I don’t think this compilation of critters needs much chatter to introduce. Pat Gonzalez was with the New York Botanical Garden long before becoming a Visitor Services Attendant—as a child growing up in New York City, and a burgeoning photographer, and a wildlife enthusiast. She’s put countless hours into capturing the lives of our furry, scaled, and feathered residents, and continues to do so with an enviable passion.
She put together this compilation of video footage shot at the Garden between 2009 and 2013, and thought you all might like to have a look. I’m of the same opinion.
No swimming in the Rock Garden cascade, please! Admiring, daydreaming, basking in the hint of a breeze cast off by the flow of the water—yeah, those are okay.
Don’t let your sweltering New York City apartment define your summer experience—even if you love a good sit in a banya, spending every night in one is probably pushing the boundaries of good sense. Instead, I’ve got a few words that might distract you from your wheezy air conditioner and all the half moments lingering in front of the open freezer: gin, cucumber, violet liqueur.
Cocktail Evenings & Summer Concerts are back, swinging, and set to take the edge off the city’s muggy summer nights—and we’re not skimping on the “cocktail” bit. This Thursday, June 27, from 6 – 9 p.m., we slip into our latest after-dark series with the help of a liqueur appropriate to the quiet viewing of Wild Medicine you’ll get with your ticket. Crème Yvette blends mûre, framboise, cassis, and fraise sauvage berries with the dried violet petals of Provence, leaving no question as to its plant pedigree. And our first featured cocktail, the Yvette Cup, doesn’t waste the flavor, mixing gin, cucumber, lime, ginger, and mint for a bracing sip that’ll put the drawbacks of summer in your rear view.
Food fans! (That’s all of you, I imagine.) On site this Wednesday, the Garden offers even more than just-picked fruits and vegetables thanks to our friends at Whole Foods Market. If a $50 gift card in your pocket and a little summer grilling know-how sound like your cup of tea, we’ve got you covered and then some!
From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, Whole Foods Market Culinary Demonstration Specialists will set up at the Reflecting Pool for tastings and cooking demos featuring the season’s freshest picks at The Peak Pick. This week’s spotlight lands on summer squash, which we expect to see stacked high during the Greenmarket, now here each Wednesday. Better yet, our visiting specialists will be making light, irresistible grilled squash and brie sandwiches with them, tailor-made for backyard cook outs and Sunday brunch.
As the icing on the cake (or the sprouts on the sandwich), there’s a $50 Whole Foods gift card up for grabs if you’re a Twitter user! Just snap a picture of the cooking demonstration in action while you’re visiting, tweet it @nybg with the hashtag #nybgwfm, and you’ll be entered to win! As soon as our one lucky winner is selected, we’ll be in touch via Twitter to get you your prize.
While you’re here, be sure to stop by the Greenmarket to pick up your week’s supply of fresh, delicious, and varied local products—not to mention baked goods. For a little more on what the Greenmarket‘s about (and what you’re missing if you skip it), watch the video below.
We’re glad summer waited until its allotted solstice to get here, but wow, did it ever arrive. It’s warm out this week, and the flowers are basking accordingly!
Nifty Wild Medicine factoid: it’s been found that residents of the islands east of Panama, who drink a lightly-processed cocoa beverage up to five times a day, are almost entirely free of hypertension. Researchers lean toward the chocolate as a prime suspect in this discovery, though I’m guessing most of us don’t need a peer-reviewed report to justify buying ourselves a treat now and then. Just remember to go for the real thing—at least 70% cacao!
Check out our cacao-focused table in the Conservatory when you visit, and be sure to keep an eye out for the pods growing in our cacao trees.
Flip-flops, brunch cocktails, five kinds of SPF, a haphazard parade of lost and found sunglasses—the summer solstice is here, and with it all the quirks of the season in the city! But we’re waaaay ahead of the curve when it comes to putting up the perfect summer backdrop (it’s kind of our “thing”). The NYBG is 250 acres of emerald green splashed and speckled with millions of technicolor blooms right now, and when the sun gets going, it doesn’t hurt to have a tree-shaded bench to veg’ out on, either. We’ve got you covered there, too.
Of course we’re more than just a landscape to wander, even if that’s your goal. Wild Medicine slips into this summer with a dynamic collection of unique and exotic plants, one that’s changing every day. The books and botany of The Italian Renaissance Garden, The Renaissance Herbal, and the other facets of this exhibition represent centuries of therapeutic know-how. Then again, a little botanical flavor couldn’t hurt when taking it all in, right? We’re already on the ball with teas, juices, and cocoa available for sampling at the show. But we’re doing it one better by bringing back Cocktail Evenings & Summer Concerts, starting Thursday, June 27!
This Saturday and Sunday are also prime time for picking up new skills at the Garden, with cooking demonstrations in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden and hands-on gardening demonstrations in the Home Gardening Center, so don’t waste any time getting your hands dirty. Or, you know, you could just reflect under the tulip trees and soak up the greenery. We’re partial to your speed, whatever it is.
Check out the full schedule below, and we’ll see you there!
