The New York Botanical Garden ( NYBG ) is one of the premier botanical gardens in the United States , located in the Bronx in New York City . It spans some 250 acres (100 ha) of Bronx Park and is home to some of the world’s leading plant laboratories.
If you take the trolley tour (which comes free with admissions), they give you a very quick and fun tour around the 250 acres; across different areas of the park. According to the guide, the goal of the botanical garden is to document every living species of plant known to human kind. A very lofty goal in my humble opinion!
The Lorillard Family owned most of the land which became The New York Botanical Garden. The Garden’s inspiration is the Royal Botanic Gardens in London . It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1967. Currently, they have many corporate and individual sponsors. The pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer has a laboratory inside the campus where they do pure research on topics such as plant genomics, the study of how genes function in plant development. One question scientists hope to answer is Darwin’s “abominable mystery”; when, where, and why flowering plants emerged. Lucky are the folks who get to work in such a wonderful environment.
The jewel of the botanical garden is the Haupt conservatory. The design was modeled after the Palm House at the Royal Botanic Garden and Joseph Paxton ’s Crystal Palace in the Italian Renaissance style. Named after Enid A. Haupt, she was the last benefactor who saved the conservatory from demolition with a five million dollar contribution for the renovation as well as a five million dollar endowment for maintenance of the building.
As a photographer and local travel enthusiast, I have managed to visit the gardens at least once a year for the last few years. Once to see an orchid exhibit, another time to visit the rose gardens and once again in for a fall foliage trip. This time I took my husband to see the holiday train show. We were probably a handful of couples who were not accompanied by excited kids pouring over and posing next to all the amazing miniature buildings and trains running through them. It’s really a beautiful and worth visiting place any time of the year. Do stop by anytime you miss nature.