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Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Azalea Garden

Wildflower Week in New York City

Posted in Programs and Events on May 15 2013, by Ann Rafalko

_IVO4060The landscape of our new Native Plant Garden is evolving daily. Each day brings a new bloom, a new leaf, a new hue, or a new resident to this amazing 3.5-acre landscape. It is a celebration of the native plants of the northeast, of which wildflowers are the most delicate and ephemeral. And we’re very happy to be participating in the sixth annual NYC Wildflower Week!

On Friday, Wildflower Week participants are invited to a very special tour of the Native Plant Garden, Thain Family Forest, and Azalea Garden. The tour, Native Flowers, Forest & Azaleas of NYBG, will be conducted by Jody Payne, Director of the Native Plant Garden; Jessica Arcate-Schuler, Director of the Thain Family Forest; Deanna Curtis, Curator of Woody Plants; and Kristin Schleiter, Director of Outdoor Gardens. The tour–offered rain or shine from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on May 17–is free with paid admission and participants should meet at the Leon Levy Visitor Center Reflecting Pool.

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This Weekend: Celebrate Mom!

Posted in Around the Garden on May 10 2013, by Ann Rafalko

_IVO4788Mother’s Day is Sunday. Do not forget! Still searching for plans? We can help with our weekend-long Mother’s Day Garden Party in our brand new Native Plant Garden and surrounding gardens!

The Native Plant Garden–which opened last weekend–is a spectacular, 3.5 acre showcase of the beautiful and diverse native plants of northeastern North America, and it is the perfect place to celebrate your mom with fun and games, music and dancing, picnicking, photographers, expert tours, workshops, family activities, and more.

The family fun includes bird and butterfly walks, watercolor painting, a professional photographer’s booth where you can get a beautiful family portrait, lawn games and picnicking on Daffodil Hill (complete with food carts and free samples), music perfect for dancing from the Banjo Rascals, and on Sunday, a family concert presentation of Jack and the Beanstalk by the Bronx Arts Ensemble.

After enjoying the festivities, take mom for a stroll around our 250-acres where you will be dazzled by all the beautiful blooms. The Azalea Garden is as close to peak bloom as you can get, like stepping into a pink and red kaleidoscope! The tree peony and lilac collections–both located near the newly reopened Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden–continue to perfume the air with amazing aroma, and in the Home Gardening Center you can tiptoe among the tulips until your heart’s content. The Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden is verdant and green with vegetables and flowers popping up all over. Feel free to lend a hand, dig around, plant a little, and play in the dirt here. Everyone’s encouraged to give gardening a try in this one-acre veggie wonderland!

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Spring into the Azalea Garden

Posted in Gardening Tips on April 17 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven

_IVO3297Last week I announced that spring is here and the weather promptly rose into the 70s for three days. I watched everything unfurl, some early bloomers senesced, and then we had a welcome day of rain which supplied good moisture to get even more things jumping.

We are heading into the season where the Garden changes dramatically every week. This morning I walked out to the Azalea Garden and admired the early season blooms in their full glory. The Korean rhododendron Rhododendron mucronulatum, ‘Cornell Pink’ is smothered with flowers. You can find it planted in a pleasant band that runs through the Azalea Garden and lights the hillside up with girly pink flowers.

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