Narrows Botanical Gardens, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

Update 2007.10.24:

  • The insect nymphs have been identified as Large Milkweed Bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus.
  • A work colleague translated the Russian sign for me.

Crabapple, Narrows Botanical Gardens
Crabapple

 

Yesterday I visited Bay Ridge for the first time to attend the fourth Blogade, organized by Rob Lenihan of Luna Park Gazette. This gave me a chance to visit the Narrows Botanical Gardens (NBG) earlier in the day.

NBG is a 4.5 acre community garden run entirely by volunteers. It lies between Shore Road and the waterfront trails along the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten island in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You enter NBG from Shore Road. Unfortunately, my visit yesterday was ill-timed. Two of the three entrances were closed for construction. And the gate to native plant garden at the north end of NBG, which I was most looking forward to, was locked off.

It was another of those warm, sunny days we’ve been having, more like late May or June than October. There was lots in bloom, and lots of animal activity. I was surprised at the number of things I didn’t recognize or couldn’t identify. If you can identify any of these “unknowns”, please leave a comment!

Water Lily
Water Lily, Narrows Botanical Garden

Modern Rose
New Rose, Narrows Botanical Gardens

Beautyberry
Beautyberry

Pennisetum, I think
Pennisetum

Crabapples
Crabapples

Sleepy Bee
Sleepy <del/>Bee Flower Fly” width=”500″ height=”333″></a></p>
<p>Unknown Sparrow<br />
<a title=ID REQUEST: Unknown Sparrow

Nymphs of Large Milkweed Bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus
ID REQUEST: Insect nymphs
Thanks to Hannah Nendick-Mason, Contributing Editor to BugGuide and urtica (Flickr), whom I know better as Jennifer Forman Orth, author of the long-running and indispensible Invasive Species Weblog.

Monarch on Butterfly Bush
Monarch on Butterfly Bush

Bamboo, Zen Garden
Bamboo, Zen Garden, Narrows Botanical Gardens

Morning Glory
Morning Glory, Narrows Botanical Gardens

Fruit of unknown shrub
ID REQUEST: Fruit of unknown shrub

Monarch Butterfly on unknown purple-flowering shrub
Monarch on unknown shrub

“Please, don’t pick the flowers”
Probably says Don't pick the flowers in Russian
One of my work colleagues translated the sign for me. Here’s the Google English to Russian Translation:

English: DON’T PICK FLOWERS, PLEASE
Russian: Не ставят цветы, пожалуйста

The word for “PICK” doesn’t match the sign.

Another Modern Rose
Rose, Narrows Botanical Gardens

Amaranth flowers
Amaranth

Opuntia in Fruit
Opuntia Fruit
(Firefox’ spell-checker didn’t recognize “Opuntia.” It suggested Jauntily Haunting Prudential Aunties.)

 

2 thoughts on “Narrows Botanical Gardens, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

  1. That garden looks and sounds great. You did a wonderful job with these pictures they are outstanding.

    I can help with some of the items and guess on some of the others.

    The grass is Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Moudry’ or Black Fountain Grass.

    The butterfly looks like it is on Vitex agnus-castus, aka, Chaste or Hemp Tree.

    (guess or not sure) For the Unknown Fruit check Clerodendron trichotomum.

    (guess or not sure) The red rose is kind of like ‘Knockout’ but you have probably seen those before. The Apricot rose looks to me like some kind of Austin Rose.

    Hope that helps. I am going to have to make a note to visit this garden next year.

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