WEAR PLANTS: Connecting People + Plants

Creative plant and ecology-based programing was one significant goal I accomplished as the Manager of Horticulture at Randall's Island Park Alliance. By introducing basic concepts of botany, the beauty and usefulness of flowers and the importance that butterflies, bees, birds and bats play in the pollination of flowers, I hoped to make staff and park visitors more aware of the importance of our jobs as horticulturists, gardeners and educators. Ultimately, creative and easily accessible ecological and horticulture-based programs increase our awareness of our connection to various organisms and make us think or care about the natural world and our impact on the environment. 

 

Weedy vines like, porcelain berry, and bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) vine are great in bouquets as well as in flower crowns and other wearable plant art. Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) makes an excellent base for a ring of flowers too.

 

 Starting in the spring of 2022 we grew beds of dahlias, various species of amaranth, zinnias and other annuals, that were combined with common gardens weeds and native perennials to help park visitors create their own flower crowns. We made bouquets and distributed them to staff and park visitors during events. At pollinator festivals we swore and assisted patrons with making butterfly, bird and leaf masks. So much fun!!!

 

 

Dahlias  from tubers gifted by Grace, a farmer friend. Many tubers came from a  plant swap with a former student at NYBG. Many thanks for the bounty and beauty.

There are lots of opportunities for creativity with these masks, modeled by the artists. Can you identify the leaves and flowers used? I see cercis, sumac, maple, catalpa, cotinus, London planetree and goldenrod.

Paper flower poppies

Dahlias, zinnias, salvias, asters and porcelain vine

 

 

 

 

We hosted an anatomically correct paper-flower workshop that was a hit. Over several weeks we collected and pressed numerous flowers and leaves for a pressed plant workshop. Participants were enthusiastic and grateful for the guidance during these workshops. Working with flowers and plants always creates positive impacts and participants learn new and fun skills bits of ecology and botany. 

The Ruby-throated hummingbird mask required some wire-bending and paper marché but overall it was fun to create. It think we can reach and inspire people to care about plants, insects and birds if we make learning about them fun and interactive. Maybe more knowing will lead to more caring and to better outcomes for the future of our planet.

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU PEPPERS

MAKE HORT SAUCE

My sisters and bothers are cooks and gardeners and we are all snobs when it comes to good food. We are makers of scrumptious dishes that attempt to rival those of our industrious and talented mother Pearl. Under Pearl’s tutelage we learned to bake bread and cakes, make home-made ice-cream make chutneys, kuchela, tamarind sauce, preserved cherries, guava, papaya and pineapple jam and candy, and coconut oil. Now, many years later in my New York apartment, I make tamarind sauce and pepper sauce, to go with curries, stews  and other dishes of which my friends in New York and Massachusetts are beneficiaries.

When the afternoon sun flooded the office space of the Horticulture department on Randall’s Island, it scorched the begonias and tislandsias  sitting on my window sill. How many of us long to have a 4x4 foot space to garden in, let alone one in full sun, affording the opportunity to grow heat-loving plants? I thought it would be wasteful to not accept this gift and wise to capitalize on the pure and free energy. I decided to have the Horticulture department create a line of pepper sauce. The Hort department would create Hort Sauce. 

 

 

 

The idea turned into a 4’x 28’ raised bed erected on a 6’ wide strip of gravel, previously full of tall weeds. The horticulture department started growing various species of peppers from seed under grow lights and transplanted them in the long bed around Memorial Day. 

 

 

 

 

In another long row of 4 wide beds we grew tomatoes, eggplant, Hill rice (Oryza glaberrima), Hibiscus sabdariffa, and one sugarcane plant, which was donated by a  friend at a botanic garden. The tomatoes got off on a rough start and required a lot of staking, but overall the harvest was bountiful. 

 

 

            Tomatoes from Summer 2022  and Tomatoes and Eggplant from Summer of 2023

 

 The peppers did exceptionally well and we harvested over 30 pounds. 

 

With names like Meadow, Solar and Flame, we filled and labeled 3.5 once bottles and distributed HellGate Hort Sauce to staff in other departments.

 

I continue the tradition of making hot pepper sauce, tamarind sauce and other sweet and savory preserves. I think of my mom and siblings as I go through the process of chopping and blending. While channeling Pearl’s energy, I hope to pass on her many inspiring traits. Like Pearl and other gardeners and cooks, I've learned and I am still learning to be resourceful and industrious, and to remember to make the most of what I’ve been allotted.