You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Spring’ category.
Sandee Harris is a greeter at Wave Hill’s Glyndor Gallery.
We are excited about upcoming exhibitions in which three 2012 Wave Hill Winter Workspace artists are participating: Nova Jiang, Nick Lamia, and Danielle Durchslag. The Winter Workspace is a great opportunity to engage the public in a personal dialogue with the artists. I have enjoyed chatting with them and asking questions, and they were very eager to talk about their work. I have another level of appreciation after witnessing part of the process involved in creating the work for these exhibitions.
House, 2012, is one of the drawings that Nova Jiang created in this year’s Winter Workspace. Thanks to Nova for allowing us to reproduce it here.
These artists, who were inspired by their time at Wave Hill, are showing their work and reaching a wider audience. Jiang’s drawings at Illuminated Metropolis were made during her residency at Wave Hill. Lamia’s installation at Jason McCoy Gallery focuses on one of Wave Hill’s copper beech trees. And at Christopher Henry Gallery, Durchslag is showing cut paper collages that are similar to the type of work she made during the Winter Workspace Program. Today’s Manhattan User’s Guide, by the way, includes a nice write-up about the opening of that last show, which is tonight, May 10, from 6 to 9pm.
Hope you make time to visit their shows:
Nova Jiang, Recent Drawings , through June 1, 2012, at Illuminated Metropolis Gallery at 547 West 27th Street, Suite 529, New York, NY 10001. She’s blogged about the experience here, too.
Nick Lamia, Coppice, through June 29, 2012, at the Jason McCoy Gallery at 41 East 57th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10022.
Danielle Durchslag, A Cut Above: 12 Paper Masters, through June 24, 2012, at the Christopher Henry Gallery at 127 Elizabeth Street, New York, NY 10013.
Assistant Director of Public Programs Laurel Rimmer highlights what’s new in the gardens this week.
It’s hard to keep up with what’s in bloom in the Palm House this time of year—by the time we draft a bloom list, the display has already changed. It’s enough for the harried garden interpreter to throw out pencil and clipboard in distress. Gardener Susannah Strazzera is in charge of the display in the Palm House, bringing out new plants from our growing areas in back and tweaking the arrangement of the plants currently on view. Each corner of the greenhouse has a theme, with colors and textures in both flowers and foliage carefully considered, and pots staged in levels to show them to their best advantage.
This week, our large (and deliciously fragrant) variegated lemon is dressed up with colorful pots of Moraea ochroleuca, one of the many South African natives featured in this greenhouse in late winter and early spring.
The northeast corner is vibrant with the fiery colors of Clivia miniata and Mimulus aurantiacus, shown to perfection against large-leaved Acanthus mollis ‘New Zealand Gold’.
While many of these blooms are fleeting, a graceful Cyrtanthus species on the window sill produces tubular flowers for months.
Out on the grounds, it’s easy to get distracted by the dizzying display of flowering trees and shrubs, but be sure to look down to see some fascinating flora at ground level.
Check out the pair of shots below. On the left, an Asian ginger Asarum maximum ‘Green Panda’ flaunts its fascinating brownish-purple flowers in the Shade Border; the same species, shown below right, is in full bloom in the T. H. Everett Alpine House.
Our old shadbush (Amelanchier canadensis) is showing its delicate white flowers in the Wild Garden; look down at its feet to see the claw-like stems of Arisaema ringens emerging from the ground, show below in the last shot here. Check back in a month or so to see this robust jack-in-the-pulpit in bloom.
Assistant Director of Public Programs Laurel Rimmer highlights what’s new in the gardens this week.
It’s chartreuse week! In the spring, acid green seems to go with everything. In the Wild Garden, shade-loving golden wood millet (Millium effusum ‘Aureum’) emerging beneath our old shadbush (Amelanchier canadensis).
Pulmonaria ‘Mrs. Moon’ adds a touch of pink and blue with her first flowers of the season.
A few feet away, well established colonies of Fritillaria verticillata attract attention with their pendulous green bells and unusual curled leaf tips, well portrayed in this pair of pictures.
Self-sown Helleborus foetidus, the bear’s foot hellebore, favors the edges of the gravel path. Flowers are effective for many weeks in spring. They have also given the plant the unfortunate name of “stinking hellebore”, not for the floral fragrance but for the malodorous scent produced when the stem is crushed.
Euphorbias are blooming early in the Dry Garden thanks to this unusually warm weather. Euphorbia chariacus subsp. wulfenii is putting on a splendid show this year.
Euphorbia myrsinities prefers dry, gritty soil; here it has happily seeded itself into the foundation walls of the old greenhouse that surround the Herb and Dry Gardens.
Iris pallida ‘Aureo-Variegata’ in the Flower Garden.
Marilyn Young is Horticulture Assistant at Wave Hill.
Important players in the glorious pageant of spring are the early flowering magnolias. In his special report on the major trees of Wave Hill, arborist Bill Logan of Urban Arborists notes that our magnolias are “the strongest collection in the garden”.
To this ”particularly fine group” came an exciting new addition this spring. In 2009, in honor of the Year of the Trees, Logan prepared a report on Wave Hill’s major trees. Included with his suggestions for future planting was the addition of a large, overstory tree Magnolia acuminata to help complete this family of trees’ representation. Our new cucumber magnolia, as it is commonly called, was selected by Scott Canning, Wave Hill’s Director of Horticulture, along with Brian McGowan, Assistant Director of Horticulture. The site chosen is on the lawn above and east of Wave Hill House. It was planted on April 26. Still full with buds then, it blooms a little bit later than the early ones.
Historically, this type of tree was used by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in its program for developing cultivars, providing the big breakthrough in breeding yellow-flowered magnolias. One of these special cultivars is located south of Wave Hill’s front gate, by the lower entrance to the Herbert & Hyonja Abrons Woodland. There the glorious Magnolia x ‘Elizabeth’ bears creamy yellow, sweetly scented flowers. This grand tree is a cross between M. acuminata and M. denudata.
A venerable specimen of this second variety is the white flowered beauty just inside the main entrance, on the lawn in front of Glyndor House. The day this photo was taken it was enjoying the petal-falling moment. Underneath its tall branches, gradually greening with new leaves as the white petals fall, someone has drawn up a chair for a splendid spring seat.
This post was contributed by Armina Del Toro, Wave Hill’s School Programs Manager.
The third year of the Wave Hill-Bronx Institute Salamander Project came to a close on Saturday, May 22, 2010. Salamander Project teens―25 students from MS280-Mosholu Parkway and MS 505-The Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice―and their families came to Wave Hill to watch the students describe their experiences and present their scientific findings for 2010. But before students and families began sharing, they had a chance to learn how a pesky weed could make for a tasty plate.
Salamander Project teens spent many hours this summer collecting data to determine the relationship between salamander populations and invasive plants―garlic mustard, chickweed, bedstraw and Japanese knotweed, to name just a few―in Riverdale Park. They had been curious about the name Garlic Mustard and some students were brave enough to take a nibble of the leaf to experience that garlicky taste. But it did not end there. One afternoon, with go-ahead from Wave Hill’s Director of Horticulture, Scott Canning, the teens spent an hour pulling garlic mustard weeds from Wave Hill’s Woodlands. Such was the students’ enthusiasm that they collected seven large bags in one hour.
Often repeated by the teens, the question “What do we do with all this garlic mustard?” got us thinking “What would Laurel and Charley do” (Laurel Rimmer is Wave Hill’s Assistant Director of Public Programs, and Charles Day the Ruth Rea Howell Horticultural Interpreter.) Cook with it? Why not?
Now, over the previous five weeks the students explored ways of disposing weeds and household vegetable products, investigating Wave Hill’s worm bin and learning that this was one way to mimic processes that naturally occur in the environment. After the worm bin, the students learned about the value of composting and other disposal methods. However, we had never discussed other methods of weed disposal, specifically what can be done with edible plants like Garlic Mustard.
Corinne Flax (Wave Hill Environmental Educator), Marjorie Lune (Bank Street Intern) and yours truly pulled and washed the garlic mustard leaves, prepared the blender, cut bread and laid out all the ingredients for Garlic Mustard Pesto. The delicious smell engulfed the entire room and even we were prone to sneak a taste.
The students were hesitant to taste it, but after carefully dipping a corner of bread into the pesto sauce, they took the ultimate plunge, giving the recipe a taste. There was much scrunching of faces at first, but then their eyebrows lifted and smiles appeared on their faces as almost everyone agreed “It’s not bad”! Some of the students even really liked the pesto―and all of the instructors thought it was delicious.
It was a fitting end to a great program and an invasive weed, proving that we have some great ideas for cooking with invasive plants…Move over Rachel Ray, we’ve got Pest to Pesto, Perfecto!
Pesto Petiolata (or Garlic-Mustard Pesto)
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons pine nuts or walnut pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, about 1 ounce
4 cups garlic mustard leaves (Alliaria petiolata) or 2 cups garlic mustard with 2 cups basil leaves
Place all of the ingredients except the basil in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Add the garlic mustard and/or basil a handful at a time. Blend until all of the greens are incorporated and the pesto is smooth. Makes about 1 cup.
We gratefully credit Whitewater Valley Land Trust for this inspired concoction!
This post was contributed by Armina Del Toro, Wave Hill’s School Programs Manager.
Two years ago, Wave Hill embarked on a partnership with Lehman College’s Bronx Institute; as a result, the Salamander Project was created. For the past two years, 7th and 8th grade students from The Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice (MS 505), and Mosholu Parkway’s MS 280 have come together for an unforgettable outdoor experience. This year marks the third year of this exciting partnership.
Meeting every Saturday for six weeks, Salamander Project students head out, rain or shine, to act as citizen scientists in search of the Red-backed (and Lead-backed) Salamander. What is a citizen scientist, you may ask yourself? Citizen scientists are usually people with little or no scientific training who volunteer time to do research for environmental institutions, as well as on local, national and international environmental initiatives. These volunteer opportunities are critical for compiling data and gathering statistical information about particularly sensitive areas and the species that inhabit them.
The salamander teens work in two areas of Riverdale Park in the Bronx. Site A is a restored site which has been thoroughly maintained by Wave Hill’s Forest Project for 30 years. Site B is an un-restored part of Riverdale Park that has been devoid of salamanders for quite some time. The students involved in the Salamander Project search for salamanders and develop hypotheses about the presence of salamanders, or lack thereof.
25 eager NYC teens, unfamiliar with the woods and their denizens, head into Riverdale Park and break up into teams to explore salamander populations in relation to invasive plant species, invertebrates and soil composition. They use large measuring tapes to set up 30-foot transects. Within these transects the students carefully flip every rock and sweep aside deep leaf litter as they carefully maneuver around the most dangerous of urban flora―poison ivy. (It helps to remember the old rhyme “Leaves of three let them be. Hairy rope, don’t be a dope”, to keep in mind the characteristics of poison ivy.)
The students call out to their teammates to remind them to watch their step. As a student gently turns over a rock or log there is a nervous excitement. Will there be a salamander underneath? Under the first log, a centipede scurries quickly to safety while a millipede curls up to hide from the light. No salamander. Under the next log, the students find nothing but some seeds sprouting and last year’s leaf skeletons. Recording their findings and slightly disappointed, they head over to the next rock. “Rock number five” calls out one of the team members as they quickly scan the underside. Suddenly, someone yells out “I found one!” Startled, the salamander pauses as though he were examining the students. With their gloved hands the students reach in, grab the salamander and quickly measure its body length and observe its color “Red-backed, 1 inch in length”.
Although there were some “Eww, salamanders are gross” in the beginning sessions, the students have now established a relationship with these animals and treat them like diamonds. In a forest ecosystem like Riverdale Park, that is exactly what salamanders are. Salamanders are known as bio-indicators or ecological indicators, because if they are present your forest is likely to be healthy. It is our hope that this experience will help students recognize their local environment and promote future stewards of the environment.
I am already looking forward to May 22, when the teens will present their findings in a final celebration of the Salamander Project. I hope that this is an experience they will remember well into adulthood.
Marjorie Lune is a Wave Hill School Programs Intern this spring. She is a student in the Bank Street Graduate School of Education’s Museum Education Program.
On my third day interning at Wave Hill, I went birdwatching for the first time with Dan Trudeau, a Wave Hill Environmental Educator, in preparation for an upcoming school program. We went over bird identification tools, and he shared a game that we play with the kids to introduce them to the different bird calls. And then we headed out with binoculars.
It was a cold, clear day, just right for birdwatching. Of course, some birds migrate so we knew we wouldn’t see as many different species as we will later on this spring. On the other hand, most of the trees are bare so the birds are easier to spot.
Immediately, Dan spotted a few European starlings up in the top of a tall tree. I could see them, but they were just small, dark figures. I tried to see them through the binoculars, but had a hard time switching between noticing the figure and placing them in my binoculars. I tried several times, but I struggled to focus on the same location.
I lowered my binoculars and looked around hoping to see something that would be easier to focus on. As I turned I saw a big bird flying high up in the sky behind the house. I said, “Look, there’s a bird, what’s that?” Dan turned to look where I was pointing and said, “That’s an American bald eagle!” I put the binoculars up again—and this time I immediately focused on the right place. I guess a bald eagle is more of a motivation than a starling. The eagle was just drifting and turning, floating on the currents of air. We watched him until he was out of our sight; he never flapped a wing. It was incredible. I’ve never seen a bald eagle in the wild before. It was so beautiful. I could clearly see the white head and tail feathers, and the way it turned on the wind.
When we could not see the eagle any longer, we moved on to see what other kinds of birds we could find. We heard some bluejays, and saw a robin, a couple of fat mockingbirds sitting in a bush and a little brown house sparrow hopping on the ground. As I was watching the sparrow, Dan suddenly said, “Oh wow!” I turned around just in time to see the eagle swooping low over the tops of some trees near Glyndor House. Dan ran up the stairs to the upper terrace of Wave Hill House to try to get a better look. I followed, just in time to see it glide up and back over toward the river. It was so exciting. One of Wave Hill’s gardeners told us that three of them had been seen that morning. It made us wonder whether we saw two different eagles or the same one twice.
This was my first official birdwatching expedition. I can’t believe that I was lucky enough to see an American bald eagle. I guess you could call it beginner’s luck.
Charles Day is the Ruth Rea Howell Horticultural Interpreter at Wave Hill.
Our popular woodland cooking series continued this spring when we were joined by Gary Lincoff of the New York Mycological Society. Gary introduced us to the world of wild mushrooms and fungi with a very informative and entertaining slide show. He was encouraging about collecting wild mushrooms but very clear about the possible dangers – one should not mess with mushrooms you don’t know as the results can be fatal! Chef Marc Spooner of Great Performances (Wave Hill’s exclusive caterer) then demonstrated two vegetable dishes that strongly featured wild mushrooms, such as hen-of-the-woods and king bolete. The “wild mushroom pasta with truffled cream sauce” was rich and delicious and the “peas and carrots” dish was a fresh-tasting and colorful assembly of tiny carrots, peas and baked wild mushrooms with a carrot and onion puree. Marc was delighted to share these recipes.
Wild Mushroom Pasta with Truffled Cream Sauce
1 lb. assorted wild mushrooms, washed, dried and stemmed
4 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
1 lb. spaghetti
1 large carrot, peeled, cut into brunoise pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced
4 oz. unsalted butter
24 oz. heavy whipping cream
½ bunch Italian parsley for garnish
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add the dried porcini mushrooms. Remove from heat and reserve. Prepare pasta according to the directions on the package and reserve. Blanch the diced carrot in boiling salted water until just done, strain and reserve. Strain the porcini mushrooms and reserve both the water and the mushrooms.
Place a pan over medium high heat and coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil. Sauté the minced garlic cloves and shallot until aromatic. Add the assorted wild mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste and cook until tender. Add the porcini mushrooms and 1 cup of the reserved porcini stock. Reduce liquid by half. Add the heavy cream and reduce by half. Add salt and pepper to taste to the sauce then add 2oz of the butter, the carrot and pasta. Toss to coat. If needed, add more of the reserved stock and butter until desired consistency is achieved. Drizzle with truffle oil, toss and plate. Garnish with few large sprigs of parsley.
Serves 4
Peas and Carrots
1 lb. large carrots cut into 2” pieces
1 medium yellow onion, peeled, and cut into 1” slices
2 qt vegetable stock or water
1 lb assorted mushrooms, washed, dried and stemmed
1 lb English peas, in shell
16 Thumbelina carrots (or assorted baby carrots)
8 oz pea tendrils
Olive oil, as needed
Salt and pepper
Pre-heat oven to 350˚F. Place carrots, onions and vegetable stock (or water) in a large pot over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook until fork tender. Do not boil, adjust heat as necessary. Strain the contents and reserve the liquid. Puree the carrots and onions adding some of the reserved stock as needed. Puree until the mixture is smooth and the consistency of mustard. Set aside and allow to cool.
Place mushrooms on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 350° F until tender. Set aside and allow to cool. Remove peas from shell and blanch in salted boiling water until tender. Strain and shock peas in a bowl of ice water, drain and reserve. Peel Thumbelina carrots and blanch in salted boiling water, until just done, strain and shock in a bowl of ice water, drain and reserve.
Assembly:
Place some of the carrot puree on the plate. In a bowl, toss the remaining ingredients with olive oil, salt and pepper (add herbs if desired). Arrange on plate.
Serves 4
Recipes courtesy of Mark Spooner of Great Performances.
Marilyn Young is the Horticulture Assistant at Wave Hill.
Fragrance has been called the voice of inanimate things, and like music, a fragrant garden can touch the emotions deeply.
The revered British gardener and author William Robinson advised (in his 1883 book The English Flower Garden) that one “who makes a garden should have a heart for plants that have the gift of sweetness as well as beauty of form or colour.”
At Wave Hill, Robinson’s wisdom has been well considered. From the cold-season scents of witchhazel and wintersweet to the freshness of magnolias and spring bulbs, the gardens resonate with special and welcome fragrances. May and June are heady with the scents of lilacs, lily-of-the-valley, wisteria, peonies, roses, pinks and honeysuckle.
The aromas in the “Touch & Smell Garden,” as Wave Hill Gardener Susannah Strazzera fondly calls the Herb Garden, grow increasingly tangible with the varied fragrances found in their leaves. Photographer Mick Hales wonderfully captures the equally fragrant Dry Garden next door, in this lovely portrait.
In the summer, the Herb Garden emits a delicious bouquet of lavender, lemon verbena, thyme, basil and pineapple sage. The Dry Garden is also full of scented plants, including salvias, artemisias and santolinas, all thriving in the summer heat. At the lower entrance to the Shade Border, Magnolia grandiflora, an evergreen tree also grown as a wall shrub on Glyndor House, has large white blooms that gently perfume the summer breezes.
Scent, technically the oxidation of essential oils, can be elusive. It can come wafting across the air, seductively as a night bloomer, or more directly when you burrow you face in a blossom. A plant’s Latin name can tip you off as to how it smells. For example, the spicy Ribes odoratum, fruity Daphne odora and sweet Lonicera fragrantissma offer delightful pleasures, but beware of the “evil” odors lurking in plants with foetidus or hircine in their name. Serissa foetida, for instance, is a stinky topiary that has been on summer display in the Flower Garden. “Nose-twisters” is the name given by Louise Beebe Wilder, in her wonderful and informative book The Fragrant Path, to flowers with a peppery note to their sweetness. Taken from Nasturtiums, an old Latin word derived from the words narsus (the nose) and tortus (twisted), “Nose-twisters” can be invigorating and refreshing, as Wilder found with the odors of marigold, calendula, chrysanthemum and tansy.
Whether pleasant or pungent, fragrant plants are a wonderful way to make a garden more enjoyable and because smell is so intimately linked with memory, ones experience of aromatic plants is often unforgettable.
Don’t miss the sweet peas growing in large pots placed at the entrance to the Palm House.
Paula Morvay is Nature & Arts Programs Manager at Wave Hill.
What do you get when you place a group of teachers, a lawyer, an engineer and an artist together? If you were at Wave Hill last Sunday, you would have seen this eclectic group, drawing board at the ready; pencils in hand, taking in the breathtaking vista of the Hudson River through the delicate branches of the emerging deciduous woodland. In Study with Artists is an adult workshop series offered at Wave Hill this spring. Artists from our current contemporary art exhibition lead the public in art-making, using a variety of mediums and materials. Emily Brown, who led this session, started in Glyndor Gallery, where she discussed her background and the stages that informed and inspired her work for Wave Hill’s Arbores Venerabilis exhibition. Participants then headed outside to find the spot that would inspire them and provide what many of them expressed as an excuse to be outdoors drawing, unencumbered by daily chores and responsibilities.
Many spoke of the serenity and beauty of the surroundings and how this environment allowed for creativity to flourish. Each participant brought a unique perspective in rendering the landscape, enjoying Emily’s feedback and suggestions. As the “artist-lawyer” explained, “I have always liked art. I started working full-time last year and find being outdoors a calm way to spend the day.” She mentioned a younger son who also enjoys art. When she was asked if he would enjoy participating in these workshops, she exclaimed, “Well, that would defeat the purpose for me of getting away from it all!” The next In Study with Artists is on Sunday, May 17, when Rebecca Allan teaches about home-made charcoal and leads us on a creative exploration of this velvety medium.
