Welcome to our new video series: Plant Talk with Kristin. Who’s Kristin? Kristin Schleiter is the Garden’s Curator of Outdoor Gardens and Herbaceous Collections. What does that mean? It means that Kristin knows plants: The best plants for shade, the best plants for color, the best plants for four-season interest. In this new series, Kristin will be sharing all that knowledge with you, so that you can make your garden a more beautiful, sustainable, and easy-to-care for place!
Kristin’s first show is all about shade plants. So take a look, and let us know what you think! We’d love to know which topics you would like to see Kristin tackle in the future. Leave a comment with your thoughts below.
The New York Botanical Garden has hosted many an exhibition over the years, from dazzling Orchid displays to Chihuly’s ethereal glass creations to the intriguing art of Japanese chrysanthemum growing and everything else in between. But never has an exhibition catered to all five senses in the way Spanish Paradise: Gardens of the Alhambra does.
The air in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is filled with fragrant herbs and zesty citrus blossoms, coupled with the colorful blossoms of ornamental sages and a range of flowering plants. Meanwhile, the Garden Cafe is serving up mouth watering slices of Serrano ham complimented by fruit-laden sangria. And for those of you who make the trip out on the weekend, the Arthur and Janet Lecture Hall is filled the rattle of castanets and the rhythm of a cajon (box-drum).
The Garden is pleased to host a summer residency for the dance group FLAMENCO: inside/out. The trio performs each Saturday and Sunday for the run of the show (through August 21st). You can catch them each day at 1,2, and 3 p.m. in the Lecture Hall and the show is included with your Garden admission. Here’s a little taste of what to expect, both in the Conservatory and the lecture hall!
Have you been seeing drifts of what appears to be white, fluffy snow all over New York City lately? Don’t worry, you’re not imagining things, but it’s not snow.
In fact it is millions upon millions (and possibly billions upon billions) of Cottonwood tree seeds trying to make their way to a nice comfy spot to set down roots and grow into one of the City’s most majestic native trees. Want to learn more? Then check out this great Video Plant Profile with NYBG Plant Records Manager, Jon Peter.
We talked to some visitors and staff about their favorite birds and why they love birding at the Garden. Take a look, and then tell us (by leaving a comment): What is your favorite bird? Have you had a great birding experience at the Garden?
We seem to have hit a bit of a rough patch in the weather in New York City; it has rained everyday since Saturday, and the forecast says that there’s more in store. But, that needn’t put a damper on your plans to visit the Garden. The Garden is beautiful in the rain. Here’s a little video we put together celebrating the Garden in the rain, featuring the poetry of iconic New York City poet Langston Hughes.
Narration by Henry Kaiser. Find Henry on twitter @KaiserHenry.
In case you’ve missed some of the previous installments, NYBG photography instructorRich Pomerantz has a series of how-to videos specifically designed for garden photographers. In this episode, Rich talks about the age-old technique known as the “Rule of Thirds”.
Rich has an upcoming class that will be based out of our Midtown Education Center but will take photo trips to the High Line Park. Be sure to sign up while spots are still available. The flora should be amazing in May!
Do you have a burning question garden photography question that we can pose to Rich? Maybe your question will turn into the next tutorial! You can leave your suggestions in the comments.
But, we know that not everyone can get here easily. So we got together with Rich in the Conservatory and filmed this short video tutorial, the first in what will be a five-part series. We hope you like it!
Do you have a burning question garden photography question that we can pose to Rich? Maybe your question will turn into the next tutorial! You can leave your suggestions in the comments.
Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden.
An Ethno-what? It’s an all too common question for New York Botanical Garden Research Specialist Ina Vandebroek. Ethnobotany is a field many people take for granted and Ina finds that just saying “I work with plants” doesn’t quite explain it. Traveling the Caribbean, Ina has worked with local communities to document how plants have been and continue to be used medicinally. We took a quick visit to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory with Ina, where many Caribbean specimens are on display during The Caribbean Garden.
“Medicinal plants are a source for a lot of today’s pharmaceutical medicines,” said Vandebroek. “In a lot of places around the world people use plants as their only and first form of health care, so basically what ethnobotanists do is we go out to these remote places and we study how people use plants.”
Despite the fact humans have been using plants since the dawn of time, when thinking of ethnobotany many find it hard to get past the ideas of beat-influence Richard Schultes and Sean Connory’s rugged grey ponytail in the film Medicine Man. “It’s so much more than hallucinogenics and finding the next cure for cancer,” Ina said, laughing. “Its about helping communities that are really in need. We try to promote it as a science that can help local communities in conservation of their bio-cultural diversity.”
Ina’s current focus is on the flora of the Dominican Republic. She works not only in the Caribbean, but here in New York City with Dominican immigrants, frequenting many Botanicas.”We try to give those results back to them in the form of guides books as well as workshops within the community. We can also have programs together with universities to isolate bioactive compounds and those could lead to new medicines for humankind.”
Here’s a quick video about Ina’s thoughts on ethnobotany and a few of her favorite Caribbean plants on display now in the Conservatory.
You can find out a little more about her work here.
Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden.
The 50-acre native forest at The New York Botanical Garden is a very special section of New York City. It’s the largest and oldest remnant of old growth forest around, and it’s right here in the Bronx! It’s almost like a time machine that gives a faint glimpse of the past. Strolling through, it’s not hard to imagine the kind of environments Henry Hudson and the Lenape people walked through. (For more on this subject check out the WLC’s Welikia project, previously known as Manhatta)
An ongoing survey at The Garden hopes to shed some light, sometimes literally, on a resident of the forest often overlooked — the tiny salamander. In particular, the terrestrial redback salamander, Plethodon cinereus. These little guys are one of the key species in the ecology of the forest. According to one of the wildlife biologists conducting the survey (Michael McGraw from Applied Ecological Services) the Redback salamander is thought to be the most abundant form of biomass in some northern deciduous forests. In a suitable area, you may be able to see one “under any rock you flip.” That’s a lot of amphibians!
The survey consists of a series of “cover boards” spread out strategically across the forest. These boards are simply rubber mats that provide a nice, cool dark place that salamanders like to congregate under (much like densely packed leaf mass). These boards are periodically checked, with biologists taking note of the number, size and significant features of any salamanders they may find. It gets a little dirty and the salamanders are tiny, quick and extremely squirmy, but the biologists and a few volunteer citizen scientists braved through to successfully gather their data during their latest visit.
Check out a video of their work featuring Forest Manager Jessica Schuler after the jump!
Rustin Dwyer is Visual Media Production Specialist at The New York Botanical Garden.
Don’t miss your chance to walk through a miniature New York cityscape, teeming with garden-scale model trains. Running through January 9, the Holiday Train Show offers New Yorkers (and visitors too!) a chance to see their city in a completely new way. Lose yourself among 140 beloved New York landmarks as the trains zip along over a quarter-mile of track in this miniature world inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
Your trip to the Garden doesn’t end with the trains though. Performances of Tootle the Train™ and the Little Engine That Could™ along with Gingerbread Adventures in the Discovery Center run daily. Grab a bite in one of our two Cafes, get in some holiday shopping at the Shop in the Garden or just marvel at the 250 acres of natural beauty.
