If you’ve read our informative signs at the Holiday Train Showor have absorbed our wonderful show-related blog posts, Web content, or media coverage, you know by now that the New York landmark replicas in the show are made of plant parts and fungi.
But do you know what each does when it’s alive, before it becomes an architectural element such as a roof shingle, window, or column on the fantastic buildings and bridges?
Take our quiz and match each plant part and fungus to its botanical role. (You can peek at the signs for hints on your visit to the Holiday Train Show this final week). Let us know how many you got right!
1. Bark
A. moves water and nutrients from roots to leaves
2. Cone
B. holds and protects the seeds of flowering plants
I’m Back at the Garden; Please Come Visit—I Can’t Wait to See You
Thomas the Tank Engine™ is an annual visitor to The New York Botanical Garden.
Hello everyone! It’s Thomas, and I want to tell you about my next exciting destination—The New York Botanical Garden! I pull into the station on January 2 to welcome all the children who visit each day through January 10.
I see so many smiling faces every year during my visit to the Holiday Train Show. I sometimes wish I were small enough to wind through the miniature New York landscape made of sticks and leaves and pine cones like the trains in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
At the Garden I have a very important job of meeting families at the Ross Lecture Hall and posing for photos with lots of boys and girls. Remember to bring your camera!
Sir Topham Hatt will travel with me to make sure we are right on time and that everything runs smoothly while we have fun at the Holiday Train Show. We’ve brought treats like stickers, tattoos, and coloring sheets to share with all our friends. Everyone can earn these and become honorary engineers when they come and see me.
Larry Lederman’s Images on Display; Available as 2010 Calendar in Shop
The form and beauty of trees drew Larry Lederman into landscape photography nine years ago, when he began visiting the Botanical Garden weekly in all kinds of weather. For Lederman, a member of the Board of Advisors, the Garden is a beautiful and diverse landscape where he can follow the growth and seasonal changes of the trees, each occasion offering singular enchantments.
Some of his resulting images are currently on display in an exhibition, The Presence of Trees, in the Arthur and Janet Ross Gallery, through April 11.
“The presence or absence of trees often defines a landscape,” Lederman has said. “In art, forests signify wilderness and clearing, its loss. The trees in these photographs are in the so-called cleared places, nurtured to be part of our lives. Growing either alone or one in relation to others, they respond to the seasons, invest the landscape with their permanence and character, and connect us to nature. They influence our moods, affect our behavior, and shape our lives. These photographs view trees as expressive presences evocative of the diversity and wonder of life.”
His images take a fresh look at trees in the landscape and reveal their beauty and structure during all seasons, underscoring their character and influence in the natural world.
In 2003 the Botanical Garden published his first calendar, Woodland Creatures, which led to his annual series, Trees. Copies of his 2010 calendar, which include several images from the exhibition, are available at Shop in the Garden.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
As in past years, Gingerbread Adventures in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden features a wondrous display of gingerbread houses created by some of the area’s most imaginative bakers.
This year’s theme was “Fairy Tales,” and the bakers delivered charming interpretations of classic children’s favorites.
Jill Adams of The Cake Studio, Brooklyn, featured the archetypal princess and frog prince in front of a castle. Kate Sullivan of Lovin Sullivan Cakes, Manhattan, gave life to the tale of the Three Little Pigs, with a big, bad wolf at the front door. Liv and Kaye Hansen of Riviera Bakehouse, Ardsley, tell the story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin with confectionary rats overrunning the town.
Irina Brandler of Sugar and Spice Bake Shop, the Bronx, offered her rendition of the Russian folklore witch Baba Yaga, who “lives in a house which walks about on chicken legs,” and Mark Tasker of Balthazar Bakery, Manhattan, created a red-and-white circus tent, “Greatest Show in the Big Apple,” with a rotating center ring inside.
Come and have fun as I—and the moms and kids around me—did picking out the types of candy and other treats that creatively construct each design: frosted cereal as roof tiles, candy canes as columns, pretzel sticks as firewood, bubblegum as a ceiling light fixture, and so much more.
The tree is trimmed, the stockings are hung, and it’s time to enjoy the holiday weekend. Join us at the Garden and enjoy the hustle and bustle of the Holiday Train Show.
Gingerbread Adventures has activities for the whole family, including gingerbread houses from the city’s most imaginative bakers.
Don’t worry about the chilly weather; the trains are winding through palm trees and tropical greenery in the Conservatory, and there is hot chocolate, cider, and a variety of holiday treats at the Garden’s two Cafes.
Also Savor Special Seasonal Holiday Fare and Treats
David Sanchez is General Manager of Abigail Kirsch at The New York Botanical Garden.
No doubt you’ve noticed a few changes in the Garden’s two cafes in recent weeks. We listened to you, our customers; incorporated your suggestions; and added some of our own thoughts on how to create a sense not of eating but of dining. As the new General Manager of Abigail Kirsch at The New York Botanical Garden, I bring the commitment of Abigail Kirsch to offering fresh food, great service, and appealing variety.
Sculptor Takes Us Behind-the-Scenes Building the Botanical Replicas
Sculptor Annette Skinner has worked on the Applied Imagination team since 1992.
Memories of travels, saved in a giant box. The twisty stick, obscure seed pod, shapely leaf quietly await the next decisive moment. If lucky, my boss, Paul Busse, will require my sculptural eye for the intriguing job of creating another scale model of a historic building. These varied natural objects possibly will become a banister, urn, or portico.
Paul, designer of the Holiday Train Show, (see the two of us in the photo at right, courtesy of Judy Glattstein) has a unique concept that requires integration of the natural world with traditional G-scale model railroad layouts. His highly dimensional, textural interpretation is populated by finely detailed versions of American art and architecture. Each year The New York Botanical Garden adds to its collection of New York landmarks, and I have been helping on these starting with Poe Cottage in the early days. This year’s newcomer, Penn Station, took staff at Applied Imagination over 1,1,00 collective hours to complete. Also new this year is the Brooks Brothers flagship store, LED lights on the Yankee Stadium replica, and an audio of lovely organ music by Paul’s son, Brian, accompanying the St. Patrick’s Cathedral replica.
Most of Paul’s designs are drawn in a studio he shares with his wife, Margaret Duke, in northern Kentucky. His drafting table overlooks a stream, reflecting the flow and curves of his blueprint sketches for track assembly.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
We asked some of our Members for their most special holiday experience at The New York Botanical Garden and they told us—and sent photos, too.
Here are a few of our favorites. Oh, and please keep sending us your stories. We’d love to hear from you and post your wonderful experiences at the Botanical Garden to our blog.
A Yearly Tradition
For several years Barbara Moran has taken family and friends to see the Holiday Train Show and other facets of the Garden. But on her recent visit she was surprised that one of the staff “engineers,” Christopher, remembered her from last year and greeted her warmly. “I wondered what I had done to stand out in his mind,” Barbara wrote. “He is one of the reasons why I continue to return: a friend happy to have me back. I was born in the Bronx, and though I’ve lived most of my life in a small town in Connecticut, the Bronx always welcomes me back and greets my family and friends like treasured guests.” That’s one of the highlights of the Garden and nearby Belmont neighborhood, she continued. “Thank you all for the hours of joy and fellowship I have enjoyed while visiting our beautiful gem of the Bronx, the Botanical Garden. I look forward to many more visits.”
Master Puppeteer Brings Children’s Storybook to Life
Ralph Lee, a master puppeteer, adapted the story and created the puppets for The Little Engine That Could™ Puppet Show at The New York Botanical Garden. Photo of Ralph Lee by Brett Vermilyea
In the fall of 1995, I was asked by The New York Botanical Garden to create a show for children as a companion program to its annual Holiday Train Show. So I asked myself, “What children’s story has to do with both trains and the holiday season?” The Little Engine That Could™! It had been one of my favorite stories as a kid.
I fashioned locomotives for the trains in the story using cardboard as the primary material, wood for strength, and a lot of found objects—things you might see lying around the house—for details. These would give each train its own face as in the illustrations of the original storybook: the Broken Down Train, the Streamliner, the Big Strong Locomotive, the Rusty Dusty Dingy Engine, and of course, the Little Engine That Could. I also made small puppets to represent the toys that are being delivered to the other side of the mountain: a teddy bear, Raggedy Ann, some dancing dolls, and a monkey.
Start your Holiday Train Show experience in the Palm Dome of the Conservatory, where you’ll find expanded features this year. In the beautiful reflecting pool is the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, as in past years, but now a model train runs past an island featuring the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse and the Lott House. Also in the gallery are other NY landmarks such as St. Patrick’s Cathedral, this year augmented by an audio track of organ music.Also new to this year’s show:
Pennsylvania Station (1910–1964), “could be our most exciting building yet,” says designer Paul Busse. At 20 square feet, it certainly is the largest building replica in the show. The original building was demolished under controversy 46 years ago to make way for the fourth incarnation of Madison Square Garden. This year you can view the intricately detailed replica of this historic train station, constructed from plant parts like honeysuckle and birch bark.
The Brooks Brothers flagship store is added to the popular midtown Manhattan vignette in the Holiday Train Show. Founded in 1818 as the first ready-to-wear fashion emporium in America, Brooks Brothers is the country’s oldest clothing retailer. Our replica is crafted from beech, red willow, and lotus stems.
If you’ve read our informative signs at the Holiday Train Show or have absorbed our wonderful show-related blog posts, Web content, or media coverage, you know by now that the New York landmark replicas in the show are made of plant parts and fungi.
