BBG Tuesday

We walked from our place, across Prospect Park, to BBG to sniff the lilacs. We were not alone -Tuesdays the sniffing is free.

I sniffed a female carpenter bee (I think), unknowingly. Fellow sniffers, bee careful. We did notice a lack of honeybees.

I had recently received emails and envelopes touting the newly renovated native plant garden. So we headed in and I began to wonder which component had been renovated. Did they mean the trees that were taken out by recent storms were cut and carted (not completely)? Hmm. Maybe I just don't get here enough to know and see the difference. Above: Heart-leafed Groundsel.

Or did they mean the not yet finished Pine Barrens garden? I love the idea, or I think I do. I wish they did this at the Queens Botanical Garden. BBG is stealing their fire, figuratively and maybe literally because real pine barrens need fire to self sustain. Well, either way, I always love the native plant garden (which has plants from several eco-types and regions) because I always discover and rediscover there.

High bush blueberry in bloom.

Someone knows what this plant is (red stem, geranium type flower). The label said, falsely, Wild Columbine.

Ladyslipper (iphone cameras hate yellow).

The long, cool spring and lack of rain has promoted a late, leafless canopy. Some plants, like this Virginia Bluebell were in sun, under the trees. Other plants, like the May Apples, were wilting under the high sun where they would normally be in shade. This was made especially difficult by the sudden loss of full grown trees last fall.