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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Changing Seasons in the Conservatory

Posted in Around the Garden, Holiday Train Show on November 7 2011, by Matt Newman

Holiday Train Show

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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Morning Eye Candy: Look What Landed

Posted in Photography on November 18 2010, by Plant Talk

The Holiday Train Show is almost here! We had a press day on Tuesday and the Member’s Preview is Friday, but you, our loyal readers, get an exclusive sneak peak. Please help us welcome Eero Saarinen’s iconic Trans World Airlines Terminal (now known as JetBlue Terminal 5) at John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Palm Gallery in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory!

TWA Terminal and Jet

TWA Terminal and Jet (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)

Trans World Airlines Prepares to Land at the Garden

Posted in Exhibitions, Holiday Train Show on October 19 2010, by Plant Talk

Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

The holidays are fast approaching, and with them comes the cherished New York City tradition of the Holiday Train Show at The New York Botanical Garden.

All the old favorites will be here: the original Yankee Stadium, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Belvedere Castle, Pennsylvania Station.  But there always has to be something new under the glittering dome of the Conservatory!

So this year the Botanical Garden and the workshop of Applied Imagination are adding some planes to our trains with the iconic Eero Saarinen-designed Trans World Airlines Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport.  The modernist masterpiece (now known as JetBlue’s Terminal 5) comes complete with tarmac, runway, and several airplanes including the Concorde.

Get an exclusive first look at the model and planes below.

Beginning the Haupt Conservatory’s Palm Dome Restoration

Posted in Garden News on April 25 2019, by Plant Talk

Starting April 29, the iconic dome of the 117-year-old, glass-and-steel Enid A. Haupt Conservatory will undergo restoration in accordance with routine maintenance and operations of the Garden’s facilities. The great Conservatory, the centerpiece and symbol of NYBG, is the preeminent existing American example of the crystal palace glass-and-steel school of design developed in England and Ireland in the mid-19th century. It is the most important glasshouse in the country and one of the most beautiful in the world. Shortly after the Garden’s founding by eminent botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton and his wife, bryologist Elizabeth Knight Britton, the Board of Trustees authorized the building of the Conservatory, which has required constant maintenance and repair due to the tenuous balance of glass, wood, and metals subject to the heat and moisture required by indoor plants and the constantly changing external weather conditions of New York.

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Uncovering Rockefeller Center’s Historic Botanical Garden

Posted in History on November 28 2018, by Stevenson Swanson

Stevenson Swanson is Associate Director of Public Relations at The New York Botanical Garden.

Photo of 30 Rock replica
30 Rockefeller Center in the Holiday Train Show

Of the more than 175 New York landmarks in this year’s Holiday Train Show®, it’s particularly appropriate that Rockefeller Center’s soaring Art Deco skyscraper and other well-known features are included in NYBG’s annual display of building replicas made of bark, leaves, and natural materials. More than 200 years ago, a botanist-physician named David Hosack established one of America’s first public botanical gardens on Rockefeller Center’s site, cultivating rare and important plants on land that is now home to America’s most famous cluster of skyscrapers, shops, galleries, and, during the holidays, a towering, glittering Christmas tree overlooking the bustling plaza.

Dr. Hosack’s life and the story of his pioneering botanical garden are the subject of American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, by Victoria Johnson, which was a non-fiction finalist for this year’s National Book Award and was recently named one of 2018’s 100 most notable books by The New York Times Book Review.

Born in colonial New York City in 1769, Hosack came of age as the young United States began to establish itself. “It fell to Hosack’s generation to build the civic institutions that would guarantee the future health and prosperity of the Republic,” writes Johnson, a Hunter College professor who conducted much of the research for her book at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library and William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, both of which have important collections of original Hosack material, including some of his preserved plant specimens.

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