Jessica Arcate Schuler is the Director of the Thain Family Forest at The New York Botanical Garden.
Many gardeners view their gardens as separate and isolated from the larger landscape. In reality, the larger landscape is a connected patchwork of ecosystems that support life. Having an invasive species in our garden does impact a local natural area, planting a diversity of plants including native species benefits wildlife, efficiently managing stormwater, fertilizer, plant health, compost and water use determine a garden’s resilience. On November 28, Cultivating a New Garden Ethic will showcase three distinguished speakers, Larry Weaner, Scott Freeman, and Jan Merryweather, to explore how gardening practices can create beauty and help heal the larger environment.
By Esther Jackson, Public Services Librarian; Samantha D’Acunto, Reference Librarian; Daniel Atha, Director of Conservation Outreach; and Brian M. Boom, Ph.D., Vice President for Conservation Strategy and Bassett Maguire Curator of Botany.
This past spring, LuEsther T. Mertz Library staff organized a workshop on how to use the popular website and app iNaturalist. The workshop was held in preparation for the 2018 City Nature Challenge, a global competition to see which city could record the most number of observations in four days, April 27–30. New Yorkers turned out in force, including NYBG staff, volunteers, Members, and the general public. Daniel Atha, Director of Conservation Outreach, facilitated the two-hour class, teaching attendees about different features of the app, including how to observe, suggest identifications for the observations of others, and search the iNaturalist database for information. (New York City came in seventh place overall for the City Nature Challenge.)
Because of the popularity of the first workshop, the Library offered a second iNaturalist workshop in August. The workshop focused on website and desktop navigation, facilitated again by Daniel Atha. Workshop attendees learned how to navigate the iNaturalist website, including the New York City EcoFlora project, and how to make new observations using their smartphones and tablets. Elementary, middle, and high school teachers were among the workshop’s attendees, which also included NYBG staff, volunteers, and Members. All participants were encouraged to partake in a short “virtual scavenger hunt” to help test out their newly acquired iNaturalist knowledge. Questions included how many plant observations have been made in Bronx County, how many total observations have been made in New York City, and the most-frequently observed animal and plant species in the Bronx. Those who completed the scavenger hunt first were gifted a small Library swag bag filled with iNaturalist and NYBG-related stickers, notebooks, and pens.
In addition to the New York City EcoFlora workshops, this summer the Library staff collaborated with Kristine Paulus and Becky Thorp of the Plant Records Office to offer a workshop on NYBG’s Garden Navigator. In October Library staff hosted a Women in Science Wikipedia edit-a-thon in collaboration with the Untold Stories project at the American Museum of Natural History.
This article originally appeared as part of a series on responsible citizenry in the 2018–2019 issue of Garden News, NYBG’s seasonal newsletter. For further reading, view the issue online and discover a sampling of stories about our current efforts and activities that promote, engage, and support active and responsible citizenry on local, regional, and global levels.
Stephan Chenault is The New York Botanical Garden’s Director of Science Development.
Douglas Daly, Ph.D., B. A. Krukoff Curator of Amazonian Botany and Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany at NYBG, has spent several years working in collaboration with the Brazilian Forest Service to conduct extensive training and certification programs in the Amazon for traditional forestry personnel, called mateiros, forest-born but town-educated. His efforts have promoted conservation of Amazonian rain forests by ensuring far more accurate representation of tree diversity in forest inventories, and by assisting timber operations certified for sustainability. More than 100 mateiros who work in national forest concessions, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and Brazilian government environmental agencies have been trained thus far.
Recently Dr. Daly was awarded a generous grant of $200,000 over two years from the Tinker Foundation for a new but related project, Equipping Community Participation in Management and Monitoring of Amazon Forests. This initiative will build on past capacity-building accomplishments of the NYBG project team, by taking a novel approach of training community members in tree identification, forest inventory, and monitoring in protected areas. The project is a collaboration of NYBG with the Chico Mendes Biodiversity Institute (ICMBio), the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, and the Forest Products Laboratory of the Brazilian Forest Service. These efforts aim to conserve Amazonian biodiversity and establish community members as stakeholders in protected forest areas by ensuring that local communities benefit from this initiative in terms of both livelihoods and the local economy.
This article originally appeared as part of a series on responsible citizenry in the 2018–2019 issue of Garden News, NYBG’s seasonal newsletter. For further reading, view the issue online and discover a sampling of stories about our current efforts and activities that promote, engage, and support active and responsible citizenry on local, regional, and global levels.
On July 1, 2018, Carrie Rebora Barratt, Ph.D., became the ninth CEO and President of The New York Botanical Garden and the first woman to hold the position. She came to the Garden following a distinguished career at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she worked as a curator and transitioned from research and scholarship to governance and administration, most recently serving since 2009 as Deputy Director, leading visitor-focused, mission-aligned initiatives for the institution during a transformational period in Museum’s history. At NYBG, Dr. Barratt brings her focus to the care and presentation of the living collections and special exhibitions. Her track record for enhancing visitor engagement matches the Garden’s reputation for groundbreaking scientific research and conservation programs; creative educational programs connecting art to science and human life to living collections, with enhanced offerings from pre-K through post-graduate studies; and vibrant exhibition and public programs that serve ever-growing and diverse audiences.
At the heart of our Groundbreakersexhibition stand six women—three of them designers, three of them photographers—who, through combined efforts, effected a sea change in the style and popularity of the American garden. From Beatrix Farrand’s opus of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, Maine, to Marian Coffin’s timeless creations here at NYBG, formerly staid home gardens in the U.S. shrugged off western Europe’s stylistic dominance for new and exciting influences from other cultures—not to mention those found right here at home.
Groundbreakers: Great American Gardens and The Women Who Designed Them is an homage to that renaissance of the early 20th century, when these six women established themselves not only as successful designers, but as pioneers along a fresh course for the country’s green spaces.
Our Tropical Paradise exhibition is in full swing under the glass of the Conservatory, offering up all the summer warmth and escapism you could need during this winter of frigid polar vortexes. But it’s more than just bright rain forest flowers and a place to ditch your gloves and galoshes. Believe it or not, this highlight of our permanent tropical collection is also a test of skill! Though not to worry—there’s minimal exercise involved beyond working your shutter finger.
This year’s photography contest is all-inclusive. By that, I mean you’re all welcome regardless of gear or skill level. Are you a novice with an iPhone in tow, hoping to get a few pics for your Twitter account? You’re in. Canon-toting DSLR superstar with a years-deep portfolio? Also more than welcome! (Though you’ll have to leave the tripods and monopods at home—sorry!) If you’re rocking an ancient Polaroid SX-70 with disposable flash bars, we want to see your photos. So don’t shy away. As long as you’ve got a Flickr account (and they’re incredibly easy to make), you’ve got a chance at winning our grand prize: a certificate for a free NYBG Adult Education class of your choice.
If you’re not sure what to expect, just lend Kevin Character your eyes and ears for a moment and he’ll set everything straight. He’s got a knack for this sort of thing.
I’ve done a lot of talking about the sensational culinary experiences to be had during this summer’s Family Dinners with Mario Batali’s Chefs, but until now I had few ways of showing you first-hand just what goes on in the garden, behind the grills, and at the table. Thankfully, Kevin Character was on hand during last week’s evening event to take a spin around the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden and talk to some of the talent in attendance.
In talking with Andy Nusser, Executive Chef at Tarry Lodge, it’s clear that this hefty undertaking is nonetheless carried out with all the care and attention to detail that have made Mario Batali‘s restaurants havens for modern gourmands. There’s definitely more to come during this ongoing MasterCard Priceless series, but for now, have a look at how we’re doing things during the summer harvest. It might pique your palate!
Our next Family Dinner events take place on September 21 and 29, so there’s plenty of time to pick your date. But keep in mind that tickets have been going quickly, and we expect the trend to continue. MasterCard holders can visit Priceless NY for more information or to register for the events. We’ll have more on upcoming menus as we get closer to September, so stay tuned!
Just go ahead and ignore your outdoor thermometer on your way out the door; it’s for the best. Because while today may not feel like the first day of spring, I can promise you–with the backing of several astronomers and meteorologists, if necessary–that we’re no longer wading our way through the worst of winter! At least not officially. The Spring Equinox is in swing, and the Orchid Show is hard at work trumpeting all things fresh and colorful. Week after week, waves of wild blossoms make their way into the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, packing each nook, cranny, branch, and epiphyte-friendly surface with neon perfection. It’s the spring phenomenon, and it’s more than just a greenhouse full of plants.
Kevin Character recently took the show to the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, where our staff now tends to the comings and goings of Little Landscapes, an Orchid Show sibling geared toward the little ones in your life. Terrariums are the new kids on the block when it comes to green thumb trends, but their history extends far, far beyond the delicate glass globes and mossy miniature landscapes seen on Pinterest. There was a practical purpose to the first Victorian terrariums of England–well behind the beautiful display and self-contained ecosystem that each terrarium provided.
Want to know more about this open house of tiny greens? Check out our interview and demonstration!
With less than a week between now and the opening of our 11th annual Orchid Show, it seems as good a time as any to poke our heads inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory and see what’s what with our hard-at-work horticulturists! There are literally thousands of exotic orchids to arrange in time for the March 2 opening, and with Tropical Paradise only just packing it in for the year, our staff is rising to the challenge of kicking off this yearly favorite with a proper bang.
All hands are on deck to make our naturally-inspired display the most colorful and gratifying experience you’ll have in New York City this spring. And few know the ins and outs of this complicated process like Christian Primeau, Manager of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Working along with the curatorial expertise of Vice President of Glasshouses and Exhibitions, Francisca Coelho, Christian and the rest of the team are implementing stunning designs, plant by plant, with an eye for both color and natural arrangements. But these wouldn’t be quite the same without an unforeseen addition to our exhibition: a few of the 300 Garden trees affected by Hurricane Sandy this past October.
The climate outside is in a bit of a state, to put things lightly. But a few steps inside our Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections, the sleet and snow give way to nothing short of a tropical oasis. It’s here, among the kaleidoscope of plants housed within, that you’ll find thousands upon thousands of orchids–all waiting to make their way into the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. It’s sort of a bubble of pleasantry on an otherwise heinous Friday.
With just a few weeks left of our Tropical Paradise exhibition, there are still myriad opportunities to warm up and shrug off the chill. But we figured that on today of all days, you could use a toasty peek at what’s in store for New York come March 2. We stopped in with Kevin Character and the orchid wizard himself, Marc Hachadourian, to see how The Orchid Show is coming along under the glass.
