Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in People on December 16 2019, by Matt Newman
Congratulations to all of the young writers who submitted poems to this year’s Young Poets contest, and the winners who joined former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins for December 15’s annual reading. You’ll find their poems on display here at NYBG through the end of the Holiday Train Show.
Posted in From the Library on April 24 2019, by Stephen Sinon
Stephen Sinon is the William B. O’Connor Curator of Special Collections, Research & Archives, of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library at NYBG.
The Botanic Garden, published in 1792, is a set of two poems, “The Economy of Vegetation” and “The Loves of the Plants,” both written by Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802); grandfather of the more famous Charles Darwin (1809–1882). The first celebrates technological innovation, scientific discovery and theory. The second and more popular poem promotes and explains the Linnean system of plant classification.
One of the first popular science books, the intent of The Botanic Garden was to pique popular interest in science. By embracing Linnaeus’s sexualized language, Darwin intended to make botany interesting and relevant to the readers of his time. While many Englishmen of the time were scandalized by the sexual nature of Linneaus’ taxonomic system, Darwin openly embraced it, using suggestive images in his floral descriptions, writing of blushing virgins, handsome swains, and deceitful paramours.
He emphasized the connections between humans and plants, arguing that they are all part of the same natural world and that sexual reproduction is central to evolution. His attempt to convey the wonders of scientific discovery and technology through poetry helped create a tradition of popular science writing which continues today.
Posted in History on April 5 2018, by Kristine Paulus
Kristine Paulus is the Plant Records Manager of The New York Botanical Garden.
April is National Poetry Month and each year the Garden joins the Academy of American Poets and the Poetry Society of America in celebrating this occasion by hosting a number of events. Visitors can partake in various festivities such as readings and poetry walks punctuated with signs broadcasting plant-inspired poems.
Exceptionally observant visitors might even spy a hidden poetic gem off the Garden’s beaten path (or, as Robert Frost might have put, the road less traveled by). In April and every other month of the year, there awaits a curious plaque along the banks of the Bronx River. Just south of the Stone Mill Bridge, on the east side, a bronze tablet is affixed to a large rock. Those with excellent vision (or a pair of binoculars) might notice that the tablet is inscribed with a poem.
Posted in Programs and Events on June 24 2016, by Matt Newman
It’s the first week of summer, and NYBG‘s 250 acres have filled in to create a verdant backdrop of petals and greenery, a living painting that invites you to explore its trails and collections. With the sun high and warm, the dappled shade of the Forest is that much more poetic. But if you love true verse, we’ve got something a bit more literal for you to take advantage of this weekend.
While Impressionism: American Gardens on Canvas continues throughout the Garden, Sophie Cabot Black will be joining us on Sunday for a special reading that should be the icing on the cake for our summer of paintings and poems. You can join her in the Perennial Garden at 2 p.m. that day to sit and enjoy. For more events and activities, visit our full calendar.
From the Rose Garden to the daylilies, the warmer months are really coming into their own. But if you’ve been outside in New York lately, you probably don’t need much convincing to realize how beautiful this season can be. Come enjoy it in the best possible place!
Posted in Programs and Events on March 4 2016, by Lansing Moore
This weekend, NYBG is thrilled to host celebrated poet Ada Limón for a special poetry reading on Saturday, inspired by The Orchid Show: Orchidelirium. Admission is included with the purchase of an All-Garden Pass, so any and all visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to attend.
Tomorrow is also the first of the season’s Orchid Evenings, so get your tickets and take in the splendor of The Orchid Show: Orchidelirium after hours with cocktails, refreshments, a live DJ, and expert-led talks. View complete details below regarding this weekend’s tours, family programs, evening events, and more!
Posted in Programs and Events on December 10 2014, by Matt Newman
The poetry of Billy Collins has long bridged the gap between the generations with its evocation of all things New York. For those who live here, his verse is a painted representation of daily life in the city, winter trips along the Hudson, and workaday commuter rituals unchanged for decades. At large, he’s a classic American poet, something recognized by virtue of the fact that he’s a former U.S. Poet Laureate. But as timeless as his words are, the effect is all the more potent when you hear them read aloud by Collins himself.
This Saturday, December 13, Billy Collins returns to The New York Botanical Garden for an intimate reading of his works in our Ross Hall. For those of you who’ve enjoyed strolling the Poetry Walk that winds its way through the Perennial Garden—just outside the Holiday Train Show taking place in the Conservatory—this is a chance to hear these poems as they were intended by the writer. Of course, if you haven’t had the opportunity to stroll through Poetry for Every Season, you’ll have the best of both worlds. And it’s not a bad time to check out the Train Show, either.
Posted in Programs and Events on May 21 2014, by Lansing Moore
The centerpiece of the new Groundbreakers exhibit is naturally the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory and its interpretation of The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Maine, but the exhibit continues throughout the Garden grounds. There is much to enjoy outdoors under the bright May sun, and the Groundbreakers Poetry Walk offers moments of reflection to those who stroll through the Perennial Garden and beyond. Occasionally, as on this Saturday, May 24, we set aside some time for a live reading with one of poetry’s greats—one such as Eavan Boland.
This year’s poetry displays honor the spirit of Groundbreaking women from the early 20th Century with the works of Edna St. Vincent Millay, the third woman to ever win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her eloquent writing captures the beauty of nature while evoking the cultural triumphs of the era she lived in alongside the Groundbreakers celebrated in the exhibit. Millay was a fascinating figure and poetry aficionados and history buffs alike will not want to miss out on this Saturday’s Groundbreakers Poetry Reading. Click through for details about Millay’s life, and more on this exciting poetry event!
Posted in The Orchid Show on April 1 2014, by Matt Newman
Just beyond the glass of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where clouds of tropical orchids form a colorful interpretation of Key West’s wholly original island atmosphere, you’ll enter a world of poetry. More than a canvas for some of spring’s earliest blooms, the Perennial Garden is also home to the Orchid Show‘s written verse (because the flowers speak so eloquently for themselves). There you’ll find placards displaying some of the finest writing to come out of the Florida Keys, from expatriate poets as diverse as James Merrill, Richard Wilbur, and Elizabeth Bishop—all of whom found a second home near the Southernmost Point.
Not content to let these works stand alone, we enlisted some of the country’s brightest modern poets to lend their voices to their predecessors’ pens. This Sunday, April 6, join us for our once-only Key West Poetry Reading as these published writers recite the lyrical legacy of warmer climates. And if you haven’t already paid a visit to The Orchid Show: Key West Contemporary, now is as good a time as any!
Our cadre of visiting poets certainly doesn’t lack for skill or accomplishments, as you’ll see below.
Posted in Photography on December 12 2013, by Ann Rafalko
In winter
all the singing is in
the tops of the trees …
White-Eyes ~ Mary Oliver
Posted in Around the Garden on September 12 2013, by Matt Newman
Every now and then our visitors step up to surprise us, and this is certainly one of those times. Our Director of the Thain Family Forest, Jessica Arcate-Schuler, was making her way across the grounds this week when she came to the waterfall overlook of the Bronx River. It’s not a roaring cascade, but calm and picturesque, with a talkative rush that even the Garden’s caretakers seldom hurry past without a pause.
Standing at the rail, Jessica noticed the corner of a note poking out from a gap behind the sign there, but it wasn’t trash. Someone had wedged the paper there to be found. So she plucked it out from its hiding place and read it.