Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Exhibitions
Posted in Adult Education, Holiday Train Show, Learning Experiences on November 23 2011, by Joyce Newman
For the first time in the Holiday Train Show’s 20-year history, you too can learn how to create architectural replicas from natural materials, just like the landmarks featured in our Conservatory displays.
Join Madeline Yanni, The New York Botanical Garden’s expert floral and crafts designer on December 17 for a special, hands-on class. Madeline will help you explore various architectural styles and crafting techniques, after which you can choose from an assortment of dried botanicals, like seed pods, bark, and branches, to make your own model. You’ll need to bring lunch, as well as a box large enough to put your models in.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Holiday Train Show on November 18 2011, by Matt Newman
We know you’ve been anxious for the Holiday Train Show to open its doors–we’re right there with you! And truth be told, ever since preparation began in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory two weeks ago, it’s been a struggle for those of us at Plant Talk to keep our excitement in check (and why would we even want to, at that?) Watching the bridges and tracks being put in place, seeing this year’s layout take shape under the careful attentions of Paul Busse and his Applied Imagination team–it’s left us daydreaming over how spectacular everything will look under the lights this weekend.
But there’s more to the Train Show than locomotives and landmarks. This weekend also marks the start of our holiday celebrations at large, with grand opening ceremonies, music, and all sorts of entertainment outside the glassy walls of the Conservatory.
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Posted in Holiday Train Show, Photography on November 18 2011, by Ann Rafalko
The trains are on the track (complete with caboose). The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory (in miniature) is in-place under the dome of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory (full size), as are other significant New York-area landmarks.
The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory in the Holiday Train Show (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
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Posted in Holiday Train Show, Photography on November 17 2011, by Ann Rafalko
Fifteen miles separate the Statue of Liberty from The New York Botanical Garden … Or do they?
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Posted in Holiday Train Show, Photography on November 16 2011, by Ann Rafalko
The tracks are laid, and the trains are out. Just two more days until the Holiday Train Show!
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Posted in Holiday Train Show, Photography on November 15 2011, by Ann Rafalko
The bridges are up, and the trains are here, but you can’t have the Holiday Train Show without a quarter-mile of tracks!
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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Holiday Train Show on November 9 2011, by Ann Rafalko
Inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, preparations for the opening of the 20th year of the Holiday Train Show on November 19 (November 18 if you’re a Member) are in full swing.
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Posted in Around the Garden, Holiday Train Show on November 7 2011, by Matt Newman
Honey bees still clung to the last of the chrysanthemums in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory as workers hurried about the business of change this past Friday. The shuffling of displays marks the end of our successful Fall Flowers of Japan exhibition, and while it was saddening to see the carefully-trained beauty of the ‘Thousand Bloom’ ozukuri exit stage left, the transition from ancient gardening artistry to a beloved family tradition can only mean the beginning of one of our most anticipated yearly events.
Production began on our 20th Holiday Train Show over the weekend, an undertaking that’s a bit like watching a Norman Rockwell painting as it first meets the canvas. The Conservatory space was only vacant for a moment before the sights of New York began appearing in miniature, springing up along the walkways and setting the stage for a quarter-mile of tracks, well-known bridges, and over 140 familiar city landmarks. And this busy activity continues as we speak!
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Posted in Exhibitions, Exhibitions, Kiku, Video on October 20 2011, by Rustin Dwyer
The New York Botanical Garden didn’t just start growing traditional styles of Japanese chrysanthemum–called kiku in Japanese–on a whim. It’s a labor intensive process that the Japanese have been perfecting for centuries, passing down techniques from generation to generation. Some of the more complex display styles can take a team of gardeners almost a year to pull off, which also includes the fabrication of multiple sets of giant metal frameworks upon which the flowers are trained. Training the plant, forcing its buds, timing the blooms; kiku is most definitely not for novices.
Watch a short documentary about Fall Flowers of Japan and the art of kiku below.
Posted in Exhibitions, Exhibitions, Kiku, Video on October 5 2011, by Rustin Dwyer
Tropical Storm Irene and her friend Lee certainly left their mark across the northeast. They left a trail of downed trees, broken limbs, and leaves pretty much everywhere. Not only did it give the arborists and horticulturalists here at NYBG plenty of work, but it also provided a unique situation for a commissioned sculpture in the Palm Dome of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Internationally renowned installation artist Tetsunori Kawana–no stranger to working with natural materials–got the chance to try something new, recycling what would ultimately end up as compost or mulch into a sculpture, a “rebirth.”
See a documentary detailing Kawana's process in creating Tanjou below.
For the first time in the Holiday Train Show’s 20-year history, you too can learn how to create architectural replicas from natural materials, just like the landmarks featured in our Conservatory displays.
