This Weekend: Earth Day in Bloom!
Posted in Around the Garden on April 19 2013, by Ann Rafalko
It’s closing weekend of The Orchid Show and blooms and blossoms abound; inside, outside, simply everywhere! Can you think of a better way to celebrate Earth Day? We can: let’s make it a three-day weekend and open our 250 acres to you on Monday!
While at NYBG every day is Earth Day, Monday, April 22 is the official day to celebrate, and we’re doing it in literal fashion with a focus on the soil that nourishes us all. In the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden kids of all ages can learn about the earthworms that are so vital to healthy, living soil. Speak with a worm expert, meet the earthworms, and take some of the nutrient-rich earth that they have produced to nourish your plants at home. Explore the newly planted Mario Batali Kitchen Gardens and enjoy special activities. If you can’t make it to NYBG, dine at any of Mario Batali’s restaurants or shop at Eataly and receive a special seed packet with which to grow your own Genovese basil at home.
In the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden and in the Home Gardening Center composting advice and demonstrations abound. Stick around in the Adventure Garden to make a terrarium—based on rich soil and a self-contained microenvironment—to take home.
Even though the last two Orchid Evenings of the year are completely sold out, this weekend will still be a great opportunity to visit The Orchid Show before it closes on Monday. The orchids are still looking and smelling beautiful, clinging to trees felled during Superstorm Sandy that were given a new life in the glittering Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. If you feel inspired to buy an orchid to add cheer to your home, experts at Shop in the Garden will be on hand to help you pick out the perfect specimen to suit your unique home environment. In the Conservatory GreenSchool, Sonia Uyterhoeven, NYBG’s Gardener for Public Education, offers two daily tutorials on the basics of home orchid care.
Around the grounds, our blossoming trees are putting on an incredible show! Magnolias, cherry blossoms, flowering shrubs, and so many more are in full, glorious, fragrant, colorful bloom! On Earth Day join a tour of the Garden’s notable trees led by an expert tour guide who will give you incredible insight into these long-lived and glorious plants. The Forest Tour will provide additional insight into the trees that make up New York City’s largest remaining tract of the native forest that once carpeted the five boroughs. The Thain Family Forest is not just a unique and vital ecosystem within one of the United States’ most populous urban areas, it is also a living laboratory for scientists all over the world.
Saturday, April 20
Bird Walk – 11 a.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool at the Leon Levy Visitor Center
The diverse habitats of the Botanical Garden offer visitors a chance to see dozens of species of birds throughout the year. But in spring, it gets really exciting! Join expert birdwatcher Debbie Becker for a chance to see migrating warblers, our resident raptors, and possibly a baby or two. Bring your binoculars for this free walk.
Music from the World of Orchids – 1 & 3 p.m.
In the Ross Hall
Orchids fascinate and touch the lives of people in every country and culture. Enjoy a selection of music from around the world–different artists play popular tunes from a featured continent each weekend—to compliment your visit.
This Weekend: Brazil–The Carlos Almeida Ensemble
Celebrate the joyful spirit of Brazil, with its irresistible rhythms ranging from samba to choro to bossa nova. Brazilian guitarist Carlos Almeida and ensemble present this program of captivating, lively, and beautiful Brazilian music.
Orchid Care Demonstrations: Orchid Bonanza – 2 & 3 p.m.
In the Conservatory GreenSchool
Join us for the final weekend of The Orchid Show. Be guided through the basics of orchid care and some of the best varieties to grow at home.
Orchid Care Q&A – 2 to 5 p.m.
In Shop in the Garden
Gardening and orchid experts share their best secrets and explain the simple steps to healthy plants as they help you choose the right plant for your home.
Sunday, April 21
Music from the World of Orchids – 1 & 3 p.m.
In the Ross Hall
Orchids fascinate and touch the lives of people in every country and culture. Enjoy a selection of music from around the world–different artists play popular tunes from a featured continent each weekend—to compliment your visit.
This Weekend: Brazil–The Carlos Almeida Ensemble
Celebrate the joyful spirit of Brazil, with its irresistible rhythms ranging from samba to choro to bossa nova. Brazilian guitarist Carlos Almeida and ensemble present this program of captivating, lively, and beautiful Brazilian music.
Orchid Care Demonstrations: Orchid Bonanza – 2 & 3 p.m.
In the Conservatory GreenSchool
Join us for the final weekend of The Orchid Show. Be guided through the basics of orchid care and some of the best varieties to grow at home.
Orchid Care Q&A – 2 to 5 p.m.
In Shop in the Garden
Gardening and orchid experts share their best secrets and explain the simple steps to healthy plants as they help you choose the right plant for your home.
Monday, April 22 – Earth Day
Little Landscapes – 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m
Everett Children’s Adventure Garden
Look closely at a wide array of artistic and scientific terrariums, and create your own rocky, mossy, or floral world in a jar to take home. Discover the biodiversity of the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden and its pond and wetland through water sample investigations, microscopes, and interactions with Explainers.
Learn How to Compost your Kitchen Food Scraps with Worms–Drop-in Family Workshop – 12-2 p.m.
Everett Children’s Adventure Garden
See how easy it is to recycle your food scraps by composting them in a home worm bin! See what a working worm bin looks like, learn the basics for sustaining this Earth-friendly ecosystem, and get the practical tips, advice, and encouragement you need to begin composting at home.
Notable Trees Tour – 12:30 p.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool in the Visitor Center
What makes a tree notable? It could be its size, its bark, its uses, or a variety of other features. Some of our trees have been here since before the Garden was formally established in 1891. Join one of the Garden’s guides for a tour highlighting some of the most interesting trees across this historic 250-acre site.
MasterCard® Budding Masters Little Landscapes Workshop – 1–2 p.m. or 2:30–3:30 p.m.
Children will get an introduction to building terrariums with the help of experts from Brooklyn’s Twig Terrariums. With the choice of an adventure- or fantasy-themed figurine, these customized terrariums will be exciting to create and bring home. Get tickets at Priceless.com/NY.
A MasterCard Priceless New York Event
Earthworms on Earth Day – 1:30–5:30 p.m.
Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden
Learn all about our slimy friends and how they are hard at work in the garden. Sift nutritious worm compost to take home for your houseplants.
Compost Q&A with NYC Compost Project in the Bronx – 2–4 p.m.
Home Gardening Center
Stop by for free tip sheets, pamphlets, and workshop schedules designed to help gardeners increase their horticultural, composting, and recycling knowledge. Master Composters with the NYC Compost Project in the Bronx will provide you with the practical tips, advice, and encouragement you need to take composting to the next level, whether you are just starting out or have been digging in for years.
Orchid Care Demonstrations: Orchid Bonanza – 2 & 3 p.m.
In the Conservatory GreenSchool
Join us for the final weekend of The Orchid Show. Be guided through the basics of orchid care and some of the best varieties to grow at home.
Forest Tour – 2:30 p.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool in the Visitor Center
Experience the beauty of the Garden’s 50-acre Thain Family Forest on this walking tour with an expertly trained guide. You’ll learn facts about the trees, history, geology, and ecology of this original, uncut woodland.
Ongoing Children’s Programs
Little Landscapes
In the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden through April 22
Weekdays, 1:30 – 5:30 p.m. / Weekends, 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
The plant world comes alive in a big way at the Discovery Center this spring. Kids step inside the world of plants and create their own terrarium to bring home. They’ll be inspired to create a rocky and mossy world in a jar by looking closely at a wide array of artistic and scientific terrariums, and while they’re at it, they can use a microscope to take a closer look at some classic terrarium characters like moss, lichens, and rocks. The Discovery Center will feature an exhibition of detailed and whimsical terrariums made by Brooklyn-based artists from Twig Terrariums.
Wake Up, Garden!
In the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden
April 6 to 19, 1:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Rise and shine Family Garden! Help get the garden off to a good start by sowing seeds, planting seedlings, spreading compost, and digging. Observe the rapid changes and new growth on the trees, shrubs, and bulbs in our meadow, and explore germination of seeds up close with microscopes and magnifiers. Plants and imaginations grow at the Howell Family Garden, where kids are allowed–no, encouraged!–to play in the dirt. Display gardens such as the Global Gardens and the Breakfast Bowl, and daily activities delight and inspire.
