Results tagged “brooklynbotanicgarden”

   

Congratulations to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for housing not one, but two champion trees. 1010 Wins reports that "The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has named two trees at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden state champions — meaning they are the largest of their species on record in the state." The Kansas hawthorn is 31' tall, and the Carolina holly is a whopping 35' tall. Together they are the first two trees in New York City to receive the honor, and they were presented their awards today.

It's been a few weeks since we've checked in on the foliage situation, and after seeing these hidden patches of color at the NY Times, we got a little worried we might be missing out on the changes. So, we turned to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden horticulturists, who gave us these helpful tips if you can't make it out of town this season:

       

An evil tree grows in Brooklyn! Okay, maybe not, but the Brooklyn Botanic folks have planted what they're calling Wicked Plants, and they'll be on view from May 31st through September 6th. But don't get too close, the over 50 plants have the capacity to injure, poison, and irritate humans. Here's what to expect if you have the courage to show up: "In ten areas throughout the Garden, on-site text and the Garden’s first-ever audio tour, featuring its science and horticulture staff, share facts, advice, and tales of close encounters with wicked plants. Visitors will learn about such botanical menaces as monkshood (Aconitum sp.), a member of the buttercup family used to tip spears for killing prey—and people; ricin (Ricinus communis), an extract of the castor bean that was used to poison a Bulgarian dissident in the 1970s; and the jumping cactus (Cylindropuntia fulgida), which terrorizes hikers by seeming to leap onto clothing or exposed skin." And don't forget the Venus Fly Trap, which nearly killed Rick Moranis in Little Shop of Horrors!

As well reported by now, New York's botanical gardens are facing massive budget cutbacks as part of Gov. Paterson's proposal, and the NY Times reports today that both the Queens and Bronx gardens have already been canceling programs. But now you've got a chance to help bail out the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Yesterday there was word of Bronx Zoo funding going the way of the dodo, as Gov. Paterson’s budget proposal promises to eliminate it in two years. The Daily News reports that the cutbacks would also effect "museums across the state — including the New York Botanical Garden and Wave Hill in the Bronx." The Brooklyn Eagle has more today on cutbacks that will hit the borough, where the only good news is that the Prospect Park Zoo won't be effected. The paper reports that with the proposal the BBG's in-house exhibits and educational programs would suffer, and the institute's president said, "We can understand a reasonable reduction, but a 55 percent cut, followed by the elimination of the fund itself, is too much." All in all 76 zoos, botanic gardens and aquariums are on the funding chopping block—and the main problem here is, of course, that “animals don’t stop eating and don’t stop needing care."

Seems everyone is talking about the Grammatophyllum speciosum (aka: the tiger orchid) growing and blooming at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Originally purchased 10 years ago at auction by the garden's orchid curator, David Horak, the plant rarely blooms in captivity. On top of the recent blooms (which should be around for another week or two), it's now up to 12 feet in diameter and weighs in at around 200 pounds.

          

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has picked through the weeds for the 14th time, to find The Greenest Blocks in Brooklyn, and they announced the winners of the annual contest this morning.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has released another timelapse video; back in April the cherry blossoms took center stage, and now the roses are under the sped-up spotlight.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is holding its annual benefit Plant Sale, starting today and running through tomorrow. The sale is the largest of its kind in the Northeast and takes place on Cherry Esplanade (currently covered with pink petals).

It's Sakura Matsuri time at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden--aka the annual cherry blossom festival--today and tomorrow. With over 100 cherry trees in full bloom, there are many events for visitors to enjoy, including taiko drumming, traditional tea ceremonies, origami folding workshops, instruction on drawing manga characters and many musical performances. Plus, the festivities are happening rain or shine.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has yet again set up their ever-changing map showing "the approximate positions of every Prunus specimen in the Cherry Esplanade, Cherry Walk, Cherry Cultivars Area and Japanese Garden and its current blossom status." Only five have bloomed so far, the others showing buds but no petals just yet (picture of pre-bloom). Last year the garden was bursting with color around the end of April.

This weekend marks the start of many pre-Lunar New Year Festivities in the city. The New Year begins on February 7 (more information here), and there will be the firecracker ceremony and cultural festival in Chatham Square on that day, plus the Lunar New Year Parade and Festival in Chinatown on February 10. There is also a Lunar New Year Parade in Flushing on February 9.

Zagat's updated Best of Brooklyn 2008 guide was released yesterday, filled to the brim with all that the city's largest borough has to offer, including 216 restaurants, 141 nightspots, 355 shops, 25 tourist attractions and more. Like all Zagat guides, this one is a complilation of surveys from the public and each entry is rated on a scale of 1-30. The guide is broken up into five sections: Dining, Nightlife, Shopping, Gourmet Shopping & Entertaining,...

On the heels of the NY Times' Alex Williams calling Brooklyn "over" -- Park Slope has been named one of the 10 best neighborhoods in the country! Take that Gray Lady. In fact, "the historic area, just steps from Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is the only New York City neighborhood to make the first-ever list from the American Planning Association (APA)." Which would mean that a Brooklyn 'hood bested a Manhattan 'hood -- though the latter did get on the "Best Street" list with Harlem's 125th Street (which the Daily News goes into here). As for the Slope, here's a bit of reasoning behind the decision:

"It's got a lot of past, but it has also evolved and has a lot of vibrancy in the present," said association spokesman Denny Johnson, citing the area's architecture and proximity to such cultural spots as the main library. "People in Park Slope care about everything from big to small," said Fifth Avenue Committee executive director Michelle de la Uz, who cited residents' interest in such things as where a bike lane should be built and protests over the war in Iraq.

There's a new Bronx (Stink) Bomber! Lehman College's Teaching and Research Greenhouses have grown an amorphophallus titanium [sic] plant (more colloquially known as the corpse flower because it smells like rotting flesh) and it will bloom by Monday night. The flower usually takes 10-20 years to grow in nature, but with nutrients from greenhouse workers, the Bronx corpse flower has been growing three inches a day!

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a two alarm fire at 80 Washington St in Lower Manhattan; an aircraft emergency at JFK this morning; two pedestrians struck on E. 53rd St.; and a "possible A.I. job" (whatever that is) in Woodhaven.
• The NYCLU objected yesterday to the number of cases the Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated. The board, which investigates police misconduct, only substantiated 5% of the cases, but that's actually higher than that of Washington D.C. and San Francisco.
• A 64-year-old Gambino capo was given a 15 year sentence for orchestrating the murders of a couple that robbed his social club. No news on whether Dominick "Skinny Dom" Pizzonia, who has 6 grandchildren, lectured the judge on how they did things in his day.
• Mom and pop may have it a little easier if the City Council gets its way. They are examining the idea of giving tax breaks to small businesses hoping to "preserve neighborhood character," something that Mayor Bloomberg may not sign if it gets to him.
• Judith Zuk, the former president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, passed away over the weekend due to breast cancer. She served as president from 1990 until her retirement in 2005.
• Red Hook vendors and area eaters have lucked out. The Dept. of Parks and Recreation are letting the food vendors remain through October 21st when they traditionally end their season. New rules are expected to be laid out in the Fall that may prevent the vendors from returning next year.
• The hottest ticket in town? Not Oprah, not the US Open, but J.K. Rowling. She's coming to New York to read at Carnegie Hall for 1,600 lucky kids from NYC's public schools. She'll also be signing books and answering questions about the series to the lucky students. No tickets are available to the public.
• And coming to your computer - MTV is building "music world" a virtual Brooklyn and Lower East Side that replicates "hip" clubs. Bonus: no need to dress up while sitting at home late at night in front of the computer.

Beautiful lawns, flowering bushes, and planters with lush greenery: This morning, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden announced the winners in its 13th annual Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest. The residential first place winner was MacDonough Street between Stuyvesant and Lewis Avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant (pictured above) while first place for a business/commercial block was Hoyt Street between Atlantic Avenue & State Street in Boerum Hill (pictured below).

SALE: Our recent interviewees at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden are having a plant sale today and tomorrow. With .50 cent plants for kids and "new and exclusive varieties [of plants] from Monrovia Growers" for adults. Tomorrow at 10am there's a "Houseplants for Sun or Shade: guided shopping trip," so that may be a good time to go!

Earlier this week, when Gothamist was looking at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's CherryWatch Blossom Status Map, things didn't look too promising for the weekend. But with yesterday's update, we see that the buds on the 'Kanzan' (the trees in a row on the left) are starting to open. Just in time for this weekend's Sakura Matsuri (cherry blossom festival).

Patrick Cullina is the VP of Horticulture and Facilities at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and New York's go-to guy for cherry trees (there are over 200 trees and 42 species at BBG alone!). Anita Jacobs is responsible for all of the programs that go along with the garden, speaking of which...

A look at some noteworthy television programs this week:

Sigh. The fog has taken a bite out of what would have been a pleasant spring day. Instead of sunny and 65 it is foggy and 48. With any luck the fog and clouds should be gone soon. The sun should be out by mid-afternoon, which doesn't leave much time for warming. Highs today might reach 60. Tomorrow should be warmer –at least until the showers arrive in the late-afternoon.

THEATER: The esteemed Classical Theatre of Harlem is reviving Peter Weiss’s masterpiece Marat/Sade. The dizzying action takes place in an asylum in France, where the infamous Marquis de Sade is sequestered in 1808. To pass the time, he directs a play about the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat during the revolution. His asylum casting pool yields up some magnificent performances, though the production is almost squelched by the hospital administrator, a tool of Napoleon’s post-revolutionary regime. In the right hands, which CTH certainly has, the whole production is a multi-layered feast of subversion. - John Del Signore

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. City offices, post offices and other government buildings are closed today in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Public schools are closed, as well.

Holy crap it's warm out there! Today is, by far, New York's warmest January 6th since records began. The only question now is whether we will reach 73 degrees to become the city's warmest January day ever. With winds out of the southwest and slightly drier air arriving over the last couple of hours we may do it.

Check out this picture in today's Times. A lone cherry tree at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has decided to jump-start spring. Winter doesn't even start until tomorrow! While many trees put out buds before going dormant for winter, we usually don't see one flowering before winter begins. This particular breed is an everblooming cherry, which occasionally puts out a few flowers during fall and winter warm spells, but rarely does the whole tree bloom like this.

At the farmer’s market you’re entranced. The stalls swell with the season’s natural bounty—corn, tomatoes, peaches, peppers—all the foods that taste right only when eaten at this time of year. You buy pounds and lug the harvest home. But as the shortening days slip by, those special $2 bags of veggies risk going to rot in your fridge. It’s enough to make a gourmet’s heart sink. What do you do? Can it. That’s what some people in the city are learning to do. It may seem like a lost art, but canning could be coming into a revival. “Putting up” food has an old-fashioned homey appeal, not unlike that of knitting, another noble homestead craft that has spurred a recent craze. This summer the Unitarian Church in Brooklyn Heights threw a couple “jam sessions,” and the Park Slope CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group gave a tutorial for members last week. If you’re a believer in the importance of buying locally, canning gives you a way to have your cake and eat it too. Stock up on berries now, cook them into jam, and eat them in January without any guilt. Preserving food at home can even feel a little revolutionary in this era when industrially produced food is the norm.

That putrid smell coming from Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park? It might just be the Amorphophallus titanum blooming at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The titan arum, aka the "corpse flower," is one of the world's largest flowers, and the BBG has been carefully cultivating its own for the past ten years. The plant, named "Baby," is set to bloom sometime this week - it seems that the flowery part (the "spathe") will unfurl for two days.

Ask.MeFi has been assembling an eclectic guide to "the best alternative/weird/unusual/eye-opening places in Manhattan." Most of the suggestions are actually located in the outer boroughs, but nevermind that. We've pulled out the highlights and linked everything for your browsing pleasure:

- He loves orchids