berries, grapes, cherries, etc. – all so colorfully detailed.
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- Here is another layout from the specimen book – all pears.
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- Here we are looking through a book of Maria Halstead’s Pith flowers, 1853. (Photo by Marlon Co for NYBG)
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- Here is a closer look at one of Maria E. Halstead’s Pith flower works.
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- The flower paintings were not intended to be scientifically-accurate botanical drawings, but more appealing and colorful arrangements.
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- We had such an informative and fun day at the NYBG. Please go to their web site for more information on their exhibits, collections and resources. I can’t wait to return for the 17th annual Orchid Show which runs from February 23rd through April 28th! (Photo by Marlon Co for NYBG)
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