Garden-Inspired Items Getting Attention Near and Far

Posted in NYBG in the News, Shop/Book Reviews on August 26 2008, by Plant Talk

Ellen Bruzelius is Director of Special Projects, Garden Retail and Business Development.

Shop in the Garden has been garnering attention lately in the blogosphere with a variety of garden-inspired goods that have struck the fancy of bloggers around the world. From a Chicago-based shopping blog that featured our green bicycle basket (also mentioned on Glamnest.com) all the way across the pond to Berlin where a New England-born journalist noted our Summer Pleasures melamine plates on her blog, Tidepooler.com, nybgshop.org has been piquing interest near and far.

Back on our own shores, in New York the Today show and Cookie magazine picked up on new NYBG products developed with licensing partner Lunt Silversmiths. Using glorious images from works in the Rare Book Collections of our LuEsther T. Mertz Library, Lunt has developed a tabletop collection that ranges from elegant silver tea sets inspired by 18th-century designs for Chinoiserie garden follies to garden plant trays and marvelous Mark Catesby-inspired glasses and barware and more.

The Peak of Chic (check out the July 15 and August 6 posts) loved the Lunt Silversmiths products as well as NYBG fine art prints sold through Artaissance.com. These archival quality reproduction prints also stem from historic botanical illustration in the Mertz Library collections. Some are presented in their original form, while others are given a modern sensibility with color and creative cropping.

This Old House featured one of our stainless steel birdfeeders, and Glamnest.com loved our array of colorful imported flower pots.

Not surprisingly, this interest in Shop in the Garden goods reflects the enormous effort put in by Shop staff to develop and find items that are design-driven and not ubiquitous. We’re adding new things all the time, so be sure to visit often.