This weekend we bid farewell to the Tropical Paradise exhibition, so this weekend is the last chance to enjoy all the tours, demonstrations, and samples surrounding this trip to the tropics. After Sunday, it won’t be long before the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory’s next stop in the Florida Keys for The Orchid Show: Key West Contemporary, opening Saturday, March 1.
In the meantime, make sure to bring your appetite when you join us at the Garden this weekend. In addition to the usual samples of coconut, vanilla, and banana available to smell and taste during Tropical Paradise, Saturday and Sunday mark the final days of this winter’s Culinary Kids Food Festival in the Dining Pavilion! From the Cheesemonger’s Shop to Spice Adventures, expect a world tour of science and nutrition with plenty of hands-on fun.
It is hard to believe a month has already passed, but tomorrow is the second lecture in our 14th Annual Winter Lecture Series. The Garden is lucky to welcome Kim Wilkie, a London-based landscape architect and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, to the Ross Lecture Hall on Thursday. His lecture, entitled Sculpting the Land, will offer a photographic tour of his forward-thinking and utterly unique designs, incorporating his signature landforms and architectural innovations.
In his own words, Kim Wilkie is a landscape architect who loves mud. The technique of making sculpted hardscapes out of clay and chalk have an ancient history in the United Kingdom, and Wilkie adapts these traditions to breathe new life into antique gardens.
It is time once again to announce another round of winners in our Tropical Paradise Photo Contest. We certainly hope you all enjoyed the long Presidents’ Day weekend in spite of the soggy weather. Appropriately enough, some of our best photographic entries this week captured the beauty of water. Of course, there is a world of difference between the warm mists of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, and the ice covering the grounds.
If you’re looking to try your hand at photographing our permanent Conservatory collections, we’re now into week five of a total six judging windows to submit your work, so don’t wait long! Simply upload your photos of the Tropical Paradiseexhibition currently in the Conservatory to our Flickr group (don’t forget the #tropicalparadise hashtag) before 6 p.m. on Friday, February 21, to be entered into this week’s judging. Until then, please enjoy the three winning photos in the Macro and Sense-of-Place categories, and stay dry out there!
In addition to the lively tours and guided walks taking place throughout the grounds, this weekend the Garden welcomes couples, friends, and singles alike for a romantic roster of Valentine’s Day events. After all, what says “be my Valentine” better than an effusion of flowers, and what are we if not the largest bouquet in the five boroughs?
This afternoon we’re featuring a special Valentine’s Day Tea Talk, where our own site history expert, Wayne Cahilly, will lead a lecture on the history of Valentine’s Day. Guests will enjoy tea, finger sandwiches, and sweets in our Garden Terrace Room while discovering the holiday’s fascinating origins.
This evening, February 14, is also the first Valentine’s Day Date at Tropical Paradise, with tickets rapidly disappearing. But even if you can’t get your registration in for tonight, there’s an additional Valentine’s Date taking place this Saturday night, February 15. You can find more information on these exclusive annual events, secure tickets, and more on our Tropical Paradise programming page!
Start building up an appetite now, because the Culinary Kids Food Festival begins next Monday! Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden staff and the Growing Chefs culinary team will come together as part of the Garden’s Edible Academy initiative to put on this family friendly food festival.
There will be daily cooking demonstrations at 1 p.m., highlighting kid-friendly recipes and offering delicious samples. The rest of the day, the Dining Pavilion behind the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory plays host to several Activity Stations, where kids can grab a Festival passport and embark on a cultural and scientific tour of their favorite foods.
At the Cheesemonger’s Shop, lessons on making cheese go hand in hand with the science behind the plants that cheese-producing animals love, as well as the bacterial processes involved in cheese-making itself. Kids can test acids and bases at the Tip-Top Pickle Shop, while learning the science of food preservation in the chemistry kitchen. There’s a wealth of chemistry and biology behind our favorite deli fare!
It is hard to believe that the time has come to announce the third round of winners in our Tropical Paradise Photo Contest. We are halfway through this six-week competition, with the fourth week beginning this past Saturday. But there’s still time to win! Simply upload your photos of the Tropical Paradise exhibition in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory to our Flickr group before the 6 p.m. deadline this Friday, February 14—Valentine’s Day—to be entered into this week’s judging. After all, we don’t want this contest cutting into any romantic plans you may have. Though if you don’t have any plans yet, may we recommend one of our Valentine’s Day Dates at Tropical Paradise?
The submissions have been very impressive thus far, and it took careful deliberation to choose the top three photos in the Macro and Sense-of-Place categories. We sympathized with the judges at Sochi in carefully weighing the qualities of each contender. So in honor of the Winter Olympics, here are our Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medalists for this week!
After this icy week, we’ve all earned some down time. Luckily the Garden has many opportunities to explore this weekend, both indoors and outdoors.
You can admire trees a hundred years old or a hundred feet high with Sunday’s Winter Plant & Tree Tour, or the many bird species roosting within them along a Saturday Bird Walk. Another tour will guide curious visitors through the historic heart of the Garden, our Beaux Arts Library Building. Completed in 1901, the LuEsther T. Mertz Library contains a rare collection of books and artifacts, and has been declared a New York City landmark along with the adjacent Tulip Tree Allée.
Away from the snow, Tropical Paradise continues to fill the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory with brilliant colors. Beyond what there is to see, this weekend’s tour groups will smell and feel samples of historically and culturally significant plants. This Saturday also marks the fourth week of our photography contest, so consider snapping a few shots during your visit. Each contestant will have a chance to win a certificate for one Adult Education photography course of your own choosing. There are two categories, Macro and Sense-of-Place. To better understand the nature of each category, feel free to admire our past entries. You will find more information in our photo contest rules.
Tropical vines, passion flowers, and all the warmth you have been missing during this unpredictable winter—everything is waiting for you at the Garden!
Another day, another blizzard. All this snowfall has been inconvenient for a lot of people, and it’s easy to forget winter’s beautiful side. The Garden is certainly dazzling today, so why not enjoy a brief tour by Kristin Schleiter, Associate Vice President for Outdoor Spaces and Senior Curator, of what makes winter at the Garden so special?
Even while the flowers are slumbering, waiting for spring, Kristin reminds us that there is much to admire, especially in the Native Plant Garden. After all, native plants are used to this climate, and winter reveals just another aspect of their beauty. Kristin points out the intricate structures of mountain mint as just one of the lovely details visitors can observe this time of year.
This month’s featured alumna is Nina Antze, who holds an NYBG Certificate in Botanical Art & Illustration. While she is currently teaching colored pencil in California, Nina was initially a quilt maker with a degree in Fine Art from San Francisco State University before coming to the NYBG’s Certificate Program. She now teaches botanical art students of her own, including those at the Botanical Illustration Certificate Program at Filoli Gardens outside of San Francisco. We asked her to guide us along the path that brought her to the NYBG and a new career.
What made you pursue a Botanical Art & Illustration Certificate with NYBG? Were you looking for a new career, or just a hobby?
NYBG introduced me to the world of Botanical Illustration. I started taking colored pencil classes when we moved from California to New York, and it was basically to meet people. My new friend Jane found NYBG instructor Carol Ann Morley’s Colored Pencil class; after that we took Laura Vogel’s drawing class and we really wanted to continue. I was not thinking of a new career, but I fell in love with drawing all over again and I loved having all the plants in the world for possible subjects.
It’s not only the born-and-raised green thumbs who find their way into professional horticulture. Among some of our Horticulture Certificate program’s accomplished alumni you’ll find horticulturists and landscape designers who started their careers in very different fields, and Amy Henderson, who spent much of her working life designing without a trowel at her side, is just such a person. We recently caught up with Amy to get her take on entering a Horticulture Certificate program, working in garden design, and more.
What drew you to the NYBG Horticulture Certificate Program?
Around 2009 I started visiting the Garden frequently and treated myself to a few Gardening classes. I was looking for a change from my decades of work in graphic design, and it dawned on me that I could use my design skills with a new, living medium—plants—and that maybe the Horticulture certificate could lay the foundation of a path to a new career. I settled on the Garden Design Horticulture track because to me, the plants are what it’s all about.
This weekend we bid farewell to the Tropical Paradise exhibition, so this weekend is the last chance to enjoy all the tours, demonstrations, and samples surrounding this trip to the tropics. After Sunday, it won’t be long before the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory’s next stop in the Florida Keys for The Orchid Show: Key West Contemporary, opening Saturday, March 1.
It is time once again to announce another round of winners in our 
In addition to the lively tours and guided walks taking place throughout the grounds, this weekend the Garden welcomes couples, friends, and singles alike for a romantic roster of Valentine’s Day events. After all, what says “be my Valentine” better than an effusion of flowers, and what are we if not the largest bouquet in the five boroughs?
Start building up an appetite now, because the 
It is hard to believe that the time has come to announce the third round of winners in our 
After this icy week, we’ve all earned some down time. Luckily the Garden has many opportunities to explore this weekend, both indoors and outdoors.
Another day, another blizzard. All this snowfall has been inconvenient for a lot of people, and it’s easy to forget winter’s beautiful side. The Garden is certainly dazzling today, so why not enjoy a brief tour by Kristin Schleiter, Associate Vice President for Outdoor Spaces and Senior Curator, of what makes winter at the Garden so special?
