into the garden

 i visited the new york botanical garden today with my friend olga. she had membership guest passes that had to be used before their expiration date.

 wasn't it just summer?

 this plant is called threadleaf bluestar, amsonia hubrichtii, and blooms in the late spring with powdery blue flowers that attract butterflies. it is native to alabama and it's bright green leaves turn golden in the autumn. it's named after american naturalist leslie hubricht who catalogued it growing wild in the early 1940's.

 a path through the native flora garden . .

 everything was turning into fluffy white seeds . . 

  little bluestem prairie grass, schizachyrium scoparium, is found throughout the states. the sign in the garden said that this batch was sourced from a local population native to long island. i think it's interesting that they shared where the plants came from.

it appears blue at the base of the plant and turns red in the autumn and brown in the winter.

 at two pm there was a shakespeare performance in the thain old growth forest.

 the acting troupe did a very shortened version of midsummer night's dream. above, hermia shares with helena that she and demetrius are going to elope.

 helena then decides to tell lysander, the young man she is in love with, about the elopement. lysander is smitten with hermia, rather than helena, and i guess helena hopes to get his attention by sharing the information, or maybe she hopes he will abandon his pursuance of hermia and focus on her.

puck plans to have a little fun by making demetrius fall in love with helena with a few drops from a magical flower that cupid's shaft once touched.

helena tries to hang onto lysander who manages to run away, and then finds demetrius sleeping in the forest. she's very confused when he wakes and confesses his love for her, having been touched by puck's flower.

helena thinks everyone is teasing her  . . 

puck sets everything right when the couples fall asleep again, and "all's well that ends well." as i said, it was a very short midsummer story without oberon and titania and a dozen other characters, but the audience loved it and the actors were very good and seemed to really enjoy themselves.

 walking back to the main paths through the garden . .

a path leading to the english garden . . 

 soft and tired looking daisies in the english garden . . 

 all the plants look as if they are ready for a long winter's sleep . . 

 the conservatory, which greg and i visited this summer (click here for this post), had been stripped of its flora and fauna inhabitants and was ready for winter. i wonder where they put the fish . . or perhaps the fish were still there . . i didn't go out to look. i took the photo from indoors as we were ready to leave for home. 

i wonder when i will visit again . .

a sunday garden tour

 greg and i visited the new york botanical garden today with my friend olga's guest passes. 

there was a special exhibit of "the modernist garden," celebrating brazilian landscape architect roberto burle marx (you can read about the nybg's exhibit on their website here - where there is a good photo of an aerial view).

 greg is standing in front of the calico plant, purple knight, alternanthera brasiliana. marx is known for bringing a new kind of garden into the world by using his native flora and working with bands of color, patterns and shapes, along with the scent of flowers and the sound of flowing water.

colocasia gigantea, thailand giant. this is not native to brazil, so i'm not sure why it's here, since i understood the nybg exhibit to highlight native brazilian flora. there is a blog site here, brian's botanicals, that has photos of even larger leaves. i took the photos because i thought the leaves were so beautiful and smooth.

 the sign reads, "the garden is, it must be, an integral part of civilized life: a deeply felt, deeply rooted, spiritual and emotional necessity," from a 1962 lecture by roberto burle marx, the garden as a form of art.

an exciting part for me was entering the conservatory gardens. i had never been before as it's only included with a higher priced entry pass, or as a member's guest. the tropical, temperate and desert gardens are particularly beautiful and i was excited that the desert region included a saguaro cactus. i didn't take photos of everything . . as it felt to be too much . . too overwhelming! i focused on the outdoor gardens today, and the brazilian dancers. i hope to go another time for photos of the inner gardens.

the sign says, "it is as if the forest offered treasures only to those who go in search of it, and i feel every day how short my life is to know and explore all the treasures of the brazilian flora," roberto burle marx, from an undated lecture titled, the plant.

 

 pigskin philodendron (!), also known as . . 

philodendron rugosum

 platycerium cultivar . . 

staghorn fern

my favorite part of the day: the lily and lotus aquatic garden . .

 the lotus flowers were so beautiful . . 

i had never looked down into one before . . 

 here i saw all its stages . . from bud . . to flower (as above) . . 

 to seed . . 

and to husk . . 

the lovely lilies . . 

 and hungry koi fish . . 

 and finally the dancers and samba band . . 

i could have listened to them all day . . it was so fun!

 leading the crowd in a line dance . . 

i love watching everyone joining in  . .

we even were able to take the tram ride tour around the entire park . . 

i love how the garden always includes poetry in its exhibits . . 

and then it was time to go home, passing through the ladies border again, which we walked through on our way in.