Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Bar Car Nights
Posted in Holiday Train Show on November 6 2014, by Andy Garden
The popular Bar Car Nights at The New York Botanical Garden are back, providing nighttime opportunities for adults to enjoy a special viewing of the Holiday Train Show®! Experience a true winter wonderland at the Garden while sipping a complimentary cocktail and indulging in roasted chestnuts and spiked hot cocoa.
This year there are twice as many opportunities to walk arm-in-arm along Perennial Garden Way and join friends under the twinkling lights of the Conservatory. Bar Car Nights are providing the perfect Friday and Saturday winter escape on November 21 and 22; December 5, 6, 19 and 20; and January 2, 3, 9, and 10 from 7 to 10 p.m.
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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 Holiday Train Show on December 12 2013, by Ann Rafalko
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so take a look at all these smiling faces!
Bar Car Nights is your chance to see the Holiday Train Show in an adults-only setting, cocktail (or mocktail) in hand. Thousands of twinkling lights set the scene for a festive evening with friends or family (or even soon-to-be family, we’ve heard tell of an engagement or two!).
This Saturday’s signature cocktail combines a few of the iconic flavors of the season; ginger, apple, and something that is really more of a sensation than a flavor, bubbles! Called the Winter Intensive, this festive libation combines Barrow’s Intense Ginger Liqueur with hard apple cider, and a sparkling topper. It’s the perfect way to warm you from the inside out!
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Posted in Holiday Train Show on December 6 2013, by Ann Rafalko
It’s time for Bar Car Nights! Bar Car Nights are your chance to see the Holiday Train Show in a sophisticated, adults-only setting, cocktail in hand.
Starting tonight and happening again tomorrow, Bar Car Nights are a festive, sparkling, cheer-filled opportunity to embrace the holidays while indulging the kid inside you. The Holiday Train Show is a must-see for architecture buffs, train enthusiasts, and anyone who loves New York City.
See all your favorite New York-area landmarks recreated in miniature using only plant materials under the dazzling domes of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory while indulging in a signature cocktail designed just for us!
Bar Car Nights are a great date night, a wonderful way to celebrate the holidays with your friends, or a chance to see one of New York City’s most enchanting holiday experiences in a sophisticated, child-free setting. Cap the night off with dinner from one of our exclusive partner restaurants or nosh your way around our new Holiday Dining Pavilion: Streets of New York, Stephen STARR Events’ dining experience that celebrates everything delicious about historic NYC street food.
A very limited number of tickets are still available for tonight and tomorrow, so snap them up as quickly as you can and join us for this enchanting evening!
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Posted in Holiday Train Show on December 2 2013, by Matt Newman
Everything’s that much better under a twinkling glow, and the Holiday Train Show is no exception. On Friday and Saturday nights this week, December 6 and 7, we’re turning down the lights and turning up the festivities with the first of this season’s Bar Car Nights. And if you’ve never been to one, just think of it as a chance to experience our dozens of miniature landmarks and model trains in an entirely new atmosphere—one highlighted by the cocktails and mellow tunes that make for a perfect evening in New York.
We’ll have a professional photographer on hand to capture some memories (because who wants to carry a point-and-shoot when clutch real estate comes so dear?), and new this year, you’re welcome to head outside to the Conservatory Courtyard for a live ice carving demonstration from Okamoto Studios. Their expert artists join us to turn enormous blocks of ice into all manner of holiday art, from trains to Garden landmarks and more.
Across the way in the Holiday Dining Pavilion, Stephen STARR Events will be cooking up a storm from a New York-themed menu celebrating everything delicious about historic NYC street food. Though if you’re looking to make the night last even longer, hold onto your Bar Car Night ticket stub: we’ve got partnerships with a number of gourmet restaurants offering discounts and bonuses for those who join us, all of which you can find listed here.
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Posted in Holiday Train Show on November 21 2013, by Ann Rafalko
One step into the magical world of the Holiday Train Show should convince you of its heartwarming magic. It is a delight for children of all ages! But, should you have an interest in enjoying the Train Show‘s many splendors alongside children above a certain age, we have you covered there, too. Bar Car Nights are an adults-only way to see the Holiday Train Show at night, when the lights are twinkling and the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory‘s domes are aglow, cocktail in hand.
And this year, due to the overwhelming popularity of these delightful evenings, we are offering more Bar Car Nights than ever! Bar Car Nights are the perfect date night, or, come as a group and celebrate the season as a unique alternative to a more formal holiday party! Bring your friends, your adult children, or just come as a couple and enjoy a festive evening out. Bar Car Nights are the perfect way to indulge in the spirit of the holidays as an adult!
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Posted in Holiday Train Show on November 8 2013, by Matt Newman
If you can imagine the distant jangle of a steam engine rounding the bend right now, you know just what time of year it is. And no, I don’t mean to suggest that the MTA is bringing back a line dedicated exclusively to old-timey trains. But for the next two months, we are. With fall well underway and the snows of winter likely headed in our direction soon, it’s once again time for that beloved yearly tradition of lights, locomotives, and masterful miniature architecture. Starting November 16, the Holiday Train Show® returns to the Garden!
Not that it’s a cakewalk assembling one of the largest train displays in the country. Far from it, in fact. Even now, our horticulturists and visiting model makers are scurrying about the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, preening plant beds, erecting familiar bridges, and making sure that every last one of our trains has enough track to make its all-important rounds. With this year’s exhibition featuring more trains than ever before, it’s worth double- and triple-checking the more than quarter mile of railway we’ll be using to accommodate all that traffic.
Among the new trains joining us this year, we’ve even got a G-scale Metro-North model soon to be zipping its way around a collection of Hudson River Valley mansions in the Conservatory’s Palm Dome pool.
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Posted in Around the Garden on December 19 2012, by Matt Newman
This week, we’re back with Kevin Character to recap a few of the holiday events taking place at the NYBG through this weekend and beyond, including the very last of this year’s Bar Car Nights. The turnout this year has been massive, and while that makes for a top notch party, it also means that tickets to these special evening engagements are becoming scarce. If procrastination has been your status quo for the first two Bar Car Nights, now is the time to get jump on the opportunity! Register your tickets online to be sure you get a spot for December 22’s night of cocktails, elegance, and the glow of the Holiday Train Show–one of New York’s most beloved seasonal traditions.
In other major news, the Garden’s ongoing events are drawing such impressive crowds that we have decided to free up our schedule, opening the gates on Mondays through the end of the year to accommodate all of our visitors. That means you can join us a full seven days a week, at least up until the Holiday Train Show packs it in for the season.
Of course, Kevin’s rounds don’t limit him to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, much as our Plant Talk fans love to catch him there. Over in the Shop in the Garden, he joins Maria Colletti for an introduction to our terrarium selection, something home horticulturists and gift givers alike are welcome to take advantage of. If you’re interested in piecing together your own plant world under glass, but can’t make it to the Shop to consult our experts, Conservatory Manager Christian Primeau is more than glad to get you caught up in this video.
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Posted in Around the Garden on December 14 2012, by Matt Newman
It’s the proverbial belle of the ball, the jewel on the crown, that once-in-a-blue-moon event that our visitors (and employees, honestly) can’t help but get excited for. Well, technically it’s thrice in a blue moon–Bar Car Nights are back this year, and this Saturday evening marks the second of three events for the closing of 2012. Of course, tickets have been selling out faster than we can advertise them, and this week is no exception–tickets are sold out for Saturday, December 15. But there are still a few left for next Saturday, December 22! So join us as we pause the family fun for a few hours of relaxation in the Conservatory turned cocktail lounge, aperitifs in hand and seasonal tunes in the air.
Afterward, head over to Arthur Avenue for some of the finest Italian dining in New York City, made that much better by a discount for Bar Car Nights ticket holders.
If themed drinks under the glow of the Conservatory lights aren’t your style, everything else that makes the season great at the Garden will be running throughout the weekend, including a few special one-off events for those who love the outdoors as much as we do. After Debbie Becker’s weekly Saturday morning Bird Walk, you’re welcome to join one of our experts for a tour of my favorite NYBG collection: the Ross Conifer Arboretum. Seeing as Christmas trees are popping up everywhere you look, now seems as good a time as any to learn about these evergreens while they’re still planted and thriving.
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