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Beat the Heat with Whole Foods Market

Posted in Programs and Events on July 16 2013, by Matt Newman

CherriesFor the next few months, it can’t be helped: you’ll see more New Yorkers fanning themselves with their newspapers than reading them. We’re all looking for a little relief from the summer heat, and for some it’s lemonade (or an Arnold Palmer if you’re next-level about your refreshments). For us, it’s a heaped bowl of cherries—chilled to frosty perfection! But there are so many ways to enjoy these summer treats that even we don’t know each and every one. That said, telling us about your recipe might just win you something!

The New York Botanical Garden is teaming up with Whole Foods Market this summer, and we’re on a quest to beat the heat. Naturally, that means uncovering novel ways to prepare some of our favorite hot-weather fruits and vegetables, whether they’re topping ice cream, filling out a fruit salad, or sitting pretty at the bottom of a juice glass. Whatever you can come up with—sudden epiphany, family recipe, a neat idea, anything—we want to try it out! Of course, we wouldn’t think to take this on without putting a reward up for grabs. After you’ve submitted your recipes, Whole Foods Market Culinary Demonstration Specialists will pick a winning dish to receive a $50 Whole Foods Gift card. Better yet, that recipe will be prepared in your local Whole Foods Market store and made available for visitors to sample.

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Win a Whole Foods Gift Card at The Peak Pick with Whole Foods Market!

Posted in Programs and Events on June 25 2013, by Matt Newman

Summer squashFood fans! (That’s all of you, I imagine.) On site this Wednesday, the Garden offers even more than just-picked fruits and vegetables thanks to our friends at Whole Foods Market. If a $50 gift card in your pocket and a little summer grilling know-how sound like your cup of tea, we’ve got you covered and then some!

From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, Whole Foods Market Culinary Demonstration Specialists will set up at the Reflecting Pool for tastings and cooking demos featuring the season’s freshest picks at The Peak Pick. This week’s spotlight lands on summer squash, which we expect to see stacked high during the Greenmarket, now here each Wednesday. Better yet, our visiting specialists will be making light, irresistible grilled squash and brie sandwiches with them, tailor-made for backyard cook outs and Sunday brunch.

As the icing on the cake (or the sprouts on the sandwich), there’s a $50 Whole Foods gift card up for grabs if you’re a Twitter user! Just snap a picture of the cooking demonstration in action while you’re visiting, tweet it @nybg with the hashtag #nybgwfm, and you’ll be entered to win! As soon as our one lucky winner is selected, we’ll be in touch via Twitter to get you your prize.

While you’re here, be sure to stop by the Greenmarket to pick up your week’s supply of fresh, delicious, and varied local products—not to mention baked goods. For a little more on what the Greenmarket‘s about (and what you’re missing if you skip it), watch the video below.

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On The Naming of Plants

Posted in Behind the Scenes on July 6 2011, by Ann Rafalko

Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.
This peony is named 'Kevin'. Not that far off from a moss named 'Mark'.
This peony is named 'Kevin'. Not that far off from a moss named 'Mark'.

I have been editing a lot of articles for nybg.org recently that involve long lists of the names of the many hybrids and cultivars we keep on Garden grounds. Anyone who has ever edited a long list in HTML can tell you that it is one of those tasks where it really is okay to let the mind wander a little. It has given me a lot of time to daydream about what kind of plant I would like to have named after me, if, you know, someday I just happen to meet the right hybridizer …. And I know I’m not alone in thinking about this, because when I posed the question yesterday on Twitter, “What would you most like to have named after you? A rose? A daylily? A hosta? Tell us!” the responses came fast and furious.

NYC_Living would “love to have a Tree named after me…a very large strong tall with deep green leaves and a long life!

jmarkowski0 wants “an ornamental grass that thrives in clay and laughs at the nearby deer” named after him. (If you can breed that, we’ll help you lobby for the name!)

thinkingstomach would do with “a fruit tree, some kind of crazy-good nectarine.”

electrobloom wants “a moss! mark the moss has got a nice ring to it!” (It does, actually.)

graceyhearts is a girl who knows what she wants, and it’s “a white lily, like this one.”

garrickdetroit stays true to his urbanist roots and hopes that “any of the cityfied volunteer trees that sprout on (or in) poorly maintained buildings!” could be named for him.

ashleywillhite is hoping for the ‘Ashley Willhite’ hyacinth so that she can be planted in “a garden full of tulips of every color imaginable!” (Sounds divine!)

michele_owens goes subterranean with her wish to give her name to a “New parsnip variety, for sure.

BloominChick shows her wild side in dreaming of “Something hardy, strong & beautiful. A tiger/wild Lily? (Those striking orange ones).”

There were also votes for a hosta, an orchid, a waterlily, and a butterfly (not technically a plant, but since so many plants can’t live without flowers, we’ll allow it).

And finally agardendiary, RedneckRosarian, AvasFlowers, ambianceflorals, and quite honestly, your blog editor, would all like to have a rose named after us. Rosa rafalko has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

So now it’s your turn, blog friends. Tell us: If you could have any new plant cultivar or hybrid named after you, what would it be?

Tweet Tweet: The Orchid Show As Seen by You

Posted in Members, Photography, The Orchid Show on March 17 2011, by Plant Talk

Almost better than seeing a packed house full of smiling faces at The Orchid Show: On Broadway is seeing The Orchid Show through your–the visitors’–eyes. That’s one of the amazing things about Twitter, you can instantly show us what you love about The Orchid Show!

So we thought we would show-off some of the beautiful photos that you have been taking inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Want to be sure we see your shots in the future? It’s simple: Just tag your photo with our Twitter username @nybg. If we get enough shots, we’ll do another twitpic roundup in a week or two.

The Orchid Show by Twitter user MGH500

Photo by MGH500

The Orchid Show shot by the uber-fabulous Jim Shi

Photo by Jim Shi

The Orchid Show as seen by Twitter user Irene Majuk

Photo by Irene Majuk

The Orchid Show by Twitter user Renee DeLano

Photo by Renee DeLano

Join Us on Flickr

Posted in Photography on November 26 2010, by Plant Talk

Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

The holidays are photogenic: all those sparkling lights and (glögg-induced) rosy faces! It’s a time that screams for grampa to pull out his old film camera, for auntie to stick a Flip in your face, and for mom to beg the entire family to pose in those special reindeer sweaters she managed to find in everyone’s size. But not every holiday photo need be awkward.

Japanese Maple - Acer palmatum ssp palmatum

Here at The New York Botanical Garden we’ve got photo ops aplenty, and they’re all beautiful! But there’s no need to take our word for it. Just ask any of the 250 members of The New York Botanical Garden group pool on Flickr. Or, better yet, take a look at some of the beautiful photographs that our visitors have posted on their own! And then, if you like what you see, you can join the group (by signing up for Flickr) and begin uploading your own shots from around the Garden.

Learn more about joining us on Flickr below.