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Recently I spent a delightful day with friends at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. As I was traveling over the George Washington Bridge with one of my friends she commented “Tony said he thought the botanical gardens were in Brooklyn”. I chuckled because the night before I had thought wait, are we going to the Bronx or Brooklyn? So to clarify the New York Botanical Gardens are in the Bronx and the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens are in Brooklyn. I haven’t visited the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens that is a trip for another day.

According to NYBG website “In the late 19th century an eminent Columbia University botanist named Nathaniel Lord Britton and his wife, Elizabeth, also a botanist, were so inspired by their visit to England’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, that they and other members of the Torrey Botanical Club determined New York should possess a great botanical garden as well. A magnificent site was selected in the northern section of the Bronx, part of which had belonged to the vast estate of tobacco merchant Pierre Lorillard. On April 18, 1891, the land was set aside by the New York State Legislature for the creation of “a public botanic garden of the highest class” for the City of New York. Prominent civic leaders and financiers, including Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and J. Pierpont Morgan, agreed to match the City’s commitment to finance the buildings and improvements, initiating a public-private partnership that continues today.”

I know nothing about botany or gardening but I can tell you the gardens were magnificent. My friends and I did a guided tour of the “KIKU:The Art of Japanese Gardening” Exhibition. We also rode the trolley around the 250 acres and strolled through the Halloween Pumpkin Patch. Since a picture is worth a thousand years I have posted a couple of photos and there are a few more at http://randomsightings.wordpress.com. Enjoy, I know I did.