Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

On Wednesday I took the subway to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It's world-class and one of my favorite gardens in New York. I think of it more as a landscaped park, with gardens sprinkled around it, than as a garden per se. It's so peaceful to wander amid the manicured lawns and carefully tended beds, and the 100-year old buildings give it an air of quiet permanence- refreshing in a city that never sleeps and never stops reconstructing itself.




The garden is wonderful any time of year, but is especially exciting during its famous Cherry Blossom Festival. This year I was determined to catch the cherry trees at their peak, compulsively checking the BBG website's blossom status map regularly in the weeks and days before my visit to keep tabs on which trees were in perfect bloom when. I soon realized, though, that I would be hard-pressed to pick just one day to see them all at their peak, as there are several varieties of cherries in the garden that bloom at varying times. Which explains why "Cherry Blossom Viewing Season" at the Garden is five weeks long!




The cherry blossoms were magnificent. But I was equally taken with other early-spring sights: the sprouting of oak leaves and maple seeds, ferns unfurling and spring flowers nearly forgotten in my rush to witness the cherry trees. The lilacs had a particularly good season this year- a special favorite of mine and absolutely stunning.




After the cherry blossoms and a brief stop at the garden gift shop to buy Mother's day gifts, I leisurely made my way back toward the garden entrance. I swung by the classic Lily Pool Terrace (at this time of day swarming with Brooklyn school groups) with its wonderful array of perennial and annual beds, through the quiet Native Flora Garden and along the eastern border of formal Osborne Garden near the Eastern Parkway entrance.












Though my bare hands were chilled to the bone and it was time to get back to Manhattan for lunch, I wistfully wished the Garden good-bye. My next trip back will hopefully be in June, to see the gorgeous Cranford Rose Garden in full bloom.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your photographs are beautiful!

Laura said...

Thank you, secret admirer! A smart photographer picks a beautiful subject and the right time of day- and lets the subject speak for itself. It was definitely a flow state for me in the garden that day. :)

-Lady who lunches