Happy Independence Day! The Fourth of July is tomorrow, and another well-deserved long weekend is just around the corner. If you’re looking for something to do in between barbecue and fireworks, the Garden will be open to visitors this Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.. The Garden invites you to celebrate America’s history with the little ones at SousaKazooza! This musical trip through the world of John Philip Sousa will have kids making their own music to celebrate, and it only takes place over holiday weekends.
As summer rolls on, the Garden continues to grow more beautiful each day. Read on for all the ways you can explore the greatest green escape in the city this weekend!
On April 1, the Rock Garden reopens for the season after an extensive, winter-long restoration of its historic features! Visitors will be able to admire water running down the cascade and into the pond for the first time in years. After remaining dry for so long, the stream is now active again, as well as more water efficient.
The soft bubbling of the stream accompanied by the wind rustling the branches has defined the tranquility of the Rock Garden since its establishment in the 1930s. Originally a project of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, the Rock Garden was showing its age and was in great need of restoration. Head through for a sneak peak at the final product before tomorrow’s debut!
Spring at the Garden is full of festivals! Beautiful scenery, delicious refreshments, and activities for all ages are the perfect way to spend a spring weekend. From daffodil season to tulip season and beyond, we have plenty of activities over the next three months to help make the most of the grounds as their brilliant colors return.
Our popular Culinary Kids Food Festival returns April 14 with a week-long, family-friendly food festival celebrating the relationships among plants, farms, and your favorite treats. Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden staff and the culinary team, Growing Chefs, will offer cooking demonstrations, recipes, and hands-on activities—with plenty of music and food tastings to add to the fun. Kids can fill up their Festival passports as they tinker with the science of kitchen chemistry and get to the root of foods at a variety of activity stations with themes like “The Chicken and the Egg” and “The Buzz on Bees Sweet Bees!” The daily 1 p.m. cooking demonstration will feature kid-friendly recipes and tasty samples, while local chefs will share tips and more.
But that is only the first in a full season of outdoor adventure. Read on for May and June’s exciting upcoming festivals!
For about a week now the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory has been plunged in the colorful escape of The Orchid Show: Key West Contemporary. Our first Orchid Evening already took place last Saturday, and visitors have been pouring in to see the many varieties of orchids on display since the exhibit opened on March 1.
The day before it opened to the public, Kevin Character stopped by Members Day, where Garden Members were enjoying an exclusive preview of The Orchid Show. Early reviews were very encouraging. Some members called it the best Orchid Show yet, and they should know! Click through for this exclusive video tour of the unique design concept and varied special programs surrounding The Orchid Show: Key West Contemporary.
While we are well into The Orchid Show, I know our photography aficionados have not forgotten about this year’s Tropical Paradise Photo Contest. After lengthy deliberations over our six weekly winners in the Macro and Sense of Place categories, we are ready to announce the Grand Prize Winners in each category, recipients of a seat in the NYBG Adult Education photography class of their choice.
Most of all, I hope enjoying the outstanding weekly submissions on Plant Talk has inspired you all to enjoy the Garden through your own lens. If you want to challenge your skills and enhance your enjoyment of the Garden, then NYBG Adult Education offers a variety of classes to help you see the grounds in new ways. For those shutterbugs out there, the next class will be Photographing Birds, Bees, & Butterflies on April 26, but there are many more slated for spring as the Garden comes into full bloom. Whether with an iPhone or a full DSLR rig, there are classes for all subjects and levels of expertise.
Now for the moment that has been weeks in the making. We are very pleased to announce the Grand Prize Winners of the 2014 Tropical Paradise Photo Contest! Click through to find out.
Here we are, at the end of our Tropical Paradise Photo Contest’s last round of finals. As we welcomed the colorful debut of The Orchid Show: Key West Contemporary this past weekend, we also had to say goodbye to Tropical Paradise for another year. Today we announce the last finalists who managed to capture the magic of that exhibition through their lenses.
While the Oscars may be over, we still have our own prize to give out for “Best Picture”—a seat in the NYBG Adult Education Photography class of the winner’s choice. We will now deliberate over the past six rounds of weekly winners, and announce the Grand Prize Winners next Tuesday. So without further ado, we announce the winners of Best Photo in the Macro Category, and Best Photo in the Sense-of-Place Category. The envelope please…
Tomorrow is the first day of The Orchid Show: Key West Contemporary! This weekend also marks the beginning of March, so while it may still be chilly outside, you can be sure spring is just around the corner. In the meantime, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory has all the warmth and color of the Florida Keys. To kick off this very special Orchid Show, we have a full array of programs scheduled this weekend to help visitors immerse themselves in the world of orchids.
The exhibit will host roaming guides, and Ross Hall will feature special live music by Jimmy Kenny & The Pirate Beach Band to complete the festive Florida experience. For those who want to keep these unique and enigmatic blooms at home, our Orchid Care Demonstrations will cover all the basics for you to cultivate with confidence. Gardening and orchid experts will also lead Orchid Q&A sessions at Shop in the Garden, helping guests choose the right orchid varieties for their home growing conditions. You can even pick up an orchid from the wide variety we have on sale at the shop. Click through for this weekend’s full program schedule, including new children’s activities!
This weekend we bid farewell to the Tropical Paradise exhibition, so this weekend is the last chance to enjoy all the tours, demonstrations, and samples surrounding this trip to the tropics. After Sunday, it won’t be long before the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory’s next stop in the Florida Keys for The Orchid Show: Key West Contemporary, opening Saturday, March 1.
In the meantime, make sure to bring your appetite when you join us at the Garden this weekend. In addition to the usual samples of coconut, vanilla, and banana available to smell and taste during Tropical Paradise, Saturday and Sunday mark the final days of this winter’s Culinary Kids Food Festival in the Dining Pavilion! From the Cheesemonger’s Shop to Spice Adventures, expect a world tour of science and nutrition with plenty of hands-on fun.
It is hard to believe a month has already passed, but tomorrow is the second lecture in our 14th Annual Winter Lecture Series. The Garden is lucky to welcome Kim Wilkie, a London-based landscape architect and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, to the Ross Lecture Hall on Thursday. His lecture, entitled Sculpting the Land, will offer a photographic tour of his forward-thinking and utterly unique designs, incorporating his signature landforms and architectural innovations.
In his own words, Kim Wilkie is a landscape architect who loves mud. The technique of making sculpted hardscapes out of clay and chalk have an ancient history in the United Kingdom, and Wilkie adapts these traditions to breathe new life into antique gardens.
Happy Independence Day! The Fourth of July is tomorrow, and another well-deserved long weekend is just around the corner. If you’re looking for something to do in between barbecue and fireworks, the Garden will be open to visitors this Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.. The Garden invites you to celebrate America’s history with the little ones at SousaKazooza! This musical trip through the world of John Philip Sousa will have kids making their own music to celebrate, and it only takes place over holiday weekends.
This weekend we bid farewell to the 