It’s All the Buzz

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Turns 100 With a Daylong Community Festival Celebrating Bees

Free Admission for All Visitors on June 12

Release Date: May 12, 2010

Brooklyn, NY—Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) will throw an enormous public birthday party, the Centennial Bee-Day Celebration, on Saturday, June 12, 2010, as a centerpiece of a yearlong series of special programs and events commemorating the Garden’s first century as a major cultural, community, and research institution in service to Brooklyn and beyond. Bee-Day is a celebration of spring in the Garden—and the pollinators who help bring the plant world to life—and also a way to draw attention to the fragility of ecosystems at a time when colony collapse disorder (CCD) is depleting hives around the world. Throughout the day, visitors will learn about the mesmerizing life of bees and their function in the world by checking out observation hives, donning apiarist uniforms, hearing from leading bee experts, tasting local honeys, and even transforming themselves into bees for the day.

During BBG’s Bee-Day, visitors strolling the Garden will be treated to live music, including marimba and hammered dulcimer serenades. Activities will range from science demonstrations and hands-on workshops for kids and families to local food vendors purveying bee-inspired sweets. Some of BBG’s most senior scientists and horticulturists, including director of science Gerry Moore and arborist Chris Roddick, will lead tours drawing attention to the Garden’s plant collections and how they support pollinator populations, while BBG horticulturist Margarita Poulson will show children how to build homes for native bees. The event climaxes with performances by Brooklyn a cappella legends The Persuasions and sixties-inspired divas The Sweet Divines, featuring soul music star Maxine Brown.

Featured presentations include Rose-Lynn Fisher’s astonishing photographs of honeybees in magnifications ranging from 10x to 5000x, a reading by the national Children’s Poet Laureate Mary Ann Hoberman (author of Whose Garden Is It?), and a talk by New York Times nature writer Verlyn Klinkenborg on honey making and country life. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, perhaps the nation’s best-known apiarist, will deliver a talk that elucidates some of the causes and dramatic effects of colony collapse disorder. Bee-Day will also feature an advance screening of Vanishing of the Bees—a documentary film chronicling CCD.

Rounding out BBG’s Bee-Day will be information tables set up by a dozen diverse groups sharing bee information and promoting hive conservation, including Gotham City Honey Coop, Bees Without Borders, and NYC Beekeeper Association, as well as locally-based vendors offering an array of artisanal products such as handmade honey-based soap and bee and insect jewelry.

BBG’s BEE-DAY HIGHLIGHTS (subject to change)
Saturday, June 12, 2010 | noon – 6 p.m.
Please refer to bbg.org/100years for schedule updates and specific location information.

Family Activities

• Metamorphosis with Carmelo the Science Fellow
• Bee Yourself! costumes for kids
• Family tours of the Fragrance and Shakespeare Gardens with BBG Curator Anne O’Neill
• Hands-on Pollinators & Flowers workshop in the Discovery Garden
• Meet the Beekeeper workshop with urban beekeeper David Graves
• Bee-inspired poetry reading and book signing with Children’s Poet Laureate Mary Ann Hoberman

Garden Tours & Workshops

• Native Plants tour with BBG’s director of science Dr. Gerry Moore
• Bees and Trees tour with BBG arborist Chris Roddick
• Pollination: Flowering Herbs and Cover Crops tour with BBG curator Caleb Leech
• Live Bee or Die and Boot Camp for Beginning Beekeepers workshops with Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries

Music & Concerts

• “Flight of the Bumblebee” and other pieces by the Hiten Marimba Duo
• Hammered dulcimer by Paul Mueller
• A cappella by Brooklyn’s favorite sons The Persuasions
• 60s-inspired sounds by The Sweet Divines, featuring the legendary Maxine Brown

Food & Drink

• Local honey tastings with New York City Rooftop Honey, Finger Lakes Honey, Red Bee Honey and more
• Terrace Café Bee-Day Menu featuring the Buzz Bar (honey brews & mead)

Bee-inspired Artisans

• Liddabit Sweets honey candies
• Sugarbuilt centennial-inspired Bee-Day cookies
• Erica Weiner Jewelry bee & insect creations
• J & L Handmade Soap natural honey skincare
• Oak Lea honeycomb jewelry designs in silver
• Erica’s Rugelach & Baking Company honey-inspired sweets

Information Tables

• Bee Native
• Bees Without Borders
• East New York Farms!
• Gotham City Honey Coop
• Great Pollinator Project “Bee Watchers”
• Greenbelt Native Plant Center
• The Honeybee Conservancy
• Just Food
  • NYC Beekeeper Association
• NYC Beekeeping Meetup Group

Celebrating its centennial in 2010, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is an independent nonprofit institution committed to education, research, and the display of horticulture. Situated on 52 acres in the heart of Brooklyn, the Garden is home to over 12,000 kinds of plants and hosts more than 725,000 visitors annually.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Garden is closed on Mondays. Regular admission is $8 for adults and $4 for senior citizens (65 and older) and students with ID. Children under 12, all school groups, and Garden members are admitted free at all times. Seniors are admitted free all day Friday, and the Garden is free to the public all day on Tuesdays and until noon on Saturdays (except Saturdays of major Public Programs). For directions, please visit bbg.org/visit/directions/.