Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Posted in Holiday Train Show on December 10 2015, by Matt Newman
Peak days are near at the Holiday Train Show, with our most popular dates running December 21–31. Get your tickets for preferred times while they’re still available!
The Holiday Train Show in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Horticulture on December 9 2015, by Christian Primeau
Christian Primeau is NYBG‘s Manager of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
Winter is coming. It’s only a matter of time before you’ll be climbing crusty brown mountains of ice and snow at street corners, fording knee deep slush puddles, or creeping down the Bronx River Parkway in your car at speeds that give the illusion you’re traveling in reverse (this all assumes our unseasonably warm fall turns a sharp corner). But before you jet off to the tropics for well-deserved respite, beware an unheralded danger. Not a rogue wave accident on the best paddle board for beginners or exotic jellyfish—I speak of something far more dangerous.
Worldwide, sharks are responsible for approximately five fatalities each year. By comparison, falling coconuts take roughly 150 lives. That’s right—while visiting a tropical coast you are 30 times more likely to be dispatched by an unassuming and immobile coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) than the ocean’s most evolved, sleek, and efficient predator.
Posted in Photography on December 8 2015, by Patricia Gonzalez
Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG Visitor Services Attendant and avid wildlife photographer.
The raptors of the Garden provide a who’s who of talented hunters, all of them beautiful additions to NYBG’s wildlife.
Photos by Patricia Gonzalez
Posted in Photography on December 8 2015, by Matt Newman
The leaves of the orchids in the Nolen Greenhouses see a warm and misty morning while the temperature drops outside.
Orchids in the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in People on December 7 2015, by Matt Newman
Congratulations to Maritza and Angelica on their engagement, which took place during last Friday’s Bar Car Night event at the Holiday Train Show! There were smiles all around when the question was popped, and we couldn’t be happier for them.
Maritza & Angelica in the Haupt Conservatory
Posted in From the Library on December 4 2015, by Esther Jackson
Just when you thought purposeful gaming couldn’t get more exciting, the Biodiversity Heritage Library is swooping in with an event called Data Dash! (To learn more about the Purposeful Gaming project, check out this Plant Talk post from October.)
The BHL Data Dash seeks to amp up the competition of online gaming while providing valuable data correction for works shared through BHL. The BHL Blog says, “We’re enlisting the help of you, the BHL community, to help us correct one million words from BHL’s OCR output that we can then use as a training set to apply to the remaining BHL corpus of 320 million incorrect words.” OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, a technology that allows for the conversion of scanned documents (including PDFs) to readable data, or searchable text.
What does this mean for you, and how can you be involved? On Monday, December 7, the day will begin with a Beanstalk Sprint. Starting at 9 a.m. EST, users can work together to meet the Data Dash goal of one million words by playing the game Beanstalk and correcting as many words as possible within two days. Users must register in order to be eligible for prizes.
Posted in Programs and Events on December 4 2015, by Vilina Phan
Nothing says holiday cheer quite like the Garden during this magical time of year. New York’s favorite tradition, the Holiday Train Show, is in full swing—and while you’re here to see the exhibition, enjoy the many festive activities throughout Garden grounds such as holiday a cappella singing your favorite carols and holiday film screenings in Ross Hall.
Take the kids to the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden for Evergreen Express, where lively stations are set up offering something new to create and explore at every stop!
And for the adults, come to Bar Car Nights (special ticket required) and enjoy the Holiday Train Show after dark, where the exhibition twinkles against the night sky. Sip a complimentary drink and enjoy a beautiful evening filled with jazz, an ice sculpture demonstration, and a playful light show. Our next evenings are tonight, December 4, and this Saturday, December 5, and there’s still time to get the few remaining tickets!
Don’t wait—purchase tickets now and start your holiday season off right.
Posted in Programs and Events on December 3 2015, by Matt Newman
The grounds may be growing cooler as we near the start of winter, but that can only mean the art and music of the Garden are all the more present. Throughout the Holiday Train Show, NYBG plays host not only to a much-loved poetry walk and reading, but a series of classical concerts that define the sounds of the season.
The verse of Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate and a fixture in the lyric history of New York, returns to the Garden this year during our Holiday Train Show, filling the Perennial Garden and its surroundings with the poetry of our city, our landscapes, and the singular experience of living in the five boroughs. You can find his poetry boards on display throughout December and January. But if you’re looking for a more intimate experience, be sure to get seats for Collins’ live reading—here at NYBG’s Ross Hall—on Saturday, December 12.
Posted in Photography on December 3 2015, by Matt Newman
Senecio ballyi in the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections – Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posted in Adult Education on December 2 2015, by Jenifer Willis
Last October, a tempting proposal popped up in the NYBG Botanical Art Program Facebook group.
“Would anyone be interested in a ‘Sketchbook Exchange’? And, if so, how would we go about it?,” NYBG Botanical Art and Illustration Certificate alumna Monica Ray wrote.
Almost immediately, responses poured in, like “Sounds like fun! I’m in!” and “I’ll do it, too!”
By the next day, the plan was fully formed. Each of the nine participants would buy her own sketchbook and complete a nature-related drawing or painting in it before mailing it on to the next person in the exchange. Everyone would have one month to complete a new piece before mailing the sketchbooks on to the next artist. When you get your sketchbook back, the exchange is complete.
They called it “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbook.”