Kevin Peterson, Assistant Manager of the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, is responsible for the design and fabrication of exhibits in the Children’s Garden.
We had a great time creating the new decor for Gingerbread Adventures in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. We had wanted to do something a little different for its seventh season. I sat down with Jim Storm, senior museum technician, to brainstorm about the project, and we began to develop some initial ideas. Next, I did some preliminary sketches of a gingerbread town on a roll of vellum. Those series of drawings were the launching pad for the new look. As we started building, our concepts continued to evolve, we continued to collaborate, and Gingerbread Town took on a life of its own.
One aspect of our design was to have the gingerbread people look like they were occasionally popping out of the wall and existing in “our” space as well as having their own adventure. As it became a 3D reality, some things had to be reworked from the drawings because of the limitations of the physical space. The timeline was also very challenging: We started in early August and just kept plowing away at it until we installed it the week before Thanksgiving.
We completed the city scene first and then moved onto the country and farm scenes. Next came the gingerbread couple ice-skating under a cookie moon. But maybe I should stop there so I don’t give it all away. Jim and I were able to add pigment to caulk so we could “frost” the gingerbread people and make other objects look like big cookies. It was quite successful in that the gingerbread people and their world really do look good enough to eat. We wanted to have kids feel as if they walked into a fun-filled fantasy world and to light up their eyes and to spur their imaginations. We wanted a world that made them feel good. One little boy who visited made sure he said goodbye to all his gingerbread friends before he left the Adventure Garden. That was pretty nice.
Visitors to the annual holiday puppet theater production of The Little Engine That Could™, which opens this weekend in the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall, will enter through the Ross Gallery, where they will be welcomed by The Heirloom Tomato, an exhibition of bold, bright photographic still lifes. Here, Victor Schrager, the award-winning artist behind the images, talks about how he made these magnificent portraits of historic tomato varieties from the gardens of Amy Goldman. The two have collaborated on several books, including the most recent The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table as well as The Compleat Squash: A Passionate Grower’s Guide to Pumpkins, Squashes, and Gourds (2004) and Melons for the Passionate Grower (2002), all available at Shop in the Garden.
Victor Schrager is the photographer featured in the exhibition The Heirloom Tomato.
The shooting to produce Melons for the Passionate Grower took one year. The Compleat Squash was done over two years. The Heirloom Tomato was planned to be much more extensive than either of those: The photographs would have to be done when the fruit were ready, so the photographs were made at all times of day in all kinds of weather. The project eventually lasted five seasons.
It was important to give the work its own unified sense of time and place—a quality I find in the best botanical illustrations and photographs, in vivid distinction to garden catalogs. To achieve this, I used a single artificial light in a studio I made in a barn near Amy Goldman’s garden. So the photographs took place in their own time.
During the first three seasons, I used an 8×10 wooden Deardorff view camera (the kind where you put a dark cloth over the back of the camera to see better to compose); the last two seasons I used a Sinar 4×5 digital view camera—the closest digital approximation to the qualities of the large-format transparencies I had made during the first three seasons and the most similar in use to my film camera. I would like to think you cannot tell which are which.
Various objects—teacups, marble blocks, colanders, spice cans, etc.—were used to put the tomatoes on a pedestal, giving each picture a unique architecture derived from the tomato’s place in domestic life in the kitchen and garden over its long history.
George Shakespear is Director of Science Public Relations.
One of the pleasures of working at The New York Botanical Garden is meeting scientists from around the world and learning about their fascinating botanical exploration, biodiversity research, and conservation projects. The Garden is a nexus of international plant science, where scientists come to consult the incomparable collections in our herbarium and library, to confer with the Garden’s staff scientists, or, as happened the week before last, to accept a well-deserved award and to share information on current projects.
I attended the presentation by distinguished economic botanist and former Botanical Garden scientist Sir Ghillean (Iain) T. Prance on two current (and very different) projects. In the largest tract of rain forest in northern Argentina, he has been studying the ethnobotany of the Guaranà people, documenting their use of plants. The Guaranà are threatened by the expanding timber extraction industry. One result of his team’s documentation has been the purchase of more than 12,000 acres of land by the World Trust Fund to return ownership to the GuaranÃ. Sir Prance also talked about his systematic studies of Barringtonia, a genus of flowering plants.
Prance was in New York to receive the Gold Medal of The New York Botanical Garden. The medal, the highest honor conferred by the Botanical Garden and awarded very infrequently, acknowledges contributions made by individuals in the fields of horticulture, plant science, and education. Iain Prance served for more than a quarter century at the Garden, arriving as a post-doctoral researcher and departing as Senior Vice President for Science. In 1988, he returned to his native Great Britain to become Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1988–1999). He was knighted in 1995.
Prance is perhaps the most prominent scientist in botanical exploration of Amazonian Brazil and is vitally interested in the documentation of the use of plants by indigenous peoples in Amazonia. That led him to found in 1981 the Garden’s Institute of Economic Botany, whose programs continue to thrive and grow.
Daniel Avery is Sustainability and Climate Change Program Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
You may have noticed rather colorful cans posted around the perimeter of the Garden and wondered what they’re doing there. Well, here’s the explanation.
When Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Council approved the city’s Solid Waste Management Plan (appropriately referred to as “the SWMP,” pronounced swamp) in 2006, they included a pilot program to extend recycling to public places such as commercial strips, parks, and transit hubs. The pilot was successful enough to expand the program, and the Garden, working with the local Sanitation District, was selected to participate.
The NYC Department of Sanitation provides the bins, and the recyclable material collected therein is combined with the Garden’s recyclables and carted off each week by Sanitation.
Jackie Martinez is Director of Volunteer Services.
When thoughts are on the Thanksgiving and holiday seasons, we often reflect on those who have made an impact on us through their charitable and selfless actions. For me, this is most evident through my position here at the Garden. Every day I encounter a multitude of people from a wide range of cultures, religions, and ages who are here for one reason—because they love The New York Botanical Garden.
Perhaps on a lively Friday morning Marilyn gave you directions to the Garden Cafe for a cup of coffee. You may have seen Madeline, Peter, or Pat helping to beautify the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden; Frank tending to the Korean Garden in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden; or Keefah and Rebecca assisting children with a variety of activities in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden.
Maybe you have enjoyed an informative docent tour by Melisande in the Edith A. Haupt Conservatory or Bob in the Rock Garden or Sister Marjorie in the Forest or another docent on one of the stunning exhibitions the Garden offers.
These people are all volunteers at the Botanical Garden. They are among the more than 1,000 in the Volunteer Program who help to enhance the visitor experience, maintain the Garden’s 250 acres, teach plant science to visiting school groups and families, assist with clerical work, and collect data for climate change, among many other duties. Last year they clocked more than 80,000 hours of service. There is not one exhibition, program, or event that could be as successful without the dedication of the volunteers who respond to our numerous calls for help with a sense of responsibility to the Garden and with abundant fervor.
The entire staff at the Botanical Garden joins me in thanking each and every volunteer, not just during this very giving season, but every day. Your support is priceless and we are all extremely grateful.
To learn more about the volunteer program, click here.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
As a kid growing up, just a few blocks from here, the only time I got to see model trains in action was occasionally during the holidays when the boy in the apartment across the hall would invite my three sisters and me to see—briefly and no touching allowed—his miniature landscape all set up with little people and trees and trains that could be glimpsed as they made their way around make-believe villages. I was younger and shorter and had to stand on tiptoe to try to get the full effect of this tabletop other world. Regardless, I always got a sense of something fun and magical happening.
My husband confirmed this. One of three boys and with a slew of neighborhood buddies, he talks of spending hours during the holidays watching and playing with model trains, moving around at will the tiny figures and buildings and ice rinks and track segments within the diminutive fake-snow-covered scenery.
Not until I was an adult did I have the chance to be immersed in the enchanting atmosphere that is so reminiscent of this childhood memory, thanks to the Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show. I’ve come back to see the show several times over the years and with family members both young and old.
There is something indescribable, something that makes your heart jump a beat, when you enter the Holiday Train Show and are immediately surrounded by twinkling lights, soft whistles, and tracks that wind around waterfalls and across overhead bridges and past magnificent replicas of New York landmarks. On closer inspection, you see that each of these 140 or so buildings is made from parts of plants! And as you bend down to investigate further, all of a sudden you glimpse a train approaching and stand back to watch the scene in awe. You look around and are beckoned by other vignettes; it keeps going. You are transported.
The Holiday Train Showhas gained wild popularity in its 17 years. Now that I work at the Garden, I have the benefit of seeing the show even during lunch breaks. My favorite time of day, though, is at dusk, when the show is especially charming and festive. This year the Garden will be open an extra hour on select days so you can enjoy the show well into the evening.
There is plenty to do, too, if you’d like to spend an entire day at the Garden: Gingerbread Adventures in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden; The Little Engine That Could™ puppet theater performance and a visit by Thomas the Tank Engine™ both later in the run; lunch and snacks at our two cafes, and holiday gift-getting at Shop in the Garden.
Next year marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York. The New York Botanical Garden will be part of the statewide celebration, bringing a touch of Holland to the Bronx with a Dutch bulb flower show in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory in the spring and a four-season display, including bulbs, along Seasonal Walk. Here we take a look at the planning for Seasonal Walk, which today is celebrated with a ceremonial planting with the designers and HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, among others.
Karen Daubmann is Director of Exhibitions and Seasonal Displays.
Our mission was clear but nevertheless daunting: Design a garden that will look luscious from April to November 2009 and one that has Dutch overtones to fit with the Henry Hudson quadricentennial festivities.
The planning team mulled these thoughts and came up with an ideal solution. And so, with support from the International Flower Bulb Center, the Botanical Garden commissioned world-renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf, a Netherlands native known for his “new wave planting” style, who has paired up with Jacqueline van der Kloet, also from the Netherlands, who is known for her finesse with flower bulb design.
The location for the planting is along Seasonal Walk, two garden beds—one measuring 184 feet by 10 feet and the other 86 feet by 6 feet—nestled between the Conservatory Lawn and the Home Gardening Center. Garden installation began earlier this month and has continued through today’s ceremonial planting.
Since receiving the designs in July our horticultural staff has been busily growing and ordering the mixture of plants for this border. A complex spreadsheet controlled the frenzied process and kept track of sources, sizes, quantities, and inventoried amounts. The planting is an intense mix of favorites and new cultivars, including grasses, perennials and bulbs. In fact, several of the plants are Piet’s own introductions such as Echinacea ‘Fatal Attraction’, Geum ‘Flames of Passion’, and Salvia ‘Evaline’. We have planted 3,389 perennials and 12,100 spring-flowering bulbs. Next spring, we will plant and force 14,500 summer-flowering bulbs, which will add color to the border through the heat of summer.
The project has been exciting to work on. Each plant has been carefully researched and sourced. We tried our hardest to refrain from using substitutes, but in some cases Piet had selected cultivars not yet readily available in the United States.
Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden.
Friends of The New York Botanical Garden, Barbara and Bill Friedrich, demonstrate their vintage-style apple press to make some delicious, fresh apple cider to share.
Dachell McSween is Publicity Coordinator at The New York Botanical Garden.
During this time of rising unemployment rates and slow economic growth, thoughts turn to job security and the possibility of having to find a new career.
Tonight and tomorrow evening, The New York Botanical Garden is offering free Career Information Sessions to help people discover “green” job opportunities in landscape design, horticulture, floral design, and horticultural therapy.
The Garden’s Continuing Education instructors, who are experienced professionals, will talk about each of these disciplines, and former students will discuss what it is like to be employed in these fields and how NYBG gave them the skills and knowledge needed to be successful.
For more than 80 years, the Garden has been helping people achieve their horticultural education goals. Many students who attend are career changers from a variety of occupations, including marketing, information technology, law, and medicine. They come to the Garden to follow their passions and explore new job opportunities. “Not only is it something they can be passionate about, but it is an area where there are opportunities,” Jeff Downing, Vice President for Education, told the Daily News.
Read about some of NYBG’s successful “graduates”: Margaret Ryan, who went from corporate speechwriter to floral designer; Curtis Eaves, who shifted from textile design to landscape design; and Bonnie Johnson, who worked as a package designer for two decades and in just two years found success as a floral designer.
If your dream job is to get out of the office and become closer to nature, the Career Information Sessions will get you started on the path to a new career.
Tens of thousands of visitors have discovered the same, awed by the exquisite beauty of these meticulously cultivated chrysanthemums in a traditional Japanese art form never seen before on this scale outside Japan. “If the stock market has you blue, go to the exhibition and drink in the uplifting display,” wrote Bill Cunningham in The New York Times.
But hurry. The spectacular flower show and cultural exhibition comes to a close Sunday. For an extra special experience, you may want to come this evening from 6–8 p.m. for Kiku and Cocktails, when you can view the exhibition under lights and with the authentic ambiance of live Japanese musical performances.
One aspect of our design was to have the gingerbread people look like they were occasionally popping out of the wall and existing in “our” space as well as having their own adventure. As it became a 3D reality, some things had to be reworked from the drawings because of the limitations of the physical space. The timeline was also very challenging: We started in early August and just kept plowing away at it until we installed it the week before Thanksgiving.
Gingerbread Town in Gingerbread Adventures is made from plywood, papier-mâché, and paint, and most importantly, a lot of imagination. Albert Einstein said “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” And I think that’s especially true with this undertaking, which was an adventure in itself. It started with just a few drawings and the belief that we could really transform the Discovery Center for the holiday season. Hopefully, everyone will enjoy their Gingerbread!
Since receiving the designs in July our horticultural staff has been busily growing and ordering the mixture of plants for this border. A complex spreadsheet controlled the frenzied process and kept track of sources, sizes, quantities, and inventoried amounts. The planting is an intense mix of favorites and new cultivars, including grasses, perennials and bulbs. In fact, several of the plants are Piet’s own introductions such as Echinacea ‘Fatal Attraction’, Geum ‘Flames of Passion’, and Salvia ‘Evaline’. We have planted 3,389 perennials and 12,100 spring-flowering bulbs. Next spring, we will plant and force 14,500 summer-flowering bulbs, which will add color to the border through the heat of summer.
