Wandering the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Last weekend I tried out my new membership at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, breezing through the "members only" entrance with a flash of my shiny green card. Nice.

I ended up in the Native Flora Garden and happily toured the masses of vegetation, looking for shade tolerant plants for a particular project involving constructed rocky stream banks adjacent to high security walls.

Some of the more interesting plants included:

Fuzzy on top, with very minty leaves (above): Mountain-mint (Pycnanthemum muticum)

Bizarre, extremely poisonous berries and a creepy, fitting name: Doll's eyes (Actaea pachypoda)

And, just for fun, this artistic conifer cultivar with curled needles: Twisted white-pine (Pinus strobus 'Contorta')