NPG tour October 13, 2016

NPG Thursday, October 13, 2016  Autumn has moved in with comfortable temperatures. James and two really lovely couples started the tour and though James had to leave, the others were so interested that we ran a lot overtime.

My usual 11:00 A.M. tour.  I picked that time years ago, thinking that the 12:30 time was before people had lunch and would be hungry and grumpy and not interested in the tour. It also did not buck the traffic going to either the NY Yankees or the Mets which made traffic from New Jersey even worse. Apparently there has not been a comparison of times and visitor turnout on tours, but that would be interesting to learn.

I like to leave for the Garden early so that if the traffic takes four times longer than it could that I would still be on time for my tour.  And I am compulsive about checking out what's blooming and listing all the plants, hoping to go through the whole NPG before my tour.  Today I was met near the clock by Lisa Sifre, Sandy W. and James Vickers.  Therefore I will have to do more from memory.

The corner as you approach the NPG is still colorful, especially the deep purple Asters, Symphotricon novae-angliae  'Marina Wolkonsky." I have opposed planting cultivars and hybrids in the Native Plant Garden, but the first year that "Marina" was there they were blooming after all the native asters were gone and I could see a reason to have the plants with quotes around their names.  The following year 'Marina' did not come back, but the Garden was persistent and they are back in force.  You can identify the cultivar and hybrids by their signs that include quote signs or sometimes an X.

Still at that front corner, the pink Hibiscus and two species of Phlox, Asters, Goldenrod and Sunflowers make the approach attractive.  The photos are regrettably small for clear identification but if you need a larger photo, please email me and I will send one to you.

Phlox

Once, awhile ago, I wrote an article for the docent newsletter entitled, "What do you say when there is nothing to see?"  Though still a lot to see today, it was a day to include the sense of smell.  The Stonemountain Mint and Horsebalm: rub and sniff.  The mint is available much of the year; the Collinsonia is at its peak of fragrance now.  Said to be "Horses' Ben Gay," I really enjoy the aroma.  And, tea can be brewed from its leaves.

Horsebalm Collinsonia

Though Michael Hagen, Curator of the Native Plant and Rock Gardens, had told me, to my dismay, that the Garden was not going to plant White Snake Root Eupatorium rugosum, and though I brought a plant from my own home garden to show visitors, the opportunist (as Joel calls it) is visible in at least five spots in the NPG.  What I am doing at home where there is an excessive amount of it, is cutting it back BEFORE it goes to seed, which works to decrease next year's presence. I say the story about this plant killing Lincoln's mother still rates as the one that most widens the eyes and gets exclamations from visitors.  Isn't their entertainment why we're there?

White Snakeroot

Though it is hard to see in the photo, right in the middle of it is Closed Gentian, surprising me because I just must have missed the blue flower before.  If several are already dried, that proves it.  It is in the area of the Franklin Tree with your back to the water feature.

Closed Gentian

Franklin Tree

Don't forget to look over the edges of the boardwalk as you turn in the direction of Split Rock with the water feature on your left, or you could miss Meadow Beauty. I just checked and see that it is not written up in my NPG book that is available online but never got published. I remember identifying Rhexia virginica many years ago along a trail in Central Park, but it was not on the original draft list for the new 2013 NPG. There are a number of species of Rhexia that have a distinctive urn-shaped fruit that Thoreau once compared to a little cream pitcher. It likes to grow in wet sands but it doesn't know how to read, so it has moved from the water side of the boardwalk to the other side in the direction of the Rock Garden.

Meadow Beauty

Ladies Tresses Spiranthes cernua are surprisingly abundant, and spreading on their own to many places, even away from the damper areas. Growing in the water, Pickerelweed Pontederia cordata with its arrow-shaped leaves coming to a point, in the water, is easy to miss. Their seeds can be eaten like nuts (hip boots, anyone?) and lucky we don't have deer, who eat them, in the NYBG.

Pickerelweed

 Sometimes the tubes of the Pitcher Plants are less visible for visitors to see, but now they are showing themselves, maybe looking for the insects to visit.  I have rarely seen insects hovering in that area, but one today; I couldn't bear to see it fall in to be digested.

I've heard people say they don't favor the Oakleaf Hydrangea, but they attract the  eye for a long season.  White blossoms and then brown dry ones I think are good looking.

summer blooming Oakleaf Hydrangea 

Oakleaf Hydrangea now

Oakleaf Hydranges autumn

The Ilex verticellata, both the Winterberry with its red berries (native) and the ‘Winter Gold’ (not) with its orange ones will often have visitors asking for identification. The books differ on what birds eat them, but having watched a gorgeous Winterberry, especially in the snow, in the old NPG, it seemed to be that it was a food of last resort.  Maybe colorblind people can't tell the difference between the red and the orange.

Ilex red berries

Ilex orange berries

This is certainly grass season, with the fascinating different and delicate and beautiful seedheads. Ferns are worth looking at this season, and it's fun to check out the ones with sori.

sori

Goldenrod species are numerous, at least 72 species in North America. The full inflorescence, Solidago canadense, I learned from Jody Payne, former curator.

Solidago canadense

We have had Goldenrods in the NPG: Autumn, Blue-stemmed, Early, Gray, Narrow-leaved, Stiff, Zig-Zag, Here are some photos; who can differentiate them?  I have trouble remembering which is which, and I would be impressed with myself if I reeled off the right name, but just calling them goldenrods will generally suffice for visitors.  I repeat the fact, and still get surprised responses, that it is not Goldenrod that causes allergies.  Ragweed is more the guilty party and the explanation I have been told is that Goldenrod seeds are heavy and drop to the ground, whereas Ragweed’s fly about in the air.

That spectacular bloom, Spigelia marilandica,  Pink Root, is, sadly, pretty much gone, but where the steps are set into the Gravel Lok, there is still one sample.

Plymouth Rose Gentian Sabatia kennedyana has also jumped from the water-side of the boardwalk (like Meadow Beauty) to the other side, some lovely delicate blooms with pink edges, then white, and yellow centers still blooming.  Dana (1900) reported that the inhabitants of Plymouth, Massachusetts were convinced that the Pilgrims of 1620 named the plant after the Sabbath, the holy day on which they first saw the flower.

In that same area, a bright green-leaved and fresh-looking yellow flower, can still be seen, Globeflower Troilius laxus. It must be another illiterate flower that doesn’t read that it is supposed to bloom in June, but lucky for us.

Globeflower

True, it is aster time, and some individual beauties, but I found Heath Asters Symphyotrichum ericoides among the Cacti Opuntia much more widespread and robust than previous years. Look carefully here and you may see the Italian Wall Lizards.

Aster

Heath Aster

Black Cohosh Actea racemosa still to be found, and Vernonia New York Ironweed back at the entrance to be seen both entering and leaving the Native Plant Garden.

Black Cohosh

To me, a true autumn scene with asters and goldenrod.

Lots more thoughts about how aster looks as it is ready to send its seeds into the wind, and azalea buds look so ready that its hard to believe they will wait until spring.

Azalea as it looks now

Aster's fuzzy seed stage

I plan to go back to the September 2016 tours to add some of the many photos I took.  This one grabbed at least 12 hours so I will think about that ambition.

I'm always grateful for any comments to improve or correct.

NPG September 22 and 29, 2016 with photos

October 3, 2016
Since it's "my" blog, and even though it is named Native Plant Marcia, I feel hesitantly inclined to write about life beyond native plants.  If May is my recommended best month to see the blooming plants in the Native Plant Garden (at the New York Botanical Garden), second favorite is now.  In my all-native-plant yard the golden rods, white snake root, purple and pink New England asters, lavender vivid physotegia (obedience plant), bluewood asters just beginning to bloom give a delightful array of colors.  My garden has been in existence since 1993 and now that it has made all its own decisions of what and where to bloom, I have to decide what to thin out.  Some years the asters are overabundant and cutting them back before they go to seed has absolutely affected next year's numbers.  If you know white snake root (Eupatorium rugosum) and you know me, then you know it has one of my favorite "stories" But you also know that it can be called invasive.  Now it is incumbent on me to watch carefully to see when they are about to go to seed, and BEFORE they do, cut 'em ruthlessly.
And hope I have the energy to get out there while the weather is cool to do the job.  Believe me, there is a LOT of white snake root....

I stayed away from the NPG all of July and August.  I'm glad I did because this summer's hot and humid weather was excessive.  I would rather shovel snow.  I did two tours in late September and I will list what was blooming or notable.  If I can remember, or get help, I hope to include some of the very large number of photos I took.  [Having trouble doing that, I am deciding not to delay getting this on the blog, and add the photos later.] A Garden employee said he thought the NPG looked "scruffy," but this past Thursday it was gorgeous.

I said I would stray from writing about native plants and what fills my mind a lot these days is philosophical about life.  My sweetheart was diagnosed with cancer last February and there have been ups and downs, hospital visits, rushes to the emergency room and we have had home hospice for the last few months.  I know that many people in this country are suffering from lack of medical care unless an emergency room can serve them, but if you are dying, services are amazing. The quality of the ability and the caring of the three "girls" (yes they are mature young women but compared to my 87 years I think of them as my girls) is outstanding and for us they are absolutely lovable. But learning to take "one day at a time" is a big change from one's younger life.  I feel grateful that I can walk from the parking lot at the NYBG to the NPG, check out the whole 3 1/2 acres, meet any visitors and do the full tour, and walk back to the parking lot.  That's not to say it isn't harder than it used to be.  Just to think: seventeen years ago when I started at the Garden I thought they might not take me as a volunteer docent because I was too old.

NPG September 22, 2016
Today is the first day of autumn, and the temperature is 85 degrees.  Don't believe in a warming climate?

Joe Pye Weed Eutrochium dubium is blooming, too much White Wood Aster (Eurybia divaricatus), Asters, Sunflowers.  Phlox Phlox paniculata is at the approach to the NPG, two species, a puffy lavender (cultivar) and the tubular flower.  White bloom, hard to the touch, sandpapery leaves looks at first like White Snake Root, but the hardness reminds that it is Wild Quinine Parthenium integrifolium.

Wild Quinine

 The dark purple aster in abundance is the cultivar 'Marina Wolkonsky.'  The large pink flower is Hibiscus. The glorious yellow of Goldenrod, many species, is abundant and there are still visitors who don't know that it is Ragweed which is responsible for the sneezing; Goldenrod's seeds drop to the ground, whereas Ragweed's fly through the air.  The Oakleaf Hydrangea at the entrance is attractive as brown as it is long after its white blooming period.  Happy day: a speck of the red and yellow of Spigelia marilandica can still be seen and pointed out, with its interesting history of use as spigeline, a useful medicinal but too much is deadly.

Going up the steps, at the top on the left the berries of Spikenard Aralia racemosa can be seen. Veronicastrum virginicum Culver's Root  

Culver's Root

              

Black Cohosh

needs to be differentiated from Black Cohosh         
Actaea racemosa, and I still fall into that mistake of misidentification; the Cohosh has been in my yard for 23 years and I'm used to seeing that. Two different leaves of Cohosh, Maple and Black are pointed out by Katherine, who herself keeps blooming with expanded knowledge.  Lobelia siphlitica reaches out its hand-like petals in beautiful blue.

Blue Mistflower Conoclinium coelestinum, with its fuzzy blue flowers are abundant by the water, and similar color of Pickerelweed Pontederia cordata with its heart-shaped leaves in the water catches your eye.  Lean over the boardwalk to look down, almost under, to see Rhexia virginica, Meadow Beauty, and then zip your eyes to the other side of the boardwalk to see the lighter pink and white of Plymouth Rose Gentian Sabatia kennedyiana.
                                       More of Wild Bleeding Heart Dicentra eximia in the same area.

Wild Bleeding Heart

Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis is peeking out amongst the grasses as you approach the Heritage River Birches. Woodland Sunflower Helianthus divaricatus on your left as you start up the Gravel-Lok. I don't know if the Garden wants it, but the pale yellow of the invasive Evening Primrose adds some color. Back at the entrance, the dark purple is Vernonia New York Ironweed, a shorter, cultivated version.

NPG September 29, 2016
More appropriate to the changed season, the weather is a breezy 60 degrees, today dreary. More to my taste. This is the very first time in this new (2013) NPG that I entered from the side entrance, so that could confuse you trying to duplicate my tour.

Chatted with one bird lover, one photographer, until the talkiest lady I ever had on a tour, and Joe, a regular visitor, become my tour for the day.  Joe is a guide at Greenwood in Short Hills.

Both Lobelias, blue and red are still to be seen, and too much White Wood Aster.  Smart Weed, unwanted really, is sneaking in here and there until a volunteer or gardener pulls it out.  It is called smart, not because of its I.Q., but chewing it smarts on the tongue.

Ladies Tresses Spiranthes are around the water, probably there but unnoticed by me last week. Turning around I see Closed Gentian Gentiana andrewsii low on the ground, almost unnoticeable in the grass. Turn back again, the Pitcher Plants Sarracenia            

Pitcher Plants
seem to be doing well. Pickerelweed Pontederia cordata in the water, Mistflower Conoclinium coelestinum on the ground. In the meadow, a lot of Hyssop-leaved Thoroughwort.          

Hysop-leaved Thoroughwort

Grasses: Sideoats, Prairie Dropseed, Bluestem demanding notice that they get less earlier in the season. I do love their delicate tops.

sand lovegrass

Same as last week, just close to the boardwalk is Rhexia virginica Meadow Beauty, and on the other side is Plymouth Rose Gentian Sabatia kennedyiana. Talk about the need for Latin names, Katherine called Meadow Beauty Handsome Harry and I never had heard that before.

Surprised to see Globeflower, Trollium laxus, considered to be a rare flower, still blooming.  Do you know my story about that, how I mentioned to Carol Levine, wonderful teacher in a class I was taking, that I had seen Globeflower, at that time under the sort-of-waterfall by the small pond near the Britton plaque? Without a beat, she said, "Class, put on your coats," and walked us all the way over to the NPG to see it.

Above the rocks past the Split Rock the Heath Aster is full and hardy.  Haven't seen the Italian Wall Lizards; maybe they moved to rent-controlled quarters.  Phlox still in full bloom and the Vernonia (Iron Weed) too. Bluewood Asters bloom later than the other asters. Don't forget to rub and smell the Horsebalm Collinsonia canadensis, nicknamed Ben Gay for horses.

I never listed on my iPad all the blooming plants, thinking that I will get the missed ones from the innumerable photos I took.  Now patience is required to get the photos, identify them, copy and paste to get them on this blog. Thanks for YOUR patience. Yes, lots of that, until I can recall or stumble upon, how to get the photos on this blog. (being added in November, thanks to son Rich's instruction)