The High Line in June – Part 1

I spent 3+ very hot, sunny hours on the High Line this week, along with several thousand other New Yorkers and visitors. In fact there were so many people walking the city’s unique linear park between 14th and 30th Streets, that when I stopped to photograph a fetching plant or a beautiful scene, I felt like a boulder in a rushing river.  But despite the terrible light conditions, I did stop every now and again to photograph Piet Oudolf’s beautiful plants.  Because who could resist these lovely and unusual partners: copper iris (Iris fulva) and twisted-leafed garlic (A. obliquum).  Oh, and that pointy building in the background isn’t too shabby either!

Empire State Building

The honey bees just loved the copper iris.  Normally an ornithophilous (bird-pollinated) plant in its native habitat in the central-south U.S., moisture-loving Iris fulva was nevertheless a great hit with the honey bees, which climbed right into the style arm to nectar.

Honey bee on copper iris - I. fulva

And all kinds of bees were visiting the twisted-leafed garlic (Allium obliquum), which made a pretty neighbour to a light-pink form of Knautia macedonica, bottom right.

Bees on Allium obliquum & Knautia

White wild indigo (Baptisia alba) and creamy-white oxtail lily (Eremurus himalaicus )made charming partners, too.

Baptisia alba & Eremurus himalaicus

I love watching bees nectar on foxtail lilies – such a lot of tiny flowers to explore in this beautiful foraging ground!

Honey bee on -Eremurus himalaicus

One of the more statuesque alliums is the white Allium nigrum, here with Bradbury’s eastern beebalm (Monarda bradburiana), a low-growing native of the central-south U.S.

Allium 'Mount Everest' & Monarda bradburiana

Like all alliums, A. nigrum is a great bee lure.

Bees on Allium 'Mount Everest'

Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ nestled its compact, beautiful self into the crevices abutting the High Line’s popular walkways.
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Amsonia 'Blue Ice'

While Lonicera sempervirens ‘Major Wheeler’ flung itself luxuriantly across its high, mesh trellis a stone’s throw from Frank Gehry’s bold building.

'Major Wheeler' coral honeysuckle

Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) was in full, glorious flower, the female inflorescences held separate from the male ones.

Sumac & the East River

And the honey bees were making sure those flowers would turn into fuzzy red fruits later.

Honey bees on sumac

Clusters of ripe Allegheny serviceberries (Amelanchier laevis) dangled like rubies over the street below.

Allegheny serviceberry - A.laevis

And they were being eaten by hungry birds that knew just which berries would be the sweetest.

Bird eating serviceberry

Ensuring there would be red berries, a honey bee patiently nectared from the tiny flowers of the ‘Red Sprite’ winterberry (Ilex verticillata), below.  In fact, the entire High Line was buzzing with bees and alive with bird song – the sign of a well-designed, holistic garden with intrinsic value not just for humans, but for the small creatures that visit it for food and shelter.  Ready to join me for Part 2 of the High Line in June?

Bee on female winterberry flower