This Weekend: An Early Halloween
Posted in Around the Garden on October 26 2012, by Matt Newman
Thanksgiving has it so easy. It’s on the same day every year, and close enough to the weekend that you can plan to party around the table until the wee hours (barring a completely bonkers Black Friday schedule). But Halloween? Not so much. We’re usually left to the mercy of the calendar, and this October’s schedule lands the night of spooks and specters square in the middle of the work week. Hump day isn’t exactly party central for most New Yorkers, and it’s a school night for your mini monsters. But that shouldn’t dampen your spirits! This weekend, October 26 through 28, the NYBG holds its own ghoulish galas to mark the occasion a little early.
Our Spooky Nighttime Adventures ramp up as of this Friday night, marking the start of trick-or-treating, arts and crafts, and exploring the creepiest aspects of the Garden after dark–all in a safe environment for your kids to romp around. The Haunted Pumpkin Garden will be in its element, and that’s not to mention the horde of skulking harvester zombies carved into life by Ray Villafane this past weekend. Don’t forget to register for tickets–we’re extremely close to selling out for every single evening, and our limited nightly offering of walk-up tickets is far from guaranteed with such high demand!
We’re ready to party, costumes and all, so bring your otherworldly outfits and join us for the moonlight masquerade! For dedicated fright fiends, tickets to a Priceless Forest Walk offer an appetizer to the evening with a guided storytelling tour through our 50-acre Forest at dusk, after which you can jump right into our Spooky Nighttime Adventures. Better yet, you can get in a full day at the Garden while the sun is up to take advantage of our scheduled tours, the Saturday Bird Walk, and Sonia Uyterhoeven’s enlightening gardening demonstrations; this weekend, her focus falls on the bulb basics that everyone should have in hand before they start planting their tulips and hyacinths. And while you’re here, you can even help her pick a few chrysanthemums for future plantings at the Garden. Head below for more!
Saturday, October 27
Bird Walk — 11 a.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool at the Leon Levy Visitor Center
The diverse habitats of the Botanical Garden offer visitors a chance to see dozens of species of birds throughout the year. Bring your binoculars and walk the Garden grounds with an expert.
Perennial Garden Tour — 12:30 p.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool at the Leon Levy Visitor Center
Join a Garden Tour Guide for a tour of the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden, which combines a vast palette of colors, textures, flowers, and foliage to create interest in every season.
Home Gardening Demonstration — Bulb Basics: Know and Grow – 2 p.m.
In the Home Gardening Center
Now is the time to get out and plant your bulbs. Join Gardener for Public Education Sonia Uyterhoeven as she takes you through the basics of bulb planting and covers some of the more challenging topics such as rodent damage.
Spooky Nighttime Adventures — 6:30 to 8 p.m.
In the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden
Grab a Con Edison flashlight and explore the sculpture along the Whole Foods Market® Trick-or-Treat Trail in the Adventure Garden after dark. Listen for critters of the night, dig around for decomposers, and decorate gourds too. Check out nybg.org/priceless for access to extra special tricks and treats.
Sunday, October 28
Conservatory Tour—12:30 p.m.
Meet at the entrance to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory
Explore the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, an acre of plants under glass, with one of the Garden’s Tour Guides. Take an ecotour around the world through 11 distinct habitats, including two types of rain forest, deserts of the Americas and of Africa, and aquatic and carnivorous plant displays.
Home Gardening Demonstration — Bulb Basics: Know and Grow – 2 p.m.
In the Home Gardening Center
Now is the time to get out and plant your bulbs. Join Gardener for Public Education Sonia Uyterhoeven as she takes you through the basics of bulb planting and covers some of the more challenging topics such as rodent damage.
Spooky Nighttime Adventures — 6:30 to 8 p.m.
In the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden
Grab a Con Edison flashlight and explore the sculpture along the Whole Foods Market® Trick-or-Treat Trail in the Adventure Garden after dark. Listen for critters of the night, dig around for decomposers, and decorate gourds too. Check out nybg.org/priceless for access to extra special tricks and treats.
Ongoing Children’s Programs
The Haunted Pumpkin Garden
Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, through October 31
Daily, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Experience the thrills and chills of the season with a garden full of intricately carved pumpkin sculptures, bugs, bats, parties, and parades. It’s so much fun, it’s scary!
The Edible Garden
Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, through October 31
Daily, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.
The Edible Garden returns to the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden this year, bringing plenty of events for both adults and kids alike with daily, family-friendly activities, cooking demonstrations in the Whole Foods Market Family Garden Kitchen, and hands-on gardening fun.
A Garden friend and chef extraordinaire, Mario Batali takes a featured role in this year’s Edible Garden. Visit the beds of herbs and vegetables in “Mario Batali’s Kitchen Gardens,” where you can pick up some of his favorite recipes. Your culinary delight begins in the garden! Visit summer through fall for the best of the harvest.
Normally I read your Email with great delight! The photo you chose for the museum’s Halloween event was ghastly – and frankly DISGUSTING.
Most likely there will be ‘mixed ages’ attending the gathering there and your choice of decor should be reflective of this. The bloody, horribly damaged body of the human form you presented was NOT a wise choice. It was terrible! Please rethink this for next year.
The world is full of dangers and terrible sights – children and impressionable young people witness blood ‘n guts scenes in video games, the evening news, etc… Because of the over-exposure, these wounded and frightening scenes (in some cases) are loosing their impact. They are enhancing nightmares in other instances. It is lessening the value of life /or property as the consideration of hurting someone is no longer shown to be painful and wrong.
You have the opportunity of making Halloween a memorable, exciting, even a fun event WITHOUT showing the aftermath of damaged bodies, destruction, etc… Please remember your wisdom in these matters should be well considered instead of flip whimsey covered in gore.