Inside The New York Botanical Garden
weekend
Posted in Programs and Events on February 14 2014, by Lansing Moore
In addition to the lively tours and guided walks taking place throughout the grounds, this weekend the Garden welcomes couples, friends, and singles alike for a romantic roster of Valentine’s Day events. After all, what says “be my Valentine” better than an effusion of flowers, and what are we if not the largest bouquet in the five boroughs?
This afternoon we’re featuring a special Valentine’s Day Tea Talk, where our own site history expert, Wayne Cahilly, will lead a lecture on the history of Valentine’s Day. Guests will enjoy tea, finger sandwiches, and sweets in our Garden Terrace Room while discovering the holiday’s fascinating origins.
This evening, February 14, is also the first Valentine’s Day Date at Tropical Paradise, with tickets rapidly disappearing. But even if you can’t get your registration in for tonight, there’s an additional Valentine’s Date taking place this Saturday night, February 15. You can find more information on these exclusive annual events, secure tickets, and more on our Tropical Paradise programming page!
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Posted in Programs and Events on February 7 2014, by Lansing Moore
After this icy week, we’ve all earned some down time. Luckily the Garden has many opportunities to explore this weekend, both indoors and outdoors.
You can admire trees a hundred years old or a hundred feet high with Sunday’s Winter Plant & Tree Tour, or the many bird species roosting within them along a Saturday Bird Walk. Another tour will guide curious visitors through the historic heart of the Garden, our Beaux Arts Library Building. Completed in 1901, the LuEsther T. Mertz Library contains a rare collection of books and artifacts, and has been declared a New York City landmark along with the adjacent Tulip Tree Allée.
Away from the snow, Tropical Paradise continues to fill the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory with brilliant colors. Beyond what there is to see, this weekend’s tour groups will smell and feel samples of historically and culturally significant plants. This Saturday also marks the fourth week of our photography contest, so consider snapping a few shots during your visit. Each contestant will have a chance to win a certificate for one Adult Education photography course of your own choosing. There are two categories, Macro and Sense-of-Place. To better understand the nature of each category, feel free to admire our past entries. You will find more information in our photo contest rules.
Tropical vines, passion flowers, and all the warmth you have been missing during this unpredictable winter—everything is waiting for you at the Garden!
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Posted in Programs and Events on January 31 2014, by Matt Newman
Cue week three of our Tropical Paradise exhibition, and the third round in our ongoing, six-week photography contest! Already we’ve seen dozens of entries from local and visiting photographers hoping to take home the brass ring—a certificate good for one Adult Education photography course of the winner’s choosing. And because we have two categories in which to enter, Macro and Sense-of-Place, that’s two opportunities to win a certificate. Easy! Just check out our photo contest rules page to get a handle on submission guidelines and schedules.
We’ll have the winners of the second round up on Plant Talk as of Monday or Tuesday, but in the meantime you can check out the competition via the announced champions of the first week.
There are still four whole weeks of competition left as of this Saturday, February 1, but if you’re not much of a camera fiend there’s still plenty of interest to be found in our daily events and activities in the Conservatory. You’ll find our permanent collection of tropical rarities and stunning blooms augmented by Tropical Interactive Encounters, hands-on demos that open up the rejuvenating properties of plants like nutmeg and annatto with samples to boot. And for kids, Tropical Wintertime Wonders in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden offer a chance to chase away the winter gloom in the cozy Discovery Center. There they’ll pot up their own specimen plants to take home and use a field notebook to discover the beginnings of new plantlife waiting for spring’s arrival.
If the weather’s got you down, don’t suffer it! Just hop up to our Conservatory and make the instant transition to the tropics, only a step inside our classic glasshouse.
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Posted in Around the Garden on January 24 2014, by Matt Newman
It’s frosty outside, I’ll give you that, but the quintessential winter beauty covering much of the Garden right now makes the few extra layers of clothing so worth it. Pristine fields of snow are everywhere, dotted with the patterns of tiny squirrel and bird feet. The spots of color—berries, conifer needles, the remains of the leaves—are that much more high-contrast with so much white surrounding them. But you don’t have to track down color in the winter landscape if you’d rather have a warmer go of things. That’s what Tropical Paradise is for!
Our spotlight on the permanent collections of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is crowned by one of my absolute favorite events of the year: the Tropical Paradise photography contest. It’s a chance for our visiting shutterbugs, expert and novice alike, to snap a few shots of beautiful plants and locations in our glasshouse. More importantly, there are prizes up for grabs. And all you need is a camera—DSLR, iPhone, whatever you’re comfortable with—and a Flickr account (they’re easy to make). You’ll find the full rules, schedule, and submission guidelines here. But don’t wait too long—while there are still five weeks to go in the contest, participation will start to pick up, and each of those weeks is a new chance toward winning!
Even if you’re not much for photography, there’s plenty to see and do around the Garden this weekend, both indoors and out. Just a reminder that this is the last weekend of All Aboard with Thomas & Friends, so register soon—those tickets won’t last long. In the meantime, check out our full schedule below!
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Posted in Holiday Train Show on January 10 2014, by Ann Rafalko
Like all good things, even the Holiday Train Show must come to an end, and this Sunday is your last chance to see this wonderful family exhibition until November comes around again. But that doesn’t mean the train fun is done! All Aboard with Thomas & Friends continues its run in the Ross Hall for several more weeks.
In addition, we have a few tours planned—including the always popular Saturday Bird Walk—to help you stretch your legs after hibernating during this week’s cold snap. And if your little ones have a serious case of cabin fever, bring them along for the last weekend of holiday family fun in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden!
So what’s next on our agenda? Starting January 18, take a trip to the tropics without leaving New York! That’s right, Tropical Paradise returns, along with the very popular Tropical Paradise Photography Contest. So grab your dusty old SLR and brush up on your techniques while you take in the last weekend of everyone’s favorite holiday event!
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Posted in Around the Garden on January 3 2014, by Matt Newman
Chances are good that you’re already on the road to recovery from the past two weeks of festivities—the feasts, the parties, the revolving door of sweater-clad family members—and coming back around to business as usual. But the holidays haven’t left the Garden just yet, and our conifers certainly aren’t ready to give up their decorations! Throughout January, we’re keeping the holiday cheer afloat with our continuing Holiday Train Show, friendly visits from our pal Thomas the Tank Engine, and all the winter majesty our 250 acres can summon. This is easily one of the most beautiful times to be outside in New York, so don’t let the couch take up all of your time!
This weekend’s highlights, aside from our ongoing seasonal festivities, are definitely of the wilderness variety. Not only will we be having the usual Saturday Bird Walk at 11 a.m. (it’s an amazing time of year to see the birds, what with most of the foliage fallen from the trees), but we’ll also be hosting a Winter Plant & Tree Tour on Sunday, exploring the bright berries and detailed textures of winter in the Garden. And if you’re looking to warm up, don’t miss our tour of the iconic architectural landmarks that make up the NYBG.
The full schedule is below, but even if you don’t follow it, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the NYBG on your own. Anyone who’s spent time walking the quiet trails of our Forest can tell you that!
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Posted in Around the Garden on November 27 2013, by Matt Newman
While we won’t be open on Thanksgiving Day, a fact the Garden’s turkeys are all too fond of, there’s still the entire holiday weekend to go! We’ll be taking advantage of it with the ongoing Holiday Train Show, several tours of specific collections and seasonally fascinating autumn plants, and some fun for the kids in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden.
It’s also a perfect opportunity to get a head start on working off those Thanksgiving and Hanukkah carbs before any incoming December feasts you have planned. Of course, there’s no better place to do this than our Forest trails. While most of the leaves have already fallen, there’s a certain elegance to the netting of branches that overlays the trails in our 50-acre old growth woodland, and I doubt you’ll find many places in this bustling city quite so insulated from the urban world outside.
Check out our relaxed schedule below for detailed information on the tours we’ll be having throughout the weekend, and if you’re leaving town for the holidays, here’s to safe and stress-free travels!
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Posted in Programs and Events on September 27 2013, by Matt Newman
We’re closing out September with a stuffed weekend of on-the-move activities that’ll handily fill your outdoor quota for the week! And because we’re straddling that neutral stretch between the balmy end of summer and the chill of autumn, it’s the perfect time to strike out on a walking tour in one of our inspired collections, brush up on your techniques in the Native Plant Garden, or conquer your phobias with a hands-on introduction to Halloween’s creepiest critters.
But we’ll start you off easy: meet Debbie Becker here at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and bring your binoculars. She’ll be setting out with her weekly group of scrappy birders in search of the avian species that call the NYBG home, as well as those that are just passing through. It’s migratory season for many birds, including some species of warblers, so expect to see some color.
Over in the Clay Family Picnic Pavilions, our friends from local outreach programs will be taking over with the help of spiders, snakes, and at least a few crawly creatures with more legs than could ever seem necessary. But while they may be frightful Halloween symbols to some, most of these insects, reptiles, and amphibians are helpful, industrious, and misunderstood. This is a chance to not only come in contact with these animals from around the globe, but get to know them for the benefits they afford the environment. And that’s only one small part of the ongoing Haunted Pumpkin Garden activities taking place from now through October 31!
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Posted in Programs and Events on September 13 2013, by Matt Newman
The Garden goes to the birds this weekend with outdoor activities geared toward the wildlife lover in all of us (you’ll get a pass if you have an ongoing feud with pigeons—that’s almost rote for any New Yorker). And because it just so happens to be migratory season for a number of bird species, the timing couldn’t be better. So bring your binoculars, your kids, and an open mind toward gardening for critters, because we’ll be making room for all three over the next couple of days.
For birders new or established, Debbie Becker is back after a brief summer hiatus with Bird Walks each Saturday at 11 a.m. Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for the colorful puffballs known as warblers that should be making pit stops in the Garden during their fall migration. In the Native Plant Garden, we’ll have experts on hand teaching home gardeners the ins and outs of attracting wildlife—such as beneficial insects—to backyard beds. And in among the vegetables of the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, kids are welcome to dig to their hearts’ content during activities that highlight the hands-on aspects of keeping a garden. Our Pollinator Pals program also highlights the importance of the bees and butterflies that pollinate our crops.
Also on offer are Native Plant Garden and Rose Garden Tours, cooking demonstrations highlighting fresh seasonal ingredients, and more. And don’t forget that there’s only one week left to get tickets for next weekend’s Family Garden with Mario Batali’s Chefs! Check the full listing below, and we’ll see you out there.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Programs and Events on September 6 2013, by Matt Newman
And with that, we say goodbye. This weekend, The New York Botanical Garden is buttoning up summer’s Wild Medicine exhibition to make room for the arrival of new fall programming (announcements on that to come!) But, as I mentioned yesterday, we’re not about to close out the last few months without a little fanfare.
Taking the stage Saturday at 1 p.m., Wild Medicine curator Dr. Michael Balick presents “Ancient Wisdom and Modern Medicine,” an enlightening presentation on ethnobotany and the global medicinal plant landscape as informed by his many years of plant exploration worldwide. Tickets are limited for this Ross Hall event, so it’s best to make a point of registering yours online before you arrive.
Another special event taking place on Saturday the 7th is our once-only bibliophile treasure hunt! Don’t worry, that’s my own personal title for it. After 12 years away from fiction, Liz Gilbert—author of Eat, Pray, Love—is back with The Signature of All Things, a sweeping tale of botany, exploration, and love in the 19th century. So it’s only fitting that we’d hold this contest at one of the world’s finest botanical institutions. When you’re walking the grounds this Saturday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., keep an eye out for one of 10 special vouchers hidden throughout. If you happen to see the cover of Liz’ new book on the laminated sheet, snap it up and bring it to our Shop in the Garden for a free advance copy of the novel and a $25 discount on an NYBG Adult Education course of your choice!
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