With the frosts, it's time

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With the frosts, it’s time….➤ Read More

It's been a heck of a week!

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It’s been a heck of a week!➤ Read More

The winter solstice

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07:59 PST (15:59 UTC). The winter solstice. It's here. Some mistletoe, Viscum album, from De Historia Stirpium. This sumptuously illustrated herbal was published in 1542 by none other than our Leonhart Fuchs, namesake of the Fuchsia. Now on to brighter, longer days!➤ Read More

After the frost

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The fuchsias were brushed by frost a few days ago. Ordinarily this might be the end but I was struck by the faded beauty of the blossoms, muted by the cold with shades of their former selves. Some have taken on almost gem-like translucent tones of amethyst….➤ Read More

Cleveland under cover

A brief visit to Cleveland. You've long wanted to take in its botanical garden. The perfect opportunity. But it's not summer. It's the middle of January. And a blizzard has just swept through two days before dropping almost two feet of snow….➤ Read More

Keeping winter at bay with orchids

As winter storm Harper spread snow, ice and rain throughout the Northeast, the orchids were standing tough. Well, inside the Rutgers University's Douglass Student Center in New Brunswick, NJ anyway. It's the North Jersey Orchid Society's annual show and sale this weekend….➤ Read More

A November to remember

Well…. What can you say? What was supposed to be simple rain is now a full blown snow storm! This is, of course, quite a bit unseasonably early for New York. It's still Fall. The leaves are only just starting to turn. It's also the outer, early edge of a first frost. Who's ready for this….➤ Read More

The white tide recedes

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What a difference a week of vaguely normal weather can make. Temperatures above freezing all last week, a little rain here and there, and the white tide recedes. Good riddance, you miserable Winter of 2015. Hello Spring!➤ Read More

The great plunge of January

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The really cold part of the winter usually has the good sense to wait until sometime in January before annoying us. Well, right on the heels of the Three Kings, it’s here. Some assorted scenic snowfalls and then The Plunge blew in. Thanks guys. The snow was a nice present but...➤ Read More

Between the years

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Since well before the holiday last week, the weather’s still been pretty mild here. That’s not really all that unusual. In spite of the plunge in November, the really cold snaps usually have the good sense to wait until the New Year’s...➤ Read More

Festive sidewalks

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I walk to work. I mean, I could take a bus if I really wanted to. But I don’t. There’s no point to cramming myself into one at rush hour when I can just walk the same route almost as quickly as a city bus can inch along it...➤ Read More

Darkness falls so early now

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The end of daylight time is only a week past but it seems like much of the world disappeared when the switch was flipped off. Early evening a couple of days ago and Central Park was already mostly abandoned...➤ Read More

The search for spring

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It’s been a long, tiresome winter this year. I’m sure you’ve had enough of it as well. Monday afternoon was finally blue and heavenly. 64 degrees in Central Park. I was really feeling spring in the air...➤ Read More

The fuchsias are coming. But will spring be ready?

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Since the depths of January, there hasn’t been much new going on outside. It's been basically the same pattern. Freeze. Snow. Freeze. Snow. Freeze. The over-wintering pots of fuchsias are… well… still impatiently over-wintering and...➤ Read More

The indomitable spirit of the fuchsia

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It seems like this winter just won’t end. Snow, snow, freezing polar vortices, and then more snow. Just when I thought we had finally rounded the frozen bend this past week, the temperatures are scheduled to drop...➤ Read More

Prisoners of the snow

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The Garden remains encased in snow but my windmill palm seeds finally arrived in the mail. I’ve been coveting Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Wagnerianus’ for a while. This was even my second attempt to get my hands...➤ Read More

P.S. And then the snow finally arrived

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That foreboding winter storm, incongruously identified with Hercules, finally arrived late Friday night. I would have preferred calling it after Ganglati, servant to goddess of the frozen northern underworld, Hel, but...➤ Read More

Happy New Year! It's into the freeze now

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I woke this new morning to find a beautiful dusting of snow covering the garden, like powdered sugar on a spice cake. We’re off to a fine start for the New Year! Except that there’s already six to eight inches of snow...➤ Read More

Getting ready for the cold. And, suddenly, silence

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The final cleanup of fall always seems to take me by surprise. Especially when the weather has had that golden crispness that usually settles in sometime during autumn here, when the summer’s heat and humidity have fallen back south. The City comes into its own then...➤ Read More

The vireya rhododendrons at Planting Fields

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The vireyas are in bloom again and right now is the time to take in their deletable beauty in the Camellia House at Planting Fields Arboretum on Long Island. The Arboretum has a very under-appreciated bevy of vireya species and cultivars....➤ Read More

What? The nectarines are in bloom already?

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The Estate Fruit House, part of the vast West Conservatory Complex at Longwood Gardens, is a carefully heated and ventilated greenhouse used for forcing crop plants...➤ Read More

Those sexy winter witch hazels

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After visiting the Philly Flower Show last week, I wandered over to Longwood Gardens to check out what’s blooming in the Conservatory. It took awhile because the siren winter witch hazels…➤ Read More

Nemo the White

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Blizzard Nemo was billed as a snow storm of historic proportions well before it got here late on Friday night. It was certainly epic. Just not within New York City. The great blizzard of 1996…➤ Read More

The blizzard hits Carl Schurz Park. Twice

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Blizzard Nemo passed through the City overnight and fairly quickly. By 8:00 am the next morning the skies were clearing rapidly. By 9:00 am they were brilliant blue...➤ Read More

Late afternoon on the High Line

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The winter sky was clear and the sunset looked to be promising so my friend and I couldn’t resist a detour on the walk home to take a stroll along the High Line before...➤ Read More

The winter spa treatment

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On warmer days and nights that don't go below breezing, I sometimes set some of the plants back outside to take in the spa of cool, refreshing air. Right now...➤ Read More

The long winter's nap

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It's the beginning of January right now. Despite the incredible loop we were thrown by Hurricane Sandy just before Halloween last October, the weather this past fall has been a...➤ Read More

A winter's walk through the BBG

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I was at the Brooklyn Museum a week ago or so to see a closing exhibition one last time and took the opportunity to stroll around the Brooklyn Botanic Garden…➤ Read More