

The tulips we plant in the Public Garden bloom over several weeks. As long as the weather doesn’t get too warm during the day - 70 degrees - and stays cool at night, between 40 and 50 degrees, tulips can hold their color for about two weeks. The next two weeks are prime tulip-peeping. Lucy Hamrick, visiting from Oklahoma, with her friend Carina Ciolfi of Boston, have their photo taken near a tulip bed in the Boston Public Garden. We featured this in the Public Garden that spring. For instance, after the Marathon tragedy, a variety was introduced called Boston, which was a Triumph tulip that is yellow and maroon colored. Vendors from Holland will send out publications about new tulip varieties and I usually try to include a few interesting new varieties for the Public Garden and other locations. The actual planning part for tulips for next spring starts in the previous spring.

How much work goes into getting these flower displays ready for spring? This interview has been edited for length and clarity. We caught up with Hennessy to find out more about this season’s offerings, and what flowers people will take in as they explore the city. “With the Public Garden being the first botanical garden in North America, our goal is to bring that level of horticultural excellence to every beautification project we take on,” he said. Fusing images and text, City Parks is an extraordinary and unique project: through personal reflection and intimate detail it taps into collective memory and our sense of time’s passage.But his staff is always up for the task, working with park partners, garden clubs, and community groups to carry on the tradition.

Taken around the world over the course of a year, in every season, his pictures capture the inherent mood of each place. Oberto Gili’s color and black-and-white photographs unify the writers’ unique and personal voices. Zadie Smith, Ian Frazier, Candice Bergen, Colm Tóibín, Nicole Krauss, Jan Morris, and a dozen other remarkable contributors reflect on a particular park that holds special meaning for them.Īndrew Sean Greer eloquently paints a portrait of first love in the Presidio André Aciman muses on time’s fleeting nature and the changing face of New York viewed from the High Line Pico Iyer explores hidden places and privacy in Kyoto Jonathan Alter takes readers from the 1968 race riots to Obama’s 2008 victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park Simon Winchester invites us along on his adventures in the Maidan and Bill Clinton writes of his affection for Dumbarton Oaks. Catie Marron’s City Parks captures the spirit and beauty of eighteen of the world’s most-loved city parks.
