Native Plant Garden of NYBG May 31, 2018

I suppose it was all the rain that made the garden look green, green, green (and at least at first distant glance, little color).  Curator Michael Hagen led a somewhat diminished group, because of the misting rain, and discoursed interestingly on the curator's responsibilities and management of the NPG: goals, selection of plants, removal of plants, decisions about sizing.  Besides listening, I, of course, was intent on listing all the blooming plants and photographing for this blog.  It was drizzly on and off most of the day but happily not warmer than the high sixties.

As in my own (mostly) native plant garden, the Wild Blue Indigo Baptisia australis and here the white variety Baptisia alba catch your eye.  Even the mallard duck was taking a close look, proof in the photo taken by actively contributing docent Joanne who was also on the tour.

It is Iris season, and do you know that the Blue Flag is native, but not the myriad other colors?

Never to be left off the list of blooming plants from April to November, Wild Bleeding Heart Dicentra eximia is lush and some Golden Alexanders Zizia aurea is hanging on.

Beebalm Monarda fistulosa

The pale pink color you see as you approached the NPG is from, uh, I know it, Beebalm//Wild Bergamot Monarda fistulosa. It is used for making tea and equally important to me, whose entire cultivated white lilies which were deliciously budding were eaten by the daily deer, is not liked by deer.  You know how many visitors ask about what will grow in the shade, these days the question is what will the deer leave alone.  They do love the New England Asters, but at least one chewing is equal to one cutting back so they don't grow too tall and fall over, but not again!


As I have often cleverly said to visitors who think a sign gives the correct name of a plant, that they need a docent more than the signs because the plants can't read and don't stay by their labels. So before you reach the blueberry shrubs on your way to the entrance, the Culver's Root sign near a tiny white flower didn't ring true to me. Will the real Culver's Root please stand up (that comes back to me from an early TV program before most of you would know it) and that I remember seeing from the top of the metal ramp.  It has large leaves, is tall and has spike-like white flowers.

Some of the Shooting Star Primula meadia, the native white and cultivated pink ones, are still with us.  This is one of the changed name plants, used to be Dodecatheon, which I liked to roll off my tongue, the name, not the flower.  Behind the Shooting Star are some Fleabane where the Virginia Bluebells are gone.  Turning left, seeing the Mountain Laurel Kalmia latifolia ahead, Columbine
Aqualegia canadensis, and I even interrupted Michael Hagen's talk to point out my beloved Wild Ginger Asarum canadense WHICH IS STILL BLOOMING.  YAY!  You have to bend over and part the leaves to see those special flowers, so do it while they are still visible.

WILD GINGER
There is a lot of Skullcap Scutellaria incana which is well-marked and which I always thought was more interesting when it had turned brown and looked like a skull cap.

Skullcap

Bluestar Amsonia tabernaemontana, the dwarf kind, is no longer gracing the territory before the entrance, but is still on the rising land to the right of the boardwalk. Higher than it is a lot of the delicate looking flowers of Ipecac, also called Bowman's Root so like Pussytoes/Lady's Tobacco, it benefits from knowing the Latin name, Porteranthus trifoliatus.  Yes, it is also known as Indian Physic, even more making the point of using or knowing the Latin name.

Pitcher Plants Sarracenia are looking robust and colorful in red and yellow, and always seem to interest visitors, young and old.  Notice the Grasses are flowering, White Clover  Trifolium repens will be easily recognized, and the Blue Mistflower is as you leave the water feature heading alongside the meadow.  But before you do, Michael Hagen pointed out Toadflax Linaria canadensis that has come up

uninvited from the old NPG (my friend) which will be left in place.

In the meadow, bursting with buds, Tradescantia Spiderwort (why do I always come up with that Latin name and the common name secondarily?) and the yellow flowers--I know them very well, have them for a long time in my own garden, try to keep nicking off the dead flowers so that it keeps putting out more flowers, used a large closeup photo of it in an exhibition at my library...  It took until I was past the split rock and the cactus before it came to me--Lance-leaved coreopsis, Coreopsis lanceolata.

Lance-leaved Coreopsis

Penstemon digitalis Beardtongue is spreading in my yard, and doing well in NPG too, with several varieties, including on the rocks past the cactus a purplish dwarf variety and there was Vetch in the meadow.

I must like to do this because it takes a long time.

As always, comments, suggestions are welcome.  And if you think I know why the print got smaller and is centering, guess again.