PLANT SURPRISES

Just when I think I know almost everything about gardening in Manhattan, I find out I don't.
On the roof of Milbank Hall, at the northern end of the Barnard College campus, 116th & Broadway, sits the Arthur Ross Greenhouse. It was built for students and teachers in the Biology department, for research and demonstration. AND it's open to the public free of charge on Wednesday afternoons from 1-3pm. If you go, you'll get an informative guided tour from either the greenhouse coordinator Krystyna Bucharowski, or one of her student assistants. It's great for the visitor to get all questions answered and great for the plant collection that visitors don't get a chance to pinch a vanilla pod in passing.Above, pods ripening on the vanilla bean vine (Vanilla fragrans) that reaches almost to the top of the greenhouse.
The main section of the greenhouse contains the tropicals. I saw many varieties new to me, like this great white bird of paradise (Streletzia augusta); I've only ever seen the orange one in the florist trade.The greenhouse hosts tours from schools in the neighborhood, and of course kids are fascinated by the food plants, like sugar cane, coffee bean and vanilla. But they also gravitate toward plants that DO something, like the sensitive plant whose leaves curl up at a touch, or the carniverous pitcher plant (Nepenthes alata) that collects water and insects in its vessels and 'eats' them.
I was waiting to go to the Arthur Ross Greenhouse 'til the dead of winter this year, when I most crave the sight and smell of plants, but winter never happened, so instead I went with LRK, one of my BFF who is a Barnard Alum, and visiting from the North. An excellent Judge of people and
their crimes, but no judge of plants, she was concerned that this Ruscus had bugs, until Ms. Bucharowski assured us they were only the flower buds, and what looks like leaf is really the stem.Above, plants that require a dry atmosphere have a room of their own, as do plants for special research.

So go to learn, go with your kids, grand kids, or BFF's. To arrange a group tour or to make sure the greenhouse isn't closed for school break, contact Kbucharo@barnard.edu, 212-854-5897.

THE FLOWER SHOW

In Philadelphia if it's the first week of March, get ye to the Convention Center. The latest trends in garden design, like green roofs and vertical gardens.
Ideas for planting an herb garden in a window box. (all photos from previous shows;I won't be in Philly for another week yet.)

My gardening year has revolved around the Philadelphia Flower Show since I was 5. First as an awed child being taken to the old Civic Center; then as a young adult desperate for the first breath of spring, as a Mother with children in tow begging for a plant or seeds, still later as farmer with a booth in the Market Place hoping to sell my crop of dried flowers and herbs and my own books, many times as a speaker or book promoter.
Admire prize-winning specimen plants like the lemon scented geranium, Pelargonium 'Prince Rupert'

Lounge on a chair if you're tired.
Hundreds of thousands of people go home with bunches of fresh pussy willow, the favorite crop of the Market Place.

The Flower Show is an inspiration, a place to learn from fabulous speakers, listen to live music, disagree with the judges, taste food at the Reading Terminal Market.

The end of the show means spring is officially come; it's a calendar marker for me to plant seeds. My sweet peas will go in the soil the day after I come home from the show, and I'll plant zinnia seeds in a tray on the window sill during the week after that.

The show runs from Sunday March 4 through Sunday March 11. For times, speakers and a schedule of special events go to the Penna. Hort. Society site.

Look for a 15% discount on Amtrak, the best way to get to the Convention Center.

The time when it's least crowded: after three p.m. any weekday.

the plant fanatic

Some of you may have noticed that Other Ellen has been carrying extra weight around here lately. I've been travelling (and still am), and I've also been working on a new project: a short weekly segment for NPR station WJFF.

WJFF operates out of Jeffersonville, NY, in the Catskills. It has the distinction of being the only hydroelectrically powered radio station in the country, and it's close to my house in Shohola, PA.

My segment is called The Plant Fanatic, and it's part of the Farm & Country show, which airs every Saturday morning at 7:30. If you're in the neighborhood, you can tune in at 90.5 FM. It's also available on Time Warner Cable Digital Channel 541 or streaming online from the WJFF website. You can listen anytime by going to the station's archives and downloading an episode or signing up for a podcast. I'd love to be able to post my pieces here, but Blogger doesn't allow posting of mp3s. Why, Blogger, why?

The Plant Fanatic is just a small portion of this 30 minutes show. I get two minutes per show and Oh! My! God! it is REALLY hard to keep it to two minutes. I edit my copy like a maniac, then talk exceedingly fast to fit everything in.

I've been an NPR addict for years, and I'm thrilled to now be a contributor.

(If anyone has a suggestion for how to post mp3s, WITHOUT creating another account somewhere on the cloud or turning the audio into a video, please let me know!)

ART, SEEDS and DRINK

Plant-o-Rama at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is the midwinter extravaganza for serious gardeners. This year I had the pleasure of meeting folks from The Hudson Valley Seed library. Initially attracted by the art on their seed packs, I met Doug Muller who with Ken Greene is the force behind the program. I heard their story and was delighted to know that they'll have an Art Exhibit at the Hort. Society of NY, with the opening reception this Friday 2/17 from 6-8 PM. The exhibit itself runs until March 2, 2012 with a pop-up shop to buy the seeds.
Hudson Valley Seed Library grows, collects, and sells over 200 varieties of heirloom flower, herb, and vegetable seeds in packs decorated by artists submitting to an annual competition.The seeds are open-pollinated, no hybrids or genetically modified seeds, saved by members of the Seed Library. To join the on-line community, see the catalog, and learn more about planting and saving seeds, visit seedlibrary.org.For more information on the gallery opening and buying seeds locally, visit the Hort. Society of NY.

FEBRUARY LETTUCE, NYC

On May 30, 2011, I had the pleasure of cutting some small leaves for a salad. I enjoyed the irony of 'Wine Country Mesclun' advertised as "straight from the Napa Valley" growing in a container on my roof in Manhattan. I once lived in California 30 miles from the Napa Valley and I know that Third Ave. it ain't.
That same spring I planted 'Monet's Garden Mesclun' from seeds I'd also been given to try by Renee's Garden Seeds.I don't use any dressing on my salads so I taste the flavor of the pure ingredients. Both of these mescluns were DELICIOUS and ridiculously easy to grow by just broadcasting seeds in containers and covering with 1/4 in. of soil.
By mid-summer, the lettuces had gone to seed, as they do in full sun and high heat.
Partly because I'm the laziest gardener extant, partly because I'm thrilled with nature's ability to replant without needing a gardener, I left the old stalks where they were. Ugly, right?By Sept. 30 new seedlings had emerged from the soil and I had visions of a second crop before winter. But these guys didn't seem to grow, just muddled along though the holiday season and our extraordinarily warm winter. Today in a light dusting of snow they're slightly bigger, and I hope to have a harvest in March.I keep watching; better than a Broadway show. Of course not so beautiful as lettuces in the Louise Loeb Vegetable Garden at the NYBG, laid out in neat rows, but MINE, ALL MINE. (O.K., not all mine, I must share with others in the building, but you know what I mean.)
This season I'll be trying Renee's Wasabi Arugula for it's spicy leaves and edible white blossoms. Visit: Reneesgarden.com for their selection of 20 lettuce varieties with planting instructions for each.

A GEM OF A SHOW

Back, back, back in the day, every florist sold dish gardens to give as gifts, a miniature garden in a bowl with three or more small house plants crammed together with a cheap ceramic figurine.
The plant choices where never well thought out, each having different sun/shade and water requirements. Within a month one plant usually took over and the others died. I HATED dish gardens as a kid.
But I was enchanted by the Terrarium Exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery through Feb. 26. Though they reminded me of dish gardens, they were both simpler and more sophisticated. Many are planted in lidded glass, but some in open containers, even fish tanks.Designed by Jennifer Williams, a staff designer for the BBG, each seemed like a private world to inhabit, and one made for city apartments.click on the sign above to enlarge for reading.
We need all the help with survival we can get.On seeing this exhibit, I thought that any kid I know would beg to plant a terrarium for his own, and I yearned to have my granddaughters with me.

Shall we dance? Just a little moss with branches and bracken.
For more information visit the bbg blog.

NEW USDA ZONE MAP

Conservatory Garden, Central Park, NYC, Jan. 30
I used to garden in NE Pennsylvania where I had my Flower and Herb farm. It was in Horticultural Zone 5B at the time, showing that the average daily low temperature was-15 to -5 F. The new USDA horticultural Zone map published last week shows that that area of the coal region is now in Zone 6B.
When I moved to NYC, I was in Zone 6B. Now I garden in zone 7B according to the new USDA map. The data on which the map is based comes from 8,000 weather stations across the U.S. and shows that average low temps have shifted about 5 degrees upward since 1990. In practical terms it means that plants you once coveted for your garden may now be hardy; plants once on the hardiness borderline for your garden will probably now survive. Click here to see the new zone map.
The last map was released by the USDA in 1990; the new one is online and interactive. Once you go to the site and enter the captcha letters which are case sensitive, enter your zip code for a zone reading that takes into account altitude, winds, and other factors.
MicroclimatesWhat the map can never take into account are your microclimates, warmer or colder spots in your own garden. I garden in NYC on a windy roof top so what is that zone? I compensate for the wind by placing a precious crimson bark maple near a south-facing brick wall where it will be protected.
When I visited the Conservatory Garden in Central Park yesterday, I walked down the flight of 18 steps from street level at 5th Ave. to a nice sunken, protected bowl. Clumps of crocus leaves are nicely formed, the daffodil foliage has sprouted and the quince bushes have started to bloom. On my street, only 28 city blocks but a world away, these bulbs are still hidden underground and the quince buds are hardly swollen.
On a garden tour of San Antonio TX ten years ago I was startled to learn that the famous River Walk meandering through the downtown was a whole Zone warmer than the sidewalk at street level, a one 'story' above.
So read the new map, pay attention, then evaluate your own space and take whatever risks you want.
It's a Wrap
If your climate is really too cold for your tree you can always wrap it to keep warm like this one on York Ave.