As April showers give way to beautiful May flowers, it is easy to have a smile on your face and a skip in your step.
While Staten Island’s prettiest gardens have blossomed to make our island full of vivid color, our urban sister boroughs also showcase a beautiful array of flowers. Kick-start your May with a week-long flower celebration that keeps you planted here or takes you to another borough.
KEEP IT LOCAL
A hop, skip and sometimes bus ride away and you can be transported to a natural paradise without leaving Staten Island. The Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Livingston, is home to nine different flower and vegetation gardens that model landscape designs from Asia to Italy. And, its glass-enclosed greenhouse houses some the country’s rarest plants.
The Healing Garden, which is home to a wide array of trees, shrubs and perennials and spans an acre of forested hillside, is a tribute to the 267 Staten Islanders who perished on Sept. 11, 2001.
The most recent addition to the gardens is the Richmond County Savings Foundation Tuscan Gardens, which is modeled after the Villa Gamberaia gardens in Florence, Italy. A perfect place to hold a private event, the gardens have an amphitheater and an enclosed winter garden. To experience some of the smells of Italy, be sure to stroll past the olive and lemon trees.
To learn more about Snug Harbor Botanical Garden, which is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., visit snug-harbor.org/botantical-gardens.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, located in Park Slope, offers garden arrangements as a creative and diverse as most Brooklynites. With over 52 acres of gardens, exhibits, conservatories and collections, a trip to BBG can turn into a day-long adventure.
Step through the entrance off of Eastern Parkway to make your way into the world of Cherry Esplanade and bright, beautiful cherry blossoms. The fabulous array of pink trees are in bloom and along the eastern and western edges of the esplanade are two rows of scarlet oak trees, planted in remembrance of the events of 9/11 and to those who lost their lives that day.
The Children’s Garden is my daughter’s favorite stop, where kids are encouraged to be participants, not just spectators, in community horticulture and conservation. Children ages 2 to 17 can plant their own crops and flowers and harvest them in the fall under the guidance of garden instructors.
Younger children, called KinderGardeners, combine planting, tending and harvesting with craftmaking and creative play.
Older children can get a lesson in science and urban ecology, and teenagers who successfully complete the program can go on to become junior instructors.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is open every day except Monday and admission for children under the age of 12 is free. Adults pay $10 and students over the age of 12 pay $5, with a valid I.D.
To learn more or to plan your trip, visit bbg.org.
A CULTURAL ESCAPE
Although I was raised in Staten Island, I actually spent my toddler years in Queens. Every weekend, starting in May, my parents would take me and my brother to the Queens Botanical Garden, located in Flushing.
One of my favorite gardens to visit is the Fragrance Garden, which is filled with a collection of shrubs, perennials and bulbs that are especially fragrant during the growing season. Essential oils found in flowers, leaves, seeds, bark and roots give these plants their strong scent.
After a day taking in the smells and sights of the over 28 gardens and collections, my family and I would take a stroll across Main Street to experience cuisine from foreign lands. Everything from Pakistan kebabs to Korean barbecue is part of this eclectic culinary scene in Queens.
The Queens Botanical Garden is open every day except Monday with select hours of free admission. To learn more, visit queensbotanical.org.