Summer afternoons can evoke a certain dreamy nostalgia.
I was feeling it recently, and remembering a public garden I used to haunt. Snug Harbor Botanical Garden, in the New York City borough of Staten Island, is a somewhat forgotten place, being overshadowed by major institutions like the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and the New York Botanical Garden.
It’s a gem though.
Never crowded, it sits on the grounds of an old sailor’s home and contains a wide variety of gardens – a rose garden, perennial borders, fish ponds with tropical plants set around them in the summer, a greenhouse and wonderful old trees, an herb garden, a white garden enclosed by old trellis, a pleached hornbeam allee…and that’s not to mention the impressive Chinese Scholar’s Garden and an Italianate garden.
Here is a selection of images from a landscape I came to love, taken from 2008- 2011.
I’ll save the Chinese Scholar’s Garden, Italianate Gardens and glass house for another time…
So many photographs. And there are many more. I spent many hours with my camera at Snug Harbor.
For those who like naming things, here are some names:
1) A clematis in the White Garden
2) Can’t remember the name of this pretty white flower
3) Rose
4) One of the old homes on the grounds, now sometimes used for photo shoots
5) Hosta, Hakone grass and other foliage plants make one of many wonderful compositions in the perennial garden
6) Cotinus, or Smoke tree, with leaf shadows in late afternoon sunlight
7) Crinum asiaticum, a tropical spider lily grown each year and set in containers outside the greenhouse
8) Walkway after heavy rain, planted with annuals and tropicals
9) Praying mantis with Joe
10) Praying mantis with asters
11) Japanese anemone in the White Garden
12) Hakone grass
13) Hakone grass going to seed
14) Spider lily (Crinum asiaticum)
15) Brugmansia – also called Angel’s trumpets, they provide a spectacular display in large containers each summer.
16) Clematis gone to seed in the White Garden
17) Poppy pods!
18) Peonies after a storm
19) Peony
20) Water lily – Nymphaea sp.
21) Fall color in the garden
22) Brugmansias – how I love them!
23) Fallen petals
24) Late summer border composition – Smoke tree, Perovskia (Russian sage), Yarrow, Bergamot
25) The Rose Garden, early September
26) Clematis on the trellis
27) Grasses in fall
28) Fallen petals in spring
29) The peached allee of hornbeam, a repsite on hot days
30) Quarter moon under a crooked tree
31) A resident Mallard pair
bluebrightly 
OMG ! So, so beautiful!
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🙂 Thanks!
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Lovely images. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed them –
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Looks a great place – thanks for the virtual wander!
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It is – you’re welcome, Sue!
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All photos turned out great. I particularly like the one of the lotus.
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The lotus is always so photogenic. The colors in that photo seem very calming. Thank you.
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Once again a beautiful set Lynn. I really liked the praying mantis, something I have only seen here once and I think it must have been blown off course by a storm. Number 2 are Wood Anemones I believe. The ones we have are coloured. Beautiful treatment of your photos – great light and textures!
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Praying mantises are just amazing creatures – they look right at you. I always considered it a gift when I would see one. One year, late in the summer, there seemed to be a small explosion of them around some fennel plants at “Snuggies.” That’s why I was able to get a few good pictures of them. Wood anemones – I was thinking something like that. Thank you! I went back and redid almost all of these.
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What a gorgeous collection of images. The dreamy B&W of the Brugmansia flower should be printed and framed – a work of art, truly. The second flower is Anemone blanda ‘White Splendour’ – a spring bulb known as a windflower. I love them since they bloom like daisies in April. The pink rose (looks like a David Austin rose) and the peonies – lush. Yum . . . sometimes looking at photos like this make me hungry!
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Thank you! I thought it was an Anemone but I’m rusty these days. And yes, that pretty rose is probably a David Austin. I guess you can run out to your garden now, to satisfy that hunger…
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🙂
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Some gems in this suite!
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A fine selection clearly photographed with love. I’ve re-visited them several times and can appreciate your title.
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Wow! All this summer goodness…a feast for the eyes!!
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Excellent close-ups. Love the praying mantis and the details in the flowers.
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Thank you – I love details, and who wouldn’t be grateful for an opportunity to photograph a praying mantis?
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Wow, such beautiful photographs as always. I am amazed by your ability to compose tight shots and wide shots with equal effect! 🙂
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Mmm, nice to think about that – I do struggle with composition but I think it’s getting better.
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Just another stunning series of photos 🙂 Incredible, the perspective and crispness of these shots make me stay and linger at each one. Cheers!
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Just gorgeous, Lynn!
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So impressive colors of scenes. And the poses of several flowers are attractive!!
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My favorites are the ones with just a hint of color, or the more monochromatic palette.
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