Why Botanical Gardens Matter

Posted in NYBG in the News, People on January 29 2009, by Plant Talk

Last in a 3-Part Series

Todd Forrest is Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections.

A majestic red oak grows alongside a trail in the 50-acre old-growth Forest at the heart of The New York Botanical Garden. In the mid-1980s, scientists determined that this tree was nearly 250 years old. It sprouted from an acorn before the Revolutionary War and grew to maturity as New York blossomed from a colonial outpost into the greatest city in the world.

Every time I pass this oak I am reminded of the passion, vision, and dedication to adding something wonderful to our city and our country that drove our predecessors to create The New York Botanical Garden in 1891. I am reminded that they chose this site in 1895 because of the unparalleled beauty of its natural landscape and then preserved this landscape as the surrounding city grew and grew. I am reminded of the countless people who have come to the Garden to learn about plants: their beauty, their natural history, their planting and care, their genomes. I am reminded of my responsibility to keep the Garden’s plants and landscape healthy, diverse, and beautiful so that others today and in the future will have the opportunity to make the sustaining connection to nature that has been such a gift to me.

Botanical gardens are where art, nature, and science come together. They are where artists and gardeners come for inspiration, where students and teachers come to experience and better understand the beauty and complexity of nature, and where scientists come to work on solving nature’s most vexing mysteries. Botanical gardens matter now more than ever.

Send a letter of support to state government leaders and forward the Save the Planet widget (at right) to your friends so that they, too, can help.

Hear from the Garden’s own Fran Coelho and Jeff Downing as they explain in their own words just why botanical gardens matter.