There are many ways to get to the top: you can work long hours, ignore your family, sacrifice, lose sleep, and take classes.  But few classes can guarantee as swift a path to the top as the Garden’s Recreational Tree Climbing Workshop. In this amazing class, along with the popular elective Chainsaws – Safety and Maintenance, students learn valuable skills all while getting the best view of the Garden possible.

The Tree Climbing Workshop returns to the Garden this Saturday and Sunday. The Chainsaw class will be offered Saturday, November 13.  The classes will be taught by instructor David Fedczuk.

In the meantime, check out this interview with tree climbing expert and longtime instructor of the Garden’s tree climbing courses, A. Wayne Cahilly, manager of The New York Botanical Garden’s Lionel Goldfrank III Institutional Mapping Department.  To see a tree climbing student in action, check out this video from Travel + Leisure where portions of this interview were originally published.

Raccoons, squirrels and bee’s nests, oh my! Read the full interview below.

Peter Kukielski is the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden Curator.

One of the best things about a rose is that it is the longest blooming perennial plant there is. Roses begin blooming in late May and can continue to bloom until the first frost. The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is a perfect example of this and continues to bloom even today–the second day of November! This is amazing considering this year’s peak bloom occurred in the third week of May. ‘Easter Basket,’ a variety that is planted along the main alley of the rose garden and newly planted at the top of the stairs, hasn’t been out of bloom since late spring.

Fall is a wonderful time to stop and smell the roses. The cooler air seems to intensify their fragrance, allowing it to linger in the air. The main entrance to the garden is flanked on either side by an incredible collection of English Roses, which are famous for their scent. Other varieties such as ‘Julia Child,’ ‘Quietness,’ ‘Bolero,’ ‘The McCartney Rose,’ ‘Eternal Flame,’ ‘Mister Lincoln,’ ‘Double Delight’, ‘Tiffany,’ and ‘Marie Louise Marjan’ are all incredibly fragrant, and ‘Queen Mary 2’ smells slightly of bananas!

We’re not the only ones that think the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is pretty special. Find out more below.

Since our Monday morning eye candy was met with such enthusiastic approval, we figured, “Well, why not give the people what they’re so obviously craving?” So, here it is: Your new, daily dose of Garden beauty. Enjoy.

Morning on the Bronx River near the Stone Mill (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen).