Saturday's Surprise Sighting: Chitalpa?

Hoping to beat the rain I went out for a walk this morning and discovered a small tree in bloom at Hostra with flowers that caught my eye and reminded me a lot of a catalpa. Was this morning's surprise sighting a Chitalpa, admittedly something I didn't know existed?! Over at great plant picks the Chitalpa was described as a "bizarre hybrid between two unlikely parents", the Catalpa, which is what the flower resembled to me and the desert willow, which I have never seen. According to Wikipedia the hybrid has a botanical garden history which includes its introduction in the United States by Robert Hebb of the New York Botanical Garden in 1977. Cool!

Some Bark and A Bud

Because it's winter and it's cold and I couldn't survive if I had to withstand the elements outside on my own right now without protection, but the pine and the deciduous azalea will endure, no sweat. They are beautiful and they are fierce.

Continuing Ed

Much like any garden constantly changes and grows over time, both in small ways daily and in larger cycles, so too does the continuing education of the gardener, whether it's by taking classes, walking somewhere wild or very skillfully cultivated or just paying attention to the ways plants change through the seasons. Susan and I got a dose of all three today, attending the first round of the Winter Lecture Series at NYBG (The New York Botanical Garden) and on a quick walk on the grounds which revealed the delicate beauty of Caryopteris seed heads in the winter light. I'm not sure that I'd ever really looked at this plant before in winter and it seems I was missing out. Think those wispy seed heads in the wind were all I saw and learned? Not by a long shot. The aptly named Todd Forrest of NYBG also gave an introduction at the lecture about the newly renamed Thain Family Forest over time, and the human endeavor involved in some of the current work being done to measure, manage and restore this remnant of old growth forest. An added bonus? Seeing a picture of good old Anne during his slide show demonstrating the process of measuring the DBH (diameter at breast height) of the forest's trees, which brought back memories of my day doing the same in the forest with her.

It's nerdy but true that I believe that any day in a garden is a day of Continuing Ed for me, but not every day contains the possibility of taking in so much at once. So today was a very good one.

Caryopteris Seed Head, winter, The New York Botanical Garden

Out of Season

I've got some Magnolia buds opening in a vase in the last week of the year. I'd never have guessed that this would be so. And it was only by a chance encounter last month with some pruned branches on a bike ride in Prospect Park that I get to celebrate this unseasonal occurence.

In contrast, last year in early December, I came upon an unusual sight. It was very cold like winter and on a Kousa Dogwood, there were both some autumn leaves (yes, the right season) still hanging on, but also some unseasonal blooms. I felt as though I was experiencing three seasons in one day.

December 2010, Brooklyn

Should I have been surprised? After all, I'd also seen a variegated Kousa blooming at Brooklyn Botanic in September of last year.

September, 2010, Brooklyn Botanic

What can I tell you? You learn about plants by paying attention to their regularity through the seasons and also their irregularity or their response to the weather conditions. This is true whether you are new to gardening or a pro. For instance, on The New York Botanical Garden's Plant Talk blog, there was recently this post about unseasonal observations at the New York Botanical Garden. There, also Kousa Dogwoods blooming out of season among other plants. Does that mean perhaps that Kousas are more sensitive in their response to seasonal fluctuations than some other species? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I'm not a scientist and I don't have the kind of data to answer that question. But you don't have to be a scientist to just think like one, whether you find all the answers to your questions or not.

The More You Look

the more you will see and it doesn't matter whether you dig mushroom hunting, are just beginning to identify trees by their leaf shape or have recently discovered that there are Tulip Tree samaras at your feet and above your head in the canopy in the fall. The point really is just to focus your attention, if even for just a moment, on even just the square foot of earth where you happen to be and see if you aren't knocked out by how much there is to name and know just a little better, and by how ridiculously beautiful it all is.

A Walk with Susan at The New York Botanical Garden

Salvia discolor, The New York Botanical Garden

It's like my oldest friend Christine always says, "wherever you go, there you are", an expression that can mean many things, one being that you cannot escape who you are no matter where you may run or how hard you try. I went to The New York Botanical Garden with Susan yesterday to learn about volunteering for their Citizen Science Tree Phenology program in the native forest after reading a post about the program on NYBG's blog Plant Talk. (Having an excuse to pay attention to the changes of plants throughout the seasons was an appealing idea and since we are doing this anyway, a spreadsheet might make us feel official in some way.) Of course, we got to the garden early so we could wander around in a botanical stupor.

Since wherever I go, therefore I am, I was drawn to the things and plants that capture my attention. So here, three things from yesterday's walk in one of New York City's most magnificent settings for learning about plants: Above, the beautiful Salvia discolor with its mix of contrasting light and dark colors and a visiting pollinator. The more you know about Salvias, the more you fall in love with these genus of plants, (well, at least for me this is true) and if there's something I love for sure, it is a late bloomer. Below, the leaf of a Sweetgum or Liquidambar styracifula, if one must use the proper botanical name. (I prefer this species' common name, if only because I don't have to google the spelling.) If I am my own citizen scientist and can mark the phenology of my own seasons, I can remember this day as the one where I saw my first red Sweetgum leaf of fall. Now I can go out and look for all the other colors this native tree will display this season.

And last, but certainly not least, the mix of the look of the wild with the cultivated, in a section of the new Azalea garden that aims to imitate a high elevation Appalachian bald through the mass planting of grasses and wildflowers.

While it is true that you will be yourself no matter where you are, it is also true that certain places and pursuits will bring you closer to the parts of yourself that you want to nurture. I owe a lot of the joy in my life (my current obsession with plants and gardening) to Joe and his insistance on us filling out an application for a community garden plot ten miles away from our home in Brooklyn. Building our first garden together four years ago and watching in fascination as our vegetables grew opened my eyes finally to the intricate world of the plants and pollinators outside around me. And getting to know that world more fully in these last few years by paying slow attention has made all the difference as I carry myself around to the places I need to go.

In the Forest With Anne

And so I stood not only at the edge but a little ways into this 50 acre remnant of old-growth forest at The New York Botanical Garden with Anne today and counted trees, recorded species, and measured the DBH (Diameter at breast height) of native trees with callipers. It was a chance to test my ID skills and learn some new species from Anne, who's working in the forest this year as a gardener's assistant. When you get the opportunity to stand in the forest and still be in New York City among so many native plants (of course, part of the reason for taking the measurements is identifying what invasives are present and how the forest is changing over time), you don't say no. Thanks Anne. I'd put a picture here of the tiniest bit of forest we surveyed today, but it wouldn't begin to do it justice. You need all of your senses to appreciate some things.

If You Can't Beat Them

If you can't beat them, enjoy them
The link goes to today's NYBGtumblr post, (that's the New York Botanical Garden in case you like me are often confused by abbreviations) which gave a little shoutout to my post about weeds in a vase on the window sill. Sweet. I don't know what to say. I'm flattered that this amazing institution (or rather someone working there) found their way to this little site of mine. And since I've never done a post without a picture, to celebrate, here's a picture of a flowering weed spotted today and a pollinator, who also seemed to enjoy it.












The weed is Potentilla recta, or at least that's the closest I could get to ID'ing it. The pollinator? A bee mimic. Some kind of hover fly, maybe a Sphaerophoria species. The fly is probably cooler than the plant because not only is it a pollinator disguised as another pollinator, its larvae also feeds on aphids. Or so I read on Bugguide.net. At least I can say with some confidence that I think it's a Syrphid Fly. I've said it before, but it's worth saying again. You never know what you're going to discover on bike rides down to the community garden at Floyd Bennett Field, but you know what? There's always something worth seeing.
Thanks NYBG Tumblr. You made my day.

Signs of New Life

Despite the bitter cold which is causing the Rhodendron leaves above to curl in defense right now, signs of new life abound this winter in New York City. Beneath the snowcap, new buds await warmer temperatures. Even through these coldest of days and nights, new life is emerging.

















Enkianthus perulatas buds, The New York Botanical Garden

Got Bark

Fantastic bark on a beautiful Paperbark Maple, The New York Botanical Garden

Winter might be a great time to appreciate bark, especially on a tree with such rich color and texture like the Paperbark Maple at The New York Botanical garden above, but it doesn't have to be winter for the bark of a fantastic tree to catch your eye. The bark of the American Persimmon and the Katsuratree are beautiful on any given day. I can't remember ever passing by those two trees at Brooklyn Botanic without admiring their stunning bark.































American Persimmon in Brooklyn Botanic's Native Flora Garden
























Katsuratree, outside of Japanese Garden, Brooklyn Botanic

Some Days

Buds of Cornus florida, our beautiful native dogwood

are just better than other days. The light is just a little brighter and somehow softer at the same time and everything feels magical. It doesn't hurt to be somewhere majestic too. Today I attended a lecture at the New York Botanical Garden with Susan and Anne. We listened to talks about the city's ecological past and possible future, and learned something about how landscape architects think about plants and how people's experiences are shaped by them in public spaces. And then we went outside briefly on the meticulous grounds at the New York Botanical Garden and were knocked out by some of the amazing specimens around us. They are species we know, like the Dogwood and the Pieris japonica, but it kind of seemed like these plants wanted to reintroduce themselves to us and remind us of their fabulousness. It's a pretty good time of year to really look at these two plants. It's hard to believe they will ever be more beautiful than they were today, but they will.


Pieris japonica flower buds