New York Palms

[Matt in OC]

Who knew that NYC would have a fantastic botanical garden conservatory for palms? I wasn't sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised by the NY Botanical Gardens conservatory. The Chihuly exhibit was a nice bonus this time of year, and beautiful weather! Enjoy!

[Matt in OC]

And apparently, property owners in NYC think that June is a good time to bring out tropicals as annuals! I saw Cordylines, crotons, a few Dypsis, Raveneas, Hyophorbes and Adonidias.

[Dave-Vero]

NYBG has had researchers working in Latin America and elsewhere around the tropics for a century or more.  

[XYZ]

Nice stuff with remarkably little black-tipping.

Have to admit that in my view Chihuly eccentric glass pieces larding American BGs has become a cliché. They're everywhere. Some bright, cutting edge landscape design wallah needs to unscratch this record and find something new and less predictable for public gardens to play with.

J

[Dave-Vero]

There's a fairly standard botanical garden art circuit.  Patrick Dougherty's building-sized wicker sculptures have been hits.  I saw an early installation at a museum in Jacksonville maybe 30 years ago; he did one at the North Carolina Botanical Garden maybe 3 or 4 years ago, and one in Vero Beach a year ago.  Quite charming and fun, and good art.  Then there's the legos, and dinosaurs and whatnot.

The Washington Post (Adrian Higgins) thought the NYBG exhibit worth a story, but he was careful to point out that the NY art elite have never much liked Chihuly.  I got to see him in person, at that same Jacksonville museum, years ago.  He's largely putting on the same shows ever since, though with more room and of course lots of new pieces.  I was in Seattle in December 2015 to visit the Bellevue Botanical Garden's holiday light show, which is amazing.  Going downtown to see the Chihuly exhibit was nice, but left me all the more impressed by the people who put on the Bellevue show, almost entirely plants and critters assembled from strings of lights.  

I think Bellevue had an outdoor palm or two, but they've put a lot of emphasis on native species.  They don't have a conservatory.  There's lots of really happy Trachycarpus nearby.  The Red Lion Inn on the Interstate was particularly good, but I didn't get a photo.

[cm05]

Wow. I never knew such a place existed here, I might have to make a trip. Nice pics btw.

But I've seen all types of palms in the ground or in pots at businesses and other attractions. Majesty's (most common), Spindles, Bottles, Pygmys, Adonidias, Coconuts, Washingtonias, Livistona chinensis, Dypsis decaryi, Dypsis lutescens, Chamaedorea cataractarum, Chamaedorea seifrizii....

A few years ago I remember riding through downtown Brooklyn and a street median was lined with Dypis decaryi underplanted with other tropical plants. It looked like downtown LA.

[Darold Petty]

It's tough to take public transit from Manhattan to the NYBG.  The subway takes forever.  I don't remember the details but I think the most effective method was to go down  to mid-town and take a train.  Beautiful gardens, and well worth the trip.

[kinzyjr]

Thank you for sharing the wonderful pictures.  One thing that has always impressed me is that needle palm growing in BBG for so long.  Go NYC!

[Josh-O]

awesome NYC habitat photos!!