In the last few months, thousands of children have come and gone through our Ross Hall, each doing his or her part to help Thomas and Friends™ navigate their way to Brendam Docks. And while it’s been a memorable holiday season for everyone involved, it’s finally time to bid our adieus for one more year; this weekend marks your last chance to catch Thomas before he steams his way home! With six showings between Saturday and Sunday, you’ll find at least a few more opportunities to get in a little sing-along time with your kids–so long as you make a point of registering in advance!
For those who appreciate the lively nature of the NYBG in winter, Debbie Becker returns this Saturday morning to lead her long-running Bird Walk, scoping out the Red-tailed Hawks, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, and elusive owls that often call the Garden home. And while it may be a bit nippy outdoors, layering up and hitting the Forest trails is well worth the chilly toes (ski socks are a lifesaver)–winter is hands-down the best time to catch some of our most magnificent avian species on the wing.
Of course, our would-be snowbirds are just as welcome to fly in for a visit, come sun, snow, or any frosty combination of the two. Tropical Paradise is the cure for all things frigid! Inside the Conservatory you’ll find the gems of our permanent collection on special display, highlighting the botanical beauties and curiosities of sunnier climes. For those with a knack for camera work, or anyone who just wants to learn, really, our garden photography experts will be on hand once each weekend, holding workshops for shutterbugs of all skill levels. It’s the ideal warm-up for our Tropical Paradise photography contest, running throughout the exhibition and open to anyone with a Flickr account!
Our Holiday Train Show may be packed away for another year, but thanks to the thoughtful cast of All Aboard with Thomas and Friends™, kids who haven’t had the opportunity to chug along with Thomas and his companion, Driver Sam, will now have almost the entire month of January to take part. That’s from now until January 27, at varying times in the NYBG‘s Ross Hall. And to make these family memories last, know that this is no simple puppet show–the cast will need your kids’ help in guiding the wayward Thomas all the way to Brendam Docks, with crowd interaction, singalongs, and more.
Just keep in mind that our shows are incredibly popular this time of year, so you’ll definitely want to take a moment and register for your tickets sooner, rather than later. Even with several shows per day (up to five on Saturdays and Sundays), we’re still filling seats at a record pace!
There are a few caveats to that whole “winter’s majesty” thing. First, and this is one I learned not long ago, don’t wander out into a howling snow storm in leather-soled captoes unless ice-skating to the subway sounds fun. Second, that majesty only lasts for as long as it takes you to start shivering. And while living in the northeast means skiing, sledding, and all the joy of pristine white mornings, so often it seems easier to coop yourself up inside and listen to the snowflakes dusting your bedroom window. But! And I emphasize this: there’s a way to stay warm and enjoy what mother nature has to offer in New York City. If I told you that the NYBG offered a slice of summer during the frostiest time of year, would you believe me?
Soon, it won’t be that hard to wrap your head around! As the snow comes falling and you’re waging war on the ice coating your windshield, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory‘s yearly Tropical Paradise will become New York City’s go-to escape for a little warmth, music, and relaxation in the rain forest. And, yes, I do mean rain forest. Our Victorian glasshouse remains an iconic landmark, representing not only New York’s architectural history, but over a century of botanical expertise. Inside, you’ll join our expert docents for tours of the Conservatory’s permanent collection, including soaring palm trees, alluring tropical flowers, and the many joys and oddities that thrive in our misty rain forests.
If you’ve got a Christmas tree looking all the worse for wear as the days drag out past the holiday, you’re not the only procrastinator in the city. And that’s good! Because by the time you’re fed up with watching your cat spelunk in the branches, raining dry pine needles across the whole of your living room, New York’s annual MulchFest will be ready to accommodate you. So don’t drag that saggy conifer to the curb just yet!
Taking place throughout the boroughs at the turn of each year, MulchFest is the most environmentally friendly means of disposing of your Christmas tree in NYC. Not only will it save room at the local dump (to say nothing of easing your garbage man’s frustrations), but delivering your tree to one of the many MulchFest locations will serve to nourish living plantings throughout the metropolitan area. At last year’s event, over 24,000 trees were recycled into mulch, smashing the previous record by a wide margin. And if you like, some of that mulch can be bagged and hauled home for use in your own garden–completely free of charge.
Gazania ‘Big Kiss White Flame’ — Runner-up, 2012 AGA
Beauty pageants sweep the spectrum from bad reality TV to the Westminster Dog Show. But here, as you might have guessed, swimsuit competitions and obstacle courses aren’t all that high on our totem of concerns. Instead, our brand of popularity contest skips the stage glitz and gets right down to the core themes of plant competition: hardiness, longevity, and the aesthetic of the perfect flower. Over the course of next year’s American Garden Award selections, we’ll be pinning down the plants that best display those traits. Better yet, we’ll be doing it with everyone’s help!
Each year, the AGA organizers reveal an exclusive selection of top-rate flower cultivars, all in the running to become the next “Best in Show.” But as judgment by jury goes, we’re not talking about ivory tower botanists and professional rosarians behind a gavel. Nope, this is strictly a public affair–you, me, and anyone willing to chip in their two cents can vote. And with trial beds spread throughout nearly 30 botanical institutions across the United States, including the NYBG, that gives almost everyone a chance to pitch in and choose the next Miss America of the plant world.
Whether you’re coming in to catch the Holiday Train Show before December’s crowds pile in, or to glean a bit of feathered wisdom from Debbie Becker’s Saturday morning Bird Walk, this weekend is squarely focused on relaxation. Because we know that in between the crush of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and winter holiday preparations, there’s hardly a sliver of space to squeak in your chill time! Of course, at the NYBG there’s a wider window for taking it easy.
With a light schedule and reasonable temperatures promised for Saturday and Sunday, this is your opportunity to explore 250 acres of New York City’s finest natural sanctuary. If you’re looking for activities, there’s always the Bird Walk for picking up a new hobby, or maybe you’d rather take a load off with the heat on? For that, stop by the Holiday Train Show in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory before hoofing it over to Ross Hall for a bit of history on our decades-long tradition.
Over in the education department, you can join in a two-hour rundown of the herbal arts through a course on making tinctures, salves, and oils from nature’s bounty. And, of course, there’s Gingerbread Adventures waiting for the kids in our Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. Why would you even consider passing up a hand-decorated cookie (of your own artistic creation, of course) before leaving?
This is a super-important reminder, everyone: you have one more day! That’s all that remains of your window to submit photographs to the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition before the judges close up for deliberations. And if you can’t have your submissions in by Friday, November 30, you’ll find yourself waiting at least another anxious year before you have an opportunity to win over $18,000 in prizes, international recognition, and your work in a professional exhibition!
Even if you can’t find the time to hike outdoors in search of that perfect shot, there’s no reason to give up hope–IGPOTY accepts old photos, as well. Just head over to their official competition page for guidelines on what to pull out of your portfolio. In the meantime, here are a few winning photographs from past years to jog your inspiration.
Debbie Becker has been The New York Botanical Garden’s resident bird expert for over 25 years, and continues to lead her popular Bird Walks on Saturday mornings throughout much of the year.
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Each year, The Audubon Society holds a Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in which bird watchers throughout the country volunteer to count birds in a specified area, setting out at dawn and closing their notebooks at dusk. This year in the Bronx, birders will bring their binoculars to The New York Botanical Garden, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, City Island, Bronx Park East and other local parks and coastal areas. Based on the counts they come up with for each bird species seen, tallies will be pooled to represent each of the five boroughs.
The purpose of the final count determines the climate of the bird population, as species representation can fluctuate due to disease, weather, habitat destruction, and food supply. At the NYBG in particular, there have been some remarkable numbers observed in the last 10 years. For example, the population of American Crows at the Garden was once counted at over 500. Today, we are lucky to see just one or two. This is owed to the arrival of the West Nile Virus, which has decimated crow populations in our area.
Tufted Titmouse
Likewise, declines among the Tufted Titmouse, Chickadees, and the House Finch have struck hard. Populations of these small visitors were explosive in the 1990s, but conjunctivitis–an inflammatory eye disease–has caused them to dwindle since the late 2000s. In this case, however, the cause is more easily tackled; dirty bird feeders quickly pass the disease from bird to bird, so cleaning your feeders with soapy water each week can prevent the epidemic from spreading. Already, numbers of these bird species are slowly rebounding.
Then there are the new species which have been observed, those we hope will stick around long enough to be counted. Red- and White-winged Crossbills, rarities to the NYC area, have been observed around the NYBG and throughout many other locations in the city. Weather and food-related problems further north have driven these pine cone feeders south and into our vicinity.
It’s a bittersweet Tuesday afternoon at The New York Botanical Garden. On the one hand, we’re sitting square in the turkey-shaped shadow of what is undeniably my favorite holiday. On the other–and I say this with my own little chorus of sighs–2012’s weekly Greenmarket comes to its delectable end on Wednesday, November 21! I know, it’s a heartbreaker. But if you’re going to draw the curtains on your farmer’s market (or put it on hiatus, as in this case), there’s no better time for a food-centric going away party than the day before the year’s most extravagant meal.
If you haven’t already run your obligatory supermarket gauntlet, think about skipping this year’s cavalcade of canned goods and making your way to the Garden for a selection of the freshest fruits and vegetables you’ll find anywhere. Add the Greenmarket’s gourmet pies, breads, and other baked goods to the mix, and all you’ll need to hunt down is a turkey (figuratively speaking, of course–our wild turkeys are of the “look but don’t touch” variety).
Last week’s penultimate Greenmarket highlighted squash, scallions, chard, turnips, apples, pears, spinach, and a rainbow of potatoes. On the baked front, we enjoyed plenty of pies and cookies, cupcakes, muffins, a selection of jams to smear on them, and apple cider to wash it all down. And that’s just what I could fit into this brief post without going overboard; there’s more than enough left of the fall harvest to set your Thanksgiving table and then some.
I took an aimless jaunt around the Garden yesterday to see what the birds were singing about. Of course, I rarely have a goal when I set out, and this was no different. I checked to see whether the trees had given up all of their fall color (they haven’t), and if the NYBG‘s wild turkeys were still tottering around without care for man, beast, or passing Garden tram (they are). In the Forest, breezy reds and yellows still clung to many of the trees, and there was that pervasive, comforting sense of autumn isolation to wrap yourself up in. But what’s going on by the Visitor Center can only be called a holiday hubbub.
I saw winter-bare trees wrapped in strings of lights, wreathed benches, and a conifer display primped and preened, anxious for someone to come along and flip the switch on its own light show. And further down the path, just outside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, I picked up on the telling twinkle of the season’s defining event: the Holiday Train Show! Horticulturists, model makers, and toy train aficionados have kept their noses to the grindstone for weeks, making sure that each elevated track and glowing window is left perfect for the thousands of New York fans ready to pour through those Conservatory doors. And because there are new models to be seen this year, the challenge was that much greater. But, as always, it’s worth the work they put into it to see so many grins.
In the last few months, thousands of children have come and gone through our Ross Hall, each doing his or her part to help Thomas and Friends™ navigate their way to Brendam Docks. And while it’s been a memorable holiday season for everyone involved, it’s finally time to bid our adieus for one more year; this weekend marks your last chance to catch Thomas before he steams his way home! With six showings between Saturday and Sunday, you’ll find at least a few more opportunities to get in a little sing-along time with your kids–so long as you make a point of registering in advance!
