A day at the New York Botanical Garden

During a recent vacation in New York City my girlfriend and I decided to leave the turmoil of the city behind for a day and head for the more tranquil environment of the New York Botanical Garden. I had great expectations for the visit, partly because the garden was established by Nathaniel Lord Britton (of Britton and Rose fame) and partly because of the NYBG Virtual Herbarium, a great information source on the Cactaceae family. As it turned out, the garden’s collection of live cacti is rather sparse; fortunately a handful of flowering Mammillarias saved the day ;-)


Mammillaria bombycina (western central Mexico)


Mammillaria rekoi (Oaxaca, Mexico)


Mammillaria elongata (Hidalgo, Mexico)

Even though the number of cacti plants is limited, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is a spectacular place and we spent hours exploring it – also, the orchid show was on during our visit, making it a lot easier to convince “She Who Must Be Obeyed” that we should examine the different plants in detail ;-)


A view of the NYBG cactus house (and a random visitor)


The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is the largest Victorian glasshouse in the US and the beautiful structure is in itself worth a visit.


The NYBG also has an outside bed with cold hardy cactus species.