On View: Darwin’s Garden
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
When it comes to evolution, most people imagine fish with legs, anthropoid-like monkeys or those otherwise nondescript finches from the Galapagos Islands. An exciting new exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden, however, seeks to provide insight into a rather neglected realm of evolutionary history. Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure, on view now through June 25, is a 40-minute walking tour through botanical deep time that explores the phylogenetic relationships, histories and habits of some thirty different plant and fungus species, beginning with such primitive life forms and living fossils as algae, mosses and cycads through more complex flowering plants and carnivorous nitrogen-seeking specialists like the venus flytrap. This ambitious program spans “three separate Botanical Garden venues and includes an “evolutionary tour” of living plants that demonstrate key points on the tree of life, which links all living beings through a common ancestry.”
So take forty minutes from your day to visit the distant relatives from which you branched off hundreds of millions of years ago. Tix are $20 for adults, $7 for children, and $18 for students and seniors. You can order online or by calling 718-817-8716 during workweek business hours.
Posted in Education, Legislation, Native Plants, New York City, Renewables, Solar One | Permalink
NYC Wildflower Week Celebration at Solar One
Monday, May 5th, 2008
On Saturday May 10th from 10am-2pm, Solar One will be hosting a celebration of Native Plants as part of NYC’s first Wild Flower Week. This free event will focus on educating children on the importance of native plants and to celebrate them through fun interactive activities in Stuyvesant Cove Park. Appropriate for ages 3-12.
Activities include:
Potting up your own native plants to take home
Making seed balls to disperse somewhere in the city
Bingo and crossword puzzles
Worm composting demonstration by The Lower East Side Ecology Center
“Pretend you’re a plant” interactive park tour
Create your own plant hat and/or costume by The New York Restoration Project
Coloring your favorite native plant
All are welcome, please come and join us!
Posted in Education, Native Plants, New York City, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park, Sustainability | Permalink
City Year NYC Volunteers In Stuyvesant Cove Park
Friday, April 25th, 2008
On April 23 & 24, Stuyvesant Cove Park was host to a group of volunteers from City Year NYC. City Year is one of the largest youth service corps in the country, with initiatives that focus on community needs. The three areas of service initiatives that City Year focuses on are: School based service which puts corp members in schools as tutors, mentors, and leaders of afterschool programs; youth leadership which teaches elementary, middle, and high school students their ability to make a difference on an individual basis; and lastly, community transformation, where corp members physically help their community by volunteering on-site at local organizations.
The two days of service provided by City Year were a great help to Stuyvesant Cove Park. The first day, volunteers helped finish up mulching park pathways, part of a project started by NY Cares a few weeks ago. This was a large project that, between the two organizations, took 25 volunteers a total of 5 hours to complete. It was a labor intensive project that would not have been possible without the help from City Year NYC. The second day of service by City Year NYC was made up of volunteers cutting back last year’s growth, pulling weeds that have already started growing, and scrubbing soda and juice stains off the park esplanade.
The staff at Solar One would like to thank City Year NYC for their hard work and dedication in helping maintain Stuyvesant Cove Park.
Posted in Native Plants, Stuyvesant Cove Park, Sustainability | Permalink
Plant Profile - Stuyvesant Cove Park
Friday, April 18th, 2008
(Caption: Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica)
A native plant of New York, Virginia Bluebells is a wonderful addition to Stuyvesant Cove Park. It is one of just a few plants blooming in the park this week. It usually blooms in early to mid April depending on the weather. Virginia Bluebells is a recent addition to the flora in Stuyvesant Cove park. It was planted in the spring of 2006 with the high hopes that the following spring it would showcase it’s beauty. We waited a whole year and sure enough in spring 2007 we had a modest showing of small but brilliant blue flowers. Once again in the spring of 2007, having had some success with the previous years plants, we decided to plant even more. That ended up being a wise decision because this year they have really flourished. We have large groupings with vivid displays of it’s periwinkle blue flowers, making a striking display at the North entrance to the park.
Mertensia virginica is classified as a perennial. It’s leaf and flowering period are ephemeral lasting only about 2-3 months. After its brief show, the leaves and flowers die back and do not reappear till the following spring. Mertensia virginica typically grows in moist woodland forests and bottomlands, and does fairly well in wetland areas too.
There is not much care required to grow this plant successfully. Moist rich soil, partial sun, and little to no foot traffic. The plant is extremely vulnerable to foot traffic and can result in lost blooms which, considering the length of it’s performance, are very valuable. So it would be best planted away from pathways or edges of flower beds. The plant usually reaches a height of 18 inches.
Posted in Native Plants, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
Stuyvesant Cove Park Volunteer Day A Great Success!
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
[caption: Volunteers Wendy Byrne, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, Hannelore Breuer]
On March 29th Solar One kicked off spring 2008 with its first volunteer day in Stuyvesant Cove Park. The day started at 9:00am with coffee donated by Starbucks and guest speaker Claudia Joseph, from The Old Stone House, who spoke to the volunteers about permaculture . After the lecture volunteers were assigned tasks in the park. New volunteers partnered with seasoned ones to cut back last seasons grasses and perennials and to weed unwanted plants in preparation for this season’s new growth.
In total there were over 20 volunteers that came out to help on Saturday, of which 2 were new to the park. The volunteers were also surprised to see their Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, who represents the 74th Assembly District, put on a pair of work gloves and volunteer his time to help in the park clean up day.
The day ended at 12:30pm with pizza and soda provided by the Stuyvesant Cove Park Association. If you are interested in participating in the next volunteer day or becoming a regular park volunteer, please contact us.
Posted in East River, Native Plants, New York City, Solar One, Stuyvesant Cove Park | Permalink
Futurefarmers + Solar One Collaboration Mentioned in NY Metro
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Modern Victory Gardens may ease urban hunger
by amy zimmer / metro new york
FEB 12, 2008
UNION SQUARE. To Amy Franceschini, the empty space in front of the Gandhi statue here could be an urban garden. The windows on buildings could have boxes for herbs and tomatoes. The roofs could have raised beds.
Franceschini, founder of the San Francisco-based design collective Futurefarmers, has convinced her city to plant crops in front of its City Hall as part of a pilot program to turn yards, balconies and unused land into food production areas. [...]
Franceschini plans to document their gardens online and help other cities adopt the program. She’s been contacted by several New York groups, she said, including Grow Greenpoint.com, the Conflux festival and Solar One.
“We want our audience to think about the potential for change through participation, but also about the messy politics of implementation”… full article
more on victory gardens: here
Posted in Art, Citysol, Native Plants, New York City, S1 in the News | Permalink
Plants with predatory instincts
Monday, January 7th, 2008
Most horticulturists and botanists know that pitcher plants are carnivorous plants native to certain areas of the US, but not all know to what degree these plants will go to trap unsuspecting insects. In the NY Times Science section last week is an article that talks about this plant’s mechanisms for tricking and trapping its food sources.
Not all pitcher plants are the same, some have evolved different and unique ways of capturing essential nutrients.
Walter Federle and colleagues at the University of Cambridge in England suggest that one pitcher plant species, at least, is more devilish still. Its lip, they report in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, is slippery only when wet.
This creates a false sense of security for insects looking for food sources, and a unique advantage for pitcher plant Nepenthes rafflesiana. NY Times article
Posted in Native Plants | Permalink
Gateway National Park Thinking About a Redesign
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
Gateway National Park… Ever been there? It’s one of the largest urban national parks, but a full half of New Yorkers don’t even know it’s there. It stretches around much of Queens and Brooklyn along the waterfront, as well as parts of Staten Island. Chronically underfunded, but culturally significant, Gateway is headed for a redesign. The National Parks Conservation Association is showcasing five of the competing design ideas and asking you to vote on them and submit comments. All the comments will then be given to the National Parks Service on January 31. Some of the designs have new ideas about water, some, new ideas about land. All take an advanced approach to materials used, native plants, and the usual.
Posted in Native Plants, New York City, Water | Permalink
New Protected Wetland in NYC
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
In today’s NYT, check out this article about the Parks Department’s newest project- Arlington Marsh in Staten Island. The 55-acre wetland parcel on Staten Island’s north shore will be cleaned up and protected, and is already home to a large assortment of wildlife, despite its less-than-pristine condition. The Arlington Marsh is especially exciting because it’s linked by the Kill Van Kull to another protected wetland on the nearby NJ coast called Mariner’s Marsh. This could be the start of a whole new prognosis for the heavily industrialized area.
Posted in Native Plants, New York City, Pollution, Sustainability | Permalink
