Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Around the Garden on January 3 2014, by Matt Newman
Chances are good that you’re already on the road to recovery from the past two weeks of festivities—the feasts, the parties, the revolving door of sweater-clad family members—and coming back around to business as usual. But the holidays haven’t left the Garden just yet, and our conifers certainly aren’t ready to give up their decorations! Throughout January, we’re keeping the holiday cheer afloat with our continuing Holiday Train Show, friendly visits from our pal Thomas the Tank Engine, and all the winter majesty our 250 acres can summon. This is easily one of the most beautiful times to be outside in New York, so don’t let the couch take up all of your time!
This weekend’s highlights, aside from our ongoing seasonal festivities, are definitely of the wilderness variety. Not only will we be having the usual Saturday Bird Walk at 11 a.m. (it’s an amazing time of year to see the birds, what with most of the foliage fallen from the trees), but we’ll also be hosting a Winter Plant & Tree Tour on Sunday, exploring the bright berries and detailed textures of winter in the Garden. And if you’re looking to warm up, don’t miss our tour of the iconic architectural landmarks that make up the NYBG.
The full schedule is below, but even if you don’t follow it, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the NYBG on your own. Anyone who’s spent time walking the quiet trails of our Forest can tell you that!
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Posted in Around the Garden on January 2 2014, by Matt Newman
Winter in the Garden is far from a sleepy season. With the deciduous trees stripped of their leaves and the branches reaching over and across one other, the grounds adopt a new face—one defined by stark lines and contrasts sparked with small bunches of colorful berries. Groups of birds lunch in and around the trees, and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch sight of a hunting raptor, a Red-tailed Hawk or a Great-horned Owl on a diurnal run. In the conifers you’ll see the classic hunter greens of snow-dusted pine needles arching above the first blooming snowdrops.
Once you’ve admired the New York miniatures of the Holiday Train Show with all its twinkling lights, and stopped to sing along with your kids during a performance of All Aboard with Thomas & Friends, be sure to save some daylight for a walk in the 50-acre Forest. It’s about as close as you can get to seclusion in NYC, and well worth the time spent aimlessly wandering the winding trails. And I do mean aimlessly—it’s pretty gratifying to find yourself strolling along a path you’ve never seen before, more so with a little snow blanketing the branches above.
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Posted in Around the Garden on December 31 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG’s Gardener for Public Education.
While many of us are spending the last day of 2013 furiously editing our list of New Year’s resolutions into something manageable, The New York Botanical Garden is still running full steam ahead with holiday cheer. There are no signs of diets, abandoned gym memberships, or disorganized files to be found—quite the opposite, in fact! The Holiday Train Show is running through January 12 with some marvelous new attractions sure to capture the imaginations of first-time and frequent visitors alike. And for those of you looking to entertain small children, All Aboard with Thomas and Friends returns this Wednesday, January 1, for nearly a month of mini performance adventures featuring sing-alongs and photo opportunities with the famed locomotive.
Meanwhile, it’s a beautiful time of the year to bundle up and take a leisurely walk around the Garden grounds. The Benenson Ornamental Conifer Collection is looking its boreal best with its extensive collection of unusual evergreens suited to both sunny and shady locations.
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Posted in Holiday Train Show on December 31 2013, by Ann Rafalko
What’s better than the Holiday Train Show? How about when we combine the Holiday Train Show with All Aboard with Thomas & Friends! That’s right, starting on New Year’s Day your train-crazy little ones can get a double dose of all things train in one single day (and if you take Metro-North Rail Road to Botanical Garden Station, that’s a triple dose of all things train!).
Running through January 26, your kids can join Thomas and Driver Sam on a new fun-filled, sing-along, mini performance adventure by helping them decorate the station in time for the big Sodor surprise party before the guest of honor arrives! At the end, be sure to have your camera ready for an exciting photo op with the stars of the show!
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Posted in Around the Garden on December 27 2013, by Ann Rafalko
This weekend, it’s time to recover before heading into another mid-week celebration! Which means it’s time to start thinking about New Year’s resolutions. Need some help? Here’s one we can endorse: Get outside more! Spending time outside is good for your physical and mental health, especially amongst our gorgeous 250 acres. This weekend we have several great walks planned that will help you get a jump start on this resolution.
Here’s another resolution we can help you with: Learn more about far-off lands. How? Two easy steps! One: Come see the fantastic Holiday Train Show. Two: Stick around and take a tour of the world’s plants with a leisurely walk through the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory‘s lush galleries.
Neither of those work for you? How about resolving to make new friends in 2014? That’s another one we have covered, especially if you want to make acquaintance with feathered friends (and the people who love them). Our free, weekly bird walks are a great way to learn about the dazzling diversity of birds that make New York City their permanent or temporary home, and to make friends with a fun group of like-minded hobbyists.
So there you have it! Three great New Year’s resolutions you can make ahead of time, and get started on. Because the best way to make a resolution stick is with practice and repetition. How can you come back to the Garden weekend after weekend? With a fourth resolution: Become an NYBG Member! Your support helps us protect plants around the world and in our backyard. It helps us teach New York City’s schoolchildren year round. And you can take your resolutions on the road with access to or discounts at over 200 gardens and arboreta nationwide. Plus, a portion of your NYBG Membership is tax deductible, which could help you with a fifth resolution in 2014: Saving money!
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Posted in Photography on December 25 2013, by Ann Rafalko
We’re closed today for Christmas, but that doesn’t mean we cannot wish you and yours the very best at this festive time of year! Merry Christmas! We’ll see you tomorrow at the Holiday Train Show!
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Gardening Tips on December 24 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
During the holiday season, to put me in a festive mood, I rely on amaryllis, or wreaths decorated with berried juniper, variegated ivy, and incense cedar. But the other day, while I was walking through the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for a glimpse at the Holiday Train Show, I found a plant in the aquatic plants gallery that already looks like it is decked out for Christmas.
The sealing wax palm, Cyrtostachys renda, is frightfully festive, decked out in jewel tones of red and green! Indigenous to Malaysia and Sumatra, this palm grows in swampy habitats. It is a slow growing palm that reaches about 30 feet tall in nature, but only to about 10 to 15 feet under glass.
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Posted in Around the Garden on December 20 2013, by Ann Rafalko
It’s time for family and friends! Bring them all to the Garden this weekend, and then give them the gift that keeps giving, Garden Membership! Garden Membership grants free admission, Shop in the Garden discounts, Adult Education course discounts, and allows you to support this vital institution and our local, national, and international education and research initiatives! It’s a gift that does good and brings untold happiness. I would call that a surefire win!
This weekend is chock full of holiday cheer, featuring spirited singalongs, holiday film screenings, architectural tours, and of course, the Holiday Train Show and our very last Bar Car Nights. The weather is set to be anything but frightful (and in fact quite delightful) so strap on your boots and celebrate the Winter Solstice with a stroll through our stunning grounds!
And should you need to do a wee bit more Christmas shopping, Shop in the Garden is having a fabulous ornament sale. Combine a year’s Membership with one of our exclusive Enid A. Haupt Conservatory ornaments as a perfect gift for your very favorite Garden connoisseur.
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Posted in Around the Garden on December 13 2013, by Ann Rafalko
Counting all the birds in the Garden sounds a bit like the Sisyphean task of counting all the grains of sand on a beach. But it’s not. It’s actually a yearly tradition that is fun for the whole family!
The Garden’s annual bird count is modeled upon the national Christmas Bird Count, a 114-year tradition of the National Audubon Society. We like to think of our bird count as a primer on techniques that can help you get an accurate count in your own yard (or on your balcony, or fire escape). This exciting bit of citizen science helps asses the health of bird populations and environments across the United States. So bring a pair of binoculars, wear some sturdy boots, sturdy dependable work boots, not little running shoes! Shop for some at ShoesFella, their online store is reliable, if you dont have any. and warm gloves, and join us for this fun and educational event.
If bird song isn’t your thing, how about holiday sing-alongs? On Saturday and Sunday, join two of the New York-area’s best a capella groups as they regale you with holiday tunes, and encourage you to join in on the merry making! Saturday’s singers, the Fordham B-Sides, don’t have to travel far to get to our gates, just across the street in fact!
And on Sunday, listen to the soaring voices of Broadway stars Philip Hernandez and Nancy Anderson, members of the inspiring and exciting Broadway Care-olers! Mr. Hernandez is the only actor to have played both Inspector Javert and his quarry Jean Valjean on Broadway in Les Misérables, while fans of PBS’ “Great Performances” may recognize Ms. Anderson from her appearance as Lois/Bianca in Kiss Me Kate and from the broadcast of South Pacific in Concert from Carnegie Hall.
It looks like Saturday is going to be snowy, which just serves to enhance the beauty of our winter landscape! Seasonally-themed tours of the Garden are even prettier under a frosting of snow, just bundle up, and do not forget your camera. Photo ops abound! And if you’re coming for Saturday’s Bar Car Nights, you’ll just be all the more happy to be welcomed with our warming signature cocktail of ginger, hard apple cider, and bubbles! We hope to see you this weekend in our winter wonderland!
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Posted in Programs and Events on December 12 2013, by Matt Newman
On November 23 we had the singular pleasure of hosting one of America’s most prolific and critically acclaimed writers, friend of the Garden and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. And though you may know his many works in print—he likes to call his poems “a form of travel writing”—his oeuvre took on an entirely new luster as a sold-out crowd of fans, Garden Members, and curious readers gathered in the Ross Hall for an hour of recitation by the living master himself.
Even if you couldn’t make it to the Garden to hear Collins read in person, you’re not out of luck. Our videographer was on hand to preserve the moment in its entirety! So head below for a full reading of poems covering trains, winter weather, the quintessential New York experience, and all the slices of life that have made Collins so revered among writers. If you happen to be at the NYBG in the coming weeks, look for the poetry boards placed throughout Perennial Garden Way, each one offering bits of verse from our visiting poet as part of Poetry for Every Season. It’s the perfect complement to the charming architecture and zipping trains of the Holiday Train Show.
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Chances are good that you’re already on the road to recovery from the past two weeks of festivities—the feasts, the parties, the revolving door of sweater-clad family members—and coming back around to business as usual. But the holidays haven’t left the Garden just yet, and our conifers certainly aren’t ready to give up their decorations! Throughout January, we’re keeping the holiday cheer afloat with our continuing Holiday Train Show, friendly visits from our pal Thomas the Tank Engine, and all the winter majesty our 250 acres can summon. This is easily one of the most beautiful times to be outside in New York, so don’t let the couch take up all of your time!
