We are all very excited for a bright weekend after such a rainy week. Of course, the plants loved all that water—and it seems fitting that this weekend features two special tours of the Aquatic House! While the city is drying out, visit the wettest habitats in the Conservatory and admire the gorgeous plants within.
Don’t forget, next week is the last of our Jazz Age Evenings. On August 21 we bid farewell to these vintage-style soirées that brought such glamour and joy to Groundbreakers. Join us for the big bash as Michael Arenella & His Dreamland Orchestra transports guests back to the 40s with a swinging songbook inspired by the “Greatest Generation.” Our friends at Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer will be serving up their own spicy twist on that classic summer cocktail—the Margarita.
Be sure to bring the kids this weekend for the Global Gardens Summer Harvest Celebration in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden! This weekend only, children will explore five Global Gardens and fill up their passports while enjoying activities. Click through for more details and the full program schedule.
Our long-time adventure in multinational growing once again comes to fruition this weekend, which is a big hint to bring the kids along if you’re planning a visit. We’ll be hanging out in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden with our talented team of global gardeners for the Summer Harvest Festival, celebrating the herbs, fruits, and vegetables that form the backbones of cuisines from Ireland, South Korea, the Caribbean, and more.
While you’re meeting the gardeners who have carefully tended these plots for so long, we’ll have activities to explore throughout Saturday and Sunday, including garden passports, cultural crafts, and pickle sampling. And not many people would pass up garden-fresh pickles, in my experience.
Elsewhere in the Garden, our Wild Medicine exhibition continues its summer run with an ever changing display in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory‘s Italian Renaissance Gardenplanting, as well as a renowned collection of classic herbals in the Mertz Library (see below for our ASL-friendly tour happening Saturday). And with the weather playing nice, I’d suggest setting aside some time to daydream your way along the Forest trails, too—the canopy is a cloud of green right now.
Despite what the average travel agent will write on your final quote, you don’t actually have to max out your credit cards to enjoy a taste of the global landscape. Instead, you could just spend some time driving through the Bronx. Block to block, you’ll pass through communities sampled from a half-dozen continents, enclaves built on traditions of culture and cuisine. Korean, Irish, Chinese, Italian, Caribbean–they’re all represented in the people of our borough. And they’re all here, too, growing in the NYBG‘s Global Gardens!
This weekend, the Garden celebrates the bounty of our efforts with the Summer Harvest Festival, joining our knowledgeable Global Gardeners for a romp around the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden. Bring your kids along for garden games, crafts, or a taste of what’s ripening in our many diverse plots. And for the parents (or especially precocious young chefs) there will be cooking demonstrations taking place at 2 and 4 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
Fresh off the puckered and pungent “Pickle Me!” events that took place in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden over the last few weeks, we join Assistant Manager Annie Novak to catch up with our long-time adventure in multinational growing, the Global Gardens! Because native is all well and good, but when it comes down to exploring edibles, our Family Garden keeps an open mind to unique fruits and vegetables from around the world. And what better place to celebrate multinationalism than in the Bronx, one of–if not the–most diverse communities in the United States?
This week’s highlights come to us from Shirley, caretaker of the Chinese garden, and Mr. Mota, who keeps the Caribbean garden thriving. From bitter melon to plantains, they’ve cultivated a lengthy menu of traditional fruits and vegetables to represent their national cuisines. And it’s a welcome catch-up course, just in time for this weekend’s Summer Harvest Celebration! Make sure the kids are tagging along for this one; they’ll have the chance to meet some of our knowledgeable Global Gardeners, play a few garden games, make crafts, learn an Irish jig, and even sample garden-grown vegetables for themselves.
A herd of us, myself included, skipped out on our desks yesterday to spend the morning in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, picking our way through the planted rows and soaking up the spring weather. We’re not truants so much as curious and hungry, really. After a few minutes chatting with the Family Garden’s Assistant Manager, Annie Novak, we can’t think of a better place to let loose with your kids over the weekend.
I’m not just saying that because Annie kindly let us pluck a couple of sugarsnap pea pods to munch on, either. (After much whining and pleading on our part, though totally worth the effort considering how crispy-delightful they were).
More than an oasis of everyday New York staples, this foodie bonanza is also the host of Global Gardens, where five international green thumbs are tending plots that represent the home-grown veggies of their countries’ cuisines: Italian, Irish, Korean, Chinese, and Caribbean. And (perfect timing, I know) this weekend marks their Summer Harvest Celebration!
Have you been looking for a good reason to visit the Garden this June? Well, if you need some motivation to visit New York City’s greatest garden, consider us your motivators: This weekend is going to be spectacular! We have flowers, food, dancing, music, poetry, and so much more in store!
Start in the historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where the best-smelling exhibition in New York City–complete with flowing fountains and elegant arches–is housed in the Victorian elegance of this landmark building. Be sure to visit the beautiful reflecting pool and its resident koi in the Conservatory Courtyard. A Garden Tour Guide-led guided tour of the exhibition is available Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Meet at the entrance to the Conservatory.
Flamenco Among the Flowers – 1, 2, and 3 p.m. in the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall The Garden comes alive with the sounds, rhythms, and movements of flamenco. Flamenco: Inside/Out introduces this traditional Spanish art form using live music and performers from various ethnic, cultural, and artistic backgrounds.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The Food and Culture of the Alhambra – 4 p.m. in the Perennial Garden
Join chef and culinary historian Maricel Presilla for a fascinating, and delicious, exploration of the cuisine and culture of the al-Andalús region of Spain, home to the Alhambra. Presilla, who holds a doctorate in medieval Spanish history from New York University, has received formal training in cultural anthropology, and is a Beard Award-nominated chef, will be talking about several aspects of Islamic agriculture and cooking in al-Andalús. She will focus on vegetables, grains, nuts, olive oil, fermented condiments, aromatic spices (and spice mixes) and flowers, particularly scented roses. Her cooking demonstration may include: a spice mix or sauce; an eggplant dish called alboronía or another thirteenth-century dish with eggplant served with aromatic lamb meatballs (albóndigas), and a rose-scented dessert that shows the connection between al-Andalús and the New World. She will also be talking about the Islamic roots of the popular sweet and sour Spanish dish known as escabeche.
Tour of Library Exhibition Historical Views: Tourists at the Alhambra – Meet at 1 p.m. in the Orchid Rotunda at the entrance level to the Library Building Join a Garden Tour Guide for a tour of Historical Views: Tourists at the Alhambra.
Flamenco Among the Flowers – 1, 2, and 3 p.m. in the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall The Garden comes alive with the sounds, rhythms, and movements of flamenco. Flamenco: Inside/Out introduces this traditional Spanish art form using live music and performers from various ethnic, cultural, and artistic backgrounds.
The award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden one of the world’s most sustainable and beautiful showcases for America’s flower, and it is in full bloom right now! Set aside ample time so that you have as many minutes as you need to stop and smell the roses. In the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, the roses smell as good as they look.
Rose Garden Tour – 12:30 p.m. in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden
Immerse yourself in the fragrance, color, and beauty of the award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden on a tour with a Garden Tour Guide offered each day in June; and with an ASL interpreter on June 18. Learn the differences between heritage and modern roses, and between floribundas and hybrid teas, as well as facts about rose history, cultivation, and folklore.
Q&A Sessions with Rose Experts – 1-4 p.m. at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden pergola Our rose experts will answer your questions on caring for roses, cultivars to try in your garden, the history of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, and more.
Home Gardening Demonstration: Life is Rosy – 1:30 p.m. in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden
Tour the sumptuous, award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. Learn standard rose-care practices, from fertilizing to pruning.
The Garden is a great place to get outside and enjoy nature: families can explore the natural world in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden and at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden; gardeners can gather inspiration for their own gardens throughout the Garden’s 250-acres, and learn about plant varietals in the Home Gardening Center; and naturalists can spot a variety of migratory and year-round birds throughout the grounds.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Bird Walk – meet at 11 a.m. at the Reflecting Pool in front of the Leon Levy Visitor Center
Bring your binoculars and walk the Garden grounds with our bird expert, Debbie Becker. On your walk you will look for the species that live here year-round as well as those just migrating through: owls, hawks, songbirds, and more. Learn about the bird-friendly plants and habitats that provide food, shelter, and nesting sites. Learn more about birding at the Garden in this short video.
Saturday, June 11 and Sunday June 12, 2011
Global Gardens Spring Harvest Celebration – 1:30-5:30 p.m. in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden Travel globally while eating locally! Celebrate the end of spring with our Global Gardeners. Travel to China, Korea, Ireland, Italy, and the Caribbean by visiting each Global Garden plot and earn stamps in your Garden Passport as you learn and explore.
Written by Kate Murphy, a junior at Fordham University, with additional reporting by Genna Federico, a senior at St. John’s University; both are interns working in the Communications Department this summer.
The 2008 Olympic Games open tomorrow in Beijing. And though China’s capital and second largest city seems a world away, you might be surprised to learn you can find a little bit of China right here at The New York Botanical Garden.
The Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden features a collection of Global Gardens—gardens planted and tended by volunteers in the spirit of different cultures and countries. Shirley Cheung, along with her husband, Frank, and her mother, Mrs. Miu, has maintained the Chinese Garden for over 15 years. As a schoolteacher, Shirley gets the summers off and likes to tend the Chinese Garden every day. She and her husband try to come in the early morning, usually before seven, to beat the heat.
The Chinese Garden contains plants both for show and for cooking, but Shirley prefers the latter, using almost everything she grows in her own kitchen. She likes to grow new things every year: This year they’re harvesting kohlrabi, a cultivar of cabbage, which she explains is popular in China and grows easily here. The leaves of kohlrabi, which cannot be found in food markets because they are discarded before being sold, are good for digestion. She suggests growing your own kohlrabi and steeping the leaves to make a tea for this purpose.
Another plant you’ll have to grow at home if you want to enjoy Shirley’s recommendation is garlic. While most everyone can find garlic at a local supermarket, the green tops are harder to find. Shirley insists that this is the best part and tastes great on chicken or fish.
The Chinese Garden also contains three different kinds of beans, tomatoes weighing in at over two pounds, and bitter melon, a fruit that in China is said to “cure 100 diseases.” Another highlight is the pumpkin flower, which can be picked, dipped in egg batter, fried, and enjoyed as a delicious treat.
Shirley calls the Chinese Garden her “paradise,” and her doctor told her to continue, because it’s keeping her young.
“It’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun,” Shirley says. “It’s the best life you can have!”
We are all very excited for a bright weekend after such a rainy week. Of course, the plants loved all that water—and it seems fitting that this weekend features two special tours of the Aquatic House! While the city is drying out, visit the wettest habitats in the Conservatory and admire the gorgeous plants within.
Start in the historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where the best-smelling exhibition in New York City–complete with flowing fountains and elegant arches–is housed in the Victorian elegance of this landmark building. Be sure to visit the beautiful reflecting pool and its resident koi in the Conservatory Courtyard. A Garden Tour Guide-led guided tour of the exhibition is available Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Meet at the entrance to the Conservatory.
The Garden is a great place to get outside and enjoy nature: families can explore the natural world in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden and at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden; gardeners can gather inspiration for their own gardens throughout the Garden’s 250-acres, and learn about plant varietals in the Home Gardening Center; and naturalists can spot a variety of migratory and year-round birds throughout the grounds.
