Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on October 18 2019, by Matt Newman
Large, lumpy, warty, and weird—the hordes of pumpkins and gourds in our Spooky Pumpkin Garden come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. And their names are just as strange! Take a peek at a few of the many varieties calling the Garden home right now, and visit to explore their incredible diversity.
[Not a valid template]Posted in Photography on October 21 2015, by Matt Newman
The last of the giant pumpkins arrives at the Garden today, just in time for our Giant Pumpkin Carving Weekend and Día de los Muertos celebration beginning this Saturday. If you’ve never seen Ray Villafane and his crew of expert sculptors turn these monstrous fruits into works of spooky art, it’s not to be missed!
This year’s record-breaking pumpkin from the North American crop, weighing in at 2,230 pounds, is right here at the Garden—come check it out!
Giant pumpkins in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Programs and Events on October 16 2015, by Matt Newman
Time’s running out for FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life, and there’s so much going on in the final weeks of October that you won’t want to let this one pass you by. Fall’s presence is undeniable as you walk through the Garden, tinging the trees with reds and yellows, and Halloween is fast approaching. More importantly, Día de los Muertos is just around the corner. It would be an understatement to say that we’re celebrating the holidays with style.
Alongside this weekend’s schedule of outdoor tours, music, food, and other exhibition programming, we’re preparing for the coming week of after-dark events and lively holiday fiestas that all begin with Frida for Families: A Spooky Nighttime Adventure. On Friday, October 23, grab tickets and bring your little ones (don’t forget their costumes!) for a night of trick-or-treating in the Garden, hands-on Halloween fun in the Adventure Garden, live costumed performers, giant puppets, and more. It’s a safe and exciting way to celebrate the holiday a little early.
For adults, join us during our Frida al Fresco LGBT night on Thursday, October 22, and don’t forget to register for our last Frida Look-Alike contest of the exhibition—accepted entrants get free admission to the evening event and a chance to win prizes from NYBG Shop!
Posted in Programs and Events on October 8 2015, by Matt Newman
Autumn for families in the Garden is one of the most colorful times of year to stop by, from the changing leaves in the Forest to our much-loved tradition of giant pumpkin carving in late October. And new this year, we’re taking things a step further with a full schedule of fall FRIDA KAHLO programming geared toward families who’re looking for something more than the average Halloween outing!
Take a break from the haunted houses and join NYBG in the coming weeks for some of the most lively Día de los Muertos activities you’ll find in New York.
Kids and adults alike are welcome at the Garden in late October, when we highlight the Mexican Day of the Dead with two festive weekends of stilt-dancers, live music, food, and fun for all ages—with events throughout the garden on October 24, 25, 31, and November 1. Our first Día de los Muertos Weekend also happens to feature a fan-favorite in Ray Villafane, who returns to the Garden with his team of artists for two days of live pumpkin carving—some of the biggest and heaviest gourds in the country!—creating creepy creatures inspired by traditional calaveras characters.
Posted in Horticulture on October 14 2014, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
Last week I wrote about festive fall arrangements, with pumpkins carved open and colorful table centerpieces placed inside them. This week, I will provide a profile of pumpkins and other cucurbits. Pumpkins are in the Cucurbitaceae family and are one of the two oldest food sources in North America (corn is the other). Seeds have been found in caves in Mexico dating back from 5000 to 7000 B.C.
If you peruse the farmers’ markets these days you will find a nice selection of pumpkins. One of my favorites for eating and for decorating is the Long Island Cheese pumpkin or Cucurbita moschata ‘Long Island Cheese’. It makes a great pie. Another exotic counterpart is ‘Musquee de Provence’ which is an heirloom from the south of France.
There is a seasonally appropriate, ghostly white pumpkin named Cucurbita maxima ‘Lumina’ that makes a delicious soup. If you are searching for Cinderella’s pumpkin, it goes by the name of Cucurbita maxima ‘Rouge Vif d’Etampes’, a French heirloom that was introduced into the U.S. in 1883 by the Burpee Seed Company.
As the bounty from the farmers’ markets will attest, fall is a wonderful season for a wide array of other winter squash. One of my seasonal favorites is ‘Delicata’, a sweet squash that has an edible rind and can be sliced and sautéed or baked in the oven. When selecting this squash, choose one that is heavy for its size.
Posted in Gardening Tips on October 9 2014, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
Every year, in celebration of Columbus Day and the advent of autumn, I conduct a Home Gardening Demonstration in the Fall Room of the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden on autumnal centerpieces. Instead of getting my hands dirty, I get my hands gooey by carving exotic looking heirloom pumpkins and creating festive table arrangements.
I stand above the pumpkins with a sharp knife, grasp the stem for stability and start carving open the top. If you are carving a pumpkin with the intention of replacing the lid then you would place the knife at a 45-degree angle. Since I am carving with the intention of inserting a 4-inch square vase inside as a centerpiece holder, I carve straight down at a 90-degree angle. My objective is to create a clean edge and an area that is large enough so I can slip the vase in, leaving a small amount of wiggle room so that I can extract it with ease.
Posted in Gardening Tips on October 22 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.
This is the time of year when we celebrate everything autumnal at the Garden. As part of the Haunted Pumpkin Garden, some of the year’s biggest pumpkins have been carved by master carver Ray Villafane and his crew from Villafane Studios into a display with a theme resembling a home garden run amok. I am personally hoping to see Rick Moranis pop out of one of these pumpkins and wow us with his endearing humor, but something tells me that won’t happen. In addition, we have a lot of fun activities going on at the Garden right now, from demonstrations with bats and bugs to the statuesque and enthralling Japanese chrysanthemum exhibition, Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden.
In the spirit of the season, I’ll be in the Perennial Garden this weekend giving a demonstration on how to make decorative arrangements with pumpkins and gourds. This demonstration is always a popular one, giving homeowners some fun, easy, and creative ideas on how to dress up their homes for the holidays.
Posted in Around the Garden on October 18 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Actually, let’s make that four words: Giant Pumpkin Carving Weekend! Have you heard the news? NYBG is playing host to the new world’s heaviest pumpkin, a 2,032-pound giant grown by Tim and Susan Mathison of Napa, California. Heavier than a 2013 Smart FourTwo (by a lot) the Mathison’s phenomenal pumpkin is joined by a retinue of other enormous gourds, a record breaking long gourd, and the new world’s heaviest watermelon.
You might think this all sounds like a recipe for a record-breaking pot of squash soup, followed by the world’s largest fruit salad, but you would be wrong (these fruit are barely edible because of the intense breeding for weight—well, kind of. They will be turned into “food,” food for zombie Venus flytraps!
Posted in Around the Garden on October 16 2013, by Matt Newman
“Pumpkin King” isn’t a title tossed around lightly (that’s a long-game pun right there). Come to think of it, Danny Elfman’s probably held the honor longer than anyone. But once each year, right around the time the leaves start wandering off their branches and the Forest takes a sudden lean toward apple reds and lemon yellows, a new monarch arrives at the NYBG to wear the crown a while—and there’s always an entourage tagging along. Big, small, squat and tall, a cadre of gargantuan pumpkins are trundling into the Garden for this year’s Giant Pumpkin Carving Weekend, taking place here this weekend on October 19 and 20!
When your prized produce weighs as much as a standard sedan, no one’s going to call out your efforts for lacking heft. Still, in the hyper-competitive world of mammoth produce, every pound counts—even among the giants, one always stands above the rest, especially when the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth is involved. This year’s record-breaking pumpkin hails from Napa, California, where Tim and Susan Mathison primped and preened a young squash into a 2,032-pound behemoth that easily snatched up the world heavyweight title after a stop on the scale. Joining it at the Garden this year are two pumpkins from Dawn and Bill Northrup of New Brunswick, Canada, at 1,813 and 1,024.5 pounds, respectively; and a pair from Dave and Carol Stelts of Edinburgh, Pennsylvania, clocking in at 1,496 and 1,391.5 pounds. Just to add an extra touch of the big and bizarre, we’ll also have Chris Kent’s record-snapping, 350.5-lb. watermelon flying in from Sevierville, Tennessee; and a long gourd from Fred Ansems of Kentville, Nova Scotia, that clocks in at over 11 feet in length.
Posted in Around the Garden on October 11 2013, by Ann Rafalko
For many, this weekend is a three-day weekend and we’ll be open on Monday to help you pass the extra day in one of New York City’s most beautiful natural spaces. That means an extra day of fall fun for everyone!
Fill your weekend with spooky fun in the Haunted Pumpkin Garden and the cultural immersion of Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden. Our two fall exhibitions come with a plethora of fun activities including pumpkin carving demonstrations, taiko drumming, wildlife encounters, and tours. And don’t miss the opening of Close: The Photography of Allan Pollok-Morris, going live in the Ross Gallery this weekend.
Start your Columbus Day weekend off right by joining our free Saturday bird walk around the grounds. It’s migration time, so you never know who you’ll spot in addition to our regular flock of raptors, turkeys, little brown jobbers, and colorful characters.