At ‘The People’s Garden’ There is Splendor in Every Season

Rose seedheads.

By Mildred Alpern

Riverside Garden in the park at 91st Street, may appear dreary but a closeup look reveals some intriguing transitions to spring. Some yellow aconites are popping up among nestled oak leaves, and various seed heads are furnishing unique structural beauty to the garden.

Stripped of their black seeds, the skeletal husks of the blackberry lily is architecturally curvilinear like Gaudi’s rippling building facades.

The rose hip, the seed head spawned from dead rose blooms, is apricot colored and plump, topped with a sepal crown. White fluff floating in tufts envelops the seeds of the anemone, while low-to-the-ground sedum adds brilliance to the winter garden with burnished copper tones. Clusters of dried hydrangeas mimic butterflies descended en masse, and golden grasses beckon in the breeze. Understated grandeur? Perhaps. But impressive nevertheless.