Sad Pine Trees and the New York Botanical Garden

A few weeks ago, I was in New York City and found myself with a free afternoon. The weather was beautiful, and I decided to make the most of it with a visit to the New York Botanical Garden.

I highly recommend it if you get the chance to go. It's in the Bronx (where I had never been before), but it's right at a train station and only a few minutes outside Manhattan. There's a wonderful conservatory, and acres and acres of outdoor gardens. I did a lot of walking, but there's also a little train that makes a loop around to help you get where you're going.

I enjoyed a number of the collections, including the Home Gardening Center and the Korean mums (which are new to me). I took a lot of pictures at one collection in particular, the ornamental conifers. Jimmy is enamored with what he calls "sad pine trees" -- i.e. drippy, weeping evergreens -- and there were a lot of great examples in this collection.

I also managed to catch the autumn crocuses in bloom while I was there (which I had never seen before in person). Autumn crocuses (Colchicum autumnale) are really crocuses at all, but they are a bulb with a similar flower. They are sometimes called "naked ladies" because the blossoms emerge from the ground all by themselves (the foliage emerges in the spring and dies back before the blossoms).

I greatly enjoyed my visit to the New York Botanical Garden. If you get a chance, go visit. No matter what the season, you'll find something interesting!