Jean Zimmerman

Tag: flowers

  • What is common?

    It’s in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it? I took a walk on the Old Croton Aqueduct trail as spring just came up, and it got me to thinking. So many beautiful things. So many of them so ordinary. First, a sign warning me off. My favorite kind of sign, so commonplace. I see…

  • Stumperies and critter holes and other mysteries

    await at Untermeyer Gardens in Yonkers, New York. Yes, the famous property — designed in 1916 to be “the finest garden in the world” — now features a Stumpery. The park once boasted sixty greenhouses. It’s still pretty nice. Just what is a Stumpery? You would be well within your rights to ask the question,…

  • Forests and New York City

    is not a pairing that would make sense to some people outside the Metropolitan Area (we always say that, as though there is no other metropolitan area in the world). But majestic trees do exist among the concrete canyons of NY. I’ve been fortunate to come up close to some of them. Walt Whitman: Why are…

  • Had a little rain last night.

    Really? You don’t say. We’re used to the regular deluge back east, especially lately. But here in the southwest, of course, raindrops are so rare as to be remarkable. There hasn’t been any rain in Phoenix in months. And even when drops do fall, as they did for a bit yesterday, much of it is…

  • “Purple and gold season”

    is how Cornell Botanic Gardens’s docent Dana describes the end of summer and the first days of fall. She professes herself to find it a bit boring. I look out the window when we’re driving in the car and that’s all I see, purple and gold, purple and gold. Dana shows us the native aster blooming…

  • I get to the farm early.

    Natch. I get everywhere early. In this case to a field trip for a conference I’m attending in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It’s to learn all about plants and trees and sustainability – you know, eco-concerns. Yet for me it feels like so much more than the science. So many things I…

  • If you go to NYBG in late summer prepare to get happy.

    It is almost impossible to feel down when you visit. The New York Botanical Garden always has something new to see. Or something not new but ever-fresh. A bee on a blossom. Yes, the flowers are flowering. The dahlias. The hydrangeas, some more exotic than others. The lilies. Especially nice when you bring someone who…

  • Trouble, trouble, trouble. Trouble.

    Really? How can you complain when you find yourself in the most beautiful place on earth? Can there really be trouble in paradise? It’s like this. I got some feedback on a just-drafted chapter from someone I trust. He said what I wrote was not perfect. It’s hard to write about nature when you’re in…

  • A warm and moist hush prevails

    in the exhibition area of the New York Botanical Garden’s Annual Orchid Show. And is there any better kind of hush? Especially on a cold and blustery late winter day in the Bronx. Orchid lovers endure heart palpitations all around. At least those not too consumed with taking pictures. Photographers are legion here. So many…

  • When I said my favorite color was brown

    one time, everybody laughed. In writing class, teachers use a prompt to get everybody’s creative juices flowing. I hiked the Old Croton Aqueduct trail today, using brown as a prompt. The familiar sandy light brown soil. Hadn’t been here for a while. The sound of the mid-afternoon breeze rustling the leaves, late summer insects’ buzz.…

  • Arlow Burdette Stout

    had a great name, and also revolutionized our thinking about day lilies. Never thought much about Hemerocallis? The name Hemerocallis comes from the Greek words for “day” and “beautiful”. Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance. John Ruskin wrote that. I don’t believe that peacocks are useless however; nor are day…

  • Are some trees bad?

    Well. Depends who you ask. Norway maples, callery pear, ailanthus, ash. Spotted lanternfly adores laying its disgusting eggs on the bark of the ailanthus, commonly known as the tree of heaven. So ailanthus deserves to get whacked. But what about grape vines? Apple trees? These host the same invasive insect. As for the callery pear,…

  • Fragrant, spicy, lemony, lush and voluptuous

    are some of the inadequate terms we use to describe roses, but equivalent to the terms oenophiles employ for the equally ineffable flavors of wine. Oaky, fruity, tannic, et cetera. Really, no word can describe the experience of sticking your nose in a bloom and inhaling. My friend needs little encouragement to dive in. Swoon.…

  • My father fell for an orchid

    late in life. It was a simple series of white flowers on a stem, nothing fancy, yet he insisted that it accompany him from the hospital to his room in the Care Center. A friend had brought it as a gift, and it somehow spoke to him, he who had never had a thought for…

  • Are butterflies intelligent?

    Yes. If intelligence is the ability to seek out nectar and pollinate flowers, yes. In terms of long-term travel to their southern climes and back, Monarchs in particular never cease to amaze. But are they dependable? In terms of showing up when they’re expected, to bask in humans’ adoration? Not so much.  The events of the…