This Weekend: Celebrate Mom!
Posted in Around the Garden on May 10 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Mother’s Day is Sunday. Do not forget! Still searching for plans? We can help with our weekend-long Mother’s Day Garden Party in our brand new Native Plant Garden and surrounding gardens!
The Native Plant Garden–which opened last weekend–is a spectacular, 3.5 acre showcase of the beautiful and diverse native plants of northeastern North America, and it is the perfect place to celebrate your mom with fun and games, music and dancing, picnicking, photographers, expert tours, workshops, family activities, and more.
The family fun includes bird and butterfly walks, watercolor painting, a professional photographer’s booth where you can get a beautiful family portrait, lawn games and picnicking on Daffodil Hill (complete with food carts and free samples), music perfect for dancing from the Banjo Rascals, and on Sunday, a family concert presentation of Jack and the Beanstalk by the Bronx Arts Ensemble.
After enjoying the festivities, take mom for a stroll around our 250-acres where you will be dazzled by all the beautiful blooms. The Azalea Garden is as close to peak bloom as you can get, like stepping into a pink and red kaleidoscope! The tree peony and lilac collections–both located near the newly reopened Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden–continue to perfume the air with amazing aroma, and in the Home Gardening Center you can tiptoe among the tulips until your heart’s content. The Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden is verdant and green with vegetables and flowers popping up all over. Feel free to lend a hand, dig around, plant a little, and play in the dirt here. Everyone’s encouraged to give gardening a try in this one-acre veggie wonderland!
Saturday, May 11
Tour the Native Plant Garden – regularly, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Meet at the entrance to the Native Plant Garden
Guides along the paths provide an insider’s view of the newly designed Native Plant Garden. Curators will also be on hand to answer any native plant-related questions.
Birds & Butterflies Walk – 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool at the Leon Levy Visitor Center
The diverse habitats of the Botanical Garden and the Native Plant Garden offer visitors a chance to see dozens of species of birds, insects, and other fauna throughout the year. Bring your binoculars!
Home Gardening Demonstrations: Going Native – 12 and 2 p.m.
In the Native Plant Garden Gazebo
Step outside and discover a plant paradise by joining us for the opening of the Native Plant Garden. Explore the contours of the new landscape and learn what plants will thrive in a woodland, wetland, and prairie garden.
Watercolor Painting Along the Paths – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Near the Native Plant Garden
Pick up a palette and let the Garden be your muse. Borrow materials and set yourself up in a number of inspiring overlooks near the Native Plant Garden.
Professional Photographer’s Booth – 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
In the Native Plant Garden
A professional photographer will be on hand to snap pictures of your family taken with the brilliant Native Plant Garden as your backdrop.
Lawn Games – 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
On Daffodil Hill
Sign up for a round of croquet and see how you do at this traditional garden contest! Have a go at badminton, or if the wind is right, come fly a kite!
Music & Dance
At the Clay Family Picnic Pavilions
The band’s all here to make a festive party for all our revelers! Dance along to the music from the returning Banjo Rascals!
Picnicking on Daffodil Hill
On Daffodil Hill
Food and refreshments will be for sale from various NYC food trucks from the New York Food Truck Association, including:
Savory
Eddie’s Pizza
Gorilla Cheese
Kimchi Taco
Morris Grilled Cheese
Taco Bite
Sweet
Andy’s Italian Ices
Food Sampling
On Daffodil Hill
Enjoy food samplings all weekend from some of our great partners. Partners include:
Ola! Granola
Regal Vegan
Happy Family Brands
Brownie Crunch
Peeled Snacks
Children’s Outdoor Nature Explorations: Birds & Nests
On Daffodil Hill
Appreciate all of the moms in nature caring for their young! Weave a bird’s nest and craft a bird out of clay to take home. Then head to the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden to pick up a scavenger hunt and learn more about the birds found at the Garden. Record those that you see on our Citizen Science chart.
Make a Card for Mom!
Along the Wetland Trail
Decorate a special card for mom on her special day! Add the photo snapped in the Native Plant Garden for a great memory of the day.
A Season in Poetry
In the Native Plant Garden Pavilion – 4 p.m.
Celebrate the season with renowned poets, Alex Dimitrov, Harmony Holiday, and Patrick Rosal, reading classic favorites as well as their own work. Co-presented with The Poetry Society of America
Sunday, May 12
Tour the Native Plant Garden – regularly, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Meet at the entrance to the Native Plant Garden
Guides along the paths provide an insider’s view of the newly designed Native Plant Garden. Curators will also be on hand to answer any native plant-related questions.
Birds & Butterflies Walk – 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Meet at the Reflecting Pool at the Leon Levy Visitor Center
The diverse habitats of the Botanical Garden and the Native Plant Garden offer visitors a chance to see dozens of species of birds, insects, and other fauna throughout the year. Bring your binoculars!
Home Gardening Demonstrations: Going Native – 12 and 2 p.m.
In the Native Plant Garden Gazebo
Step outside and discover a plant paradise by joining us for the opening of the Native Plant Garden. Explore the contours of the new landscape and learn what plants will thrive in a woodland, wetland, and prairie garden.
Watercolor Painting Along the Paths – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Near the Native Plant Garden
Pick up a palette and let the Garden be your muse. Borrow materials and set yourself up in a number of inspiring overlooks near the Native Plant Garden.
Professional Photographer’s Booth – 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
In the Native Plant Garden
A professional photographer will be on hand to snap pictures of your family taken with the brilliant Native Plant Garden as your backdrop.
Lawn Games – 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
On Daffodil Hill
Sign up for a round of croquet and see how you do at this traditional garden contest! Have a go at badminton, or if the wind is right, come fly a kite!
Music & Dance
At the Clay Family Picnic Pavilions
The band’s all here to make a festive party for all our revelers! Dance along to the music from the returning Banjo Rascals!
Picnicking on Daffodil Hill
On Daffodil Hill
Food and refreshments will be for sale from various NYC food trucks from the New York Food Truck Association, including:
Savory
Eddie’s Pizza
Gorilla Cheese
Kimchi Taco
Morris Grilled Cheese
Red Hook Lobster
Taco Bite
Sweet
Andy’s Italian Ices
Coolhaus
Food Sampling
On Daffodil Hill
Enjoy food samplings all weekend from some of our great partners. Partners include:
Friendship Diaries is a Featured Sampler on May 12:
Friendship’s Fit to Go® Mobile Mixer will offer Garden visitors free Friendship Fit to Go® Low Fat Pineapple cottage cheese samples, with special mix-ins, including “Instant Wasabi” and “Granola Glee.” Wholesome, creative and delicious, Friendship’s cottage cheese showcases the scrumptious versatility of this culinary delight.
Ola! Granola
Regal Vegan
Happy Family Brands
Brownie Crunch
Peeled Snacks
Children’s Outoor Nature Explorations: Birds & Nests
On Daffodil Hill
Appreciate all of the moms in nature caring for their young! Weave a bird’s nest and craft a bird out of clay to take home. Then head to the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden to pick up a scavenger hunt and learn more about the birds found at the Garden. Record those that you see on our Citizen Science chart.
Make a Card for Mom!
Along the Wetland Trail
Decorate a special card for mom on her special day! Add the photo snapped in the Native Plant Garden for a great memory of the day.
Bronx Arts Ensemble Family Concert: Jack and the Beanstalk
In the Ross Hall, Sunday, May 12, 1 and 3 p.m.
This new production by Dante Albertie and the Children’s Theatre Company at Lehman, with musical arrangement for oboe, clarinet and bassoon by William Scribner is a new twist on an old tale about a boy and his magic beans. Audiences will be introduced to each musical instrument by the Bronx Arts Ensemble players and be invited to join in the adventure! Admission included with an All-Garden Pass.
Ongoing Children’s Programs
Hands-On Gardening Activities for Families: Salad Days
In the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden
Through June 7, 2013; 1:30 – 5:30 p.m. daily
The ”salad days” of the Garden year are here! The finale of spring is a bonanza of ripe roots, succulent stems, glorious greens, and a kaleidoscope of colorful–and edible–flowers. Use real plants and flowers to decorate a salad bowl collage. Learn tips on how to combine this array of plant parts into an assortment of salads and prepare a healthy dressing to take home. 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.
Mario Batali’s Kitchen Gardens
In the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden
Through October 11, 2013; 1:30 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Kids can explore with Mario’s Menu Mystery game, featuring favorite vegetables and herbs from nine of his restaurants’ kitchens, including Otto and Del Posto.
Outdoor Nature Exploration: Spring Fun
In the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden
Through May 17; 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
With the Adventure Garden in spring color, pot up a seed to take home, go on a plant-part scavenger hunt, and have fun spotting frogs and turtles. Explore nature and plant science, themed galleries, and hands-on activities in the William and Lynda Steere Discovery Center as well as through outdoor exploration of the 12-acre Adventure Garden.
