Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.

This year we are celebrating the life of the artist and gardener, Claude Monet. From May 19th until October 21st you will find our show houses, water lily pools, and exhibition galleries re-creating and displaying pieces of the famous Impressionist’s life.

The artist’s palette, photographs, and records of his famous garden–as well as two rarely seen paintings of irises–will be on view in our Library’s exhibition gallery. Our Ross gallery will display photographs of Giverny through the seasons, produced by an American gardener who was involved in the restoration of the legendary garden.

Our show houses and water lily pools will capture the essence of Giverny, including the iconic Japanese foot bridge and his Grand Allée. Throughout the summer we will discuss Monet as an artist and gardener, taking a look at his use of light and color in the garden and exploring some take-home lessons from his design strategies and gardening techniques.
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Ed. Note: The beekeeping craze that’s sweeping New York City isn’t just for rooftops in Brooklyn! Annie Novak, Assistant Manager of the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, was kind enough to explain her most recent adventure giving bees a home at the NYBG.

We installed the beehives on top of our garden shed space, so the bees have a clear flight path over the Garden site. As the hives’ populations grow, so do our vegetables. Thanks to the bees, we have higher rates of fruiting on our apple trees and pepper plants.

The bees spend the first part of the spring season building up wax combs to lay eggs in, as well as store honey later in the year. As the Family Garden grows, and the cherries and lilacs just outside the Family Garden bloom, we start to see our bees venture further afield. They’ll fly up to five miles from the hive to gather nectar and pollen, but with a campus as lush as the New York Botanical Garden, they don’t have to go that far to get food.
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A field like this not even the Wicked Witch has seen before. Look for the poppies to pop up in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory during Monet’s Garden. In the meantime, you can see these high-contrast beauties in the Rock Garden. Don’t forget to vote today in support of restoring it to its original beauty!

Papaver commutatum ‘Ladybird’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen