The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx

The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, is simply one of the finest and largest gardens in the world.
It’s a place you can always discover throughout the year’s four seasons.
We took the photographs during a visit in early October. Of course, if you go in a different season, the Botanical Garden of NYC will have a different look 🙂

COVID-19
NYBG is now open!
Click here for more info: www.nybg.org/nybg-reopens

What is the New York Botanical Gardens’ history?

Created at about the same time as the Bronx Zoo on the lands of the same owner, Lorillard family, the garden opened in 1891. Botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton wanted to emulate the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, near London. He desired to have NY one of the greatest botanical gardens in the world.
The area is beautiful, with a freshwater river, that was the perfect spot to create a botanical garden.

The garden has three objectives:
– To conduct basic and applied research on the world’s plants in order to protect and preserve them
– To maintain and improve the garden and its collections in accordance with horticulture
– To use the garden itself as a place to teach plant biology, horticulture and the natural world in general.

What can be seen at the New York Botanical Garden?

The Botanical Garden is composed of 27 different outdoor and indoor venues with greenhouses to keep plants alive throughout the year.
I will not describe all the places, but I will highlight the ones I preferred, and they are a must-do.

– Home Gardening Center: this garden gathers many flowers and plants, and evolves with the seasons with its bulb flowers such as tulips but also with its flowering trees.

– Haupt Conservatory: This Victorian type of greenhouse is for me one of the prettiest places in the NY Botanical Garden. It houses many tropical plants, flowers … And there is also a beautiful pool area with water lilies and aquatic plants.

– Luce Herb Garden: It is very nice to wander this symmetrical garden, in between flowers, shrubs and plants.

– Everett Children’s Adventure Garden: Here you will find space for children. Each season, the themes vary. For my visit in mid-October, you can see it was decorated with a Halloween theme.

– Native Plant Garden: This garden is 3.5 hectares and was designed by architect Sheila Brady. It brings together almost 100 000 native trees, shrubs, wildflowers, ferns and grasses that provide shelter and food for local wildlife: squirrels, butterflies, birds, frogs…

– Howell Family Garden: in this garden it is said that everyone can put their hands to work from 3 to 103 years old!!! 🙂 Here you can learn how to manage a kitchen with “The Edible Academy” then make family cooking activities with the organization “Whole Foods Market® Family Garden Kitchen” from Whole Foods Market.

– Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden: This garden’s roses are beautiful and the most visited place between May and October with 650 varieties of roses. Designed by architect Beatrix Farrant in 1916, this garden was completed in 1988 with the support of David Rockefeller. Thus he named the garden after his wife Peggy, a horticulturist and curator who loved roses. This garden has received a lot of awards in the world for its beauty and variety.

For other gardens you can explore, you can visit the official website here: www.nybg.org/gardens

How long does it take to visit the New York Botanical Garden?

It really depends on what you want to see and your passion for plants. So you can easily spend the day if you are passionate about the garden, I loved it and spent almost 3 hours there.

How is it maintained?

It really is a very well-kepted up garden. It is very clean and a pure joy to wander around !!!

What else can you find at the New York Botanical Garden?

The Botanical Garden is like any touristic venue in New York, it has a cafeteria with drinks and food. It’s always nice to take a break 🙂
Much more original and fun: there’s a store that sells books on botany, but also plants, decoration, gadgets … in short, a very pleasant place.

What is the New York Botanical Garden entrance fee?

There are two different admission fees:
– The “All-garden Pass,” which grants access to everything in the Garden and costs:
* $ 30 for adults, $28 for students and seniors and $15 for 2-12 years

– The “Grounds-Only Admission”, only available for NYC residents which gives access to all the external (and thus not the buildings) and is costs:
* $ 15 for adults, $7 for students and seniors and $4 for 2-12 years

The Grounds-Only pass is free to NYC residents, all day on Wednesday.

Open hours:

It is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm and on select holiday Mondays: Martin Luther King Day, President Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day and during the Christmas holidays the New Year.

What is the best time to go to the New York Botanical Garden?

As I said above, all seasons are nice.
If you’re lucky enough to live in NYC, you may go for all four seasons !!!!
But if you have to choose just one it would be the month of May !!! Because spring is coming with the flowers blossom, the trees become all green again, the birds are out singing … it’s always the best time to visit a garden! 🙂

The best of the New York Botanical Garden

I think there are 3 true tips:
– The first is for tourists like me who do not want to walk 15 km in the park but want to see every part. A bus called the “tram” is included in the admission fee and tour by the Botanical Garden with several stops in the Botanical Garden.
If you do not take the tram, you have two options: either you are going all around the Garden, or you make the return trip on the same path, which I think is a bit silly unless you are super passionate 🙂

– The second tip is for geek and botany enthusiast. The Botanical Garden has developed an iOS application to enjoy your visit. There is even a tour you can follow with your headphones.

– The third tip is for locals. I discovered that plenty of New Yorkers had an annual pass and who came there for a run !!!
And frankly, they are so right, and it has to be very nice to run in these beautiful Botanical Gardens instead of running through the streets of the Bronx !!! 🙂

Where is the New York Botanical Garden?

It is located just north of the Bronx Zoo. The entrance is located west of the Botanical Garden:

Getting to the New York Botanical Garden

It is best to take the train to Grand Central Station because it takes 22 minutes to go up to the Bronx. It’s faster than the subway!

Conclusion

What else is there to say… I loved it!!! 🙂
The Botanical Garden is lovely and is a beautiful place to visit !!!
Now, it is true that this may not be an attraction to do on a first trip to New York City if you’re staying for a week, but on a second trip or if you stay in NY for two weeks, this can be very nice.
And if you’re “never tired” like me, you can even make the trip to the Botanical Garden in the morning and the Bronx Zoo in the afternoon because they are only 15 minutes walk away from one of the other. 😉

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The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx

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