Blog Memories: May at the NYBG
While my blog team is away this week, enjoy this encore blog originally posted on May 16, 2025.
There's no better place to find gardening ideas and inspirations than at a botanical garden, especially the New York Botanical Garden - a national historic landmark and major educational institution.
If you haven't yet been to the NYBG, I encourage you to visit. There’s always something beautiful to see - right now, its perennial plants collection, herbaceous peonies, and many of its mature trees, shrubs, and hedges are lush with spring growth. The gardening season is just beginning - stop by and get inspired.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- This is the magnificent Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where many of the indoor plant exhibitions are held. As the nation’s largest Victorian glasshouse, it is among the grandest indoor spaces in the world.
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- Originally constructed in 1902, the steel and glass Conservatory includes a 90-foot tall domed Palm Gallery and 10 attached glasshouse galleries.
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- Just outside the Conservatory is a perennial garden featuring a series of themed areas of plants, planted in pots and in the ground. It is a blend of perennials, grasses, bulbs, shrubs, and trees that flower through the year.
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- This is a variegated yellow-twig dogwood, Cornus sercea ‘Silver and Gold’ – a dogwood variety that is grown for its bold variegated foliage and its yellow winter stems.
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- If you’re looking for interesting grasses, this is a golden-variegated Hakone grass, Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola.’ Ornamental grasses require little maintenance. It thrives best in a location with partial shade and moist, well-drained soil rich in organic matter.
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- This is a beautybush, Kolkwitzia amabilis ‘Pink Cloud’ in full bloom. This tree is a member of the honeysuckle family and boasts clusters of bell-shaped, pink flowers with yellow throats in mid-spring.
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- Recognize this perennial? I have these plants growing at my farm. It’s Heuchera, also known as coral bells. This variety is ‘Midnight Rose” with dark purple to almost black leaves and pink spots that change color in summer.
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- Blooming now is the Siberian iris. This is Iris sibirica ‘Christmas Wish.’ These dainty irises with their smaller, beardless flowers are easy-to-grow and drought-tolerant.
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- Here is one of the NYBG’s well-manicured parterres. A parterre is an area usually seen with boxwood hedging surrounding perennials, herbs, and other flowers.
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- Potted up on a wall of an edible garden are these charming Johnny Jump-Ups – small, sweet, whimsical flowers that come in shades of yellow, purple, and white. It’s also known as Wild Pansy, Heart’s Ease, or Viola tricolor. And yes, these flowers can be eaten.
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- Here’s my head gardener kneeling next to a hedge of Lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis – a wild flowering plant with sweetly scented, pendent, bell-shaped white flowers. It is native to cool regions of Europe, North America, and Asia.
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- It’s peony time! Visiting the NYBG now, one will see the row of beautiful, sweet-smelling herbaceous peonies. Even after several days of rain, these blooms are still so eye-catching.
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- These peonies are called ‘Pink Kisses.’ They are smaller, deep pink flowers that grow abundantly with about two or three buds per stem. The blooms grow up to 26-inches tall and are quite fragrant.
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- This light pink Chinese peony is ‘Pink Venus.’ It is a semi-double peony in soft cameo pink. It’s blooms grow up to six-and-a-half inches wide with red tipped stigmas and good stem strength.
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- Paeonia ‘Coral Charm’ has huge bowl shaped flowers with bold coral color. The color lightens to a pale cream deeper into the bloom.
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- And Paeonia ‘Festiva Maxima’ is a double, white peony with edges accented with crimson. This variety is a longtime favorite for growers – it originated in France in 1851.
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- Peony ‘ Chiffon Clouds’ is a very soft salmon color with ruffled petals. It grows to 36-inches in height with good stem strength, fragrance, and reliable foliage.
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- Paeonia ‘Kevin’ has large, double pink blooms that show lighter pink in the center. It makes an excellent cut flower.
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- This peony variety is called ‘Buckeye Belle.’ It’s a semi-double, velvety, dark red flower held on sturdy stems.
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- And this is ‘Burma Joy’ – soft red blossoms that are single and tulip-cupped shaped that grow to a height of up to 28-inches. If you’re in the New York City area this weekend, go to the New York Botanical Garden -there’s so much to see, enjoy, and learn.
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