Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Around the Garden
Posted in Around the Garden on April 15 2014, by Lansing Moore
Next time you’re feeling hungry at the Garden, stop by the latest attraction at the Leon Levy Visitor Center. Months of work and preparation throughout the winter have resulted in yesterday’s highly-anticipated debut of the Garden’s newest eatery. The Pine Tree Café offers visitors to the Garden a tasty new dining experience from our friends at STARR Restaurants.
This unique addition to the Garden’s visitor experience is named for the collection of towering trees in which it sits. The Pine Tree Café takes advantage of its location under the pleasing shade of the Arthur and Janet Ross Conifer Arboretum to create a space where guests can enjoy their lunch within view of a world-renowned collection of rare and unusual pines from Asia, Europe, and North America.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on April 11 2014, by Matt Newman
Magnolia stellata near the Library Building – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on April 1 2014, by Matt Newman
The tulip trees are getting edgy as we wait for spring to settle into the thermometer.
Tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera) along Tulip Tree Allée – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in What's Beautiful Now on March 24 2014, by Lansing Moore
With such wild changes in temperature, this year’s crop of early spring blooms is a hearty bunch indeed. The Garden party is already getting started in the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden, whose enthusiastic residents are always some of the first to rise from their slumber.
The vibrant ‘Arnold Promise’ witch-hazel (Hamamelis × intermedia) is blooming alongside the snowdrops (Galanthus) and winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis). The Ladies’ Border is also lovely at the moment, with Amur adonis (Adonis amurensis) in bloom and both the paper bush flowers (Edgeworthia chrysantha) and viburnum (Viburnum × bodnantense ‘Dawn’) in bud.
For serene shades of white and violet, stop by Wamsler Rock to see more snowdrops alongside the early crocus (Crocus tommasinianus). Click through for some gorgeous close-ups of those intrepid blooms that herald the long-awaited spring!
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Posted in Around the Garden, Gardens and Collections, Photography on February 18 2014, by Lansing Moore
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 Paradise exhibition 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!
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Posted in Around the Garden on February 5 2014, by Lansing Moore
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.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on February 1 2014, by Matt Newman
The longer I focus on the middle distance in this image, the more it seems there’s no break between the sky and the earth. Some of the snow’s melted since it was taken last week, but I also think this image tells us the daffodils will be sleeping it off just a liiiittle bit longer.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on January 24 2014, by Matt Newman
It’s frosty outside, I’ll give you that, but the quintessential winter beauty covering much of the Garden right now makes the few extra layers of clothing so worth it. Pristine fields of snow are everywhere, dotted with the patterns of tiny squirrel and bird feet. The spots of color—berries, conifer needles, the remains of the leaves—are that much more high-contrast with so much white surrounding them. But you don’t have to track down color in the winter landscape if you’d rather have a warmer go of things. That’s what Tropical Paradise is for!
Our spotlight on the permanent collections of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is crowned by one of my absolute favorite events of the year: the Tropical Paradise photography contest. It’s a chance for our visiting shutterbugs, expert and novice alike, to snap a few shots of beautiful plants and locations in our glasshouse. More importantly, there are prizes up for grabs. And all you need is a camera—DSLR, iPhone, whatever you’re comfortable with—and a Flickr account (they’re easy to make). You’ll find the full rules, schedule, and submission guidelines here. But don’t wait too long—while there are still five weeks to go in the contest, participation will start to pick up, and each of those weeks is a new chance toward winning!
Even if you’re not much for photography, there’s plenty to see and do around the Garden this weekend, both indoors and out. Just a reminder that this is the last weekend of All Aboard with Thomas & Friends, so register soon—those tickets won’t last long. In the meantime, check out our full schedule below!
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Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on January 23 2014, by Matt Newman
Okay, so practically speaking, winter storm Janus and its aftermath have been sort of troublesome for most northeasterners. If you own a car, you likely spent Wednesday morning hewing it out from beneath a glacier of stubborn ice. For those of you who didn’t have to worry about that particular hassle, transit delays and luge-like sidewalks more than made up the difference. But, that said, there are some upsides to a blizzard! There’s still the fresh-powdered majesty to enjoy—given the right location. For anyone who has not yet made the short trip to the NYBG since the city returned to business as usual, you’re missing out on quite the sight!
Despite the whirling flakes painting the landscape throughout Monday and into the night, our staff photographer, Ivo Vermeulen, was more than happy to bundle up and brave the storm for some snapshots of the changing Garden. The sheer density of the falling snow created something of a foggy effect, as you’ll see in the gallery below, but the result is fantastical! Check out some of what Ivo captured in the moment.
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Posted in Around the Garden on January 17 2014, by Ann Rafalko
Are you one of those workaholics that just can’t seem to ever use your vacation time, because going on vacation takes too much, well, time? Or maybe you have little kids and the thought of lugging them—and all their stuff—to the airport, dealing with the withering glances of your fellow travelers and kiddo jet lag is just too much. Or maybe you’re saving up for something important like college, or a big move, or a new car.
Either way, if you need a break from winter but can’t swing it for some reason, we’ve got you covered! That’s right: Tropical Paradise is back!
Opening on Saturday just in time for a three-day weekend, Tropical Paradise is our very popular winter interpretation of the permanent collection in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. It’s the chance for all of our brilliant, warmth-loving, exotic specimens to take center stage! And did I mention warmth? The temperatures inside many of the Conservatory’s galleries are positively balmy, a nice change from what’s going on outside.
And to encourage you to look at our beautiful plants just a little bit differently, we’re holding our fan-favorite Tropical Paradise Photography Contest again this year. Everyone who enters has a chance to win a seat in one of our Adult Education photography classes. All that’s needed is a camera (your smartphone is fine!) and a Flickr account. Upload your photographs to our Group Pool, tag them with #tropicalparadise, and we’ll do the rest!
And don’t forget! As an added bonus for your little ones, All Aboard with Thomas & Friends is still here!
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