The 10th annual Orchid Show may be the most alluring exhibition in the northeast, but the vivid, climbing blooms under the glass of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory are surely complemented by the stunning landscape just beyond the doors. Arriving weeks earlier than expected, a new season is sweeping across The New York Botanical Garden, waking the sublime flowers and foliage that make spring in the Bronx the most memorable time to visit!
Join NYBG President Gregory Long as he tours the grounds, stopping in to see the jewel-like miniature orchids and tropical jade vines of the Conservatory before setting out across a Garden in colorful transformation. You won’t believe how quickly our outdoor collections have burst into life with the first hints of warm weather. From the soft white petals of the Kobus magnolia to the delightful fragrances of the Rock Garden‘s petite blossoms, The New York Botanical Garden’s season of renewal is already well underway.
The Garden’s many diverse landscapes will only grow more dazzling as we move further into this early spring. If you haven’t already picked up your tickets for the Orchid Show, be sure to reserve them soon. And when the day comes, feel free to explore! The beauty of New York City is here.
To the chagrin of my more tropically-inclined colleagues, I have been resisting the temptation to sing the praise of dendrobiums for years. “Give me an oncidium any day,” I used to exclaim. “They are easier to grow and I will not kill them!”
Initially, it was true… I had issues with dendrobiums. If the vegetative growth (foliage and pseudobulbs) in many orchids is fairly unattractive when they are out of bloom, the cane dendrobiums are positively ugly.
I do not like them in bloom; I do not like them out of bloom; I do not like them Sam-I-am with green eggs and ham! I was adamant. They looked like mutant orchids, outcasts in an otherwise pulchritudinous family–the Orchidaceae.
After a long and curious winter, the Rock Garden reopens its gates today, March 20, inviting visitors to experience a rolling landscape of miniature flowers and towering conifers. This Alpine sanctuary of lush woodland plants has been inspiring the admiration of millions of guests over its nearly 80-year history, and remains one of the most bountiful and beautiful public rock gardens in the world.
As luck would have it, when I first arrived at The New York Botanical Garden late last fall the Rock Garden was just locking its gates for the winter. My colleagues had told me, with varying degrees of wistful encouragement, that I should see its threads of gravel paths and high-reaching evergreens when I had the opportunity. There was no place quite so perfect for decompressing, they said. Nowhere better to reflect.
More from the Rock Garden this morning–patient baby blues anticipating visitors. Myriad hues are coloring our 250 acres from border to border; they’re waking up one after the next, so quickly we can hardly keep track of what’s blooming. (Not at all complaining.)
Gardening isn’t always a cakewalk. For New Yorkers, it can be the supreme struggle. Back yard vegetable plots are replaced with cramped fire escape terra cotta, and a window sill planter sits in for the shady garden tree. In light of the trouble with greening a studio apartment the size of your childhood closet, it’s no shock that the terrarium is coming back into vogue. And with Little Landscapes, the valedictorians of terrarium design are bringing the craze to The New York Botanical Garden.
Recognize the Rock Garden? For the past several months it’s been closed for the winter. But come April, we’ll fling open the gates to this 80-year-old sanctuary of all things eye-catching. (The spot is worthy of flinging, or any other momentous verb–it’s just that dramatic and unique.)
Have you been following Plant Talk this week? If you have, you’re already well aware that the skies are criss-crossed with soaring hawks, the daffodils are bobbing alongside the paths, and the NYBG‘s tenth annual Orchid Show is proving every bit the belle of the ball we knew it would be. With or without a few hems and haws from departing winter, a welcome spring is here more than two weeks early.
If you’re looking for escapism, the walkways of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory are a sure bet, ringed as they are with thousands of orchids in nearly every color of the spectrum. Better yet, you can start the day with Debbie Becker’s Saturday Bird Walk, then jump into orchid workshops and lectures of all sorts, with terrarium building in Little Landscapes to occupy the kids; there’s something about holding a miniature world unto itself–all in the palm of your hand–that’s infinitely appealing.
As a world-renowned neurologist and author, as well as a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, Dr. Oliver Sacks suffers no shortage of credentials. And yet, in 2000, an encounter with a group of dedicated fern enthusiasts at The New York Botanical Garden welcomed him into an arena where his relative inexperience proved a boon. Written during a two-week expedition in Mexico, Oaxaca Journal blends the esoteric minutiae of one of the world’s oldest plant groups with an exploration of culture, history, and modern adventure.
Oaxaca Journal overcomes the din of scientific jargon through the ease of Sacks’ prose. Even its simplistic approach to storytelling plays to the experience through the self-effacing charm of the author’s pen. His is a travel narrative without any particular direction, admittedly and unapologetically listing sidelong into the native–and at times gritty–reality of Mexican life, just as it charts a course for botanical relevance.
The 10th annual Orchid Show may be the most alluring exhibition in the northeast, but the vivid, climbing blooms under the glass of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory are surely complemented by the stunning landscape just beyond the doors. Arriving weeks earlier than expected, a new season is sweeping across The New York Botanical Garden, waking the sublime flowers and foliage that make spring in the Bronx the most memorable time to visit!
