Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

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Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

Welcome to HORTUS ~ the first 19years in the making of a botanical garden

Operating as usual

02/06/2023

Hortus is hiring for the 2023 season…

DM if you wanna know more.

02/04/2023

Hamamelis x ‘Pallida’ beginning to open up.

It’s always amazing to see how resiliency is demonstrated. In the case of this witch hazel, a little cold and snow doesn’t seem to get in her way of flowering.

This is a cross between, Japanese witch hazel (H. japonica) and Chinese witch hazel (H. mollis). This particular Hamamelis typically grow 12’-18’ tall, with lightly scented flowers which unfurl their four crinkled petals in February.

02/04/2023

This is an image of the attic’s window this morning. This space never needs supplemental heating.

Like many in the rural Hudson Valley we were without power for many hours, and then at 9pm with only about an hour of using fossil fuels to heat up our home the oil burner began spraying water everywhere.

Thank goodness for WOOD.

We primarily heat with a woodstove which is very effective EXCEPT when the windchill factors are -12 or more.

If you’ve been following us you know I do encaustic art and unfortunately many works in my mostly glassed-in studio froze and cracked!!

We have still not assessed the Sunroom situation to see how those plants fared without the supplemental heat that feeds into that space normally.

Plus we normally use the oil burner as a seed-starting place so hopefully all those little seeds are fine too!

01/31/2023

If you have ever visited Hortus you know that we are very passionate about edible gardening, since food plants are not only food, duh, but they also are so ornamental whether their flowers or their fruits, and offer up garden designers and gardening enthusiasts all sorts of aesthetic possibilities.

We are also interested in just the weirdly beautiful that Mother Nature has to offer, which of course would have to include this Bloodthorn Rose (Rosa pteracantha).

I’m not even going to show the picture of the simple white rose, because that is not why you grow this particular species!

Anyone else growing “weird” roses?

01/29/2023

The 2023 Hortus Spring Residency application process is open now!

A few photos of a few of the past artist residents here at the arboretum using the garden for inspiration.

The juror for this round is last Fall’s resident (last photo).

Residency Dates:
May 22nd - May 29th

More information can be found in link in bio.

01/28/2023

Okay this is a case of FOMO!

My IG feed is all about Hamamelis (Witch Hazels), and although in this zone 6 garden this is the only plant showing some color-and quite paltry at that. But grateful to have even a few flowers now.

This is a native type, Hamamelis vernalis, commonly called Ozark Witch Hazel.

We have had a hard time growing different types of Hamamelis, mostly because after 2 to 3 years of growing the plant the graft always fails.

Right now we’re lucky and all the ones planted several years ago have now made it.

Which means we will be identifying where some of these successfully growing specimens came from and get more.

There’s nothing more dispiriting than growing a grafted plant a few years just to have the graft fail!

01/26/2023

This August picking Arctic Kiwis (Actunidia kolomikta) in the Kiwi dome.

We leave a lot of the Kiwis at chest height so that visitors to the gardens can try them.

Which means the ones towards the top part of the dome I tend to harvest, using an orchard ladder, or let them fall (photo 2 shows a tarp on the ground).

Because we grow so much we end up doing both, as well as selling to local markets

This is a great vine for growing over a trellis or a structure. Here we have about 8 different cultivars growing over a metal pipe structure that built for the arboretum.

01/23/2023

Yesterday’s post was about the monster Asian Wisteria (W. sinensis) that we grow framing the entrance way to the Property & Field Gardens.

Today I’m showing off the much better behaved, and just as beautiful native Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens and W. macrostachya). The latter is called Kentucky Wisteria while the former is known as American Wisteria.

As you can see by scrolling through the images there is a difference in the shorter inflorescence (as well as color) between the images.
This first photo is the American type and the second is the Kentucky (I think..)

Although the flowers are smaller, the native type vines, while still aggressive really only grows up to 15’ a season where it’s Asian cousin at least twice that.

Photos 3 & 4 show the plant trained as a standard. This is a lot of work but when we are keeping up with the pruning it will flower as many as 3x a season-so we think, yup it’s worth it.

Interestingly enough when we bought these 2 plants they both had a tag that said ‘Aunt Dee’! Though now I’m thinking the 2nd photo is showing the Kentucky type ‘Blue Moon’, although sources also refer to it as ‘Aunt Dee’.

We also grow W. macrostachya ‘Amethyst Falls’ whose flowers are more compact, as is the overall growth habit- (sorry not to add that picture but having trouble locating it through the over 40k images on 1 cup of coffee!)

01/22/2023

Here I was yesterday pruning back the Asian Wisteria.

I have been shaping it for over 20 years now and it is still pretty miserly when it comes to producing flowers. But I’ll take what I can get even though we recommend to folks that the native Wisteria (W. Is a much, much better candidate as an actually “manageable vine”.

Either way, no matter what species you’re growing it’s time to prune, prune, prune this monster.

Scroll for pictures of the twisty trunks.

01/21/2023

This is the time of year where us gardeners reflect on the past growing season to look at ways to improve, as well as to take stock of failures.

I didn’t post about Blue Bean tree (Decaisnea fargesii) this year because of what I contribute to the late frost we got in May. We got some fruits, but not many.

The flowers must have already been mostly open by early-mid May and ended up getting zapped!

This is not one of the 50 plants in our book, since we felt that the more closely related Akebia (Akebia spp.) was a tastier edible, the fruit just as weird, looking in its own way.

Here our friend is holding an open pod before eating the tapioca-like arils that cover the seeds.

This plant is also commonly known as Dead Man’s Fingers, and appropriately hangs from the trees around Halloween time!

says this plant is hardy to zone 7.

Here in our zone 6 environment we’ve been growing 2 specimens -one from & one from for about 10 years now.

Why 2 different sources?
Think DIVERSITY of plant stock.

This plant will be offered in our Spring Fundraiser Plant Sale for those of you who live in the Hudson Valley.

01/19/2023

Join us tomorrow at 11am - 12:30pm (Central time) on WPR (Wisconsin Public Radio) for the Garden Show!

We will be covering all different types of topics for including Pruning, Seed Starting, and Houseplants (to name a few), and since this is a LIVE broadcast and we will be taking your calls.

So for all of you people who asked us something that we haven’t had a chance to respond to NOW is the time!

Tomorrow….
Call: 800-642-1234

01/15/2023

Szechuan pepper, Sichuan pepper, or huā jiāo, (Zanthoxylum simulans) fruiting in the arboretum in August 2021.

Last year because of the late frost we had in May the plant not only didn’t fruit but it experienced some major dieback as well!

This is a misunderstood spice and if you’ve never had it before you are missing a singular sensation- a numbing/tingling one that doesn’t last long but adds a type of “Unami” to all different kinds of foods.

I’m grateful to the for yesterday’s presentation by Yao Zhao, the founder of whose mission it is to bring this underutilized spice to a wider audience with his products- think potato chips!

As it turns out Scott recently purchased some seeds of the Green pepper aka Peppertree, which is a different species (Z. schinifolium), which Yao said has a fruitier quality than the red, so maybe in a few years we’ll be able to grow this as well!

If you ever visit the gardens go look for this plant or ask us to check it out. We may make you try some of the foliage which has its own unique characteristics which we have used in cooking as well.

We have been growing this plant for about 9 years or so and if this season blesses us with no frost end of May, we hope that this will be extremely fruitful this year.

Photo 2 shows some of its wicked thorns!
Stay tuned to see how I will use them!

01/13/2023

Sure we all know how seductive a photo can be of a flower when the subject is a stunner!

But what about the other times of the year???

Generally when we talk about “4-season interest”, or “Winter-interest” we think about trees that have amazing bark.

Most woody plants that have evergreen or semi-evergreen leaves tend to look like crap (sorry Rhododendrons..)

This here exception happens to be a native Magnolia, indigenous to the S.E coast and inland towards Texas.

When we first acquired this Magnolia grandiflora ‘Brackens Brown Beauty’, the plant’s tag (plus all the research we found said this plant was hardy to zone 7).

After reading that we knew that was a reason to try testing this beautiful tree to see how it would do in our newly classified zone 6 environment (by some we were squarely zone 5 but we thought 5b).

Now over 10 years later you can see that this particular specimen has acclimated and is doing amazing.

Real growth began about 5 years after planting it, and shortly after that its been flowering profusely come early Summer, with a fragrance that is delightful.

Just as enchanting are the seed cones whose seeds dangle from the cones by thin “threads”.

But it is the leaves that really provide interest over the longest period of time.

Photos of leaves taken 1/11/23.

01/11/2023

Did you know that most of the pine nuts that you consume come from the cones of Korean Stone Pine?

Just look at the color of these immature cones of Korean Stone Pine (Pinus koreana).

(The first 2 images were taken this past Summer).

The last 3 photos of the Korean Stone Pine were taken this afternoon.

Pinus koreana also known as Korean Stone Pine is a relative of our native White Pine and in many respects it can be difficult to tell the two apart.

“Supposedly” when the tree gets to be about 6’, is typically when it’s supposed to start bearing cones.

And maybe in the best of circumstances an individual tree may exhibit that tendency.

However in this zone 6 arboretum all three specimens that grow here are closer to 12’ and so far we are only got cones this year on the specimen ‘Glauca’, which was bred for its bluish needles.

It is the shortest of the three that we currently grow, as well as the last one they was put in the ground.

Go figure.

01/08/2023

Scenes from around East Lansing, Michigan.

So much fun visiting, meeting new plant fanatics and lecturing.

…and to the deer that browsed the Cornus!

01/07/2023

Fruit scenes from around East Lansing.

Crataegus, Aronia and Malus still persisting around town.

01/05/2023

We got our inflight reading.
Or more like brushing up for our talks this Saturday as part of the Michigan Organic Food & Farm Alliance.

Looking forward to engaging with others about sustainable food crops, and other low maintenance fruiting plants.

01/04/2023

Hardy Kiwi (Actinidia arguta) is a hardy, sprawling edible vine that I very rarely post about (although we go deep in our book ‘Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts’).

But after walking in the garden the other day and noticing it’s beautiful exfoliating bark it’s time for some praise.

If you have ever been to Hortus you may have heard us sing the praises of its relative Arctic Kiwi (A. kolomikta) because of its ability to set fruit at an early age, even in part-shade and under a walnut tree (think juglone).

Arctic Kiwi is a workhorse of a vine that rewards the grower fairly effortlessly in August with small hairless fruits (actually a berry) that you can easily pop in your mouth that taste just like store bought ones minus the FUZZ!

And this is the species we recommend for most homeowners since it begins setting fruit early, within 3 years of pl ting it, depending on its planting aspect/site.

Hardy Kiwi however can take TEN years or longer to start even producing flowers!

But for you growers, farmers or peeps that have a lot of
S P A C E

perhaps Hardy Kiwi may be a good choice as well only because it’s fruits are that much better tasting!!!

They taste like Kiwi mixed with Pineapple!

Another difference is they fruit in October, so for you intrepid gardeners you could essentially grow both types and be blessed with Kiwis from August through the end of October (or longer since the fruits unlike the Arctic ones do persist on the vine).

As a side note at the veterinarian recently I noticed an ad for canine medication that touted Hardy Kiwi as an ingredient!🥝🥝

01/03/2023

Scott and a private tour contemplating the Lotus this past Summer.

We’re grateful for all the interest already in wanting to visit for 2023.

We will be open to the public starting Mother’s Day weekend.

Private tours can be year round. Go to website for more info.

Link in bio.

01/02/2023

Do you know about this?
just signed this into law!

Thank you & for FINALLY coming up with a sustainable plan to deal with something everyone of us will experience.

Not only do we support human remains as compost WE are looking at how we can support the process by offering up this arboretum-botanical garden as a place to share this mulch.

Would you want to share your mulch with us?

Amazing NYT article about the founder, the process and their vision for a greener end of life process! Link in their bios for the article and much much more information.

Thank you to for sharing this with us awhile back.

01/01/2023

We’re looking forward to a great 2023 growing year.

Thank you all for an amazing 2022 and for all of those folks who were able to come to the gardens to see the plants in person.

**Check out the Stories to see the common name identification of all the plants.**

01/01/2023

We will be announcing the 2023 Winter Writer Resident as well as posting about 2023 events shortly through our newsletter.

Link in bio to sign up.

01/01/2023

Wishing everyone a fruitful 2023!

01/01/2023

Happy New Year!

Thank you everybody for your support and for helping us grow.

(Photos from 2022.)

12/29/2022

Every year we try new things to see how they grow.

Here I am planting a small batch of upland Rice “Duborskian” (Oryza sativa) which is a short-grained, short-season rice originally from Russia (or some sources say Bulgaria) that I started early in Spring and waited to transplant once danger of frost had passed.

I planted some directly into an amended bed,(pictured here) as well as into big raised containers.
(Not pictured here which is too bad because the rice was quite decorative and lovely in the big pot).

The rice in the bed ended up being pest-ridden (lots of the grains had teeny holes through them or just didn’t look healthy).
Besides being a home to a litter of bunnies, the patches long blades of rice were underwhelming visually.

However what I planted in the raised containers were simply gorgeous, and did very well (I suspect they got watered way more than the patch in the earth).

So next year the rice will go into large pots!

12/23/2022

Thank you
for reposting the great article you did on us several years ago (2017?) back on line.

If you’re new to Hortus since then, check out both articles; “The Constant Gardeners” as well as the “Get Exotic”.

The writer
& the photographers

An amazing team that has done many wonderful articles for several of the Edible magazines outdid themselves as far as we’re concerned when they wrote about Hortus.

Link in bio to read both articles.✨✨✨

12/22/2022

These poppy (Papaver spp.) shots were taken on the Summer solstice this year and since I didn’t post about them at the time I thought it would be fun to post them today, on the Winter solstice.

Who doesn’t love Poppies?

Easy to grow, an annual flower which if left alone will self-sow in the right place, which translates to good drainage and sun.

However over the years I’ve seen poppies pop-up along the roadside, in part-shaded areas, and over time hybrids have begun to happen.

I purposely save seeds from one season to the next one to sow, as well as allow some seed heads to remain in place to let the seeds naturally sow themselves. That way I have “extra insurance” about spreading the current population of different types around, which further the genetic mix-mash each year.

12/20/2022

Going through the 2022 camera roll for plants not posted….

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) in fruit is a subtle but beautiful thing.

This is an important native herbaceous perennial to be growing in the garden since it’s been over harvested in the wild. Once found throughout the Eastern North American woods the over collection for the herbal industry has reduced many native populations.

Sure it doesn’t have flashy flowers, but it’s large hairy leaves that are palmately cut into 5 to 7 lobes with prominent veins have a somewhat tropical look and deserve a spot in your woodland gardens.

12/17/2022

Myoga Ginger (Zingiber myoga), is one of our favorite edible perennials that more folks should be growing.

This wonderful Ginger is super easy to grow, spreads by rhizomes and needs to be grown in a shaded spot.

That’s right it needs shade.

This delicious Ginger is unlike its more tropical store-bought relative, (Z. officinale), because it is not the roots that are utilized, it’s the flower bud.

Shown here is an image of an open flower (too late!!) but if you look closely to the right of it you will see 2 emerging buds that in a day or so could be harvested.

The flower buds have a totally different taste profile, some say oniony even. Typically used in cold noodles, soba etc., to “finish” off a dish by tossing in at the very end.

We’ve even eaten a soba with miyoga ginger at an East Village udon shop years ago, and I remember commenting on how little of the myoga they actually served!

In Chinese traditional medicine, myoga is used to preserve stamina against heat fatigue and to aid digestion.

The greens are beautiful in their own right and to the best of my understanding are not used in cooking. At least they add a touch of tropical greenery in the garden.

12/15/2022

Here’s some sweet images of Quince (Cydonia oblonga) flowers with their signature candy cane stripes of pink & white taken this past Spring.

A super easy fruit tree to grow, we call this a low-maintenance tree because of where we live. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we have many Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) in our native forests and there’s a pathogen that needs both trees (Quince & Cedar) to complete its lifecycle. What that amounts to are the leaves and fruits getting the fruiting bodies on them making them have a grey/rust patch.

However depending on Spring’s amount of wetness, the level of disease varies every year and we have found that we always have plenty of fruit to use to make jelly with regardless.

Recently at I spied in the tea aisle a box with the typical looking Quince fruit on it and the ingredient list read:

Quince fruit.

So… another reason to grow this fruit is to make a tea (and we will try this next year and report back). Besides the tea “revelation”, I can say with confidence that NO store-bought Quince jam will ever taste as good as one you make at home. Guaranteed.

Quince has been one of our fave trees, and we have several different types growing in the arboretum.

Get our book ‘Cold- Hardy Fruits and Nuts’ and learn why this is an exceptional, underutilized fruit tree in the U.S. and why we are trying to change that.

Link in bio to order our book. Makes a great gift too!

12/14/2022

Walter Smelt lll - 2022’s Writer in Residence leaving the office aka greenhouse during his Winter Residency last year.

That makes him this years juror for the 2023 Hortus Residency for Writers

Are you that kinda person or know someone who is?

Link in bio to apply and for more information.

Deadline is 12/31/22

12/13/2022

Happening now!

I couldn’t resist taking some shots of the Medlar tree. This is a relatively new specimen, Mespilus germanica ‘Breda’ who’s habit is more fastigate (upright growing) than the ‘Royal’ with its more outreaching form.

Either way both Medlar trees are offering up tasty Winter fruits that taste and have the consistency of applesauce.

We write about this little used fruiting tree in our book ‘Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts’, which is available through or use the link in bio to order.

For those who live near the arboretum we have signed copies for sale, and if you swing by to pick up a copy we will happily give you some Medlars to try.

12/09/2022

Buddha’s hand (Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis) is a citrus that we are trialing for the next book we are working on.

Over the past decade we have been trying to treat this as an “edible houseplant”. It’s still too early to tell if our growing technique will work well enough to get this plant to be fruitful.

Trialing plants is exactly what we did for our book Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts

We realized a while back that a lot of the writing out there about plants like Medlar, Sour Orange and even Gooseberries was NOT always based on people actually growing that particular plant, when we were researching and compiling notes for the 50 fruiting plants in the book-(actually we started with 75 but thankfully the editor who took us on thought it better to break it into 2 books). Phew!

Anyway I had a big Post-it note on my computer that said:
“If you don’t grow it how do you know it?”

That Post-it note remains, and as soon as these moderate temps disappear we’ll be starting on our 2nd manuscript.

12/07/2022

A seed cone from a Young’s Weeping Birch (Betula pendula ‘Youngii’).

I just spent over 30 minutes looking through my photo feed for the other images that I took of this still “youngish”specimen.

But I’ve given up looking and I’m just gonna post this one, but I assure you this tree is a beaut, with its graceful drooping branches.

Not tons of information about this plant out there, but here’s some facts: Since it’s European it is susceptible to bronze birch borer (Agrilus anxius), it’s probably the most susceptible out of all the Betula family. And it is also very prone to ice & snow damage, something we get here in the Hudson Valley.

So WHY would we plant this tree?

in 2014, thanks to our dear friend & plantsman .benzinger who sold us 2 small specimens, $15 each to get rid of them at the nursery to make room for Xmas trees.

Although I knew at the time these were slightly uncommon plants, I also knew one was enough and planted in the right place would one day be a statement tree when you entered the arboretum.

So if you’re the one who purchased its sibling from Hortus back in 2015 please let us know how it’s doing!

Address

76 Mill Road
Stone Ridge, NY
12484

Telephone

+19176133024

Website

http://www.hortusgardens.org/

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Videos

Hazelnuts SHOULD be happening now. If they are for you here’s a simple way to make sure you get the nuts and not the squirrels, chipmunks or birds….

Ever wonder why arboretums and botanical gardens keep the trees they take care of free of grass?

Goumi is happening now! Hear what Scott has to say about it and why you should be growing this low maintenance cold Hardy fruiting plant whose delicious fruits are ripening NOW! Ps. Somehow he completely forgot to mention our new book Cold Hardy Fruits and Nuts published by @chelseagreenbooks where there’s even more information on this plants and 49 more.

A little Barry White mood music please…I felt like quite the voyeur!

Sound up. I am actually thanking our local highway department here…

Grape Lesson! How do you protect your grapes from diseases and critters so that YOU can actually eat them???

Gardens opening Memorial Weekend! Link in bio to get tickets.

What is that? Sound up. From 6-6:30 this THURSDAY Join us on @radiokingstonny Talking about gardening, Earth Day, Magnolias… …and to the gardener/designer/owner Victoria Coyne from @victoriagardens.ny Message us your garden questions or call in between 6-6:30 tomorrow. 845-331-1490

Sunday raindrops and chirps along the woodland path. Sound up👆 Great tonic for Monday blues.

So excited that we got these gorgeous signs to put up around the gardens to further enhance the visitors self-tour experience. Thanks to the Stanley Smith Horticultural for the funds to provide signing throughout the arboretum. And a big thank you to the brilliant design by the talented @christophhitz

Taken this past May it’s another reminder why planting trees is not just for our benefit! Seen here nestled in a Korean Pine these babies were well protected from any visitors to the garden. (Worth watching till the end). Yes!! Korean Pine. Although we have yet to really have these trees produce many cones they will someday and we’ll be sharing the pinenuts with the birds I’m sure. (Though I don’t think they realize how expensive they are at our local stores). Link in bio for our upcoming book that includes a chapter on this nut-producing evergreen tree.

Gardens are open this weekend. Visit the website Hortusgardens.org to schedule your time. ALSO-last 2 days to get your application in for the Fall Residency Opportunity-link in bio for more info and to apply.

Shortcuts

Nearby food & beverage services

Organically Grown and Non Toxic (Truly Green)
12484
Twin Spruce Farm
County Route 2, Accord
Davenport Farms, RT 209, Stone Ridge NY 84
Us Highway 209
Flying Change Farm
Airport Road, Accord
Bells Christmas Trees
Mettacahonts Road, Accord
Westwind Orchard & Cidery
Lower Whitfield Road, Accord
Hollengold Farm
Lower Whitfield Road, Accord
Ollie's Pizza
Bruceville Road, High Falls
Hudson Valley Farm Hub
Hurley Mountain Road, Hurley
Catskill Wagyu
Accord 12404
Kelder's Farm
U.s. Route 209, Kerhonkson
Acorn Hill Farm
Ancram 12502
Bradley Farm and RB Brew, LLC
Springtown Road, New Paltz
H&K Gourmet
State Route, Ulster Park
Cheese Louise, NY
State Route 28, Kingston

Other Stone Ridge food & beverage services

AllSnaxx.com
Atwood Road
Organically Grown and Non Toxic (Truly Green)
12484
Davenport Farms, RT 209, Stone Ridge NY 84
Us Highway 209
HowGood
Gagnon Drive
Grassroots Farm
12484
Vly Farm
Vly Road
12 Moon Hops
12484
Little Egg Farm
Pine Bush Road
Twilight Acres' HOMEGROWN
12484
Stone Ridge Orchard
Ny-213
Peek A Moose Pickles
12484
Muddy Farm
Winfield Road

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As the spring equinox approaches, winter turns to spring and our thoughts turn towards planting and visits to the local garden center. Planning now for Fall color and Winter interest will pay off in droves come Autumn. Join us for an online lecture that will help you plan ahead, making the most of your garden year-round. Both woody plants and perennials will be addressed.

Spring Planting for Fall Color
Saturday, March 12, 12–1pm
To register, visit: https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/spring-planting-fall-color

This lecture is led by Allyson Levy & Scott Serrano, of Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, authors of “Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts.”
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Up next: Amsterdam! Since my debut here with the De Nationale Opera - Dutch National Opera in 2001 (as Sesto in Giulio Cesare) has always been one of my favorite cities in the world. My early days here were spent primarily wandering through the incredible museums here, but in recent visits, the natural wonders of the canals and parks have captured my heart.

This city is one of the world's greenest places to work, with the majority of its residents walking or bicycling to work each day. The parks are considered the city’s communal gardens, and The Amsterdam Forest (Amsterdamse Bos) towers above them all. Its combination of park, woodland, water and nature make it an urban treasure, measuring three times larger than Central Park in New York. What better place to connect to the natural world.

If you're looking for an education and a nature walk, be sure to visit the Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens. They offer classes, guided tours of the gardens, podcasts, and activities you can do from home so you can get involved in this green space from anywhere in the world. I'm also deeply touched at how clearly the Dutch are showing their solidarity and support of the Ukranian People - the support is everywhere.

(Personally, I keep a magical part of Holland quite close to home: I’ve planted nearly 5000 bulbs (!!!) in my garden, and it’s a spectacular way to keep color and beauty in view year after year!)

We covered SO MANY cold-hardy fruits, nuts, and herbaceous perennials, that we needed to make this a 2-part series: https://youtu.be/vh8biKgTWB4 with Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

We wanted to share a bit more about Trifoliate Orange today. You guys are fans!

Thanks to Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens for granting us their great shots of this spectacular shrub to share. (Ours aren’t quite as impressive yet!)

Check out that crazy contorted shape! Trifoliate Oranges were imported from China to be used as hedges to contain livestock with their formidable thorns.

The rare quality of Trifoliate Oranges remind us that the fruiting season is not always the most “valuable” time of year in the foodscape. Sights like this can stop us in our snowy tracks to marvel at the uniqueness of this wild thing! It truly is a four season beauty.

Repost from
•
Trifoliate orange fruit showing some great color now.
This cultivar, Poncirus trifoliata ’Flying Dragon’
is a wonderful, very slow growing self-fertile shrub that we consider a 4-season plant (May be at its best with a blanket of snow covering the contorted limbs and fruit).

The only orange that makes it thru our Hudson Valley winters. True, the fruit is not great for out of hand eating (tho we’ve seen guests eat and enjoy). Rather we use the pretty seedy, slightly resinous small oranges are great for making marmalade.

Dispatch from the opportunities page: don't miss these residencies to apply for in September!

Hortus Residency for Visual Artists
at Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens
Deadline: September 13
https://bit.ly/2Yytayf

Bloedel Reserve Creative Residency
at Bloedel Reserve
Deadline: September 15
https://bit.ly/3jL5G0S

Hambidge Residencies
at The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences
Deadline: September 15
https://bit.ly/3jK0BpI

Storyknife Residency Program
at Storyknife Writers Retreat
Deadline: September 30
https://bit.ly/3nc0jdh

Find more residencies to apply for at mnartists.walkerart.org/opportunities

Image: Storyknife in autumn.

It has been a busy several weeks here at !

Let me catch you up to speed!

Week #1 theme was Baking - posted previously on June 30-July 3.

Week #2 July 7- July 10 theme was Color Me Wild - pictures below.
We explored color in nature by booking a private visit to a gorgeous botanical garden in Stone Ridge, NY Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens did various color crafts, tie dyed shirts, and made rainbow 🌈 jello cups!

Week #3 July 14-July 17 theme was Musical Theater - pictures below.
We played lots of drama games. Listened to a wide variety of songs from popular musicals, LOTS of improv!, experienced over 10 musicals in an hour and 15 minutes, and on a rainy day we watched Into The Woods.

Week #4 July 21-24 theme was Christmas In July - pictures below.
We listened to Christmas music while we worked on various Christmas crafts, including a paper plate wreath, pipe cleaner candy canes, and a gorgeous Christmas garland. We re-wrote a Christmas tune with a summer spin, recorded, mixed, edited, and then filmed a music video. We made peppermint bark, watched everyone’s favorite Christmas movie, Elf, and had a White Elephant gift exchange!

TODAY'S THE DAY! We are thrilled to present an online illustrated lecture with Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano, botanical artists and founders of Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens in New York's Hudson Valley. Join us today, (Wednesday, 7/8) at 5:30pm. Visit our website to register (link in bio). We are grateful to the Dukes Soil Conservation District for sponsoring this lecture! Photos courtesy of Hortus Gardens.

While we can't host them in person this season, we are thrilled to offer an online presentation by Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano, founders of Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens in the Hudson Valley, for an introduction to hardy and low-maintenance edible garden plants. Join us this Wednesday, 7/8 at 5:30pm! For more info & to register: bit.ly/PHA-Programs

A flower for all the wonderful mothers out there💕 Love this shot from Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens!

Will you be offering any of your classes online via something like zoom. I would love to know more about edible plants.

Visit Lee Reich's "farmden" this Saturday through Open Days, plus the Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, and learn more about all the unusual fruits and vegetables that can be grown in the Hudson Valley! See gardenconservancy.org/open-days/open-days-schedule for details on our Ulster County, NY Open Day.

Congratulations to our friends (and RVBA member) Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens on the great article and beautiful plants! Let's all support this unique addition to our community!