It’s Member Preview Day for the Holiday Train Show. If you happen to be stopping by, be on the look out for our new rendition of the New York Public Library in the Haupt Conservatory. The show opens to the general public tomorrow, November 21!
The New York Public Library in the Haupt Conservatory – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
While the Holiday Train Show is the hot ticket for this weekend, opening Saturday, November 21, don’t forget that Kiku: Spotlight on Tradition is still blooming away in the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections through November 29. If anything, these chrysanthemums are bigger and brighter than ever, and the ozukuri, or “thousand-bloom” design, makes for an incredible centerpiece.
Ozukuri (“thousand-bloom”) kiku in the Bourke-Sullivan Display House – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
This Saturday and Sunday mark the last of our Fall Forest Weekends, because while it’s still technically fall, we’ve got the Holiday Train Show on the horizon—and all the twinkling winter settings that come with it.
In the meantime, we’re still enjoying the fireworks of autumn, especially in the Forest. Stop in this weekend to join us for terrarium building demos, woodcarving with Ivan Braun, canoe trips on the Bronx River (the only freshwater river in New York City!) and all of the incredible color you’ve come to expect from this urban oasis.
Next weekend’s long-awaited Holiday Train Show grand opening will bring along all sorts of activities, whether you’re looking to explore with the whole family during the day or spend an evening at the Garden during Bar Car Nights. Tickets to the exhibition and the special events that come with it are available now, so don’t miss out on your preferred date!
There’s a flurry of activity in the Haupt Conservatory right now as we set up shop for the 24th annual Holiday Train Show, our biggest ever! Working day in, day out, our horticulturists and the artistic geniuses from Paul Busse’s Applied Imagination are creating an incredible landscape in miniature for the exhibition’s grand opening on November 21.
The Astro-View Towers of the World’s Fair, 1964–1965, in the Haupt Conservatory — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Happy Friday, and to all those who have Monday off for the holiday weekend—you’ve earned it! Enjoy your long weekend with a fall escape to NYBG, where we have three days of tours, live entertainment, film screenings, and all-new family programs surrounding FRIDA KAHLO: Art, Garden, Life.
Starting tomorrow, visitors will enter the lush rain forest under glass at NYBG’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for Wild Medicine in the Tropics, an exhibition that explores the many medicinal plants in the Garden’s permanent collection. Enjoy the full experience with a guided tour, or at your own pace with NYBG’s award-winning app, Wild Medicine.
Saturday also marks the beginning of our Wild Medicine Photo Contest! Bring your camera to the Conservatory and take your best shot at capturing the many beautiful subjects within. The two categories are “Macro” (close-up) and “Sense of Place” (wide shot). Join our NYBG Flickr Group Pool to upload your contributions, and the weekly winners will be announced right here on Plant Talk. One winner in each category will be recognized each week—and for the Grand Prize at the end of the exhibition! The Grand Prize winners announced on Tuesday, February 24, will each be awarded a seat in the NYBG Adult Education photography class of their choice. Join fellow photography enthusiasts every weekend for Photography Tips & Tricks in the Tropics, led by one of NYBG’s photo experts. Check out the contest rules for complete details.
Experience NYBG through your own lens and share your vision with us! Read on for the full schedule of special tours and programs this weekend.
Everyone’s favorite train has arrived at NYBG as the star of a mini-performance that families can enjoy on their next Garden visit, now through January 25. Driver Sam and Thomas lead All Aboard with Thomas & Friends, providing a fun-filled, interactive musical show where you can bring your camera to capture the moment during a photo-op with Thomas or purchase a souvenir photo from our professional photographers.
The 23rd annual Holiday Train Show is open through Monday, January 19, when the Garden will be open for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so complete your family’s Garden visit with this kid-friendly experience in Ross Hall. Have a look at the video below for a peek into this larger-than-life Thomas experience!
Even after the Holiday Train Show ends this coming Monday, January 19, kids can enjoy wintry fun with All Aboard with Thomas & Friends—not to mention Evergreen Express in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. Check out the full performance schedule and plan your visit today!
With the Holiday Train Show closing out for another year this coming Monday, January 19 (we’ll be open!), we’re getting ready for mid-winter relief with the opening of Wild Medicine—a highlight of the important plants in the permanent collection of the Haupt Conservatory. More info is on the way, but in the meantime, think tropical thoughts.
In the Palm Dome of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
The historic Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is well known for extraordinary seasonal exhibitions. The Holiday Train Show delights winter-weary visitors with festive lights, New York landmarks artfully crafted from natural materials, and myriad model trains chugging through a whimsical tropical landscape. The Orchid Show electrifies the senses, offering a veritable jungle of astonishing colors, forms, and perfumes. The annual spring-autumn exhibition showcases kaleidoscopic plantings and has recently paid homage to Monet’s garden at Giverny and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller garden in Seal Harbor, Maine. Beginning May 16th, 2015, the vibrant Mexican garden of artist Frida Kahlo will find an ephemeral home right here in the exhibition houses.
All of these shows certainly warrant a visit, but I strongly encourage visitors to delve into the permanent glasshouse plant collections as well. This incredibly diverse assemblage, comprised of over 20,000 plants from around the globe, is the soul of the Conservatory. Since the grand building’s completion in 1902, many of these specimens have been collected by some of the most distinguished botanists and horticulturists of the era—from our founder Nathaniel Lord Britton to Sir Ghillean Prance.