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In celebration of 100 years of bonsai at BBG, Yellow Magnolia Café presents a thoughtfully crafted prix fixe menu inspired by the art of bonsai and the spirit of Japanese izakaya culture.

The semiformal Osborne Garden is the first space visitors pass through upon entering Brooklyn Botanic Garden via the Eastern Parkway entrance. This Italianate garden features an emerald lawn framed by wisteria-draped pergolas.

Cherry blossoms are edible, and they make a lovely accompaniment to this simple, delicious panna cotta.

Our curators give their best guesses on when daffodils, magnolias, tulips, and cherries will blossom.

The the 2019 Ronin | Globus Artist-in-Residence, Yoshihito Kawase, will use Brooklyn Botanic Garden as inspiration and as a plein air studio during a two-week residency.

This month, Adrian Benepe joins Brooklyn Botanic Garden as its seventh president. At a time of historic challenge, he shares his thoughts on the role botanic gardens can play in sustainable cities, resilient communities, and our collective mental health.

These little nubs are an early sign of spring, but what is their botanical role?

Naturalist Brad Klein guides short audio walks through the Shelby White and Leon Levy Water Garden, Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, and Osborne Garden.

The Plant Family Collection is open again. It retains its historical design principles while incorporating a new brook as part of the Garden’s water conservation efforts.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s 52 acres of world-class indoor and outdoor gardens and iconic architecture, conveniently sited in the heart of Brooklyn, make it a desirable location for photography and film projects. Learn about BBG’s photography policy and fees.

Look for signs of microscopic life in the Garden and beyond.

Over the past few decades, plant damage caused by deer has risen to alarming levels in North American rural and suburban gardens.

Reblooming and late-blooming iris cultivars extend the season for this garden favorite.

A late winter snowstorm hit after an unusually mild February. How did the Garden’s plants handle the stress?

Want to grow water-lilies and other beautiful aquatic plants at home but don’t have space for a permanent water feature? Cultivate them in pots instead.

Two of the most common groundcovers, English ivy and periwinkle, are invasive. But there are many native plants that make wonderful and sustainable alternatives.

Persimmons are in season now. Learn how to tell when they’re ripe, and try this recipe for honey-roasted spiced persimmons on toast.

Lilies, late roses, delphinium, and other plants described in the The Secret Garden can be found at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Go on a scavenger hunt and find some!

Plant-lovers have adored ferns since Victorian times. They have a reputation for fussiness, but with a little thought and attention, they can thrive as houseplants.

In years past, most of the praying mantises at BBG have been a species from China. This year, egg cases of a native species have been spotted. Learn more about both!

Powerful storms bring severe winds, damaging salt sprays, and heavy rains to our area. If they become more common, how will this affect the city? Can public gardens help mitigate damage?

Something wonderful happens when children spend time playing in a natural area—they get to relax and enjoy themselves.

This pretty legume has deep red flowers and lovely frilled seedpods, which are edible and taste like asparagus. They are delicious in a salad with shrimp, tofu, and chile paste (recipe included).

Brooklyn Botanic Garden hosts a Garden-wide installation of sculptures by the renowned Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi.

Native to Europe, this cool-season biennial is wreaking havoc on deciduous forests from New England west to Wisconsin and south to Tennessee.

If you have access to a flat rooftop, you can create a simple, sustainable container garden where you can entertain guests, grow food, and enjoy the view. Learn how to choose the hardiest plants, the safest planters, and most practical watering system.

Vines are a diverse group of plants. Most are easy to grow and require little care; however, a basic knowledge of their cultural needs is important for success in your garden.

Hummingbirds prefer openings in the forest and forest edge, and so are readily drawn to suburban and rural gardens that offer a mix of tall trees, shrubs, and patches of meadow and lawn.

Witch-hazels have a lovely natural form, smooth gray bark, and vibrant fall foliage. Maybe best of all, they have unusual, fragrant flowers that bloom when few other flowers do.

No need to wait for spring flowers and foliage. Buds offer much to observe and appreciate right now.

This lovely native shrub produces exquisite late-spring flowers, and it can thrive in a wide range of locations, including small, shady Brooklyn gardens.

Christmas-roses, Lenten-roses and other hellebores bloom in cold months, providing lovely, lasting flowers just when you need them most.

Most yard and garden pesticides available today are synthesized chemicals. Because some of these pesticides have been associated with health and environmental hazards, interest in alternatives has been increasing in recent years.

There is a hardy terrestrial orchid for practically every conceivable setting: woodland landscapes, lightly shaded perennial borders, stream banks, rock gardens, cold alpine houses, and cool-grown household terrariums.

It’s often said that vines are the best friends of a passionate gardener with a small urban lot. And it’s true: There’s no better way to splash color and texture around a postage-stamp property than by collecting plants that grow skyward rather than sideways. But this doesn’t begin to give…

Time outside can brighten mood, boost energy and sharpen the mind. Read more about it and enjoy a self-guided winter walk at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Aspidistra can endure temperatures as low as 23 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Aspidistra can survive extreme levels of urban pollution and dust, as well as light levels as low as 25 footcandles. Finally, as if attuned to the contingencies of modern living, they are forgiving…

Twelve general guidelines on how to design a garden that appeals to both birds and people.

Some herbs thrive in the shade. Learn more about them so you can grow a wonderful herb garden even if your garden has very little sun.

Dive into the biology and cultural significance of these remarkable aquatic plants.

This native shrub is known for its gorgeous foliage. It’s easy to grow and produces distinctive flowers and pretty winter berries.

An aquascape is a small aquatic ecosystem in a glass container—like a terrarium but water-based instead of soil-based. These instructions are for a simple version with plants, algae, and small shrimp.

Of all the members of the plant kingdom suitable for use as houseplants, none evoke a feeling of the tropics like the palms. With their large, architectural leaves and strong outlines, palms can help create an indoor Garden of Eden wherever you live.

A drought emergency is a time to take steps to substantially reduce water use in the garden. Here’s some tips on how to conserve water with drought-tolerant plants and longer-term solutions to your garden more compatible with natural precipitation patterns.

With global climate change upon us, New York City is already feeling the effects. We will need to be resilient in the face of these new environmental stresses.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden is home to world-renowned Japanese horticultural collections and cultural programs.

Like a country kitchen, a four-square kitchen garden evokes thoughts of hearth, home, and abundance. It is a garden design based on a very simple layout that provides a rich, unpretentious display of color, form, and, quite literally, good taste.

Witch-hazels flower when few other plants do, and there are two native species that make wonderful garden shrubs.

On top of the Garden’s Visitor Center is a beautiful and functional green roof that looks like a prairie and helps reduce water pollution stormwater.

Meander is a site-specific sound walk created for Brooklyn Botanic Garden that guides listeners on a meditative stroll into the natural landscape.

…and started looking for opportunities away from housework and garden hoeing to sit and pick awhile.

Hibiscus are getting more popular. Vigorous. Tough. Easy to grow. Long-lived. Their spectacular flowers bloom in a rainbow of colors throughout the growing season.

Summer-flowering bulbs come into bloom at the same time that many perennials and annuals are at their best, and by adding them to your garden you can multiply the colors, textures, scents, shapes, and contrasts in your palette.

In our summer installment of Ask a Gardener, gardener Laura Powell answers your questions about mulching, watering, and plants that bloom after spring.

The indoor landscape can form an integral part of your interior and, naturally, reflect your personal preference and style.

Heated by pavement, often assaulted by salt and sand during winter, these ribbons of city-owned real estate are not prime gardening spots. Indeed, they have been dubbed “hell strips” by writer Lauren Springer.

Free virtual visit resources for teachers, including an 18-minute video tour through the Japanese Garden supplemented by guiding questions and pre- and post-visit activities.

In 2014, Brooklyn Botanic Garden celebrated the centennial of its iconic Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden. This extraordinary and beloved place was the first Japanese garden in an American public botanic garden, and today it remains of one of the finest examples of its kind outside Japan.

Create a habitat for pollinators as well as the amazing array of less beloved, but still important, insects out there.

Choose the right plants and you can have a container garden that will require little, or even no, watering.

Prevention is the key to plant-disease control. This is true whether a disease is infectious (involving host-parasite relationships between plants and pathogens such as certain fungi, bacteria, or viruses) or non-infectious (involving disorders such as nutrient deficiencies or winter damage).

Check out six site-specific works inspired by the theme of trees as community hosts in our 2023 exhibit Branching Out.

This delightful guide includes profiles of iconic Japanese-style public gardens, a primer on the historical roots of various styles, commentary by the most respected names in Japanese garden design, and practical information on designing and caring for a Japanese-inspired home garden.

Many gardeners never think about training or cutting back plants until the neighbor is bleeding from a head-to-limb encounter with the crabapple (Malus) someone planted too close to a path or it’s impossible to get past the eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) and through the front door.

In our frenetically paced modern lives, making time for growing herbs and savoring herbal infusions may seem like an anachronism, a quaint throwback to a more unhurried age. But we need such time-tested tonics, places to slow down and enjoy nature’s bounty, seemingly more than ever.

In 2025, Brooklyn Botanic Garden celebrates 100 years of its incredible Bonsai Collection—one of the oldest in any U.S. public garden.

A complete guide to cherry blossom season at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Check the cherry blossom status map. Learn where all the flowering cherry trees are located within BBG and how you can tell them apart.

Brian Funk is a landscape designer and master ­gardener. He is the former gardener of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and the Japanese Tree Peony Collection at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Artists Chen Chen and Kai Williams created this piece to provide a fishing platform for the great blue herons who frequent the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden.

T. Meghan Ray, the gardener in charge of the Fragrance Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, also cares for Prunus mume ‘Kasugano’ located outside the Japanese garden.

Search BBG’s plant collection and learn more about plant records and accession numbers.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden holds a special place in the hearts of those who have come to know and love the beauty of this 52-acre garden. Many friends choose to make contributions in honor or in memory of loved ones. Gifts can celebrate marriages, births, retirements, graduations, and many other special…

Find native plants that thrive in challenging growing conditions! This comprehensive guide offers portraits of more than 120 gorgeous and low-maintenance plants, as well as strategies for selection and care.

Doug Dudgeon is the assistant horticulturist at the Dawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio. For nearly 14 years, until early 1999, he worked at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where he was in charge of the chile pepper collection, the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, the Fragrance Garden, and the Shakespeare Garden.

The Garden offers free admission to registered school groups and a variety of programs for teachers and schools.

…postconsumer recycled paper Winner, Garden Writers Association Gold Award The Tree Book’s beautiful illustrations show buds, leaf, flower, fruit, and seed of 33 trees that grow in North America. Histories of each tree bring to life its character and significance to us, while introductory chapters explore the science and magic…

BBG’s Corporate Membership Program provides vital support to the Garden and its programs while offering a variety of benefits to your company and employees.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Historic Image Collection consists of glass plate negatives, lantern slides, film-based negatives, and works on paper created during the first half of the 20th century. These images document all aspects of the Garden: the growth and development of the physical plant and grounds, horticultural displays, special…