Renovating the Ladies' Border: Extending the Season

A fall update on the renovation project at the New York Botanical Garden

by Jennifer Brown
Rosemary and dianthus
 
Rosemary and dianthus.
As the season draws to a close for many gardens, the Ladies' Border at the New York Botanical Garden is still looking full and lush. After just one summer of growth, much of the plant material has filled out and is taking on the hues of fall. Lynden Miller, designer of the garden, is thrilled with the way the plants have performed so far. She will be watching closely to see how some of the USDA Hardiness Zone 7 and 8 plants survive the winter. With the help of gardeners at NYBG, she will dig up some of the tender plants (like rosemary), while leaving others in the ground with some protection and still others in the ground without any protection. In the spring, she and the staff will compare how each plant fared and record the data. It is all an experiment to push the boundaries of what is thought to be typically hardy in The Bronx. In some areas of the garden the soil has been replaced with a gravel mix to increase the drainage, in an attempt to help plants like dianthus, rosemary, and sedum survive what can be soggy and cold New York winters.

Beets and euphorbia Daphne
Beets and euphorbia.
  
Daphne.

On my most recent visit to the Ladies' Border on a cool and rainy day in October, the stars were the 'Bull's Blood' beets. The beets had formed large tubers that were pushing themselves out of the ground while the foliage remained a deep purple-red that looked amazing with the red-blushed sedums, gray-blue dianthus and euphorbias, and golden sedges. Elsewhere in the border, a fragrant daphne was blooming along with white and pink camellias. Several other camellias were budded up, and the nandina had yet to turn its characteristic red-purple fall color. Although it was almost November, it was clear this garden will prove interesting well into the colder months of the year, long after most northeastern gardens have gone dormant.

For more on the Ladies' Border project, see the previous reports in this series:
 For more on The New York Botanical Garden, visit www.nybg.org.

Jennifer Brown is associate editor at Fine Gardening.

Photos: Jennifer Brown

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