Garden News: It’s a Small World

Posted in Around the Garden on March 20 2013, by Matt Newman

Just go ahead and ignore your outdoor thermometer on your way out the door; it’s for the best. Because while today may not feel like the first day of spring, I can promise you–with the backing of several astronomers and meteorologists, if necessary–that we’re no longer wading our way through the worst of winter! At least not officially. The Spring Equinox is in swing, and the Orchid Show is hard at work trumpeting all things fresh and colorful. Week after week, waves of wild blossoms make their way into the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, packing each nook, cranny, branch, and epiphyte-friendly surface with neon perfection. It’s the spring phenomenon, and it’s more than just a greenhouse full of plants.

Kevin Character recently took the show to the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, where our staff now tends to the comings and goings of Little Landscapes, an Orchid Show sibling geared toward the little ones in your life. Terrariums are the new kids on the block when it comes to green thumb trends, but their history extends far, far beyond the delicate glass globes and mossy miniature landscapes seen on Pinterest. There was a practical purpose to the first Victorian terrariums of England–well behind the beautiful display and self-contained ecosystem that each terrarium provided.

Want to know more about this open house of tiny greens? Check out our interview and demonstration!

Little Landscapes, like the Orchid Show, runs from now through April 22 at the NYBG, with wide-open weekend and weekday hours to make the most of your visit. Truth be told, you might even catch us over there ourselves, bumbling together our own tiny world in a jar–because who can resist a terrarium nowadays? I’m sure we’ll have more from Kevin and the horticultural team as spring’s upstarts wake for the season, so stay tuned to Plant Talk!