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.