A Magical Garden in the Sky: The High Line in New York City

More visitors in New York City than the Statue of Liberty? Amazing.

If you go to New York City on business, holidays or vacation, be sure to see the New York City High Line, a unique "magical garden in the sky", a kind of "elevated thinking", represented by a garden-like public park built on 1 1/2 miles of elevated former train tracks right in New York City, with spectacular views of the surrounding scenery and architecture.

As written at Great Museums Television, Narrated by Academy Award®-Winning Actress Susan Sarandon, Airing Now on Public Television Nationwide

"(June 2014) -- Great Museums® Television’s newest documentary, “Elevated Thinking: The High Line in New York City,” begins airing nationally on public television in June 2014. New York City’s WNET airs "Elevated Thinking" as part of its series, “Treasures of New York” in primetime on June 17th at 8:00pm ET."

Deborah Berg McCarthy of New York City, youngest sister of one of my best friends, retired architect Lowell Berg, both Friends of the High Line, who I have known for over 50 years, writes at her Facebook site:

"Honored to be involved with Great Museums! Check out the theme song co-written by Doug Katsaros and yours truly! Tune in, June 17th, WNET for High Line program!"

See this absolutely marvelous "magical garden in the sky" at:

• http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/new-york-city-s-high-line-celebrates-5th-birthday-1.1868812

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76mblYY__PE

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W2Yq1zzxAc

• http://vimeo.com/67218204

and make sure to tune in to WNET tonight at 8 p.m. ET if you have access.

To our way of thinking, "The High Line" may represent a new understanding of how to better blend parks and gardens into an urban environment.

Garden Fall Harvest and Grilled Garden Pizza at The White House Blog

See The White House Kitchen Garden Fall Harvest and Grilled Garden Pizza.

Garies, Namaqualand, Northern Cape, South Africa, Wild Flowers by Martin Heigan

Namaqualand wild flowers (north of Capetown, South Africa) by Martin Heigan -- see his Photostream at Flickr.

Hat tip to CaryGEE.

Floridata is a Great Gardening Website with Text and Photography

Floridata describes itself as:

"[A] photographic encyclopedia of landscape plants, an online plant & nature reference, and a gardening marketplace."

Floridata is a great gardening site with all kinds of text and photographic plant information.

Zantedeschia: The Calla Lilies are in bloom again

"The Calla Lilies are in bloom again" is a famous cinema line by Katherine Hepburn from the film Stage Door (1937 - see the video excerpt of those lines below). Below that -- from our own garden -- are also our photos of Zantedeschia, the Calla Lily albo maculata (the pristine white calla), a flower also called Lily of the Nile or Arum Lily.

From various postings at the Wikipedia (Zantedeschia, Zantedeschia aethiopica), Floridata.com and AmericanMeadows.com we put together the information that:

Zantedeschia aethiopica, family Araceae, is native to southern Africa but is not a true arum, lily or calla. It is found painted in great quantities in many of Diego Rivera's paintings.

Zantedeschia is toxic to touch and poisonous for ingestion so care should be taken in handling the plant and flowers.

Botany: Earth and its Grasses: Evolution by the Grassroots - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com - Olivia Judson

Olivia Judson at Opinionator Blog gets into basic Botany with a nice piece on Planet Earth and its Grasses at Evolution by the Grassroots, inter alia:

"The role that early grasslands may have played in human evolution is hotly debated. For a good overview of the status of different hypotheses, see Bobe, R. and Behrensmeyer, A. K. 2004. “The expansion of grassland ecosystems in Africa in relation to mammalian evolution and the origin of the genus Homo.” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 207: 399-420."

Flowers to Attract Hummingbirds

Flowers to Attract Hummingbirds

by Marie Iannotti, at Marie's Gardening BLog