Plants in Bloom
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Collection | JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |
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Azaleas | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Bluebells | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Cherry Trees | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Crabapples | ✿ | |||||||||||
Crape-Myrtles | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Daffodils | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Fall Foliage (Peak) | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Lilacs | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Magnolias | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | |||||||
Native Spring Ephemerals | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Native Wildflowers | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||
Orchids | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ||
Rhododendrons | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | |||||||||
Roses | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | |||||||
Sacred Lotus | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | |||||||||
South African Bulbs | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | |||||||
Spring Bulbs | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | |||||||||
Tree Peonies | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Tulips | ✿ | |||||||||||
Vegetables & Fruit | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||
Water-Lilies | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||
Wisteria | ✿ | ✿ | ||||||||||
Witch-Hazels | ✿ | ✿ | ✿ |
October highlights
Winterberry
The lovely berries of this native holly relative persist through winter, sometimes spring. These fruits are a welcome food for hungry birds as the weather cools and other options get scarce.
Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Gold’ (winterberry ) in the Discovery Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Japanese Toad-Lily ‘Miyazaki’
The beautiful little flowers of this shade-loving plant look a bit like orchids and persist through October and even into November.
Tricyrtis hirta ‘Miyazaki’ (Japanese toad-lily) in the Rock Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Gray Goldenrod
This small goldenrod, named for its downy gray stems, produces clumps of yellow plumes that attract butterflies. Individual plants bloom at varying times, giving it an extended blooming season from late summer into early fall.
Solidago nemoralis (gray goldenrod) in the Water Garden. Photo: Blanca Begert.
Aromatic Aster
This later-blooming aster species has violet-colored flower heads and leaves that are fragrant when crushed. Bees and butterflies feed on its nectar.
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium ‘October Skies’ (‘October Skies’) in the Rose Arc Pool. Photo: Blanca Begert.
Stonecrop [Autumn Joy]
Stonecrops, or sedums, are a genus of succulents with an exceptionally varied array of flowers, foliage, and habits. ‘Autumn Joy’ is an upright, fall-blooming cultivar in bloom now in the Rock Garden, Perennial Border, and elsewhere.
Hylotelephium Autumn Joy = (Herbstfreude Group) ‘Herbstfreude’ (stonecrop [Autumn Joy]) in the Rock Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
American Persimmon
The American persimmon is native to the central and eastern United States, and can grow up to 80 feet high. Its spring flowers provide nectar for bees, and its fruits have long been enjoyed by people and wildlife across the region.
Diospyros virginiana (American persimmon) in the Plant Family Collection. Photo: Michael Stewart.
New England Aster
This popular garden plant has flower heads that are darker and larger than those of other native asters. They also have more ray flowers. New England aster grows tall, up to five feet.
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England aster) in the Water Garden. Photo: Alvina Lai.
Spotted Bee Balm
This native plant has distinctive spotted, tubular flowers that are stacked along the stem. The bright pink bracts under each flower help attract wasps and bees.
Monarda punctata (spotted bee balm) in the Native Flora Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Aster ‘Blue Bird’
Smooth aster has no hair on the stems or leaves and can be distinguished from better-known New England aster by its flowers, which are smaller and lighter in color. This cultivar, discovered in a Connecticut garden in 1988, produces violet-blue flowers and has an upright, freestanding habit.
Symphyotrichum laeve ‘Blue Bird’ (aster ‘Blue Bird’) in the Shakespeare Garden. Photo: Sarah Schmidt.
Swamp Milkweed
Milkweeds are host plants to monarch butterflies, which can be seen flitting around them in the summer. The seedpods, which dry out during fall, are filled with silky filaments that help carry the seeds far from the mother plant when the wind catches them.
Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed) in the Native Flora Garden. Photo: Blanca Begert.
Hybrid Tea Rose Frederic Mistral
A classic hybrid tea rose with a large, single bloom at the end of a long stem and a sweet fragrance, this pink cultivar was named after the Nobel Prize-winning French poet.
Rosa FREDERIC MISTRAL = ‘Meitebros’ (hybrid tea rose) in the Rose Garden. Photo: Jean-Marc Grambert.
Japanese Toad-Lily
The beautiful little flowers of this shade-loving plant look a bit like orchids and persist through October and even into November. They attract bees and other pollinators.
Tricyrtis ‘Tojen’ (Japanese toad-lily) in the Rose Arc Pool. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Abelia ‘Rose Creek’
This flowering shrub belongs to the Caprifoliaceae, or honeysuckle family. Abelia> species tend to be low-maintenance, with a bloom time that extends into fall.
Abelia ‘Rose Creek’ (Abelia ‘Rose Creek’) in the Osborne Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Japanese Anemone
Lovely anemones first bloom in late summer and continue through fall, attracting pollinators when many sources of pollen and nectar have gone to seed.
Anemone hupehensis spp. (Japanese anemone) in the Rock Garden. Photo: Lee Patrick.
Hardy Begonia
This late-summer bloomer with dangling clusters of delicately fragrant pink flowers is a perennial species that survives Brooklyn winters. See an expansive understory carpet blossoming in Bluebell Wood in late September.
Begonia grandis (hardy begonia) in Bluebell Wood. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Wood’s Pink New York Aster
Symphyotrichum novi-belgii ‘Wood’s Pink’ (New York aster) in the Shakespeare Garden. Photo: Alvina Lai.
Shrub Rose
This lovely shrub rose hybrid blooms repeatedly starting in late spring through fall.
Rosa ‘Surf Rider’ (shrub rose) in the Rose Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Chrysanthemum ‘Hillside Sheffield Pink’
Chrysanthemums, also known as “mums”, are native to Asia and parts of Europe and bloom through autumn.
Chrysanthemum ‘Hillside Sheffield Pink’ (chrysanthemum ‘Hillside Sheffield Pink’) in the Rose Arc Pool. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Chinese Fringe Flower
Loropetalum chinense (Chinese fringe flower) in the Bonsai Museum. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Black Tupelo
A native tree found in wooded wetland areas, the black tupelo can tolerate a wide range of conditions, from standing water to dry, drought-ridden soils. Its brilliant red autumn foliage can be seen in the Water Garden, the Plant Family Collection, and at the Visitor Center.
Nyssa sylvatica (black tupelo) in the Water Garden. Photo: Sarah Schmidt.
Japanese Maple ‘Lutescens’
One of the several maple cultivars in the Japanese Garden, Acer palmatum ‘Lutescens’ displays dazzling yellow color in fall. In Japan, such leaf colors inspire the tradition of momijigari, or autumn leaf viewing, in which foliage fans travel to gardens, parks, and into the mountains to admire the show.
Acer palmatum ‘Lutescens’ (Japanese maple cultivar) in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Cosmos
Who doesn't love cosmos? These flowering annuals, native to Mexico and the southwestern U.S., are bright, delicate, and easy to grow from seed.
Cosmos species (cosmos) in the Discovery Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Golden Larch
Not all conifers are evergreen. This tree, native to China, is deciduous. The needles take on a striking gold color in the fall before dropping off in the winter.
Pseudolarix amabilis (golden larch) in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden. Photo: Blanca Begert.
Bear Oak
Quercus ilicifolia is a shrub, not a tree. Like other oaks, it provides food and habitat for an astounding array of wildlife, including bears.
Quercus ilicifolia (bear oak) in the Native Flora Garden. Photo: Blanca Begert.
Kentucky Yellowwood
Planted in 1916, this tree is one of the Garden’s most remarkable. It has multiple trunks and sprawls to 75 feet in diameter. To preserve this century-old tree as long as possible, cables have been installed to support some of the sprawling limbs. It still flowers every few years and displays wonderful fall color.
Cladrastis kentukea (Kentucky yellowwood) in the Plant Family Collection. Photo: Sarah Schmidt.
Japanese Maple
One of the several maple cultivars in the Japanese Garden, Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’ displays stunning fall color.
Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’ (Japanese maple) in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden. Photo: Brian Funk.
Big Bluestem
Native to the eastern two-thirds of the United States, this grass was especially common in the prairies that thrived in the central region of North America prior to European colonization. It can grow as tall as eight feet, and its spikelets change from green to purple as it matures in the fall.
Andropogon gerardii (big bluestem) in the Native Flora Garden. Photo: Blanca Begert.
Staghorn Sumac
Sumacs are among the first trees to change colors in fall. Staghorn sumac is a native species, and its vivid foliage can be seen lighting up roadsides and forest edges this time of year.
Rhus typhina (staghorn sumac) in the Discovery Garden. Photo: Alvina Lai.
Cape Leadwort
Native to South Africa, this evergreen shrub blooms in gently rounded clusters.
Plumbago auriculata (cape leadwort) in the Warm Temperate Pavilion. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Red Maple
This native North American tree has fall foliage that may vary from yellow to orange to red, sometimes on the same tree—or even the same leaf!
Acer rubrum (red maple) in the Native Flora Garden. Photo: Blanca Begert.
White Wood Aster
This white-flowered aster grows well in the shade. Aster disc florets fade from yellow to red as they age. Bees visit the yellow-centered blooms, which contain more pollen, but the darker florets still help draw pollinators from afar.
Eurybia divaricata (white wood aster) in the Native Flora Garden. Photo: Blanca Begert.
Nodding Pond Cypress
This deciduous conifer is found at pond edges. Related to the bald cypress, it is narrower with shorter, overlapping needles. This cultivar, ‘Nutans’, has slightly weeping branches.
Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium ‘Nutans’ (nodding pond cypress) in the Rock Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Hardy Blue-Flowered Leadwort
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides is a mat-forming perennial groundcover with vivid blue flowers. Like many groundcovers, it spreads by sending out rhizomes, or horizontal underground stems.
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (hardy blue-flowered leadwort) in the Osborne Garden. Photo: Michael Stewart.
Oak-Leaved Hydrangea
In fall, the oak-shaped leaves of Hydrangea quercifolia produce vivid shades of purple, red, and gold.
Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snow Queen’ (oak-leaved hydrangea) on Magnolia Plaza. Photo: Michael Stewart.