in the eye of the beholder

March 10, 2017 by Phyllis Odessey

You might think creating a herbarium is a really tedious task.  And I guess it can be.  The New York Botanical Garden currently has a small show of a few of the 7.8 million specimens that are housed on the upper floors of the International Plant Science Center on view.  It is the second largest herbarium in the world.  The Herbarium contains all plant groups – flowering plants, conifers, ferns, mosses, fungi, lichens, liverworts and algae from all over the world. […]

Categories: Horticulture • Tags: New York Botanical Garden

i am here to share my anxiety

September 28, 2016 by Phyllis Odessey

I thought the lecture by Martha Schwartz on Monday night would save me from my own anxiety…watching the Presidential Debate. The lecture started at 6:30 pm and I was home in plenty of time to watch the debate. The best I could hope for was that Schwartz’s lecture would be like a good aperitif before a bad meal. Schwartz voiced her concern about the debate, but also her apprehension, fear, and panic about the current climate change situation, “I want to become […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Designers, Landscape Design • Tags: Martha Schwartz, New York Botanical Garden

a gardeners’ gardener

February 26, 2016 by Phyllis Odessey

Sarah Price is one of the darlings of English gardening world.  If the standing room only crowd yesterday at NYBG is any measure, Price has  gained celebrity status in the American gardening world.  And I know why.  She is a good designer, but more than that, there is no BS about her. Price spoke candidly about her evolution as a garden designer … from a child walking up a country lane in Wales with her father to art school to seeing the […]

Categories: Gardening, Horticulture • Tags: New York Botanical Garden, Sarah Price

always modern

January 28, 2016 by Phyllis Odessey

One friend to another, “Well, that was a complete waste of time.”  The other friend responds, “I hope the next two speakers talk about garden design. Who cares about show gardens.” I heard the above remarks, leaving the New York Botanical Garden, after Ulf Nordfjell’s lecture entitled, “Modern Gardens:  The Essence of Nature.”  Nordfjel was the first speaker in the 16th Annual Winter Lecture Series: Chelsea Gold. As a three time winner at the Chelsea Flower Show, Ulf Nordfjell was […]

Categories: Gardening, Landscape Design • Tags: New York Botanical Garden, Ulf Nordfjell

a cactus grows in the bronx

August 19, 2015 by Phyllis Odessey

Oleander, marigolds, palms, cacti, jacaranda, sunflowers, succulents…in the Bronx?   FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is an attempt to create a blockbuster exhibition.  Standing at a bus stop in NYC, there is no escape.  The ad for the Frida Kahlo show is everywhere.  It’s inescapable.   “Transport yourself to Mexico without leaving New York via live music, dance, food, and a complimentary cerveza or margarita.”  Some have called it Fridamania.  Since her death, Kahlo’s poplularity has […]

Categories: Art, Gardening, Landscape Design • Tags: Frida Kahlo, New York Botanical Garden

the wind that kisses my cheeks

April 23, 2015 by Phyllis Odessey

“Jens Jensen is not well-known in his native Denmark.  For two reasons: Jensen is the most common name in Denmark and Jensen immigrated to America before he became a well-known landscape architect.” That was Ambassador Jari Frijs-Madsen, Consul General of Denmark in New York explaining why Jensen has been not remembered. It does not explain why most Americans have no idea who he was or anything about his legacy. Frijs-Marsen introduced the film, Jens Jensen: The Living Green on Earth Day […]

Categories: Gardening, Horticulture, Landscape Design • Tags: Carey Lundin, Darrel Morrison, Jens Jensen, New York Botanical Garden, The Living Green

state of the union

March 20, 2014 by Phyllis Odessey

Three times is not a charm, but TWO times could be redundant.  Hearing Thomas Rainer twice in the same year, months a part, might have been boring, even insipid.  NOT SO.  Rainer managed to give a lecture on Native Plants, altered for a new audience, which engrossed me, even the second time around.  He dissected the ideology of the  native plant movement, turned the mythology built around native plants on their head and proposed an alternative to the local vs. […]

Categories: Gardening, Horticulture, Landscape Design • Tags: grounded design, New York Botanical Garden, Thomas Rainer

We All Have AMNESIA

October 23, 2012 by Phyllis Odessey

The Memory of LAND“When a landscape architect is entrusted with a piece of land, regardless of its size…his or her essential obligation is to recognize the site’s ideal image by listening to its ‘voice.” RYOKO UEMYAMA New York Botanical Garden Landscape Design Series 3 projectsNagasaki Seaside Park Shiba Satsuma StreetNagaoka Peace Forest Ryoko Uemyama’s finished her lecture.  I left with friends. On the way out,  my friend, L said “Uemyama’s talk is especially relevant to you …”after all you work in a public […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: New York Botanical Garden, Ryoko Ueyama, The Memory of Land

OCCUPY: Creating Plant Communities

January 23, 2012 by Phyllis Odessey

LARRY WEANERBreaking the Rules Ecological Design for the Real WorldNew York Botanical GardenThursday, January 19, 2012 What will happen if I do nothing?  When it comes to gardening, I probably ask myself that question everyday.  Usually, my answer is disaster.  Larry Weaner said NO! NO! NO!  And I tried to listen.  DUKE it OUT. Really.Yes. Really.  Match the plants to the habitat where those plant grow.  All native plants are not the same even if they all come from the […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Breaking The Rules, Larry Weaner, New York Botanical Garden