Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Around the Garden
Posted in Around the Garden on October 25 2013, by Ann Rafalko
The weekend starts on Friday evening, right? At NYBG it does! Celebrate the start of the weekend with a Spooky Nighttime Adventure!
Children of all ages are encouraged to come in costume for this after-dark Halloween spook-tacular. Explore the creepy crawlies hiding in the shadows of the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, see Ray Villafane’s amazing giant pumpkin sculpture illuminated and looking cool, and decorate your own gourd to take home. If you can’t make it Friday, don’t panic—there’s another Spooky Nighttime Adventure on Saturday, too.
This weekend is also the final weekend of Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden, and we’re celebrating with a weekend focused on two Japanese artforms: bonsai and poetry. Incredible examples of bonsai will be on display in the Conservatory Courtyards, and demonstrations aimed at helping you understand these miniature trees will be held at 12 and 2 p.m. On Sunday join acclaimed poet Jane Hirshfield for an afternoon of poetry celebrating the beauty of fall flowers and foliage and their significance in Japanese culture
And if you’re just looking for a reason to get outside, our 250 acres have you covered! Cooler weather is helping to bring out the fall color in the Thain Family Forest in a real way. If you’re interested in the fine art of photographing trees, a Saturday morning conversation with Larry Lederman, where he will share his technical, creative, and philosophical insights into the art of nature photography, is a must. The Forest’s 50-acres of old growth trees isn’t the only place for leaf peeping within our borders, the entire Garden puts on a show at this time of year. So lace up your sneakers or hiking boots, hop the train, and join us for a weekend full of trees, spooks, and blooms!
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Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on October 25 2013, by Matt Newman
Fall’s light hits summer’s fading greens, and we’re left reveling in the overlap.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on October 24 2013, by Matt Newman
If you’re going to call autumn a drab season for flowers, you might want to make sure the Home Gardening Center is well out of earshot.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Around the Garden on October 22 2013, by Ann Rafalko
It’s time for the big crunch! No, not in time (the holidays are still only a blip on the horizon). Nope, it’s time to join with your fellow New Yorkers in the Big Apple Crunch!
This Wednesday, the NYBG Greenmarket is celebrating Food Day one day early. Food Day is a celebration, held annually on October 24, of healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. Since we can’t just move the Greenmarket to Thursday, we’ll be celebrating the Big Apple Crunch in spirit with our own apple crunching fun. Crunch an assortment of apples and choose your favorite local variety (it ain’t called the Big Apple for nothin’), learn apple facts, and indulge in apple fun.
Almost all of our farmers bring apples or apple-based products to the Greenmarket, including heirloom varieties from Migliorelli Farm; amazing ciders, juices, and fruit from Red Jacket Orchards; and apple pies from Meredith’s Bread. And while our friends at Gajeski Produce tend to stick to seasonal produce of the non-apple variety, I’m sure they’ll get into the apple crunching spirit!
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Posted in Around the Garden on October 18 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Actually, let’s make that four words: Giant Pumpkin Carving Weekend! Have you heard the news? NYBG is playing host to the new world’s heaviest pumpkin, a 2,032-pound giant grown by Tim and Susan Mathison of Napa, California. Heavier than a 2013 Smart FourTwo (by a lot) the Mathison’s phenomenal pumpkin is joined by a retinue of other enormous gourds, a record breaking long gourd, and the new world’s heaviest watermelon.
You might think this all sounds like a recipe for a record-breaking pot of squash soup, followed by the world’s largest fruit salad, but you would be wrong (these fruit are barely edible because of the intense breeding for weight—well, kind of. They will be turned into “food,” food for zombie Venus flytraps!
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Posted in Around the Garden on October 16 2013, by Matt Newman
“Pumpkin King” isn’t a title tossed around lightly (that’s a long-game pun right there). Come to think of it, Danny Elfman’s probably held the honor longer than anyone. But once each year, right around the time the leaves start wandering off their branches and the Forest takes a sudden lean toward apple reds and lemon yellows, a new monarch arrives at the NYBG to wear the crown a while—and there’s always an entourage tagging along. Big, small, squat and tall, a cadre of gargantuan pumpkins are trundling into the Garden for this year’s Giant Pumpkin Carving Weekend, taking place here this weekend on October 19 and 20!
When your prized produce weighs as much as a standard sedan, no one’s going to call out your efforts for lacking heft. Still, in the hyper-competitive world of mammoth produce, every pound counts—even among the giants, one always stands above the rest, especially when the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth is involved. This year’s record-breaking pumpkin hails from Napa, California, where Tim and Susan Mathison primped and preened a young squash into a 2,032-pound behemoth that easily snatched up the world heavyweight title after a stop on the scale. Joining it at the Garden this year are two pumpkins from Dawn and Bill Northrup of New Brunswick, Canada, at 1,813 and 1,024.5 pounds, respectively; and a pair from Dave and Carol Stelts of Edinburgh, Pennsylvania, clocking in at 1,496 and 1,391.5 pounds. Just to add an extra touch of the big and bizarre, we’ll also have Chris Kent’s record-snapping, 350.5-lb. watermelon flying in from Sevierville, Tennessee; and a long gourd from Fred Ansems of Kentville, Nova Scotia, that clocks in at over 11 feet in length.
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Posted in Around the Garden on October 15 2013, by Ann Rafalko
In some parts of New York State, autumn has already come and gone. But here in the Bronx? The best is yet to come! How will you know when it’s time to pay us a visit to see the Garden’s 250-acres dressed up in the prettiest oranges, reds, and yellows of fall? With our new Fall Foliage Tracker of course!
The Garden has a multitude of places for you to enjoy the beauty of fall, but if I had to pick just one place you must visit for fall foliage enjoyment, it would be the Thain Family Forest. This 50-acre old growth forest is the largest remaining tract of the woodlands that once covered all five boroughs of New York City. The Bronx River, New York City’s only freshwater river, cuts through it in a dramatic gorge complete with a waterfall. Stand above the river on the Hester Bridge for one of the Garden’s great fall foliage vistas.
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Posted in Around the Garden on October 14 2013, by Ann Rafalko
They’re getting closer. All across the United States farmers are loading up moving vans and flatbed farm trucks with hulking pumpkins and heading for the Bronx and the Haunted Pumpkin Garden. And this year, the pumpkins are bringing friends.
For the first time, the Garden is excited to play host to the new world record-setting watermelon and the new world record-setting long gourd, too! Who names these world records? Our partners in giant pumpkin fun, the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth, of course.
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Posted in Around the Garden on October 11 2013, by Ann Rafalko
For many, this weekend is a three-day weekend and we’ll be open on Monday to help you pass the extra day in one of New York City’s most beautiful natural spaces. That means an extra day of fall fun for everyone!
Fill your weekend with spooky fun in the Haunted Pumpkin Garden and the cultural immersion of Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Garden. Our two fall exhibitions come with a plethora of fun activities including pumpkin carving demonstrations, taiko drumming, wildlife encounters, and tours. And don’t miss the opening of Close: The Photography of Allan Pollok-Morris, going live in the Ross Gallery this weekend.
Start your Columbus Day weekend off right by joining our free Saturday bird walk around the grounds. It’s migration time, so you never know who you’ll spot in addition to our regular flock of raptors, turkeys, little brown jobbers, and colorful characters.
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Posted in Around the Garden on October 9 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Who decorated this leaf with Halloween-ready creepy cobwebs and fall colors?
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
