Although construction has virtually cut off direct access to the Piet Oudolf-designed
Battery Bosque from the Financial District at the southern tip of Manhattan, you can still get to it from either end, most pleasingly via the Gardens of Remembrance (also designed by Oudolf), a contiguous walking parkway that extends the New Perennial-style plantings around the Battery waterfront. Finding myself downtown with time to spare a few days ago, I stopped by to see how the plantings are doing after a summer and fall of unusually severe weather.
Rather well, it appears. Here are some pics I took with my mobile phone camera.
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| Trycirtis - Toad Lily |
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| Chasmanthium latifolium |
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| Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'October Skies' |
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| Amsonia hubrichtii |
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| Salvia uliginosa |
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| Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Rosea' with Trycirtis |
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| Trycirtis - Toad Lily |
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| Sesleria autumnalis and Hydrangea quercifolia |
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| Symphyotrichum again, with switch grass and much construction in the background |
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| Silphium terebinthinaceum, Eryngium yuccafolium, Symphyotrichum |
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| View along Gardens of Remembrance toward towers of Jersey City, World Trade Center site off to the right |
The Bosque and Gardens continue to be well maintained and a credit to the care of the Battery Conservancy and its staff. The construction is unfortunate but necessary, I suppose, and once it's complete the Bosque will regain the openness it originally had. I continue to be amazed that herbaceous perennials can maintain form and structure so well in this exposed coastal environment.
