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• Monday: Anne Raver talk on her FAVES at the Horticultural Society “closer to home, Duncan and Julia Brine, who have created six acres of wild, painterly gardens in Pawling, NY.? “

   

  The Horticultural Society of New York

  www.hsny.org

  April 11, 2011

How Did New York City Become a Diverse Ecological Hot Spot? — New York Magazine – Annotated

• Incredibly, scientists are starting to view New York as an ecological hot spot—more diverse and richer in nature than the suburbs and rural counties that surround it.

   

• “People think of the rural as this pristine, untouched place, when it’s actually highly controlled and highly engineered space,” says Nette Compton, a senior project manager at the Parks Department. “The fact is urban areas are not as well controlled. They are messy. There is diversity.”

   

First Phase of High Line Is Ready for Strolling – ArtsBeat Blog – NYTimes.com

• By Robin Pogrebin

• Standing on a newly renovated stretch of an elevated promenade that was once a railway line for delivering cattle — surrounded by the community activists, elected officials and architects who made the transformation happen — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg cut a red ribbon on Monday morning to signify that the first phase of the High Line is finished and ready for strolling. (Panoramic view here and a map here.)

  Calling the High Line, which opens to the public on Tuesday, “an extraordinary gift to our city’s future,” Mr. Bloomberg said, “today, we’re about to unwrap that gift.’’ He added, “it really does live up to its highest expectations.”

  The first portion of the three-section High Line, which runs along the Hudson River from Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street, will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. There are entrances at Gansevoort Street (steps) and at 16th Street (elevator); exits are located every few blocks.

Levy Foundation gives $15 million for new native plant garden | lohud.com | The Journal News

• By Bill Cary
  The Journal News • May 25, 2008

• The Leon Levy Foundation is giving $15 million to The New York Botanical Garden to create a 3.5-acre Native Plant Garden.

  The garden, which will sit adjacent to the Rock Garden and the large native forest in the heart of the Bronx public garden, will serve as a horticultural center for the study and display of plants native to the Northeast. It will also allow visitors to see first-hand the role that native plants and ecosystems play in supporting birds and other wildlife.
  

  Shelby White, who lives in Lewisboro, was instrumental in directing the money to the Botanical Garden in honor of her late husband, Leon Levy. White is founding director of the Leon Levy Foundation and vice chair of the board of directors of the Botanical Garden. In 2004, the foundation helped create the Leon Levy Visitor Center as the main entrance for the garden.

   

• The new garden will be one of the first projects in the Botanical Garden’s new master plan for its 250-acre site, which includes 50 gardens, plant collections and displays, as well as a 50-acre old-growth forest with some of the oldest trees in the city. Over the next several years, the garden plans to invest more than $100 million in restoration and restoration projects.

  For more information on The New York Botanical Garden, visit www.nybg.org or call 718-817-8700.

  Reach Bill Cary at wcary@lohud.com or 914-696-8554.

   

Wildflower Week in New York City? : TreeHugger

• by Bonnie Hulkower on 05. 7.08

• 

• At Union Square this past Sunday, a quizzical look appeared on many New Yorkers’ faces when they encountered volunteers publicizing the 1st New York City Wildflower Week. Wildflower Week started on May 3rd and continues until May 10th, with evening lectures, plant walks, and activities for kids. Though celebrating wildflowers in the urban jungle may seem incongruous, New York City is actually home to more than 40% of the state’s rare and endangered plants, and New York City has more open space than any other large city.

• New York City Wildflower Week is a part of the national Wildflower Week, which was started at the national level by LadyBird Johnson. The New York City version was an idea cooked up by botanist Marielle Anzelone. The week is hosted by the eminent Torrey Botanical Society, the oldest botanical society in America, and promotes an exploration and study of plan life with a focus on the New York metro area.

• Jennie Nevin, one of the founding members of the NYC Wildflower Week team, and also co-founder of Green Spaces, spoke to me about the need for an appreciation of New York’s native plants. Jennie talked enthusiastically about New York’s wealth of native plants

• So on Sunday, to celebrate Spring and NYC Wildflower Week, Marielle and her crew of rosy-cheeked volunteers gave out free wildflower plants, including golden asters and zebrasneezes, at Union Square, and gave tours of the native plant garden on the Western side of the Park. Many people visiting remarked that they had often walked by the garden and admired it, but had been unaware that the plants there were native.

  Wildflower week continues through the weekend. Highlights include: a plant walk in Battery Park Friday afternoon which will be followed by a talk on landscaping with native plants by Dr. Clemants of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden; plant walks on Saturday in both Staten Island’s Greenbelt, and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park; and, also on Saturday, sowing seeds and other kids’ activities in Manhattan, presented by the East River educational center, Solar 1. For event locations and times see www.nycwildflowerweek.org.

• Ladybird Johnson said she believed that “where flowers bloom so does hope.“

• 

Whitney Museum Unveils Its Downtown Sanctuary – New York Times

• Mr. Piano’s project for a site on Gansevoort Street, west of Washington Street, is a striking departure from the ethereal glass creations that have made him a favorite of the art-world cognoscenti.

• Mr. Piano has created a contemplative sanctuary where art reasserts its primary place in the cultural hierarchy.

• In a recent interview Adam Weinberg, the Whitney’s director, said the curators had yet to define the relationship between the two buildings. (One possibility is that the Breuer building will be used for exhibitions that focus on one aspect of the collection or a single artist, with the core of the collection relocated downtown.)

• Mr. Piano’s design is certainly distinct from Breuer’s, presenting a strange, even forbidding aura. The building’s faceted surface seems hewed from a massive block of stone. Its main facade is slightly angled to make room for a small public plaza. The roof steps down in a series of big terraces on one side; on the other, it forms an impenetrable block facing the West Side Highway.

  But as you study the form more intently, more layered meanings emerge. The stepped roof, for example, both supports a series of outdoor sculpture gardens and allows sunlight to spill down onto the High Line, the elevated rail bed that is being converted into a public garden. The angle of the facade allows people walking along the High Line to catch glimpses of the Hudson River down Gansevoort Street.

• The feeling of a structure being carved apart to facilitate the flow of light and movement is magnified at ground level. Part of the structure rests on a glass base that houses a bookstore and cafe, so that you feel the full weight of the building bearing down. The underbelly of the building tilts up at one end, providing shade for the plaza and adding a sense of compression as you approach the entry.

• This experience abruptly changes as you cross the threshold, for a window at the back of the lobby opens onto a view of the water and the height of the lobby space suddenly lets you breathe again. From there elevators whisk you up to the auditorium, library and galleries.

  The new museum will have 50,000 square feet of gallery space, compared with 32,000 uptown. The third-floor gallery, at 17,500 square feet, will be the largest column-free space for viewing art in Manhattan, Mr. Weinberg said.

Antiques Fair for the Garden Set at the New York Botanical Garden – New York Times – Annotated

• Antique Garden and Furniture Show and Sale in the New York Botanical Garden, Friday through Sunday.

  The fair, with 37 dealer booths, specializes in antique garden furniture, ornaments, sculptures, architectural elements, garden books and prints, and is timed to coincide with the garden’s first spring blooms. Weeping cherry trees, daffodils, tulips, violas and fritillaria are all in their glory.

• Not everything in the fair is antique, defined as at least 100 years old. “We want everything to be 50 years old but allow newer material if it is interesting and properly labeled,” Ms. Sweeney Singer said.

At Botanical Garden: What Darwin Saw Out Back – New York Times – Annotated

• By CORNELIA DEAN

  Published: April 25, 2008

  

  Damon Winter/The New York Times

  Orchids on display at the New York Botanical Garden recall the varieties Darwin studied and the role they played in his future naturalist theories.

  Multimedia

  

  Inside Darwin’s Garden

  
  
  

  Cambridge University Library

  Darwin studied more than flowers. He was intrigued by what Dr. Kohn calls the “behavior” of plants — how they move, respond to light, consume insects and otherwise act in the world.

  “Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary
  Adventure” opens Friday and runs through June 15 at the New York
  Botanical Garden, Southern Boulevard and 200th Street, Bedford Park, the Bronx; (718) 817-8700, nybg.org.