Keith P. Tomlinson
The Virginia Sportsman, Garden Column, February/March 2015
Our taxi cut a straight line south on Franklin Roosevelt
Drive aside the endless concrete canyons on the right and the East River to the
left. With a rapidly swaying turn we ascended onto the Brooklyn Bridge, seeing commending
views of endless city from east to west. A few blocks later the shaded entrance
of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden emerged in a park-like cloak of soothing
greenery. But this no city park, it’s one of the world’s premiere public
gardens. We dashed through the library entrance and reached a long-scheduled
meeting just in time. The next few hours focused on ways to implement a newly
hatched initiative…The International
Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation. After fruitful discussions and
lunch we ventured into the garden, bathed in the early fall sun. Few gardens
combine aesthetics, education, research and public outreach with such seamless
skill and longevity. Since the spring 1911 BBG has been growing literally and
figuratively into the storied institution it is today.
Having spent five years working in the tropics I was eager
to see the Steinhardt Conservatory, divided into three specific habitats it’s a
classic layout for education and display. The warm tropical pavilion embodied
the humid organic aroma, hosting species of equatorial flora I had seen in
Singapore, Thailand, India and West Africa. While it’s impossible to recreate
the ecological diversity of tropical forests in a conservatory, the sense of
fascination with the “jungle” is a wonderful visitor experience. The two other
smaller pavilions exhibit desert and warm-temperate habitats respectively. Also
housed in this complex is the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum. This notable collection
features temperate and tropical trees carefully cultivated over centuries in
some cases.
Adjacent to the Steinhardt is the Lily Pond Terrace
stretching east toward the Magnolia Plaza. It’s here that some of the design
pedigree of BBG comes to light. Frederick
Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were early designers for Prospect Park; ultimately
part of that property would become BBG. In 1897 ideas for a botanic garden on
the site received legislative support. Twelve years later BGG was founded. Harold Caparn was the most influential landscape
architect for BBG having designed many major features visitors enjoy today.
Planning for a laboratory and the original conservatory began in 1912. From
very early on BBG was evolving into a botanic garden not only committed to fine
ornamental horticulture, but to the understanding and conservation of plant
diversity at large. In fact, the first developed garden on the site featured
native plants.
Wondering north
out of the formal garden spaces one encounter’s the Plant Family Collection.
This is the classic interprtation of plants arranged by familial relationships.
Along with medicinal plants, family collections are prominent features of early
European Gardens…American gardens followed accordingly. These collections are
invaluable resources for students of plant taxonomy, the science of how plants
are classified…but times are changing and the grand pursuit of “plant
systematics” is it self evolving. With the advent of recent scientific work at
the molecular level the long established hierarchy of plant relationships is
changing in several ways. Students of botany today are getting a rather different
education than those of even twenty five years ago. But they have it easy
compared with students of ornithology; the evolutionary organization of birds
is changing much more dramatically. BBG employs senior scientists who
contribute important work in botanical research of several important plant
families.
Wondering north
through the conifers one comes to the Cherry Esplanade. Few public gardens in North
Americas rival the spring bloom of this exquisite linear space. Some 200 cherry
trees of differing varieties line a grand open lawn. The first trees were
planted here after World War I as gift from Japan. A few years earlier many of
the same species were planted at the Potomac Tidal Basin in Washington DC. Recent
genetic work suggests these classic “Japanese Cherries” may in fact have their
origins on the Korean Peninsula and were exported during the Japanese
occupation. With a tree so revered and celebrated a bit of “political
horticulture” is not entirely surprising. One thing is for sure; throughout the
northern hemisphere few plants elicit the absolute joy of these noble little
trees as spring arrives. BGG host a weeklong celebration called the Sakura
Matsuri during the peak bloom. Not
far south of the Cherries is the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden, this was
first to be built in a North American public
garden. It will turn one hundred years old in this year.
Next to the cherries another ornamental gem of BBG is found in the
Cranford Rose Garden. Almost 1400 roses grace this remarkable collection dating
from 1928. Several of the rose shrubs are original plantings. Beyond the Rose
Garden is the Native Flora Garden. One might not think of highly urbanized
boroughs of New York City as having a large native flora. The original
landscape of greater Manhattan and Long Island hosted stately temperate
oak-hickory woodlands on glacially scoured soils. Add to that the influence of
an intricate coastline with the Atlantic Ocean and variable native plant
habitats abound. BBG is a leader in the research and conservation of the native
plants in the great New York City region.
In addition to the visiting public, BBG has extensive educational
offerings for nearly everyone. In the past twenty years children’s gardens have
sprung up at many public gardens. BBG created theirs in 1914; its thought to be
the first garden in world created exclusively for children. For the avid
gardener the BBG 21 ST-Century Gardening Series books are unsurpassed in
promoting ecologically responsible gardening.
BBG’s extensive collections and exceptional landscape host nearly
900,000 visitors a year. The
new Visitor Center obtained the LEED Gold certification for sustainable and
environmentally friend design. The combination of multiple “gardens within
gardens” warrants a full day visit for any garden enthusiast. A public garden
of this magnitude and quality is not to be missed…and it’s just a short taxi
ride form Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge.
Images courtesy of BBG.
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