Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,
When we began the exhilarating process of restoring the Vista in 2015, I recall feeling an unexpected sense of loss at the removal of the many invasive trees that detracted from the monumental feature’s beauty and obscured the view of the Hudson River. Someone once told me that a rose is a weed if it’s in a cornfield, and these weed trees lacked the rose’s positive attributes, so out they went, allowing us to plant the now majestic allée of Cryptomeria and its underplanting of Hakonechloa. We feel a similar if temporary remorse at the removal of the mosaic floor portrait of Medusa at the Temple of the Sky, which was fatally compromised by a crumbling substructure and years of vandalism and storm damage. We tried patching, sealing, and filling voids over the past 13 years, but each year it got worse and more hazardous.
So the sound of jackhammering filled the air of our tranquil garden as the old mosaic floor was lifted and its underlying slab demolished to make way for a much-improved substrate. The new slab is built to last and, crucially, will allow for proper expansion and contraction with the changing seasons. Such will also be the case for the new mosaic floor, an exact replica of the original, crafted by the same mosaicists in Italy who fabricated the gorgeous mosaics in the Persian Pool. We hope to dedicate the new mosaic at our Sunset Soirée gala on June 18.
When we began the exhilarating process of restoring the Vista in 2015, I recall feeling an unexpected sense of loss at the removal of the many invasive trees that detracted from the monumental feature’s beauty and obscured the view of the Hudson River. Someone once told me that a rose is a weed if it’s in a cornfield, and these weed trees lacked the rose’s positive attributes, so out they went, allowing us to plant the now majestic allée of Cryptomeria and its underplanting of Hakonechloa. We feel a similar if temporary remorse at the removal of the mosaic floor portrait of Medusa at the Temple of the Sky, which was fatally compromised by a crumbling substructure and years of vandalism and storm damage. We tried patching, sealing, and filling voids over the past 13 years, but each year it got worse and more hazardous.
So the sound of jackhammering filled the air of our tranquil garden as the old mosaic floor was lifted and its underlying slab demolished to make way for a much-improved substrate. The new slab is built to last and, crucially, will allow for proper expansion and contraction with the changing seasons. Such will also be the case for the new mosaic floor, an exact replica of the original, crafted by the same mosaicists in Italy who fabricated the gorgeous mosaics in the Persian Pool. We hope to dedicate the new mosaic at our Sunset Soirée gala on June 18.
Our horticulture crew now totals ten energetic and skilled gardeners, and they are in full-on spring preparation mode. They have cleared all the beds and planted thousands of cool-season annuals, which now line the canals in the Walled Garden. The cherries in the Cherry Bowl are coming into their full glory, teaming up with the underlying daffodils to put on quite a show. Everywhere you look delicate shoots and buds are emerging—it is invigorating.
Thinking ahead to summer, I am pleased to announce that the Minnie Untermyer Concert Series will take place in our amphitheater overlooking the magnificent sweep of the Walled Garden—it’s hard to imagine a more dramatic performance space. The series is as varied as ever, with the exciting introduction of the amazing Armen Ra, one of the world’s leading exponents of the theremin, a pioneering instrument that made one of its first appearances at Untermyer Gardens back in the 1930s. I encourage you to attend one or many of these concerts alongside the birds, butterflies, and flowers.
Timothy Tilghman, our head gardener, is back with some observations about the garden’s water features.
Kind regards,
Stephen F. Byrns
President
President
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