Inside The New York Botanical Garden
NYBG
Posted in NYBG in the News on August 29 2012, by Matt Newman
Go out into your back yard (assuming you have one) and pretend you have to not only identify, but describe, designate, and catalog every plant that’s growing there. Now multiply that challenge by the entire surface of the Earth, and you’re standing in a botanist’s shoes. Of course, it’s not going to be as easy as all that; as a plant scientist, you’re also racing against a clock that stubbornly speeds up with each passing year. Climate change, human development, and myriad other influences are wiping out species before you’re even aware they’re under threat–and there are hundreds of thousands of species to account for. Worse, the system you use to designate these plants as endangered isn’t exactly marching to the beat of your own drum.
This is where The New York Botanical Garden‘s experts step in, with a new system that could turn a challenging outlook for botanical conservationists into a bright future.
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Posted in Around the Garden on August 17 2012, by Matt Newman
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.
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Posted in Adult Education, Around the Garden, Learning Experiences, Programs and Events on May 4 2012, by Joyce Newman
Suppose you really can’t draw, but always wished you could…especially when it comes to drawing those gorgeous blooms in your backyard. Well now’s your chance to make your wish come true: Botanical Drawing I is just one of the new summer intensive classes offered by NYBG starting in July. Think of it as a summer camp experience designed for grown-ups.
With the botanical drawing class, in just one week you’ll learn specific techniques for drawing accurately, including professional standards of form, measuring, foreshortening, and perspective. The classes are offered in July (9 through 13) or August (6 through 10), at NYBG and the Midtown Manhattan Center, respectively.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Programs and Events on April 24 2012, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
This year is the 20th Anniversary of our Antique Garden Furniture Show. In honor of its celebration, I will review some of the basics for maintaining antique garden ornaments, but my best suggestion is that you stop by the show from April 26 through 28 and talk to the experts. We will have over 30 antique dealers who specialize in garden ornaments, catering to a wide range of tastes and budgets.
In anticipation of the show, I have been perusing the library’s collection of books, finding inspiration not only in the traditional tomes filled with marble nymphs and cast iron urns, but from modern design books that suggest repurposing local material.
I have started to construct my dream garden piece by piece. One item that is at the top of my wish list is a 19th century terra cotta oil jar from Italy. It was traditionally used to hold vats of olive oil, but in its modern rendition would make a wonderful focal point in an herbaceous border.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Programs and Events on April 20 2012, by Matt Newman
If you’re coming to the NYBG on Sunday for The Nature Conservancy‘s Picnic for the Planet, try not to overdo it during lunch! You’ll want to save room for an evening outing sure to have gourmands salivating, because long-time Friend of the Garden Mario Batali is jumping in with an event of his own.
Building on his success in last year’s Family Garden events, the legendary Babbo chef will once again join with the NYBG in raising awareness about the power of the foods we buy and eat. Along with Mario’s partners, Lidia and Joe Bastianich, the trio’s B&B Hospitality Group honors this year’s Earth Day with a special promotion at each of its restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, sending every patron of their fine B&B restaurants home with a special Earth Day gift. Not only will you leave well-fed, but you’ll do so with a packet of B&BHG’s organic Cherry Belle™ radish seeds. It also doubles as a two-for one ticket offer to visit the NYBG this summer, all in the name of bringing environmental responsibility home.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Programs and Events on April 13 2012, by Matt Newman
This weekend we enter the home stretch of the Orchid Show balanced on a bittersweet note. Thousands of visitors have had the opportunity to experience Patrick Blanc’s inspiring vertical architecture, stepping under, around, and between the reaching walls of tropical foliage and luxuriant orchid flowers. This year’s spring display is a masterwork only “The Green Man” could have conjured.
Going into the final week of our tenth anniversary exhibition, we encourage everyone who hasn’t yet made the short trip to the Bronx to put on some comfortable shoes and step out for a day at the Garden. Between the sunlit brilliance of these spring afternoons and the rare form of the Orchid Show, there are few excuses for missing out.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 12 2012, by Matt Newman
More specifically, this is the Bronx! I’m led to wonder how many people step out of the subway station on Grand Concourse, fully aware of what lies just a few blocks east.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on April 6 2012, by Matt Newman
Cherry blossoms and Easter pastels make for a fair combination, don’t you think? The calendar’s once again rolled into a holiday weekend at The New York Botanical Garden, which just happens to fall in line with the start of spring break for the schoolyard set. That makes for a rare opportunity: a Monday opening! This weather is too marvelous for the kids to sit at home.
The Orchid Show is, of course, the belle of the ball right now, but our 250 acres are making a strong showing as new plants and trees burst into their spring finery with each passing day. Walk among the fields of daffodils and tulips, admire the hellebores, or peek in on the early azaleas–and don’t forget the brilliant cherry and plum blossoms brightening trees throughout the Garden.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Wildlife on April 2 2012, by Matt Newman
It’s a rare day when you can step out under the trees of The New York Botanical Garden without the cry of a Red-tailed Hawk ringing overhead. We usually owe the pleasant racket to Rose and Vince, along with the many hatchlings they’ve reared since setting up shop in the Bronx years ago. And Pat Gonzalez–Member and Friend of the Garden–can point out that a solid number of the hawks hunting in the skies over our 250 acres are directly related to the celebrity pair.
But Rose and Vince aren’t loyalists–while the birds may hunt at the NYBG, they tend to waffle on which site they call home. In the past, the two have occasionally settled down in the upper reaches of the Garden’s architecture. Fordham University across the way has often been called home, as well.
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Posted in Around the Garden on March 30 2012, by Matt Newman
What an offbeat week it’s been. Having caught word that we were making fun of it, the “long-gone” winter suddenly came knocking with frosty, clear afternoons and frigid nights; there was some worry in the northeast that confused plants with early flowers would take a hit. But spring isn’t bowing out. Stop by the NYBG and you’ll find yourself surrounded by thousands of airy plum and cherry blossoms flooding branches across the Garden. The apple blossoms, the last of the magnolias–all come together to create a pink and white snowfall of petals.
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Go out into your back yard (assuming you have one) and pretend you have to not only identify, but describe, designate, and catalog every plant that’s growing there. Now multiply that challenge by the entire surface of the Earth, and you’re standing in a botanist’s shoes. Of course, it’s not going to be as easy as all that; as a plant scientist, you’re also racing against a clock that stubbornly speeds up with each passing year. Climate change, human development, and myriad other influences are wiping out species before you’re even aware they’re under threat–and there are hundreds of thousands of species to account for. Worse, the system you use to designate these plants as endangered isn’t exactly marching to the beat of your own drum.
