Thanks for the promo on the High Line, kt ! It should, indeed, be included on
any gardener's visit to NYC. . .it is an urban legend in the making. My last 27
years in New York, I lived just a block-and-a-half away from the HighLine, in Chelsea. . .a friend and I actually snuck up there, very early one Sunday morning, and I was completely captivated by this isolated ribbon, 25+ feet in
the air, wending it's way through the buildings on the West Side. There was
plenty of flora going on up there - nature had a lot of years to work her magic - but the thought of turning it into a garden never crossed my mind. Hats off to the genius who conceived of this, and additionally to those who came up with some pretty astonishing design solutions. The link below adds more info to the photos above. . .

Carl

Here is a link that might be useful: The HighLine

Wow, thanks, Kt, it's great to have another garden destination for those weekends when I'm visiting family in NYC. I hadn't heard of the High Line before, in fact I was just reading about the Central Park Conservatory Garden to see if it was worth a visit ... have to plan these escape routes in advance, you know.

I agree! I adore the High Line, and it even looked great this past winter. The design is perfect; it's great the way they incorporated leaving a lot of the old tracks in place. But in addition to the beauty of the plants, the real beauty is how this has helped transformed the community. Of course, these neighborhoods have been fabulous for quite a while, but this walking path brings everybody together in appreciation in such a special way!

Thanks for bringing this up--your pictures are great!

Thank you for posting these photos. I had heard about this repurposing of the elevated train tracks, but had never seen it, in person or via pics, so this photo tour was a treat. Great photography for cell phone shots!

This is my kind of garden, with the tracks and ties integrated as part of the landscape. I just love the way it suggests nature reclaiming its territory. I always found elevated train tracks intriguing and have been saddened to see so many of them torn down in our New England cities.

How tragic about their funding loss. I hope they will regain money in the near future.

I guess I'll have just a lonely voice here, but I have a very negative opinion about whole HL project. Been there twice, first time when it was opened, in Oct'09 and second time in April'10 and both times I left with impression that it is more architectural exersise than a landscaping project. Exercise at taxpayer's expence, of course.
Well, maybe it's because I can't get a sense of 'Piet Oudolf'-type landscaping.
The loss of fundings at such early stage is the best thing that happened to this project, IMO.
...and another IMO. I'm sure that if left unfunded, meaning unattended for 3-4-5 years, it will become a REAL beauty and will be renamed to 'NY. Life After People'.
Then I'll be glad to re-visit.

I was happy to find the link here to the High Line park and spent some time looking over their website yesterday. I love Piet Oudolf and haven't found a project that he's done that I don't like. I've often wished I had a sunny lot that was just a little larger so that I could have adopted more of his plant choices. So since I'm not able to, I always enjoy seeing g*ardens that he has had a hand in and this was no exception.

I found the whole project fascinating! The website has 118 pages of photos to look at, which is almost as good as being there. [g] Looking at photos of what it looked like before the r*enovation and what they accomplished was really inspiring to me. If I lived in a city, which I really wouldn't enjoy...lol, I would LOVE to have something like this in my neighborhood. As a matter of fact, I was quite disappointed when Boston did over the Greenway that they did not ask Oudolf to come and design something for us.

What a change from the graffiti covered structure that was there! The views from that elevation and the addition of the glass railings in different areas, has changed that whole area into something much more livable. All the buildings around it have spruced themselves up.

Examples pulled from their site....

To go from this.....

To this....

I am surprised that you didn't enjoy it Ego. Of course, I haven't visited there, so maybe it is disappointing in person. I guess for me, even if Oudolf had not been the g*arden designer, if they had just cleaned it up and planted it with anything green and used it as a park, I would have thought that was a better use of what was there then other options.

I did read that 70% of the annual operating costs were provided by Friends of the High Line but even if public funds were used to r*enovate this area, I think it was a good i*nvestment for so many reasons.

I thought that with that narrow long space to work with and to also include sitting areas, Piet Oudolf's s*tyle is difficult to accomplish. Comparing it to Chicago where he had tons of open space, it's quite different. I did take a look at the p*lanting list and see many of the p*lants that he has used in other projects.

Thanks kt and carl for bringing this neat park to my attention. :-)

My husband and I were in the city last August and walked the High Line. We loved it. Kudos to the creative forces behind the project. Here are some photos:

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Here is a link that might be useful: Highline-Aug 2009 photos

Thanks for updating this thread, Jeff. That's the best blooming Dawn Viburnum I've ever seen - it IS a Dawn, isn't it? Or is there another early-blooming Viburnum that I don't know about?

I was at a talk by Rick Darke recently (at the PVD flower show) and he had some photos - and interesting comments - about the High Line park.

Maybe I'll get there sometime soon.

I plan to walk it this Spring w/my daughter and grandson who live in NYC. I think it's great not just because of the choice of plants & the inclusion of the tracks and viewing areas into the design but also because it puts the walker 'above' the city looking down on it or across it. When walking the streets of Manhattan, people, especially visitors, often look up. This walk gives one such unique perspective!

Molie

What a coincidence. Just got this in a newsletter I subscribe to, about the spring cut back beginning. (see link)

Dee

Here is a link that might be useful: High Line Blog

dtd,
Is there a viburnum that blooms so early? I've got to get it, if there is! I had a tiny (small statured) cherry whose name i've forgotten and the blooms looked like that...
idabean
by the way, wonderful post and thanks for the additional pix everyone. If it didn't mean the effort to get intoNYC, I'd go right now.
mt

Hi Marie - Dawn Viburnum (V. x Bodnantense 'Dawn') does indeed bloom in late winter.

As Dirr notes, though, it very rarely puts on much of a show; the blooms are small and sporadic (though the color beats all other Viburnum, IMHO!). Mine's in a spot where a much smaller shrub would be more appropriate, so maybe next winter I'll try cutting lots of branches for forcing. That might make it more useful - as it is, it's more of an oddity than a feature.