At public gardens everywhere, big trees provide the anchor and structure for many individual gardens, yet these magnificent plants often go un-noticed.
So pay a visit this summer to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which is honoring its many large trees with a special program July 7th-August 26th, Big City, Big Trees: Gentle Giants of the Urban Landscape.
Visit the enormous Caucasian Wingnut (Pterocarya fraxinfolia), pictured here, take a stroll by the huge black cherry (Prunus serotina), which is thought to pre-date the garden itself, learn about the enormous Yellow Buckeye (Aesculus flava) in one of the garden's special tree tours.
The garden is featuring discovery workshops and tree storytelling for children; tree climbing demonstrations; talks and walks on tree architecture and special features. There are also special displays on tree cloning, tree problems like Dutch elm disease, and an inter-active self-guided tour of all of the garden's gigantic trees.
And stop by the Steinhardt Conservatory to see the ancient Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis). This tree was thought to be extinct for thousands of years, but the BBG this year became the first East coast botanic garden to acquire one.
Cool off in the shade of some of these big specimens, and enjoy the best thing that public gardens have to offer.
Photo: Betsy Kissam, courtesy BBG
"Caucasian Wingnut" is my all-time favorite common name for a tree!
That specimen is probably the single most-photographed tree in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The cherry trees are famous for their collective exuberance, but the Wingnut makes people stop in their tracks.
Posted by: Xris (Flatbush Gardener) | July 05, 2007 at 02:50 PM