There's no better place to find gardening ideas and inspirations than at a botanical garden, especially the New York Botanical Garden - a national historic landmark and major educational institution.
If you haven't yet been to the NYBG, I encourage you to visit. There’s always something beautiful to see - right now, its perennial plants collection, herbaceous peonies, and many of its mature trees, shrubs, and hedges are lush with spring growth. The gardening season is just beginning - stop by and get inspired.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
This is the magnificent Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where many of the indoor plant exhibitions are held. As the nation’s largest Victorian glasshouse, it is among the grandest indoor spaces in the world.
Originally constructed in 1902, the steel and glass Conservatory includes a 90-foot tall domed Palm Gallery and 10 attached glasshouse galleries.
Just outside the Conservatory is a perennial garden featuring a series of themed areas of plants, planted in pots and in the ground. It is a blend of perennials, grasses, bulbs, shrubs, and trees that flower through the year.
This is a variegated yellow-twig dogwood, Cornus sercea ‘Silver and Gold’ – a dogwood variety that is grown for its bold variegated foliage and its yellow winter stems.
If you’re looking for interesting grasses, this is a golden-variegated Hakone grass, Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola.’ Ornamental grasses require little maintenance. It thrives best in a location with partial shade and moist, well-drained soil rich in organic matter.
This is a beautybush, Kolkwitzia amabilis ‘Pink Cloud’ in full bloom. This tree is a member of the honeysuckle family and boasts clusters of bell-shaped, pink flowers with yellow throats in mid-spring.
Recognize this perennial? I have these plants growing at my farm. It’s Heuchera, also known as coral bells. This variety is ‘Midnight Rose” with dark purple to almost black leaves and pink spots that change color in summer.
Blooming now is the Siberian iris. This is Iris sibirica ‘Christmas Wish.’ These dainty irises with their smaller, beardless flowers are easy-to-grow and drought-tolerant.
Here is one of the NYBG’s well-manicured parterres. A parterre is an area usually seen with boxwood hedging surrounding perennials, herbs, and other flowers.
Potted up on a wall of an edible garden are these charming Johnny Jump-Ups – small, sweet, whimsical flowers that come in shades of yellow, purple, and white. It’s also known as Wild Pansy, Heart’s Ease, or Viola tricolor. And yes, these flowers can be eaten.
Here’s my head gardener kneeling next to a hedge of Lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis – a wild flowering plant with sweetly scented, pendent, bell-shaped white flowers. It is native to cool regions of Europe, North America, and Asia.
It’s peony time! Visiting the NYBG now, one will see the row of beautiful, sweet-smelling herbaceous peonies. Even after several days of rain, these blooms are still so eye-catching.
These peonies are called ‘Pink Kisses.’ They are smaller, deep pink flowers that grow abundantly with about two or three buds per stem. The blooms grow up to 26-inches tall and are quite fragrant.
This light pink Chinese peony is ‘Pink Venus.’ It is a semi-double peony in soft cameo pink. It’s blooms grow up to six-and-a-half inches wide with red tipped stigmas and good stem strength.
Paeonia ‘Coral Charm’ has huge bowl shaped flowers with bold coral color. The color lightens to a pale cream deeper into the bloom.
And Paeonia ‘Festiva Maxima’ is a double, white peony with edges accented with crimson. This variety is a longtime favorite for growers – it originated in France in 1851.
Peony ‘ Chiffon Clouds’ is a very soft salmon color with ruffled petals. It grows to 36-inches in height with good stem strength, fragrance, and reliable foliage.
Paeonia ‘Kevin’ has large, double pink blooms that show lighter pink in the center. It makes an excellent cut flower.
This peony variety is called ‘Buckeye Belle.’ It’s a semi-double, velvety, dark red flower held on sturdy stems.
And this is ‘Burma Joy’ – soft red blossoms that are single and tulip-cupped shaped that grow to a height of up to 28-inches. If you’re in the New York City area this weekend, go to the New York Botanical Garden -there’s so much to see, enjoy, and learn.
There's always something to admire in the gardens, even on a day of ground soaking rains.
Five years ago I planted hundreds of hosta plants down behind my chicken coop yard and across the carriage road from my allée of lilacs. I first got the plants as bare-root cuttings and kept them in a cold frame for several months until they were big enough to transplant. In all, we had more than 700 hostas in a variety of cultivars including 'Wide Brim,' 'Francee,' 'Regal Splendor,' 'Elegans,' and 'Blue Angel.' They have flourished over the years. Now they fill the entire space with verdant foliage under the dappled shade of the stately dawn redwoods.
Here are some photos taken yesterday after a morning of showers, enjoy.
I tour all the gardens on a daily basis. I check how much the plants have grown, how healthy they are, and whether they need more food or water. I also assess what areas need more filling, or if plants need moving. Right now, so many of the gardens are just brimming with color and vitality – in particular, my hosta garden.
This garden is planted under the shade of tall dawn redwoods, Metasequoia.
Dawn redwood trunks are reddish-brown with vertical, shredding bark.
The dawn redwood has feathery, fine-textured needles that are opposite each other and approximately a half-inch long. Don’t confuse them with the bald cypress needles, which grow alternately. These dawn redwood needles will turn shades of red and brown before falling – it is one of the few deciduous conifers.
Another favorite is Continus – a few are also planted in this space. The smooth, rounded leaves come in exceptional shades of clear pinkish-bronze, yellow, deep purple, and green.
Hyacinthoides hispanica, commonly called Spanish bluebell or wood hyacinth, is a bulbous perennial native to Spain, Portugal and northwest Africa. Each bulb produces a clump of two to six strap-shaped leaves from which a rigid flower stem grows, typically containing up to 12 to 15 hanging, bell-shaped, bluish-lavender flowers that rise from the center.
These Spanish bluebell plants dot the garden with soft blue amidst shades of green.
It’s hard to miss these beautiful flowers. Dicentra is an elegant, easy-to-care-for perennial for shady gardens. More commonly known as bleeding heart, it is named for its heart-shaped blossoms that dangle from slender, arching stems. Dicentra is a great companion for other shade loving perennials such as hostas. Here it is in pink.
Viburnums have long been one of the most popular flowering landscape shrubs. This large group of plants consists of more than 150 species and numerous named cultivars. Viburnums include deciduous and evergreen specimens as well as small trees, mostly native to North America or to Asia. The leaves of viburnum range from glossy green to a dull, dark green to foliage that is thick and leathery.
But the main focus of the garden is this lush carpet of hostas – hundreds of bold, green, gorgeous hosta plants are thriving.
Before they fully open, they unfurl like this one.
And then they show off their large beautiful leaves. The hostas were strategically positioned and spaced, paying attention to variety, color, and growth habit.
Hosta leaves rise up from a central rhizomatous crown to form a rounded to spreading mound.
These beautiful plants have been opening more and more every day.
Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies, and occasionally by the Japanese name, giboshi.
Hostas are native to northeast Asia and include hundreds of different cultivars.
Hosta leaf textures can be smooth, veined or puckered. Their surfaces may be matt, shiny, or waxy but are usually satiny.
‘Regal Splendor’ is a large hosta featuring thick, wavy-undulate, blue-gray leaves with irregular creamy white to pale yellow margins and cuspidate tips.
‘Elegans’ has huge, rounded, blue-gray leaves with white flowers that bloom mid-summer.
Occasionally, leaves will feature half white and half green making the markings even more interesting.
Most varieties tend to have a spread and height of between one and three feet.
Unlike many perennials, which must be lifted and divided every few years, hostas are happy to grow in place without much interference. In summer, blooms on long stalks extend up above the clumping hosta foliage.
Hostas thrive in sites where filtered or dappled shade is available for much of the day, but they can survive in deep shade. If you have a shady area, experiment with shade-loving plants. Hostas, with their palette of different colors, textures, and sizes have tremendous landscape value and offer great interest to any garden.
The outdoor terraces and stone ledges around my Winter House are filled with potted plants.
This time of year, I always display a variety of warm weather specimens around my home - potted flowering plants, small evergreens, and even some ground covers look good planted together in urns. This week, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, potted several planters outside my carport.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Before potting anything, Ryan places the plants in their designated spots and positions them in the order that looks best. He selects plants that not only fit the containers but also look good grouped together.
It’s always fun to visit local nurseries and select plants for one’s own gardens and terrace planters. Neighborhood shops sell what grows best in the area and experts on staff are there to answer any questions. This is a weeping dawn redwood, Mesasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Miss Grace.’ It has green needles that turn bronze in autumn.
Landscape fabric is made from a solid sheet with perforated holes to allow water to soak through. It is available at any garden shop.
Ryan places a layer of weed cloth in every pot to protect the vessel itself. This will also make it easier to remove the plant next autumn, when it is put back in the greenhouse or planted outdoors.
The fabric is cut larger than the pot and then positioned generously so it covers the entire inside of the container.
Ryan does this for all the pots on the ledge.
Then the container is filled two-thirds of the way up with a good quality potting soil. Using a proper soil mix will help to promote faster root growth and give quick anchorage to young roots. Here is the inside of the urn. One can always add more soil later if needed. I use Miracle-Gro potting mix.
Fertilizer is also added to the soil. This is Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed, an easy to use plant food that nourishes above and below the soil.
Ryan removes the plant from the urn and inspects the root ball.
Remember, whenever transplanting always scarify the root ball, meaning tease or loosen the roots, so they are stimulated. This will help the plant roots grow and form a good foundation in the pot.
He fills the pot with soil to just under the urn’s lip.
And then cuts off the excess weed cloth. Any cloth that can be seen afterward can be tucked into the soil.
Ryan top dresses the potted specimens with natural colored mulch.
Miracle-Gro makes an organic variety that is available at garden stores.
Here is the potted weeping dawn redwood. It will add so much interest on the wall. It is planted in an antique faux bois, or “false wood,” planter.
Here, Ryan prepares to plant artemesia, also known as wormwood, absinthe, southernwood, and mugwort. Artemisia leaves are covered with whitish hairs that give it a silvery, grayish look.
When planting different specimens in one pot, be sure to consider the growth habits of each plant to ensure there’s enough room to last all season.
Here is small evergreen which will do nicely in this pot before it is transplanted somewhere outdoors next fall.
This pot is planted with a young Abies koreana, a small to medium-sized evergreen coniferous tree. It is underplanted with Dichondra argentea, or silver ponysfoot, a trailing perennial known for its striking silvery foliage and drought tolerance.
After everything is planted, Ryan gives all the plants a good drink. Don’t forget, if you drank today, so should your plants.
Using potted plants to decorate the outside of one’s home can totally transform a space. These plants will thrive in this location.
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