If you missed this book when it was first published 11 years ago, don't miss the new, revised edition — just released — with more than 200 new photographs by Larry Lederman, botanical art from the garden's collections, and fascinating essays by members of the garden staff. This revised edition is published to commemorate the garden's 125th anniversary.
In The New York Botanical Garden: Revised and Updated Edition
(Abrams, 2016), NYBG's President and CEO Gregory Long presents the garden's long history, it's significance, and its ongoing efforts to conserve, explain, and educate. In the introduction, Long outlines why the garden is so important. First, it's a "place of beauty and quiet, an oasis of calm and civility … a designed landscape where people can enjoy the greatest triumphs of nature." Second, he notes that the garden conducts scholarly research on plants and shares that knowledge with many others. Finally, the garden is an educational institution, where children and their teachers can explore plants and their habitats and understand their significance to humankind and their possible status as endangered species.
Many designers have played a role in the garden's design — from Calvert Vaux, the Olmsted brothers, Beatrix Farrand, and Dan Kiley to present-day designers like Patrick Chassé, Shavaun Towers and Darrell Morrison.
Designers will most appreciate the Perennial Garden designed by Lynden Miller, the re-design of the Herb Garden by Penelope Hobhouse, the Seasonal Walk along the Enid Haupt Conservatory by Piet Oudolf, and the new Native Plant Garden by Sheila Brady of Oehme van Sweden landscape architects.
Rare botanical drawings are interspersed with the text and photos of each garden section in stunning arrangements that reflect the garden's long-time history as well as its present-day importance. I can't imagine a designer or serious gardener who wouldn't want to own a copy.
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