The High Line’s planting design is inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew up between rail tracks after the trains stopped running in the 1980s. Today, the High Line includes more than 300 species of perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees — chosen for their hardiness, adaptability, diversity, and seasonal variation in color and texture. Some of the species that originally grew on the High Line’s rail bed are reflected in the park landscape today.

This week we share with you one of our gardeners’ current favorites.

Blooming on the High Line just north of West 20th Street is a very distinctive shrub named Cotinus coggygria 'Young Lady,' or Young Lady smokebush.

This plant gets its name from distinctive billowy hairs that come off of the stalks of spent flowers, giving the shrub a look of flowing smoke.

WHERE TO SEE THIS PLANT
We have just one Young Lady smokebush. See it on the High Line just north of West 20th Street.

Download our new June bloom guide. [3]