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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Winter

Morning Eye Candy: Slipping Sky

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 1 2014, by Matt Newman

The longer I focus on the middle distance in this image, the more it seems there’s no break between the sky and the earth. Some of the snow’s melted since it was taken last week, but I also think this image tells us the daffodils will be sleeping it off just a liiiittle bit longer.

Daffodil Hill

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

This Weekend: Glasshouse Glee

Posted in Programs and Events on January 31 2014, by Matt Newman

This WeekendCue 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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This Weekend: Winter Light, Tropical Color

Posted in Around the Garden on January 24 2014, by Matt Newman

The NYBG WeekendIt’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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The Glimmer After Janus

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on January 23 2014, by Matt Newman

The Garden after JanusOkay, so practically speaking, winter storm Janus and its aftermath have been sort of troublesome for most northeasterners. If you own a car, you likely spent Wednesday morning hewing it out from beneath a glacier of stubborn ice. For those of you who didn’t have to worry about that particular hassle, transit delays and luge-like sidewalks more than made up the difference. But, that said, there are some upsides to a blizzard! There’s still the fresh-powdered majesty to enjoy—given the right location. For anyone who has not yet made the short trip to the NYBG since the city returned to business as usual, you’re missing out on quite the sight!

Despite the whirling flakes painting the landscape throughout Monday and into the night, our staff photographer, Ivo Vermeulen, was more than happy to bundle up and brave the storm for some snapshots of the changing Garden. The sheer density of the falling snow created something of a foggy effect, as you’ll see in the gallery below, but the result is fantastical! Check out some of what Ivo captured in the moment.

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