No luck digging up your skeletons before sundown, or devils at dusk? You know it’s called “All Hallow’s Eve” for a reason! At The New York Botanical Garden, we’re all about the value of a good after-dark scream, and we’re not going to let New Yorkers go wanting when it comes to finding one. Join us weekends throughout the tail end of October for “Spooky Nighttime Adventures,” a safe opportunity for you and your kids to scare out the ghosts and goblins of the city when they’re meant to be seen. How often do you get to see the Garden in the light of the moon, anyway?

While our evening events and activities are put together for children ages five to 12, kids at heart are more than welcome to join us. We’ll be decorating treat bags near the Reflecting Pool and sniffing out sweet treats along the Whole Foods Market Trick-or-Treat Trail. We’ve got a few bones to pick at the Discovery Center as we Frankenstein our way through some owl pellets, or you can suss out what sort of creepy crawlies slither in the dank, dark world under a forest log. Try your hand at calling for owls at the Boulders, discover the many secretive creatures of the night, or, if your nerve is steeled, take a peek at Ray Villafane’s ghastly pumpkin sculptures; a jack o’ lantern may be a funny fruit in the light of day, but turn on the shadows for a fright larger than life!
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I can say with sureness that this upcoming October will be a big month for The New York Botanical Garden. And I mean that in as literal a sense as possible. “But how big is it?” you most certainly ask. Well, if we need to get down to brass tacks, we’re talking about squash waaaay bigger and badder than anything you’ve seen in your neighborhood market–pumpkins trucked in from around the globe that weigh in at nearly a solid ton (that’s 2,000 pounds by U.S. standards). In other words, they make your porch jack o’ lanterns look like carved grapes in comparison.

Each of the growers that contributed mammoth pumpkins to 2011′s Halloween in the Garden–members of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth hailing from California, Pennsylvania, and even Quebec–supplied a home-grown monster the likes of which most have only seen in The Nightmare Before Christmas or Cinderella. I’m talking record-breaking squash weighing 1,600, 1,700, and even as much as 1,800 pounds in some cases. After the weigh-ins and the awards, each found its final resting place in the Garden, where Ray Villafane took knife to squash in an artful if ghoulish manner.
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Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG’s Gardener for Public Education.

Trees possess a physiognomy and physiology just like we do. If you are an arborist, a dendrologist, or just a lover of trees, you can walk into the woods and read the life stories of your local trees simply by tilting your head upwards and carefully observing your surroundings.

In lay terms this means that you can tell a lot about a tree just by looking at it and understanding the basics of how it functions. The snow storm we encountered at the end of October was an opportunity to reflect on the intimate relation that growth, structure, and environmental impact have on the lives of trees. I subtitled last week’s blog “No Tree Left Behind” because virtually every tree was at the mercy of last October’s unexpected snow, when the majority of deciduous trees still had full canopies.
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October was a hectic month of stunning Japanese floral displays, pumpkin zombies, changing foliage and a holiday weekend punctuated by tragedy. But if we’re pros at anything, it’s picking ourselves up by the bootstraps! Horticulture can–after all–be an unpredictable business.

After many long months of preparation, the NYBG‘s Fall Flowers of Japan exhibition continued throughout October with a focus on kiku, a centuries-old chrysanthemum tradition requiring patience, skill, and an eye for aesthetic. Our very own Ann Rafalko even took it upon herself to explain just how the talented horticulturists behind these artful blooms do it!

Take a Look Inside Fall Flowers of Japan

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