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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Winter

Snow Day at the Garden

Posted in Photography on December 10 2013, by Ann Rafalko

The season’s first substantial snow is always cause for excited exclamations of “oooh” and “aaaah” from staff and visitors alike, because, well, snow plus garden equals unparalleled beauty! So if you’re coming to visit the Holiday Train Show today, you’re in for an extra special treat! But for everyone else—whether trapped in a cubicle or living in warmer climes—we put together this slideshow of the most beautiful scenes seen today.

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Photographs by Ivo M. Vermeulen

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This Friday: Greet the Season on Roosevelt Island!

Posted in Programs and Events on December 4 2013, by Matt Newman

HTS Roosevelt Island Lighthouse
The Holiday Train Show‘s Roosevelt Island Lighthouse

A traditional tree-lighting ceremony is so central to the winter experience in New York City that it’s hard to imagine ringing in the holidays without one. And while our own lighting has already taken place this year, our good friends with the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) are just as keen to celebrate the season of twinkling lights, eye-catching ornaments, and memorable company. This Friday, they’re hosting one of the best kept secrets in the boroughs with their own tree-lighting ceremony—one that boasts a thriving small town spirit you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the city.

If you’ve never paid a visit to this sliver of island east of Manhattan, maybe you’ll recognize its contribution to our Holiday Train Show. The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse was originally built as the Blackwell Island Light in 1872, and since then it’s not only been added to the National Register of Historic Places, but immortalized in natural materials as a seasonal miniature in our Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

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Raise a Glass to the Holidays

Posted in Holiday Train Show on December 2 2013, by Matt Newman

Holiday Train ShowEverything’s that much better under a twinkling glow, and the Holiday Train Show is no exception. On Friday and Saturday nights this week, December 6 and 7, we’re turning down the lights and turning up the festivities with the first of this season’s Bar Car Nights. And if you’ve never been to one, just think of it as a chance to experience our dozens of miniature landmarks and model trains in an entirely new atmosphere—one highlighted by the cocktails and mellow tunes that make for a perfect evening in New York.

We’ll have a professional photographer on hand to capture some memories (because who wants to carry a point-and-shoot when clutch real estate comes so dear?), and new this year, you’re welcome to head outside to the Conservatory Courtyard for a live ice carving demonstration from Okamoto Studios. Their expert artists join us to turn enormous blocks of ice into all manner of holiday art, from trains to Garden landmarks and more.

Across the way in the Holiday Dining Pavilion, Stephen STARR Events will be cooking up a storm from a New York-themed menu celebrating everything delicious about historic NYC street food. Though if you’re looking to make the night last even longer, hold onto your Bar Car Night ticket stub: we’ve got partnerships with a number of gourmet restaurants offering discounts and bonuses for those who join us, all of which you can find listed here.

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Everyday Botany

Posted in Adult Education on September 19 2013, by Matt Newman

NYBG BotanyAt its core, botany revolves around the study of plants and how they function, all in order to appreciate the massive role they play in our lives. Maybe that causes your brain to jump to associations with greenhouses and laboratories. But, just for a second, step away from the thought of picking your way through a hothouse or leaning over a microscope and consider the industries and passions that rely on plant knowledge to exist. Without some understanding of botany under the brewer’s belt, your go-to dive bar would like as not be non-existent. And the organic lotions, infusions, and supplements sold for a premium in body boutiques around the city wouldn’t be an issue, either. Not many people understand this quite so well as our Adult Education staff.

You can even relate this to your favorite stories. A famous if apocryphal anecdote attributed to the writer Vladimir Nabokov tells of a student who declares, in Nabokov’s office, that he wants to be a writer. Nabokov glances up and points out the window. “What kind of tree is that?” he asks. “I don’t know,” says the student. “Then you’ll never be a writer.”

A harsh lesson, maybe, but the fact stands that botany influences our lives more often than we give it credit for, be it tangibly or in the small, creative details that make up the world around us. Thankfully, our instructors aren’t nearly so brutal as Nabokov, and our botany courses offer fun, down-to-earth routes to engage the immense importance of plants.

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