Andrew Haight is Manager of the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden.

Sounds of pitter-pattering feet, swishing legs, and giggling voices float across the pond. I see through the alders a dozen or more youngsters angling their bodies to dance as if flapping in a blustery wind. Under the watchful eye of a Teaching Artist from New York City Ballet’s Education Department, the children excitedly reshape their bodies into droplets of water, now hurtling through the air.

This group and several others like it were participating in Ballet Among the Blooms, which The New York Botanical Garden hosts annually in conjunction with the School of American Ballet. Spread out across the 12 acres of the Everett Children’s Garden, young visitors embark on a myriad of adventures through mazes, colorfully planted galleries, and, this year only, onto the inspiring Henry Moore sculpture Large Two Forms, on Daffodil Hill. Along the way Teaching Artists arrange impromptu dances and expressive movements. With each area different from the last, children eagerly scamper around the bends in the path to see what the next nook or cranny of the Garden may hold.

The afternoon culminates with a presentation by students from the School of American Ballet in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden’s Discovery Plaza. Eyes wide with anticipation, the Garden’s youngest visitors peer at the dancers as they walk and stretch at the bar, just a few feet away. Framed by giant topiary caterpillars, the dancers then display their skills and techniques for the enchanted children.

In a day full of dance and flowers, excitement is found in the lighthearted adventure and satisfaction displayed in each child’s movement and expression.

This year’s Ballet Among the Blooms is Sunday, September 7, from 2 to 4 p.m. Entry included with an All-Garden Pass.

Check out Saturday’s Programming

Check out Sunday’s Programming

Written by Kate Murphy, a junior at Fordham University, with additional reporting by Genna Federico, a senior at St. John’s University. Both interned in the Communications Department this summer.

One of the great things about The New York Botanical Garden is that it is nestled in the borough of the Bronx. One way the Garden reaches out to the neighboring community is through the Bronx Green-Up program.

Since 1988 Bronx Green-Up staff have provided gardening advice, technical assistance, and training to community gardens, school groups, and other organizations interested in improving urban neighborhoods in the Bronx through greening projects.

It sounded like a way of spreading the beauty of gardening throughout the borough. So Genna and I decided to get out of the office and into the field to become Bronx Green-Up community garden volunteers for a day. First thing in the morning we piled into an NYBG pickup truck and headed off to the Morrisania section of the South Bronx. Our leaders were Director of Bronx Green-Up and Community Horticulture Ursula Chanse, Community Horticulturalist Sara Katz, and intern Kris Lau.

Read about the rest of Kate and Genna’s adventures after the jump.

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Melanie Smith is a volunteer participating in the Citizen Scientist Forest Phenology Initiative.

Once a week for the past four months I have walked the Oak Trail in the Botanical Garden’s native Forest for an hour or two, looking at the trees. I’m watching—and waiting.

As each of the 31 trees in the study progresses through its annual growth cycle—leaves, flowers, fruit—I note the development on a data sheet. This, in essence, is phenology, the study of reoccurring biological phenomena.

The goal of the investigation is to mark the biological changes in each tree over the course of many seasons answering seemingly simple questions such as, “When did the tree flower? When did it drop its leaves?” This information, coupled with local temperature readings, provides useful information about how the forest is responding to climate change.

For example, if increasing temperatures offer more favorable conditions to pathogens attacking oak trees, acorn production could decrease, affecting the reproductive success of oak trees and the food supply for squirrels, chipmunks, and other species.

Today, a walk in the native Forest would reveal that the trees once prominent in northeastern forests, oaks and hemlocks, are either unhealthy or absent. On the other hand, trees that are thriving include those more dominant in southerly climates such as cherry trees and invasive species—such as the tree of heaven. The trend of successful trees indicates what the composition of this forest may look like in the future.

My weekly walk along the Oak Trail, checking in with each tree, provides a connection to the forest. I hope to apply what I have learned about data collection and northeastern deciduous forests to my graduate studies in ecology and sustainable development.

If you’d like to help with the project, come to the free training session Saturday, September 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Watson Building, Room 302. Garden volunteers receive free admission, free parking, guest passes, and discounts on classes and at Shop in the Garden. To register or for more information, contact Jackie Martinez, Director of Volunteer Services, 718.817.8564 or volunteer@nybg.org

Extending Your Harvest
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden.
As September rolls in your tomatoes will start looking tired and your summer squashes will be looking the worse for wear. While it is time to pull some things out, the season is far from over. Extending your harvest is fairly simple.

Timing is important. Read the seed packet for the days to maturity and count backward from the first frost date in your area. Remember that the fall is cooler so everything grows more slowly. Your vegetables will be smaller—but small also means tender.

What are some good candidates for planting? Loose-leaf lettuces are ideal for a fall sowing. They love the cool weather and are a fast-growing crop. Wait until the middle or end of August and start sowing them in the garden.

Turnips and beets make superb late-season crops. They are tender when young. Young beet greens are delicious in a salad or steamed.

“Cole crops” (cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, and broccoli) can withstand a light frost. They grow well in the fall and can be planted as a second crop either from seed or transplant in mid-July to late August. By the time these vegetables are maturing, it is nice and cool.

Summer squash and bush beans are prolific. With a single sowing they easily exhaust themselves by mid-summer, so why not try growing more in two separate sowings? Plant a second crop in mid- to late-July for a late-season treat.

Written by Kate Murphy, a junior at Fordham University, with additional reporting by Genna Federico, a senior at St. John’s University. Both interned in the Communications Department this summer.

Taking a walk through the Global Gardens is like taking an international journey—minus the need for a passport and visit to Customs). NYBG visitors can drift from China to the Caribbean to Italy—in garden form, that is. And as summer (sadly) comes to a close so, too, does the celebration of the Global Gardens that has been going on all this month at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden. This, the final weekend of the celebration, will be dedicated to the Irish Garden, planted and maintained by Ann Creaney.

Ann became familiar with Irish gardening from first-hand experience, and her story is an interesting one, to say the least. In the early 1940s young Ann and her family visited her grandmother in Ireland. But when they were to return to America, the waters they would have to traverse by boat had been set with mines because of the war. As a result, Ann ended up living the next seven years in Ireland, time spent with no electricity and no running water but lots of gardening experience.

Read more about Ann’s journey and check out the Shepherd’s Pie recipe after the jump.

Check out Saturday’s Programming.
Check out Sunday’s Programming.

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Kate Murphy, a junior at Fordham University, interned in the Communications Department this summer.

The summer blockbuster has become as much a staple to the season as sunshine and warm weather. And this summer is no different, bringing a continuous buzz of “must-see” movies. If you can’t decide whether you’d like to spend an afternoon at the Garden or at the movie theater, why not combine the two?

The 250-acre enclave in the Bronx has played host to many film shoots due to its convenient location, its beautiful grounds, and the lush interior of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Following is a list of movies featuring scenes at the Garden. Rent a few of them and see if you can spot NYBG!

The Manchurian Candidate (the 2004 version) includes scenes shot in the Haupt Conservatory, the nation’s largest Victorian-era glasshouse. The all-star cast, featuring Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep, and Vera Farmiga, attend a gala in the Conservatory in this political thriller.

Autumn in New York (2000), a sad, romantic film starring Winona Ryder and Richard Gere, utilized the Botanical Garden’s colorful autumnal grounds.

Age of Innocence (1993), a period piece chronicling the love triangle of three 19th-century New York aristocrats, also has scenes that featue the iconic Haupt Conservatory. The movie stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Other films shot at the Garden include Awakenings (1990), starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams, and The Seven-Ups (1973), starring Roy Scheider.

Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden.

Shapes of Nature in the Summer Garden from The New York Botanical Garden on Vimeo.

Ellen Bruzelius is Director of Special Projects, Garden Retail and Business Development.

Shop in the Garden has been garnering attention lately in the blogosphere with a variety of garden-inspired goods that have struck the fancy of bloggers around the world. From a Chicago-based shopping blog that featured our green bicycle basket (also mentioned on Glamnest.com) all the way across the pond to Berlin where a New England-born journalist noted our Summer Pleasures melamine plates on her blog, Tidepooler.com, nybgshop.org has been piquing interest near and far.

Back on our own shores, in New York the Today show and Cookie magazine picked up on new NYBG products developed with licensing partner Lunt Silversmiths. Using glorious images from works in the Rare Book Collections of our LuEsther T. Mertz Library, Lunt has developed a tabletop collection that ranges from elegant silver tea sets inspired by 18th-century designs for Chinoiserie garden follies to garden plant trays and marvelous Mark Catesby-inspired glasses and barware and more.

The Peak of Chic (check out the July 15 and August 6 posts) loved the Lunt Silversmiths products as well as NYBG fine art prints sold through Artaissance.com. These archival quality reproduction prints also stem from historic botanical illustration in the Mertz Library collections. Some are presented in their original form, while others are given a modern sensibility with color and creative cropping.

This Old House featured one of our stainless steel birdfeeders, and Glamnest.com loved our array of colorful imported flower pots.

Not surprisingly, this interest in Shop in the Garden goods reflects the enormous effort put in by Shop staff to develop and find items that are design-driven and not ubiquitous. We’re adding new things all the time, so be sure to visit often.

Cunning Caryopteris

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden.

High on my agenda these days is using plants that benefit the environment while also doing the work I need a good plant to do, which is to create a beautiful garden. Caryopteris or blue beard fits this criterion.

It is not a particularly needy plant; it doesn’t require copious amounts of fertilizer or water—in fact it likes good drainage and moderate to lean soil.

Caryopteris is a magnet for wildlife: Bees and butterflies cover the flowers while deer show no interest and leave it intact.

Finally, a bonus for the shrub world—it flowers in August, long after most woody plants have finished flowering for the season.

It has a nice open structure that makes it an adaptable companion in any mixed border. In one location we have it snuggling up to a Daphne ‘Carol Mackie’. The graceful blue beard’s loose branches would also spill nicely into any small- to medium-size ornamental grass, making the two a lovely late-season pair.

I cut this shrub back to a one- to two-foot framework in mid-April to keep it flowering freely and to maintain a compact three-to-four-foot fountain of pale-blue to deep-purple flowers for a late season display.

Jessica Blohm is Interpretive Specialist for Public Education.

Jennifer Josef, Director of Public Education at the Garden, can’t wait for Wednesdays to roll around so that she can buy farm-fresh produce at the Garden’s Farmers Market.

This week she bought several varieties of heirloom tomatoes and a big bunch of basil. The heirlooms seen at the market are similar to those depicted in Victor Schrager’s photographs in The Heirloom Tomato, the new exhibit in the Arthur and Janet Ross Gallery, which was also featured in the August 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

The images highlight heirloom tomato varieties grown by Amy Goldman, a self-described “vegetable rights activist” who works to preserve the agricultural heritage and genetic diversity of the world’s vegetables. Jenn visited the gallery to view Victor Schrager’s divine photographs after buying her own fresh produce.

Jenn’s family, originally from Agrigento, Sicily, in Italy, loves to make traditional Italian delights with heirloom tomatoes. After the jump are three tomato recipes that Jenn makes with her mother. Check out these classic Mama Josef summertime treats yourself and let us know how you like them!

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