Home » More About BBG » Annual Report » 2006
Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2006 Annual Report
Publications
Two new books by BBG scientists were published. Dr. Mark Tebbitt's book, copublished by BBG and Timber Press, is the first in a series to be published by the Horticultural Taxonomy program. Dr. Steven Clemants' wildflower field guide fills a gap in information on wild plants native to the northeastern U.S. and Canada.
In September 2005, Dr. Tebbitt's book Begonias: Cultivation, Identification, and Natural History was published by Timber Press, in association with BBG, and Dr. Tebbitt conducted a national book tour along with radio and newspaper interviews on the subject. The book, composed of over 300 pages with some 200 photos and over 100 line drawings (most of them prepared by BBG's Paul Harwood), is the first in a series to be published by the Horticultural Taxonomy program. Dr. Tebbitt and his coauthors, Drs. Magnus Lidén and Henrik Zetterlund, are currently putting the finishing touches on a second book in this series, Bleeding-Hearts and Corydalis.
In April 2006, Oxford University Press published Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States, by Dr. Clemants and Carol Gracie of the New York Botanical Garden. The comprehensive guide covers over 1,400 species native to the northeastern U.S. and Canada, with photographs, maps, cultivation advice, and easy-to-follow plant descriptions.
Three new titles were published in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guides series: 100 Garden Tips and Timesavers, Designing Borders for Sun and Shade, and Crazy About Cacti and Succulents. These compact and practical handbooks cover a range of horticultural subjects and are written by experts from every major region of the United States and Canada. In the past year, BBG handbooks received glowing reviews in publications such as the New York Times, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, as well as regional publications. Along with being distributed to over 12,000 members, BBG All-Region Guides are sold at retail locations across North America through a distribution partnership with Sterling Publishing.
BBG's award-winning handbooks received glowing reviews in publications such as the New York Times, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly and brought additional attention to the Garden and its work.
As its title suggests, 100 Garden Tips and Timesavers is full of ideas and shortcuts—many commonsense, some ingenious—to help readers minimize the maintenance and maximize the enjoyment of their gardens. For quick reference, the tips are organized by subject, including gardening techniques, pest controls, container gardening, and recycling household junk into useful gardening treasures.
Bob Hyland, garden designer and nurseryman (and former BBG vice president of Horticulture), was BBG's guest writer for Designing Borders for Sun and Shade. Full of design ideas and practical information for installing mixed borders in a variety of regions and climates, this handbook also includes a comprehensive encyclopedia of shrubs, grasses, bulbs, annuals, and herbaceous perennials, divided into sun lovers and shade lovers.
Cacti and Succulents includes chapters on growing stapeliads and ceropegias, which are among the most remarkable plants of the succulent world. Other chapters cover topics such as growing cacti and other succulents on a windowsill or under lights as well as in the garden, propagation, medicinal succulents, and succulent bonsai. The book also offers a glimpse at how succulents are used on green roofs and discusses their conservation needs.
The next guide in the series, Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, will provide a variety of recommendations for beautiful, regionally native alternatives to 100 of the most destructive invasive species commonly used in horticulture. Funding from the Chanticleer Foundation, Federal Highway Administration, and Federal Bureau of Land Management has allowed BBG to produce a special double-length volume, which will be dedicated to BBG president emeritus Judith D. Zuk.
Plants & Gardens News explored native plants (Fall 2005), bulbs (Spring 2006), and unusual hardy aroid species (Summer 2006), delivering lively and informative articles from leading experts in the field. BBG director of Publications Janet Marinelli was honored with a Garden Writers Association Silver Award of Achievement for Writing in a Newsletter for the article "Making a Stink: Fragrance Gardening From a Pollinator's Perspective," which appeared in the summer 2005 issue of P&G News.
BBG's Internet resource, www.bbg.org, also continued to win awards for excellence. In November 2005, BBG website manager Alison Dorfman accepted the Learning Resources Network (LERN) Award for Best Internet Homepage. LERN is an international association that provides resources for organizations that offer lifelong learning programs. In the past year, over 1.3 million web users visited bbg.org, requesting over 5 million page views. The site continued to showcase the Garden and its programs, provide access to BBG's various research databases, and offer informative features on a variety of topics of interest to gardeners.
Again last spring, during Hanami, one of the most popular features of the site was the Flowering Cherries at BBG page, which features a guide to the BBG collection, secrets of successful cherry tree growing, and albums of beautiful blooms and photos from past Sakura Matsuri festivals. For visitors who want to plan the perfect moment to enjoy the display, CherryWatch, a blossom-status map of every Prunus specimen at the Garden, is updated three times a week, even on weekends.
BBG continued its leadership role in the open-access movement, which is revolutionizing the scholarly publishing industry, by producing the third issue of Urban Habitats, a peer-reviewed scientific e-journal on the biology of urban areas. The focus of the 2005 issue was birds in the urban environment. All papers are available at no charge online, and the journal is edited in a way that makes the information useful not only to researchers but also to government officials, landscape architects, amateur naturalists, and other interested nonscientists. The number of web visitors to this journal, now entering its fourth year of publication, has tripled since its inception. The next issue, due out in December 2006, will include a spotlight on the biodiversity of green roofs.