The Conservatory Garden in September

Our brief residence in Harlem (late 2013 - 2015) and proximity to Central Park introduced me to the early autumn fireworks of the Conservatory Garden in the park's northeast corner (it is very different, but no less colorful, in spring). 

The Frenchman and I walked down there from 127th Street one September, to find tiny hummingbirds vibrating from plant to plant. Recently, we returned, all grown up, driving an actual car. (And paying $22 for three hours of metered street parking. Yikes). The Frenchman has treated himself to a new camera lens, and he needed lightning-fast hummers to test it (it passed the test).

I just wanted to see the flowers. 

If I ever had a prejudice against annuals - and I did, dismissing them as semi-industrialized bedding plants, planted in blocks or rows of thoughtless and often offensive color - this icon of New York horticulture cured me. Thanks to its curator, Diane Schaub, I get them, now.

But first, perennials: In the dappled shade of a magnolia, tall, red-flowered angelica was in bloom.

So were Japanese anemones, at their graceful peak.

And right above me, a tiny hummingbird, taking a brief break from her voracious quest for nectar, her resting heart rate a mere 400 beats per minute.

Ruellia: Slender stalks and willowy leaves with silky purple flowers offset against sturdy zinnias.

If you like salvia, this is the place to be. And September should be declared salvia  month.

Zinnias are deployed dramatically, here, providing structure and pink reassurance.

As well as sustenance for swallowtails.

These clumps of alliums were buzzing with honey bees. I know! More perennials! If you have full sun (meaning six hours or more of direct sunlight), and space, plant alliums. There's almost an allium for every month, starting in May.

Cannas, salvia, pennisetum, hot little pops of gomphrena...

And just for South Africans, bulbine. whose gel-filled leaves are a traditional southern African treatment for burns and skill ailments, but whose vivid orange flowers are now very popular, Stateside (and invasive, in some states; sorry, Florida!). Bees like them, too. I have a pot on our tiny terrace, for kitchen burns and terrace pollinators.

We will be back. October is just as rewarding. But we'll find different parking!

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NYBG Class, 15 October

Forage walks

Bayberry

Roller coaster weather. Overnight, we have gone from many minuses below freezing to the balmy 50's, with rain. Yesterday's pretty snow has been washed away.

View from Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park

I will be leading a wild plant walk this Saturday, the 20th in Brooklyn Bridge Park (3pm-4pm), on behalf of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. Because they are underwriting this walk the tickets are a mere $5, and the walk is a sensible (for February!) one hour. More info here (you need to book).

What will we see in their stripped winter glory? Bayberries, sweetfern, chokeberry, rosehips and Kentucky coffee trees. For a start. Plus some pretty spectacular harbor and Manhattan views.

The weather promises to be nice, just above 50'F, and there will be sun. They say.

Dead Horse Bay

My own spring walks, packed with fresh-made snacks (if I ever get that alpaca I will call it Paktwithsnax) kick off in April, when the green world is waking up.

Invasive garlic mustard

We will be visiting Prospect Park, Central Park, Fort Tryon, Inwood Hill Park and Dead Horse Bay. Much more info about how I lead walks, and these specific locations in the link below:

Spring Wild Foods Walks, New York

Invasive lesser celandine

New Year's Day Forage Walk

North Woods, Central Park

So here is a new thing:

I will lead a wild flavors walk in the teeth of winter, on New Year's Day, 2016.

(A whole month from now  - collective gasp. Yes, next year is one month away.)

We have seen a year of global surprises and sorrow. A New Year's Day walk is a clean, cold and wild way to begin 2016.

Cattails - Typha spp, at the Harlem Meer

I should add that walking in the cold has never bothered me. This is why we have clothes, after all, but I know it's not for everyone.

If there is snow, all the better, but it can't be promised.

North Woods

North Woods Frigid Forage
1 January 2016
1pm - 3pm
$35

What will we see? you ask, with raised eyebrows.

We will see fragrant spicebush, whose twigs are packed with flavor in cold weather. We will see the skeletons of Japanese knotweed and the ghosts of pokeweeds past, whose luscious edible spring shoots will emerge 14 weeks later.

Pokeweed - Phytolacca americana

We will see the shadow of Cornelian cherries and sumac silhouettes, and serviceberry trees. We will find furry wineberry canes and rigid catbriar.

All in the waiting winter landscape that makes possible the temperate explosion of spring.

The same route will be repeated in late April - the contrast is stunning.

Jetbead - Rhodotypos scandens, not for eating

We will only cancel this walk in the event of a bona fide blizzard. As usual confirmation emails will be sent out in the week before the walk, with last-minute weather or MTA updates on the morning of, if bad weather is looming and a transport shutdown imminent.

North Woods

Needless to say, dress for the weather. The snack will be warm, in the form of a hot, wild-inspired soup.

We meet at 1pm sharp on the SW corner of Central Park North and Lenox Avenue, under the empty gingko tree.

WALK COMPLETE

A bird's life

This is the early bird on the Constantia patio. A young thrush, fearless, hungry, full of hop.

I will channel the thrush today as I start early, interviewing a woman I have admired from a distance and for a very long time, through her gardens. She invited me for a walk and tea, even though she does not know me and I called her out of the blue. I am looking forward to the tea being coffee (we'll be at a hotel, so no worries) as I just found to my horror that tomorrow's Illy tin is bare. Gulp. Terrible way to start a day. (But knowing about it now is better than only discovering it as I unscrew the espresso pots parts from one another in the morning...)

Then it's off to shop for Tuesday's lunch-under-the-tree ingredients; my mother turns 81, and I'll be the lunch cook. We'll have chilled tomato and tomato leaf consommé; a modern but old fashioned aspic of avocado and shrimp - the jelly will be flavoured with a local fynbos shrub, Coleonema, which is very citrusy; then crispy roast lamb ribs with another local plant, the succulent spekboom, chopped into sour submission as a gremolata; and finally, frozen strawberry soufflé .

I think there are worse ways to be busy.

Autumn in the hood

Happening right now on a rainy night in Harlem: smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) vodka shaken up with a lick of maple syrup (cocktail name...help?). Since I didn't collect and make the maple syrup myself I'll omit botanical name. But you should talk to our friend, Steve...

Puffballs (Calvatia fragilis) and meadow mushrooms (Agaricus campestris) sauteeing. In the oven, hen of the woods (Grifola frondosa) are roasting...

...wild mushroom risotto for supper.

A showcase for annuals

A recent chance walk in the Conservatory Garden's English Garden, in the northwestern part of Central Park, made me think about annuals in a very different light. Annuals can be used very badly. In unironic rows at the edges of beds, for example.

And they can be used very well. See above, to illustrate the point. Bouvardia ternifolia is the bright orange flower, the purple sweet potato vine with the cut leaves is Ipomea ‘Bewitched’; the purple grass is Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum', and the lime green striped leaves are no longer Coleus, but Solenostemon ‘The Line’ or ‘Gay’s Delight’ (same thing).

Above, Perilla 'Magilla' and Melianthus major (yay, South Africa in the house!). 

I was very fortunate to be walked through the garden a couple of days after my first visit, by its curator, Diane Schaub, a very patient woman who rattled off plant names as I scribbled furiously. And it is she who responsible for the plant choices and pairings. 

I won't tell you more because you can read all about it, with lots more pictures (these are the leftovers), and lots more names, on Gardenista, soon. 

I am looking at my own terrace with a gleam in my eye, now. That's Perilla 'Magilla' again. 

Cardoons (Cynara cardunculus) and lime yellow zinnias ('Envy') are cool and silly together. 

The gorgeous leaves of Tibouchina grandifolia.

And in the outer beds, where there are more shrubs and perennials, the lovely, fading flowers of oak leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia).

The annuals will come out in three weeks time. In time for bulbs to be planted. 45,000 of them.

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* The Next Wild Edibles Walk *