Hello to our Bostonian friends! Our baseball teams don’t get along, but I see no reason why that should keep majestic landmarks out of our Holiday Train Show Artist’s Studio.

Boston Harbor Light House — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

It’s the proverbial belle of the ball, the jewel on the crown, that once-in-a-blue-moon event that our visitors (and employees, honestly) can’t help but get excited for. Well, technically it’s thrice in a blue moon–Bar Car Nights are back this year, and this Saturday evening marks the second of three events for the closing of 2012. Of course, tickets have been selling out faster than we can advertise them, and this week is no exception–tickets are sold out for Saturday, December 15. But there are still a few left for next Saturday, December 22! So join us as we pause the family fun for a few hours of relaxation in the Conservatory turned cocktail lounge, aperitifs in hand and seasonal tunes in the air.

Afterward, head over to Arthur Avenue for some of the finest Italian dining in New York City, made that much better by a discount for Bar Car Nights ticket holders.

If themed drinks under the glow of the Conservatory lights aren’t your style, everything else that makes the season great at the Garden will be running throughout the weekend, including a few special one-off events for those who love the outdoors as much as we do. After Debbie Becker’s weekly Saturday morning Bird Walk, you’re welcome to join one of our experts for a tour of my favorite NYBG collection: the Ross Conifer Arboretum. Seeing as Christmas trees are popping up everywhere you look, now seems as good a time as any to learn about these evergreens while they’re still planted and thriving.
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Higan cherry blossoms, courtesy of that most inspiring time in fall when nature reminds you that it’s only dozing.

Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis Rosea’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

As a student studying lichens at the NYBG, Jessi Allen offers a unique perspective on these fascinating organisms–symbiotic combinations of fungus and algae. She first joined the NYBG as an Herbarium intern in the summer of 2011, and began her graduate studies this fall.

Collecting lichens calls for hammer and chisel.

During Hurricane Sandy, many trees fell throughout the Garden. At least a few of those caused damage to buildings or left gaps in the landscape. However, the silver lining of this cloud came in the form of giving NYBG botanists a chance to collect data that we usually don’t have access to.

Of the trees that fell, one of them was a big oak near the Pfizer Lab that, luckily, landed in the parking lot. The day immediately following the storm, I was working in the lab and saw Mike Nee, one of our curators, climbing through the tangled branches taking cores from this tree, and I thought, “That looks like fun!” According to Mike, the tree was about 90 feet tall and close to 100 years old. Rarely are we able to collect lichens from the tops of such large trees, so I went and grabbed a hammer and chisel, common tools for collecting specimens.
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Late fall outside, summer in the tropics inside. As if cued by the swirls of frosty breath, our red jade vine is opening in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, countering December’s chill with a flush of vibrant flowers.

Mucuna bennettii — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

High in the cloud forests of the Tropical Andes, picking her way through the misted foliage of Las Orquídeas National Park, NYBG botanist Paola Pedraza-Peñalosa goes about the business of collecting plant specimens. This northwest Colombian landscape is renowned for its biodiversity–it is said to have more examples of plant, animal, and microbial life than almost any other ecosystem on earth. But that’s not necessarily the only reason that Pedraza, a Colombian native and Associate Curator of our Institute of Systematic Botany, has returned. While her work is indeed groundbreaking, her motivations extend well beyond the everyday specimen collections that take place day and night here in South America.

Far from the mere process of cataloging plant life, it is the shrinking timeframe and the aggravating factors surrounding it that make Paola’s undertaking so significant.

Once controlled by armed revolutionaries, indicative of the struggles facing Colombia throughout its late history, Las Orquídeas–named for some 200 species of orchids that grow there–remained off limits to the efforts of botanists. Recording the diversity of plant life within its borders became a pipe dream for an academic community anxious to uncover the Andres’ secrets. But the recent withdrawal of these militias has opened the park to exploration and conservation efforts. And with the proverbial gates now open, scientists face a new suite of challenges–many of them a greater threat to the plants and animals being studied than the armed gunmen ever were.
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And still the grass holds the fort against winter.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

We’re now into weeks three and four of this year’s Holiday Train Show, and as you’d expect, we can’t help but gather momentum from here on out! Thousands of fans have already toured this year’s exhibition, walking the paths between dozens of nostalgic miniatures and beneath the many bridges recreated by Paul Busse and his team at Applied Imagination. The crowds are certainly growing as we get into the December holidays, so you may want to consider grabbing up tickets sooner rather than later. But there’s more to the season than what you see under the glass of the Conservatory, as Kevin Character explains below.

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