From the Horticultural Society of NY. I heard Lynden speak on this topic last week at Plant-o-Rama at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She’s excellent. She will probably have copies of her new book for sale: “Parks, Plants, and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape.”

“Wednesday, February 17
The Social and Economic Benefits
of City Beautification
An illustrated lecture with Lynden Miller

REGISTER ONLINE TODAY!
Lynden Miller, a public garden designer and former painter, has changed the face of New York City’s public parks.

Her lecture tells the story of the restoration and design of many previously neglected and avoided public spaces in New York, such as Bryant Park, and the effect these now-beautiful places have on the city around them. She will speak about design and plants but also emphasize the larger picture of what plants can be used for: to soften and civilize city life, and to change the way people behave and treat each other.

(Photos from the Hort Society. This looks like the Perennial Garden at NY Botanical Garden in the fall.)

Public space must be designed for the needs of the people who will use them. She will show the “befores” and “afters” of various different projects around the city, how they are funded, and what effects they have had on city life in New York. Well-designed and well-maintained parks also contribute to economic growth in surrounding neighborhoods, providing tax benefits, encouraging tourism, and reducing crime.

Presented in partnership with the New York Chapter of The American Society of Landscape Architects
Doors open at 6pm
Lecture start promptly at 6:30pm
At The HSNY Library
$15 for ASLA & HSNY members; $20 for non-members
REGISTER ONLINE or call (212) 757-0915×100
The Horticultural Society of New York | 148 West 37th Street, 13th Floor | New York, NY 10018 | (212) 757-0915

News from Duncan Brine:

“Take part in a presentation and discussion of  landscape and gardens with designer Duncan Brine at the New York Botanical Garden. On Wednesday, February 17, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Brine, principal landscape designer of Horticultural Design, Inc., leads a seminar, Site Character, an Approach to Creative Design.

Be inspired by your landscape and garden’s potential. Brine bases design decisions on the characteristics of the site, not imported, conventional style or structure. Seminar topics include connecting spaces and framing views to motivate movement through landscape. Images of the Brine’s garden illustrate his approach.

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(The Brine Garden in winter, Credit: © gardenlarge.com)

Although he has traveled to gardens in Europe and Asia, Brine pursues methods to make regional American landscape and gardens. His methods apply to gardens of all sizes, although his garden and many of his client projects are large.

Duncan Brine lives, gardens, and runs his landscape design business, Horticultural Design, Inc., on six acres in Pawling, N.Y., the site of a former dairy farm. By the standards of most home gardeners, his is a large garden. And in his garden, he gardens largely, in a style he calls “structured naturalism.”

From Ellen Heidelberger:
“February 2010

Saturday, February 13, 9:00 am
Field Trip: Winter Owl Prowl
Various locations in Westchester & NYC metro area
Meet Saw Mill River Audubon at the Millwood A&P parking lot (at intersection of Routes 100 and 133) for carpooling. We expect to visit several different sites depending on where the owls are, including Jones Beach and Pelham Bay. Call 914.666.6503 or e-mail office@sawmillriveraudubon.org to find out the final itinerary and to let us know your plans.
Sponsored in part by a grant from Con Edison.

a note from our calendar folks:
2-4 p.m. Feb. 20

Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center, 1271 Hanover St., Yorktown
Heights. 914-962-2368

Join farm carpenter Brian Carney to learn how to build a cold frame so you
can get an early start to the vegetable growing season. Cold frames act as
miniature greenhouses, warming the soil and allowing plants to survive the
late winter and early spring cold. $15 per person; registration required.

From Krys Mernyk of the Taconic Gardeners Club:

“TACONIC GARDENERS CLUB

Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Time Coffee; 7:30 PM followed by lecture at 8 PM
Place:
Chappaqua Library
Speaker: Susan Allport

Topic ‘Sermons in Stone Slanted to Gardeners’ As a backdrop for perennials and other plants, nothing beats a stone wall. Stone walls, though, are much more than decorative structures, as this talk by noted science writer Susan Allport will reveal. Susan Allport will walk you through the history of stone walls in this country and enhance your appreciation of these familiar structures.

Susan Allport is a writer specializing in science, nutrition, and health. Her latest book The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s were Removed from the Western Diet and What We can do to Replace Them. Allport also contributes essays, travel articles, and book reviews to many publication, among them the NY Times. She lectures at the American Museum of Natural History and numerous other locations.

A gorgeous perennial known as Baptisia australis is perfect for gardeners in the Lower Hudson Valley — it’s a tough native plant and reliable rebloomer that can stand up to all of the vagaries of our weather. It’s deer and disease resistant, low maintenance and completely drought tolerant once established. Butterflies like it, too.

(photo by Steven Still/Perennial Plant Association)

This year, the well-respected Perennial Plant Association has named Baptisia australis the Perennial Plant of the Year. Common names for this winning shrublike perennial include blue false indigo, wild indigo, rattleweed and baptisia.

It has stunningly beautiful violet-blue blooms in mid-spring — late May and early June for us.

The flowers last three to four weeks, giving way to seed pods that turn charcoal-black by the end of the summer. You can hear the seeds rattling in the pods when breezes blow in fall. In winter, you can bring them inside for dried-flower arrangements.

The foliage is interesting, too — trifoliate cloverlike leaves with a blue-green tinge.

You want to grow baptisia in absolutely full sun. If you don’t, the plants get floppy and may need to be staked. You also want to think carefully about where you site it because the plants have a long tap root and hate to be moved. Mature plants grow 3 to 4 feet tall and wide, so plan accordingly. And be patient — it takes about three years for the plants to really take off.

Baptisia mixes nicely with all sorts of neighbors, including hostas, heucheras, amsonia and spring-blooming bulbs. In my garden, I plant them with peonies and irises — I love the play of purple-blue with maroons and pinks.

For more information, visit www.perennialplant.org. And be sure to look at the list of past Perennial Plants of the Year. I’m sure many are your garden favorites.

From GrowerTalk’s Acres Online newsletter:

“No cucs? No carrots? No way!
An Associated Press report says there may be a shortage in cucumber, carrot and onion seed this spring due a poor seed-growing season last year both in the U.S. and Europe, coupled with strong demand, again on both sides of the pond.

To learn more, I talked to Miles Rogers, sales manager for Seeds By Design, a commercial producer in Maxwell, California, for his take on the situation. He confirmed that there is a shortage of cucumber seed, due to downy mildew in Northern California, which is one of the largest production areas, and he said the shortage might put a hit on commercial growers “a little bit—probably not much,” mainly because they already have seed in inventory.

The same goes for the larger packet seed companies, he says. “A lot of them are carrying inventories so they can get through to the next year so they can start packing early.” However, “Some of the smaller packet companies might get hurt, because there was only maybe 10% delivery on some items and complete crop losses on others. So I think there could be some shortages of cucumbers.”

He expects retail seed packet racks to be full at the start of the season, but says the cucumber shortage may show up toward the end of the season.

Confirming what Miles said about larger packet seed companies having plenty of seed on hand, George Ball, CEO of W. Atlee Burpee, told the AP that Burpee has huge reserves. However, he did admit that demand has been extra-strong the past two years. “It was unlike anything I’ve seen in the past 30 years,” he told the AP.

According to Danielle Stuart, Monsanto vegetable seeds business spokesperson (Monsanto sells the Seminis brand), “There might be a few specific varieties in short supply, but in general there is adequate supply of cucumber.” She says carrots should be in “adequate” supply, and that onions, like cucs, could be in short supply depending on variety. “But in general, there is adequate supply for this season.”

So what’s the take-home? Get your seed and packet orders in early so you and your customers get the varieties you want.

Perennials: While planning for spring, consider growing plants that attract bees such as monarda (bee balm) and flowering herbs. Bees begin foraging on a mild late winter day or very early in the spring. They appreciate the earliest blooming perennials such as pulmonaria (lungwort).

Flowers: Bring out bulbs that were put into cold storage for forcing. Gradually expose them to more light and warmth, but do not put them in direct sunlight. Turn the pots every other day so that the plants grow evenly. Keep the pots moist — and in a few weeks, spring!

Vegetables and fruits: Weather permitting, begin pruning apple and pear trees as well as grapevines. Yearly pruning of fruit trees should be done now through March. Cut back the canes of last year’s brambles to the ground and limit the height of new growth to about 4 feet.

Trees and shrubs: Forsythia, flowering quince and other spring-blooming plants can be forced this month. A fairly safe rule to follow is to cut branches for indoor forcing 4 to 6 weeks before they normally would have opened outdoors. Count on waiting 2 or 3 to get blooms indoors. Submerge in warm water before arranging in a container in a warm spot.

Lawns: Take your lawn mower to be sharpened before it is needed.

Houseplants: Florist gloxinias are rewarding but challenging houseplants. They give welcome color around Valentine’s Day. Give them 4 hours of bright, indirect light daily, or grow them under fluorescent lights. Keep them cool (60 to 70 degrees) and water when the top inch of soil is dry to the touch. Avoid wetting the leaves when watering. A pebble tray under your pots helps keep the humidity high.

General: A word about poison ivy: it provides visual interest with bright color in the fall and food for robins, grosbeaks and other birds. If it grows at a distance from the yard, let it be.
Susan Henry

Ask the master gardeners

Q: I know you have spelled this out before, but tell me how to care for my Christmas cactus.

A: A native of the Americas, Christmas cactus is a true succulent, plants that evolved 30 to 40 million years ago.

Because it is an epiphyte — like an orchid or Spanish moss — it likes humidity but not wet feet.

If you examine the stems you will see that they consist of small, cushiony sections called areoles. These identify the plant as a true cactus.

The leaves have pointed lobes and the flowers can be cream-colored or any one of a huge number of red variations. The plants need a bright location but not direct sunlight, which could burn their leaves.

Their ideal soil would include loam and coarse sand to encourage good drainage. While these plants are succulents, it is important that you do not let them dry out. They thrive on being pot bound so don’t be tempted to repot them.

They are glorious in bloom and offer a wonderful splash of color during the dark days of winter.

They will rebloom the following year (mine did not even wait that long) and they can be propagated through cuttings.
Judie Phillips, master gardener, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester

I had lunch in the Village yesterday and stopped by to see how the new High Line park looks in the dead of winter.

Not bad at all. Lots of brown — brown grasses, brown perennials etc.

I went up from ground level at Gansevoort Street and headed north along the old elevated rail line in Chelsea. It’s now a city park.

Just a few strollers here and there, nothing like the crowds in summer. Here’s how it looked in July. And in June.

The trees are beginning to actually look like trees.

Winter interest and color, the sign of a great perennial garden.

Under the Standard Hotel. I’ve had a couple of great lunches at the Standard Grill here. Very clubby, very old-style hotel restaurant.

Looking north toward the soon-to-open (hopefully) Phase 2 of the renovation.

And back on the ground, at the West 18th Street exit to 10th Avenue.