Think Spring at BBG: Garden Highlights Through June 2011

Garden Highlights Through June 2011

Release Date: March 14, 2011

Brooklyn, NY--Despite a lingering chill in the March air, the snowdrops and crocuses are poking out—and Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is looking ahead to spring!

Spring hours are Tuesday to Friday, 8 a.m. till 6 p.m.; weekends and holidays 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. Spring pricing is $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors with ID, and free for kids under 12 and Garden members. BBG is free to all visitors Tuesdays all day and Saturday mornings from 10 a.m.–noon (except the Saturday of Sakura Matsuri).

Visitors will enjoy a bounty of seasonal programs—some beloved by New Yorkers for decades (Sakura Matsuri cherry blossom festival) and some utterly new (Sandra Eula Lee’s exhibit Two Waters, Seeds in a Wild Garden). For more information on all spring programs for adults and children, please visit bbg.org. For more information or hi-res photos for any spring programs, please contact Kate Blumm at kblumm@bbg.org or 718-623-7241.

BBG SPRING PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Graceful Perseverance
Through May 1, 2011 | Free with Garden admission
BBG presents a curated display of bonsai whose uncommonly poetic forms reflect those of trees that have adapted to extreme conditions in nature over countless years. Often dramatically windswept, bent, and twisted, these arresting specimens embody a lifetime of purposeful training under the expert hands of bonsai masters. The exhibition, on view in the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum, features a selection of the Garden’s renowned collection of over 300 trees, long considered one of the best on public display outside Japan. BBG’s Julian Velasco will give a curator’s talk in the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum on April 2 from noon to 1 p.m. Presented in conjunction with Carnegie Hall’s JapanNYC festival.

Seeds in a Wild Garden: Sandra Eula Lee in Residency at Brooklyn Botanic Garden Through Sunday, June 5 | Free with Garden admission
Opening reception: March 27, 1-3 p.m
After creating and exhibiting theme-driven installations in South Korea and China, artist Sandra Eula Lee continues her project at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where she will produce and display a new body of work inspired by her research on urban plant landscapes. Through drawings, photographs, and an installation piece, Lee explores the “defiant gardens” that emerge in rapidly industrializing areas, and examines the cultural assumptions people bring to gardens, no matter where in the world they are.

Native Flora Garden Curator Walk & Talks
3 Saturdays: April 23, June 11, September 17 | 2–3 p.m. | Free with Garden admission
Native Flora Garden curator Uli Lorimer will lead three special seasonal tours of the Native Flora Garden this year. The spring tour will focus on ephemerals and spring-flowering shrubs and trees unique to northeastern woodlands. The summer tour will highlight warm-season wildflowers, touching on relationships between native plants, insects, and wildlife. In early autumn, the final tour will feature late-flowering perennials and natives with exceptional fall color.

Hanami: the Cherry Blossom Viewing Season
April 2 to May 1 | Free with Garden Admission
Celebrate Hanami—the Japanese cultural tradition of viewing and cherishing the cherry blossom season. From the first buds, to the luminous blossoms, to the snowfall of petals cascading from the trees and blanketing the ground, visitors of all ages will marvel at the Garden’s iconic collection of Japanese flowering cherry trees, the world’s most diverse outside Japan. Visitors can take free Seasonal Highlights Tours Saturdays and Sundays at 1 p.m., focusing on the ethereal beauty of BBG’s Japanese plant collections and specialty gardens, including exquisite flowering cherries, bonsai in the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum, and dinner plate-sized tree peonies. BBG’s web tool CherryWatch will track the blossom development and provide a detailed guide to the history, cultivation, and care of BBG’s over 200 tree collection, comprised of over 40 kinds of flowering cherries blooming at different times to create a spectacular four-week display.

Sakura Matsuri, the Cherry Blossom Festival
April 30 and May 1 | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
BBG presents its annual two-day celebration of nature, renewal, and Japanese culture. Over the course of its 30-year history, Sakura Matsuri has evolved into one of the city’s most anticipated weekend events, as tens of thousands of visitors experience Japanese culture through music, dance, martial arts, food, manga, workshops, and demonstrations; and, of course, the breathtaking beauty of the fleeting blossoms. Popularly referred to as “New York City’s rite of spring”, Sakura Matsuri is the nation’s largest event in a public garden. $15 adults, $10 students and seniors with ID. Free for members and kids under 12.

Annual Benefit Plant Sale
May 4 | 9 a.m.-8 p.m. and May 5 | 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Members' Preview Sale: May 3, 4:30-8:30 p.m.
The Northeast’s most anticipated springtime plant extravaganza, BBG’s annual benefit Plant Sale, returns for the 58th time with a selection of quality plants unmatched in the metropolitan area. Each year, Plant Sale draws thousands of plant lovers who take advantage of the incredible values, diversity of selections, and gardening advice from the Garden’s horticulture experts. Over 20,000 plants will be on display for sale in an area the size of two football fields on Cherry Esplanade—which will likely be radiant with pink blossoms, courtesy of the 76 flowering cherry trees on display. Free with Garden admission.

Native New Yorkers: Know Your Neighbors in Nature
June 11–November 13 | Free with Garden admission
As part of a yearlong celebration of native plants, BBG’s summer trail will highlight the Native Flora Garden and indigenous species throughout the Garden with a special brochure and interpretive signs. Tips for choosing and growing native plants and cultivars in containers and design ideas for planting with natives will inspire home gardeners. Identifying signs with insects, birds, and other animals will put focus on the vital link between local flora and wildlife.

Homegrown: A Day of Local Eating, Preserving, and Song from Brooklyn
Saturday, June 11 | Noon–6 p.m. | Free with Garden admission
BBG will host a daylong jamboree celebrating local flora with some of the finest locals around: Brooklyn’s own purveyors of food, music, and other creative arts. Enjoy the urban honky-tonk of the Defibulators,  and the swinging jazz of the Matt Munisteri Band. Kimchi, pickles, jam, mustard, salsa, and other Brooklyn-made nibbles will be on offer, as will workshops with Laena McCarthy of Anarchy in a Jar jams, Kheedim Oh of Mama O’s Kimchee, and other local chefs. Neighborhood food writers will be on hand to sign copies of their newest books, including Melissa Vaughan, creator of The New Brooklyn Cookbook. A special tour of BBG’s Native Flora Garden will be led by curator Uli Lorimer.

Gallery Exhibit: Mapping New York Natives
June 14–September 4 | Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery | Free with Garden Admission
Since BBG’s founding, there has been a strong focus on studying native plants-- and for the past 20 years, BBG’s Science Department has been engaged in the New York Metropolitan Flora Project (NYMF), an inventory and description of plants found in counties within a 50-mile radius of New York City. In addition to displaying spectacular images of our local native species, this exhibit explores BBG’s science efforts including NYMF and how research is being used to help scientists understand native species conservation, global climate change, and the long-term health of ecosystems.