NPG December 1, 2018

December 1, 2018   Native Plant Garden

"In the eye of the beholder," as Ellen and I entered the NPG, I was struck by the brownness and empty areas, and Ellen commented "a lot of color."

brown and empty

Winterberry color

Visiting "my baby" (NPG) after an amount of time, and she has changed.  I knew it, yet found it shocking. A lot of work has been done by the gardeners.

I am here today because Ellen invited me to join her at NYBG where she has a tour today called Winter Wonderland, whatever that can be made to be. Sunny and chilly, my kind of day. I am ordered by the ENT doctor to talk as little as possible to heal my vocal cords, so frustration to deal with that as I interact with visitors with sign language or iPad notes.
It was hard, unusual, to get the iPad working so I could write.   I owe it an apology for my absence from the Botanical Garden, having

American Holly red berries

traveled to Canada and excuses, excuses.













 Michael Hagen had identified Aster ericoides, across from the plaque and pond, and this is how it looks today. Knowing where it is helps to know what it is.

Aster ericoides Dec. 1, 2018

Aster ericoides  Sept. 28, 2018

Color on the Witch Hazel

As I remember wandering in the "old" NPG, in the late fall it was surprising to see otherwise hidden signs, and so today, some that I hadn't noticed when full growth.

             

When I first started cross country skiing, I was excited to see winter leavings, the fern fronds that are actually quite beautiful. A reminder today.











The Alabama Crotons, which were a surprising addition to NPG, have done well and are still showing green.  Looks to me as if more have been added.





Make yourself to home.  Stretch out and watch the water.




























Huge crowds today.  Why? Gotta be the Holiday Train Show, and also the lovely day.  Good for the Garden, make some money.  But I found it upsetting:
1. Tall family with three tall children clambering on Split Rock, where I was both out of voice and        too far away to communicate with sign language.
2. Small kids running through and on the planting areas, some parents gathering them in, some unperturbed by their activity.
3. A boy out on the extension into the water feature who did make his way back without falling in.
4. The worst to me was a six year old boy on the grounds near the Clock repeatedly throwing a jagged 8 inch rock as hard as he could against the tree, the mother perfectly comfortable with that, as she carried a two year old on the ground to go closer to a tree.  There I did manage to point to get him to quit and mother to get back on the path.



 

River Birch

Magnolia

Little Brown Jug

MY History of the Native Plant Garden Nov. 23, 2018

November 23, 2018  My History of the Native Plant Garden
Awake at 3:00 A.M. and thinking of the story of the "old" Native Plant Garden, before the opening of the current one in May, 2013, and how I came to write the book on every plant that was in there.  I have to admit that I loved the old NPG in a special way.  I started as a docent there in 1999, thinking when I came for an interview with Margaret that they wouldn't take me because I was too old (70).

I always lead (past tense) tours every Thursday at 11:00 A.M.  My thinking was that the regularly scheduled 12:30 time interfered with visitors' lunch and that if they hadn't eaten yet they would be grumpy and more interested in getting to lunch.  I thought that docents who were working could only do tours on the weekends and I should leave those times for them.  The first thing I did on arrival was check out everything that was blooming that visitors would want to see; that meant walking from the entrance to the NPG, spending an hour and then meeting visitors back at the clock.  Walking them back to the NPG took time, even though I learned from Sam Dvoskin about some of the unusual trees to talk about on the way. I got permission to have them meet me at the NPG entrance, saving me effort and them tour time.

Wandering through the NPG after visitors left, and in seasons when all the nooks and crannies were exposed, I got to know Devil's Walking Stick, and where the one Royal Lady's Slipper could be seen. I saw signs that I had not seen before, and walked through the wet grass where the Flame Azalea stood out and learned about the "orange spaghetti" weed.  Just where to lean over one of the bridges over the narrow creek to see True Forget-Me-Not and Cranberries.

As I collected volumes about plants, I researched each plant and wrote about it.  I piled forty-three books in three piles on the floor by the computer and looked up each plant in every book, one at a time. I included a Description of the plant, the Leaves, Flower, Seeds, all the botanical aspects.  The Meaning of the Latin name, Names the plant is Also Called, the Habitat, when In Bloom. The History, Legends, Native American uses, Edible, Poisonous, Medicinal, Propagation of the plant and Comments useful for tours. Information I and every docent leading NPG tours could use that would interest visitors. I did leave out the list of all the places where the plant grew: who cared to reel off that?

Margaret [name] read a lot of my material and was impressed enough to say that the Garden would publish it.  Todd Forrest, too, supported the idea.  I worked on writing up all the plants for ten years, enjoying the project.I took some photos, preferring the actual plant in the NPG though I copied some at first. Joel Nevis pitched in to help organize and took excellent photos and prepared a prospectus.  Then, out of the blue, one day Margaret said to me that they would not publish it.  No explanation, just a shock. I asked wonderful curator [name] what that was all about.  She told me that Margaret decided the Garden did not have enough staff to vet my material and that since I was not a staff member, they could not put the book out under their aegis.  Though I am not a professional botanist, everything I had put on paper was from a published book by experts.  Certainly it was hurtful and killed a lot of my enthusiasm.

One session when Robert Naczi reported to a docent meeting about the Manual he was working on, Bob Weinreb raised his hand and said, "Marcia has already done that." Now I see that Robert Naczi is giving us another talk on the same thing.

What I had done is in hard copy in my house and used by me often to check on information and identification, and is also online, known to some of the docents.  I'm thinking to include here a writeup on some particular plants and do that from time-to-time in this blog.

Which one to use first? How about Bloodroot Sanguinaria canadensis Poppy Family 6-12" 

Description: On a smooth stalk a solitary white flower, with a golden-orange center, grows beside a lobed basal leaf that often curls around the stalk. Roots and stem with acrid red- orange juice.

Means: 
Name from Latin ‘sanguis’=blood; refers to the red sap in the rhizomes.
Also Called: Coonroot, Puccoon, Redroot, Sweet-Slumber,Turmeric.

Flower: A most beautiful but fragile flower of early spring with generally 8 (rarely 12) brilliant white petals, four of which alternating with the others are a trifle narrow and impart a four-sided aspect to the full-blown blossom with a bright yellow center. The petals expand flatly In the morning, and become erect toward late afternoon, and close by evening. The flowers close at sunset and are too fragile to be picked . The two sepals fall when the flower opens. Flowers are followed by a narrow oblong capsule containing many seeds.
Leaves: In early April, leaf curled into cylinder which encloses the budding flower; afterward the blossom which pushes upward beyond the light blue-green olive leaf, generally with seven irregular shallow lobes, is 6-10 inches broad.
Habitat: Rich woods.
In bloom: Early spring, March to May.
Native Americans: Algonquin Indians called this puccoon as they did almost any plant
that was a source of dye. They used red latex to color clothes and baskets, and applied it to their bodies and faces as ceremonial paint. Latter way it was also an insect repellant. This toxic herb was used by Native Americans to dye skin (often ceremonially) and to induce therapeutic vomiting. Also used to treat sore throats, ringworm and rheumatism.
Medicinal: Found in US Pharmacopoeia (1820-1926) as a stimulating expectorant. Contains a number of opium-like alkaloids. Recently it has become important as a source of sanguinarine, a dental plaque inhibitor. Excess depresses the central nervous system, causes nausea and vomiting and may prove fatal. Not given to pregnant and lactating women. Extracts are now being used in toothpaste to fight plaque.
John Bartram (1751) wrote that it was used as a cure for jaundice, for the bite of a rattlesnake. It has been used (USP and NF) chiefly as an expectorant, especially in chronic bronchitis.
History: Says John Bartram, “It flourishes well in the garden in rich, shady borders; the leaves make an agreeable appearance soon after the frost is out of the ground.” 
Planting information: Bloodroots can be grown in locations from full sun to full shade as
long as they have sun in the early spring when they emerge from the ground, flower, and do most of their growing. If grown in full sun to light shade, bloodroots may spread rapidly and make an excellent ground cover. Although bloodroots grow best when the pH is 5-7, ample humus and moisture are more important. Mulch the plants with a thin layer of deciduous leaves during the winter in hardiness zones 3 and 4.

Comment: The blossoms attract insects which gather pollen but find no honey, and its chief visitors are honeybees, bumblebees and smaller bees (Halictus) and the beelike flies (Bombylius). Ants are the primary dispersal agents of bloodroot seeds, carrying them off by the caruncle, which they later chew off, and burying them. Many of the seeds then germinate the following spring.