Straw Hats Go To Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The Straw Hat Society accompanied a group of Rutgers Gardens volunteers on an outing to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden which is celebrating Hanami, the Japanese Cherry Blossom Viewing Season.

It’s still very early so only a few cherries are in bloom. We were offered tantalizing glimpses of the glory to come in the Japanese Garden.




What fascinated me the most was the size of the carp in the pond.


They’re even bigger than the ducks! Why is the theme from “Jaws” playing in my head?

There were plenty of blossoms in the Magnolia Plaza.


On the way to the Conservatory, the group almost lost me at the Garden Gift Shop.


Roses for sale!

I was pleased to see that the Tropical Pavillion contained my two most important food groups:



Coffee and chocolate (cacao). Can any of you bakers guess what this is?


Vanilla bean pods on a vanilla orchid. Yum!

After lunch at the outdoor café, we set off for the Children’s Garden. Along the way, I was able to indulge in my passion for interesting trees.


Isn’t that great? I might never have noticed it if it had leaves.




How’s that for an espalier?

The Children’s Garden has been used by children since 1914.


I loved the gates to the garden:


Right next door is the Discovery Garden.


I like spiders in my garden but I’m not so sure that I’d like one this large.

At the Rock Garden, in addition to seeing Alpine plants, we were very excited to have our first Blogger Meetup.


That’s Xris from Flatbush Gardener in red. He shared his in-depth knowledge of the gardens with us during the rest of our tour. Here are some highlights:

From the Compost Demo site:


I really should do something like this with my composter.


The gates to the Native Flora Garden.


Skunk Cabbage in bloom.


Look at the size of the wisteria on that pergola!


The Cranford Rose Garden. Now that’s something I’d love to see in bloom.


The Knot Garden in the Herb Garden.



The Shakespeare Garden was alive with spring color.

The last leg of our tour was a “behind the scenes” tour conducted by Patrick Cullina, VP of Horticulture at BBG and the former Associate Director of Rutgers Gardens. We saw the greenhouses where the plants are grown and propagated.


I wonder if my rosemary will ever get this large?

At the end of the day, we were exhausted but sorry to leave the gardens. You can see more photos of our tour on Flickr.