At today’s botanical gardens, nature isn’t necessarily “civilized, clipped, and classified,“ writes James S. Russell in The New York Times. “The Brooklyn Botanic Garden hasn’t discarded taxonomic collecting or spectacular floral displays but has steadily brought more of an ecological ethos to its intimate 52 acres. The new plant groupings are comparatively disorderly, host insects and birds, and change constantly with flowers, seed pods, and leaf colors constantly popping and fading.”
The new ethos, he writes, is evident in the “shaggy clouds of vegetation” at the head of the Garden’s Cherry Esplanade, where “a long neglected 1.25-acre slope has become the Robert W. Wilson Overlook. It now hosts a sinuous path lined by white concrete retaining walls. It zigzags up amid a maturing meadow in what look like calligraphic brush strokes.”
On the Overlook’s slopes, grasses and perennials from across North America are assembled based on the layered structure of a meadow, combining their diverse survival strategies to create a resilient plant community.
“Textures and color are subtly enhanced in this meadow,” Russell writes. “Tiny intertwined flowers, leaves and stems hug the soil, including wild strawberries flopping over the top of retaining walls. Mr. Wolf likened the planting idea to ‘very fine threads woven together,’ creating, in effect, small ecological habitats. ‘Even in winter there is an architecture of interlocking plants stems and seedpods,’ he said.”
The Overlook was designed by WEISS / MANFREDI Architecture / Landscape / Urbanism. Wolf Landscape Architecture designed its plantings, which introduce over 40,000 new trees, shrubs, grasses, cacti, and perennials into the Garden’s collection. The project has also been featured in Architectural Digest and New York Magazine.
Upper photo by Brooklyn Botanic Garden; lower photo by Vera Comploj.