You know you’ve got a hit on your hands when the horticulture staff can’t stop taking pictures of their handiwork! Monet’s Garden opens tomorrow!

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

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There is so much going on at the Garden right now, I can barely keep track of it all! The sense of excitement is palpable around our 250-acres, so to ensure you don’t miss a single one, here is a quick digest of all the amazing things happening up in the Bronx.

Monet’s Garden opens this weekend!
Plants, paintings, photographs, and poetry, we’ve got them all! A seasonally evolving recreation of Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny is in the Conservatory. Two original paintings are on display in the Rondina Gallery of the Mertz Library. Photographs of modern-day Giverny are on display in the Ross Gallery in the Herbarium Building. Poems by French Symbolist poets (contemporaries of Monet) are displayed in the Perennial Garden. And there’s more! See it all here. Want deeper insight? Here’s a great article from the Wall Street Journal.

The Roses are Popping!
The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is bursting into peak bloom a few weeks ahead of schedule. Don’t want to miss a single perfect bloom in this incredible, environmentally friendly rose paradise? Check out Rose Watch 2012, updated each morning by the Rose Garden’s curator Peter Kukielski, who is predicting near-peak this weekend, timed perfectly by Mother Nature to coincide with your visit to Monet’s Garden!

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It’s not just inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory where the preparations for Monet’s Garden are taking place. Behind the landmark building, in the Courtyard Pools, the Garden’s horticulture staff are preparing the stars of the show; water lilies, including some varieties that Monet grew at Giverny.

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Tai Montanarella is the Manager of School and Family Programs at The New York Botanical Garden.

How do plants in the rain forest survive? This was the question on the minds of Prospect Hill Elementary School students as they explored the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. It was here at the NYBG that they became first-hand field scientists for a day, embarking on their own botanical expedition through the diverse tropical rooms of our glasshouse.

While they did not have to get on a plane to visit these rain forests, these third graders did have to travel through extreme biomes before they could reach them. This is a museum of plants, after all. Their journey began when they got off the bus, where they were not only greeted by GreenSchool educator Pilar Okeson, but by a fantastic Zelkova tree (Zelkova serrata). Hailing all the way from Japan, this deciduous tree does equally well in the temperate climate of New York City, and can reach 100 feet tall. It was only the first of many exotic plants the children would encounter.
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Marielle Anzelone is an urban conservation biologist, the former Plant Ecologist for the NYC Department of Parks’ Natural Resources Group, and a contributor to The New York Times. As the founder of NYC Wildflower Week, she and her colleagues work to protect New York’s natural heritage by inspiring the city’s residents.

Most New Yorkers don’t realize that there is bona fide nature to be found throughout the five boroughs. Believe it or not, New York City has more open space than any other city in North America, including towering forests, vibrant marshes, and grassy meadows. That adds up to over 53,000 acres of natural landscape!

NYC Wildflower Week is an opportunity to celebrate and appreciate the native flora that calls The Big Apple home, bringing together thousands of New Yorkers to experience an extraordinary range of activities. Here at The New York Botanical Garden we are proud to host a far-reaching tour of native flora on Friday, May 18. Aside from being free with the price of admission to the Garden (and led by three of our most brilliant botanical minds), the tour will also give you a sneak peek at our as-yet-unopened Native Plant Garden.

For their fifth year, NYCWW is expanding to include all of NYC nature, including salamanders, birds, and mushrooms–and it’s all happening between now and Sunday, May 20. Free events include guided nature walks, garden tours, and children’s interactive fairs. For more information visit the NYC Wildflower Week’s website, and get to know the nature near you!

Two different shrubs, two different gardens, two very similar photos; like color negatives of each other.

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen

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As NYBG horticulturists preen the nasturtiums and primp the poppies, we draw closer to the opening of the year’s most spectacular exhibition. Monet’s Garden goes live this weekend! And just in time for our grand opening, we’re putting the finishing accents on the scenery that makes Monet’s Giverny a destination for gardeners and art aficionados the world over.

Karen Daubmann, Director of Exhibitions and Seasonal Displays, gives us a rare peek at the behind-the-scenes efforts taking place under the glass of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. But by the time you visit the NYBG on Saturday, what you see below will have come a long way. Claude Monet’s garden has always bridged the gap between untamed art and flawless design; we think you’ll see that our homage is taking things in the right direction.

Monet’s Garden begins Saturday, May 19. Reserve your tickets now!

With the finish line of the Partners in Preservation competition in sight, we humbly ask that fans, Members, visitors and horticulturists alike rally around the Garden in support! We’re holding steady at third place for the moment, but with your help, first place is only a stone’s throw away. Voting for the NYBG each day from now until May 21 will push us that much closer to winning the privilege of restoring the Rock Garden to its original beauty.

As we enter the final week of the contest, those who grew up with The New York Botanical Garden seem better suited to explain the allure of the Rock Garden than we do, both from the perspective of long-time visitors and that of nature lovers. Naomi Shriber is one such person. Her years-long history of exploring Nature’s Showplace gives her a keen understanding of the Rock Garden and its importance as an iconic landscape at the NYBG. In turn, her art–swept with color and light–captures the essence of this garden’s central feature.
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Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.

Monet’s garden was a living canvas. In this space he experimented with his love of color and form. His knowledge of color theory and his artist’s eye informed the choices he made in his garden design. In turn, they offer good suggestions for the homeowner who is about to embark on their own planting project.

Last week we mentioned how one of Monet’s prominent concerns was capturing light and atmosphere. His garden was no different from the scenes he painted on his canvas. The color sequences that he created in his garden echoed changes in light and weather that he observed in the space. He used his artist’s eye to accentuate these changes and enhance the atmospheric quality of the place.
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The fruit of the Japanese maple, Acer palmatum, usually has two wings. What to make of this tri-winged one then?

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen