Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on December 6 2012, by Matt Newman
There are still so many picturesque elements to the Home Gardening Center after the last fall flowers have faded. Not pictured: the hundreds of bulbs being planted here for spring’s explosion of florescence.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on December 5 2012, by Matt Newman
The Rock Garden — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Gardens and Collections on December 4 2012, by Matt Newman
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
I spend a lot of my time working with John Egenes in the Native Plant Garden. John is the gardener in charge of the area and his discerning eye doesn’t miss an inch of the vast new landscape.
I recently discovered that one of his passions is native trees. One day, during the height of fall foliage, he rattled off some of his favorite trees while pointing out the merits of both foliage and form. One of them–the pignut hickory (Carya glabra)–is situated just outside the Rock Garden, close to the rear service entrance.
The pignut hickory is a close relative to the famous pecan tree (Carya illinoinensis), responsible for your holiday pecan pie. But unlike the pecan, the nuts that the pignut provides are not so palatable. In fact, the name “pignut” is derived from the fact that the nuts are only suitable for swine. In nature, these are a valuable food source for many woodland creatures such as black bears, raccoons, squirrels, blue jays, foxes, rodents, and deer.
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on December 4 2012, by Matt Newman
I feel like fall is the ideal time for sitting and observing–for taking it in without having to fill the empty space with idle chatter. Which leads me to today’s mission: find a bench somewhere in the Garden, and spend at least 20 minutes sitting quietly. As my high school guitar teacher used to call it, see if you can “lift” the individual components of nature’s soundtrack; that is, isolate a single bird’s song, or one tree’s creaking branches among the rest. Listen to the wind a while.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on December 3 2012, by Matt Newman
Manolo Valdés may have capped the undertaking of Monumental Sculpture with multi-ton creations ferried by truck, crane, and ship, but that’s not where he began. First, he needed to gel his ideas on a smaller scale. If you happen to stop by the Library Building this winter, you’ll see the artist’s initial inspiration in his maquettes, now on display in the Orchid Rotunda.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on December 2 2012, by Matt Newman
The fine twists and arches of the tulip trees are getting a head-start on the winter aesthetic. We’re okay with it.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Programs and Events on November 30 2012, by Matt Newman
Whether you’re coming in to catch the Holiday Train Show before December’s crowds pile in, or to glean a bit of feathered wisdom from Debbie Becker’s Saturday morning Bird Walk, this weekend is squarely focused on relaxation. Because we know that in between the crush of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and winter holiday preparations, there’s hardly a sliver of space to squeak in your chill time! Of course, at the NYBG there’s a wider window for taking it easy.
With a light schedule and reasonable temperatures promised for Saturday and Sunday, this is your opportunity to explore 250 acres of New York City’s finest natural sanctuary. If you’re looking for activities, there’s always the Bird Walk for picking up a new hobby, or maybe you’d rather take a load off with the heat on? For that, stop by the Holiday Train Show in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory before hoofing it over to Ross Hall for a bit of history on our decades-long tradition.
Over in the education department, you can join in a two-hour rundown of the herbal arts through a course on making tinctures, salves, and oils from nature’s bounty. And, of course, there’s Gingerbread Adventures waiting for the kids in our Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. Why would you even consider passing up a hand-decorated cookie (of your own artistic creation, of course) before leaving?
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on November 30 2012, by Matt Newman
Tuesday’s snowfall was gone before it hit the ground, but that didn’t stop Ivo from snapping a few choice fall photographs!
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on November 29 2012, by Matt Newman
Don’t overlook the desert houses when you visit the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for the Holiday Train Show. It may not be conventional holiday beauty, but it’s undeniable nonetheless.
Mammillaria huitzilopochtli — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Holiday Train Show on November 28 2012, by Matt Newman
As the Holiday Train Show ramps up, we’ll be highlighting the cultural landmarks of New York City that have come to inspire our many miniatures, as well as the established organizations behind each one. It’s an opportunity for our readers to not only come away with a fresh understanding of the beautiful architecture in our city, but of the important institutions that have helped to create our rich cultural landscape.
What would become the world-renowned Jewish Museum did not begin as such. C.P.H. Gilbert, a prominent New York architect of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, designed this building as a private home for the family of Felix Warburg in 1908. Gilbert’s specialty was designing grand, chateau-style houses on Fifth Avenue for wealthy New York patrons like investment bankers Warburg and Otto Kahn, and entrepreneur Frank Woolworth.