Inside The New York Botanical Garden

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What’s Beautiful Now: The Conifers

Posted in What's Beautiful Now on September 10 2012, by Matt Newman

It’s something of a quiet Monday here at the NYBG (we’re not open most Mondays; it’s best to give the horticulturists a clear space to do their weekly tidying-up), and the thermometer is dipping rapidly. I’m not going to say that fall has begun, necessarily, as it’s probably just a fluke weather pattern. But it puts me in the mood for looking forward! Thankfully, the prolific Ivo Vermeulen has left me with enough photographs to geek out on some pre-season imagery.

What carries me so often to the Benenson Ornamental Conifers is what you’d call the most subtle of beauties. But I guess that stands for the Garden’s evergreens in general. They’re not showy in the way that a rose presents, though many of them sport as much–if not more–fragrance. Instead, the conifer lands more in the territory of regal reflection. For most people in the northern hemisphere, nothing quite heralds the season like an evergreen dusted with snow. (Not that we had much opportunity to enjoy that kind of scenery this past winter.)

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Morning Eye Candy: Reminders

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on August 31 2012, by Matt Newman

Seeing pine cones in the trees never fails to set me off thinking about winter preparations. New boots, mending buttons on an old jacket, the mortifying possibility that I’ll have to be out on the sidewalk, smacking at ice with a shovel in the near future. But there are good things swept along with the cold, like our most beloved holiday exhibition. Stay tuned for more on that as we edge closer to the season.

In the meantime, let’s savor these last days of summer, shall we?

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen