Early this year, the New York Botanical Garden partnered with National Book Foundation and Poetry Society of America to create a literary element to our audio tours. With support from an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, we reached out to a number of NYC-based authors and poets and asked them to produce works based on their experiences or certain areas of the Garden.

Below you can see one of our contributors for the summer: author Ana Boži?evi? who chose the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden as her inspiriation for her work, Rose Hopscotch.

You can access the audio tour two ways:

Using your cell phone, call 718.362.9561 and type in the number next to the audio tour symbol on signs throughout the Garden grounds. You can even call from home if you’d like.

What do you think of the new Audio Literary Tour? Are there any NYC-based authors you’d like to see for upcoming seasons? Leave us a comment and let us know!

The Children’s Gardening Program at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden gives kids ages 3-12 a chance to team-up to plant, tend and harvest their very own plot in the Garden. But that’s only half of the story — of course the most fun part is eating all of that homegrown produce!

Stop by the Family Garden to enjoy cooking demonstrations throughout the week, offering simple but delicious ideas on how to take advantage of our garden’s bounty. Our hands-on activities will help you to remember that growing, preparing and eating good food needs to be FUN!

All this month, the gardening fun in the Family Garden focuses on plants that are pickled. Enjoy the harvest of fresh cucumbers by making your own pickles to take home. For a rundown of what’s happening now, check the “plan your visit” section of our website.

Here’s a short video featuring two of the amazing staff members in the Family Garden, Rachel and Annie, showing you one of the easiest dishes around – a simple herb confetti. But as you’ll see, harvesting and preparing the dish is almost more fun than eating it!

In the heat of the summer (and this one has especially been hot!), there are some beautiful blossoms to behold. From daylilies, hibiscus, waterlilies and of course roses, summer gardens everywhere are swelling with colorful buds. But the same just can’t be said for most woody plants.

That’s what makes the subject of this week’s video plant profile so special. In the summer heat, most woody plants have no showy flowers, but the genus Aesculus, more commonly known as buckeye, “buck”s that trend.

Check out the video below hosted by Plant Records Manager Jon Peter as he covers a few of the many types of Aesculus you can see at the Garden, and who knows, maybe in your own backyard?

Previous Video Plant Profiles:

The Cottonwood Tree

Rhodedendron

Magnolia

Galanthus

Welcome to our new video series: Plant Talk with Kristin. Who’s Kristin? Kristin Schleiter is the Garden’s Curator of Outdoor Gardens and Herbaceous Collections. What does that mean? It means that Kristin knows plants: The best plants for shade, the best plants for color, the best plants for four-season interest. In this new series, Kristin will be sharing all that knowledge with you, so that you can make your garden a more beautiful, sustainable, and easy-to-care for place!

Kristin’s first show is all about shade plants. So take a look, and let us know what you think! We’d love to know which topics you would like to see Kristin tackle in the future. Leave a comment with your thoughts below.

The New York Botanical Garden has hosted many an exhibition over the years, from dazzling Orchid displays to Chihuly’s ethereal glass creations to the intriguing art of Japanese chrysanthemum growing and everything else in between. But never has an exhibition catered to all five senses in the way Spanish Paradise: Gardens of the Alhambra does.

The air in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is filled with fragrant herbs and zesty citrus blossoms, coupled with the colorful blossoms of ornamental sages and a range of flowering plants. Meanwhile, the Garden Cafe is serving up mouth watering slices of Serrano ham complimented by fruit-laden sangria. And for those of you who make the trip out on the weekend, the Arthur and Janet Lecture Hall is filled the rattle of castanets and the rhythm of a cajon (box-drum).

The Garden is pleased to host a summer residency for the dance group FLAMENCO: inside/out. The trio performs each Saturday and Sunday for the run of the show (through August 21st). You can catch them each day at 1,2, and 3 p.m. in the Lecture Hall and the show is included with your Garden admission. Here’s a little taste of what to expect, both in the Conservatory and the lecture hall!

Have you been seeing drifts of what appears to be white, fluffy snow all over New York City lately? Don’t worry, you’re not imagining things, but it’s not snow.

In fact it is millions upon millions (and possibly billions upon billions) of Cottonwood tree seeds trying to make their way to a nice comfy spot to set down roots and grow into one of the City’s most majestic native trees. Want to learn more? Then check out this great Video Plant Profile with NYBG Plant Records Manager, Jon Peter.

The Garden is an oasis for birds and birders alike.

We talked to some visitors and staff about their favorite birds and why they love birding at the Garden. Take a look, and then tell us (by leaving a comment): What is your favorite bird? Have you had a great birding experience at the Garden?

Want to learn more about birding at the Garden? Then join Debbie Becker for one of her free, weekly Saturday bird walks! To join the walk, meet at the Reflecting Pool near the Leon Levy Visitor Center before 11 a.m.

We seem to have hit a bit of a rough patch in the weather in New York City; it has rained everyday since Saturday, and the forecast says that there’s more in store. But, that needn’t put a damper on your plans to visit the Garden. The Garden is beautiful in the rain. Here’s a little video we put together celebrating the Garden in the rain, featuring the poetry of iconic New York City poet Langston Hughes.

Narration by Henry Kaiser. Find Henry on twitter @KaiserHenry.

In case you’ve missed some of the previous installments, NYBG photography instructor Rich Pomerantz has a series of how-to videos specifically designed for garden photographers. In this episode, Rich talks about the age-old technique known as the “Rule of Thirds”.

Rich has an upcoming class that will be based out of our Midtown Education Center but will take photo trips to the High Line Park. Be sure to sign up while spots are still available. The flora should be amazing in May!

Do you have a burning question garden photography question that we can pose to Rich? Maybe your question will turn into the next tutorial! You can leave your suggestions in the comments.

We’ve been having a lot of fun with the Caribbean Garden Photo Contest. You guys have submitted hundreds of gorgeous photos (while you’re browsing the photos, be sure to cast a vote by leaving a comment on your favorites), and NYBG photography instructor Rich Pomerantz has been having a blast handing out photo tips on Saturday afternoons.

But, we know that not everyone can get here easily. So we got together with Rich in the Conservatory and filmed this short video tutorial, the first in what will be a five-part series. We hope you like it!

Do you have a burning question garden photography question that we can pose to Rich? Maybe your question will turn into the next tutorial! You can leave your suggestions in the comments.