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)