Former BBG Herbarium property for sale

Want to build next to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens? This might be your one and only chance.
- Development Site Adjacent to Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Hits Market, Terrance Cullen, Commercial Observer, 2015-09-10

More like building on the grave of BBG's science and research mission. This is not just "walking distance from the Botanic Gardens;" it's the former site of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Herbarium, known as BKL.

The 22,000-square-foot plot at 111 Montgomery Street in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn is hitting the market for a potential developer looking to likely build condominiums.

According to the NYC Department of Buildings, the property is 109-111 Montgomery Street. BBG quietly announced almost a year ago that they would be "disposing" of:

... BBG’s building at 109 Montgomery Street, which has foundation problems and is not cost effective to repair.

The disposition is expected to generate significant revenue ...
- BBG Announces Disposition of Montgomery Street Building, 2014-10-24

Indeed. The Observer article gives "an asking price in the mid-$40 million."

BBG's October announcement made no mention of the herbarium. In their "Freedom is Slavery" double-speak, they claim the sale as "the first step in reintroducing a science research program at the Garden." "Reintroducing" because BBG removed science from their mission in September 2013, with no announcement, just a month after firing their remaining science staff,

BBG planned to transfer the herbarium - again, without announcement - out of state, either to the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) or the Smithsonian. This would have been a disaster for the natural history and cultural heritage of New York state. It was only through last-minute, behind-the-scenes advocacy and intervention in March of this year that the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) instead accepted the contents on loan. That move was completed in April.

In June of this year, BBG sold the property to the holding company, 109 Montgomery LLC, for $24.5 million.

According to the president of the brokerage handling the sale of the herbarium property, “There’s a real need for families moving into Brooklyn to buy apartments within the $1 to $2 million range.” But no room for science, at any price.

Related Content

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Slash and Burn "Campaign for the 21st Century", 2013-08-23
Brooklyn Botanic Garden removes science from its mission, 2014-01-20

Links

Brooklyn Botanic Garden removes science from its mission

After all their protests that eliminating their research staff in August 2013 was not "the end of science" at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, BBG's Board of Trustees quietly voted at the end of September to change their mission. In contrast to their earlier spin machine, BBG has issued no press release, nor any Message from the President, Scot Medbury, to announce this.

Sign the Petition to Restore Science to Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Updates:
2013-10-05: Guest post on Garden Rant.
2013-09-26: Thanks to the Brokelyn link, the petition surges past 2,500, adding 800 new signatures in two days, nearly all of them from Brooklyn.
2013-09-24: Brokelyn favorably summarizes the issue and links to the petition.
2013-09-22: The NY Times mentions the petition, but doesn't link to it. It briefly quotes me and links to this blog. The article is a puff piece largely written by BBG.
The petition has reached 1,750 signatures, and continues to grow.
2013-09-19: Brooklyn Daily Eagle and NY Daily News have picked up the petition.
We reached the 1,500 signature mark earlier today.
2013-09-16: Added selections of some of my favorite comments from signatories to the petition.

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Contents

• Selected Comments
• Related Content
• Links

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Seeds, Asclepias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed, NYC-local ecotype, growing in my urban backyard native plant garden and wildlife habitat in November 2010. Monitoring and propagation of rare and endangered native plants from local, wild populations is one of the activities Brooklyn Botanic has eliminated with its latest round of cuts.


Three weeks ago, I wrote about the elimination of the last science staff, programs and activities at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG). Since then, I've learned much more about the history of just how far BBG has drifted from its mission, which is supposed to include:

Engaging in research in plant sciences to expand human knowledge of plants, and disseminating the results to science professionals and the general public.

Several of us have continued working to formulate a response. Over the weekend, we launched a petition on Change.org to Restore Science to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden:

Reinstate Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s field work, herbarium and library access, and the scientists needed to support these programs and services.

Restore science as a priority, as required by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s mission: “Engaging in research in plant sciences to expand human knowledge of plants, and disseminating the results to science professionals and the general public.”

Include Brooklyn, its neighborhoods, and scientific communities – the public for which Brooklyn Botanic Garden was founded, and is funded, to serve – in all decisions affecting its research and education programs and activities.

In less than 24 hours, we reached the 100-signature mark. Even this early, after seeing the responses in one day, there's hope we may see thousands of signatures in this campaign.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Slash and Burn "Campaign for the 21st Century"

Sign the Petition to Restore Science to Brooklyn Botanic Garden! (Added 2013-09-16)

Updates:
2013-08-29: Added more links. I will continue to do so as this story begins to get more exposure.
2013-08-24: Expanded analysis. Added more external links to relevant sections of BBG's Web site.
2013-08-23 18:00: Added response from BBG.

Contents

• My Letter to BBG
• BBG's Response
• Analysis
• Related Content
• External Links
• Links to Brooklyn Botanic Garden

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I was alarmed to read the following on Twitter yesterday [2013-08-21]:

Brooklyn Botanic Garden suspends science program and lays off botany staff. Express concerns to president Scot Medbury scotmedbury@bbg.org.
- New York Flora Association, 2013-08-22, ~06:00 EDT

My Letter

For over a century, since its founding, science has been a foundation of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It is a primary reason why I have supported them. This morning [2013-08-23] I wrote the following email to Scot Medbury, President, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), and the Director of Major Gifts at BBG's Development Department:

Fall in Miniature: BBG's Bonsai in November

A yose (group-style) bonsai specimen of Acer palmatum, Japanese Maple, developed by Stanley Chinn currently on display at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Yose typically group multiple specimens of the same, or closely related species, in the same planting to simplify cultural requirements. Chinn's masterful touch is the selection of cultivars with different fall foliage colors. This specimen is unusual in that there appear to be only two, rather than the typical three or some other odd number, of the trees in the grouping.


There is no better time of year to visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's C. V. Starr Bonsai Museum than right now. Most of the trees on display are in peak fall foliage color. And while the wind has knocked the leaves off many of the trees on the grounds, the sheltered bonsai have been spared those indignities.

This season, they've placed an additional display table at the northern end of the greenhouse, opposite the entrance.

Slideshow

Japanese Garden, BBG, Veteran's Day

Stone Basin with Cherry Leaves, Japanese Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden


The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden was another station on my tour of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Veteran's Day with Blog Widow. What's the connection between Veteran's Day and BBG's Japanese garden? Its designer, Takeo Shiota, died in a U.S. internment camp during World War II.

There are different styles of Japanese gardens. The hill-and-pond style is intended to be viewed from a fixed point, in this case, the pavilion that reaches out over the shore of the pond. The stone basin above adorns the entrance to the pavilion.

It is a blend of the ancient hill-and-pond style and the more recent stroll-garden style, in which various landscape features are gradually revealed along winding paths. The garden features artificial hills contoured around a pond, a waterfall, and an island while carefully placed rocks also play a leading role. Among the major architectural elements of the garden are wooden bridges, stone lanterns, a viewing pavilion, the Torii or gateway, and a Shinto shrine.

The steep hills, representing distant mountains, are a maintenance nightmare: they cannot be mowed by walking a mower across them. Instead, the mower must be rigged to bypass its safety features, and carefully lowered and raised down and up the slopes using ropes controlled from the tops of the hills. BBG staff are gradually replacing the turf of the original design with slow-growing dwarf Ophiopogon, Mondo grass. These will eventually provide the same scale and texture as lawn without the hazards to life and limb.

One of the treacherous slopes along an idyllic path.

Natural History: Patrick Dougherty at BBG

The view from within.


Blog Widow and I observed Veteran's Day by visiting the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The Fall foliage was still brilliant, especially in the Bonsai Museum. My other must-see destination was "Natural History," BBG's first site-specific installation, by Patrick Dougherty. This was my first visit to the Garden since it was installed in August:

The sculpture at BBG is woven from nonnative woody material that was collected from Ocean Breeze Park on Staten Island. The harvesting site was chosen by BBG's director of Science because of its proximity to the Garden and its large population of nonnative willow (Salix atrocinerea), which is designated an invasive species in New York State. Removal of saplings of this species helped protect the site's excellent assemblage of herbaceous plants. The park is owned by the City of New York and is targeted for restoration under the City's PlaNYC sustainability initiative.

During a visit to BBG a year before beginning the work, Dougherty drew sketches and made word associations based on the feelings he experienced while exploring the potential work site. When asked about some of the words that came to mind as he contemplated what he wanted to build in Brooklyn, Dougherty smiled and said "lairs; a place for feral children and wayward adults."

The sculpture will be on display until August 2011, when it will be dismantled. It's going to look awesome in snow.

Slideshow

Fall Foliage at BBG's Bonsai Museum

Detail of the fall foliage of a Moyogi (informal upright) specimen of Acer palmatum in BBG's Bonsai Museum.

Community Gardens Town Hall Meeting, Saturday, 10/2

This event is also listed on Facebook and EventBrite.

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When:
Saturday, October 2
12:00pm - 4:00pm

Where:
The New School - Wollman Hall
66 W. 12th St, 5th Floor
New York, NY

On October 2, 2010, the New York City Community Garden Coalition will convene a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the recently published "new rules" for community gardens on City land set to go into effect on October 13, 2010, as well as look to alternative legal strategies for long-term preservation.

While media reports have characterized the Coalition's opinion of the rules as favorable, NYCCGC has officially held comment, ...and has been meeting with Coalition members, conferring with other greening groups, and consulting with legal experts to fully assess the scope and impact of the recently updated rules.

Patrick Dougherty at BBG

I'm looking forward to this. Installation will take place from Thursday, August 5 through Sunday, August 31. The work is planned to be on display for nearly a year, through June 2011.

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Press Release

Brooklyn, July 10, 2010—Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) announces the commission of its first site-specific sculpture to celebrated artist Patrick Dougherty, whose massive constructions made of woven saplings and twigs conjure up the creations of Lewis Carroll and Andy Goldsworthy for their outsized physicality and whimsical charm.

BBG Celebrates Native Plants Throughout July

Native Rhododendrons blooming in BBG's Native Flora Garden, May, 2009

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Press Release

Celebrating Our Backyard: Brooklyn Botanic Garden Presents Native Plant Month, July 2010

Brooklyn, NY—June 29, 2010—This spring, the results of a 20-year study of the flora of the New York metropolitan region by Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) found many native species locally extinct or in precipitous decline. During the month of July, BBG will highlight the region’s native flora, displaying its beauty, explaining its importance, drawing attention to its plight, and providing simple ways to help in its restoration. BBG’s knowledgeable horticulturists and scientists will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the power of the native plant through field trips, workshops, and other insightful classes and lectures.

In 1911, the “Local Flora Section” was the first garden to open to the public at BBG. Since then, the Garden has maintained its commitment to the study and conservation of locally native plants, most recently through its multiyear New York Metropolitan Flora project (NYMF), in which nearly every species growing within a 50-mile radius of the city was cataloged and mapped. Many of the native plants in the study—which found a significant number of species in perilous decline—are propagated in the Native Flora Garden, as the Local Flora Section is known today, in an effort to conserve them.

Plant Sales This Week in and near Brooklyn

BBG Plant Sale, May 2009


It's the week for the annual plant sale frenzy. All listed here are benefits for their respective gardens. It's a great way to support your local gardens, meet other gardeners, and pick up some cool plants.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Peak Everything

Today, after this morning's rains ended, Blog Widow and I went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It was my scheduled date to pickup my signature plant order: a pair of Paw-paws, and another native, unfamiliar to me: Meehania cordata. I shall be glad to make its acquaintance.

The Garden was peaking today. Like the King in Amadeus, I wanted to declare, simply: "Too many colors." I didn't get to see everything I wanted today. The Rock Garden was also peaking, but I only got to walk past that on my way to the plant pickup area. But I got enough to satisfy my jones for the day.



I've learned to carry deep photographic backup when I'm out on an excursion: two cameras, and two batteries for each. Today it paid off. The battery on my primary camera died just as I was taking the final shot for the panorama of the Cherry Esplanade.

BBG has a new look (on their Web site)

As one of the first public gardens to use the internet to connect with its constituents, Brooklyn Botanic Garden has been online since 1995. Over the years, our site has grown to thousands of pages of content. As the size of the site grew, its architecture made much of this valuable information increasingly difficult for staff to keep up-to-date and for visitors to navigate.

We have now moved the site into a robust content management system, built using Expression Engine. We hope you enjoy our new format!

Look for new features including:

* Drop down navigation menus
* Related content in page sidebars
* More photos and clean page layout
* An improved Events Calendar
* Opportunity to comment on select pages

If you have feedback on our new site, contact webmaster@bbg.org.
out the new
- About the New Website

The Plight of NYC's Native Flora

Local ecotypes - propagated from local sources by the Staten Island Greenbelt - for sale by Oak Grove Farms (now Nature's Healing Farm) at the Union Square Greenmarket during the first annual NYC Wildflower Week in 2008. I bought one of each; two years later, all are thriving in my backyard native plant garden.


Earlier this week, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden issued a press release summarizing findings from 20 years of research through their New York Metropolitan Flora Project (NYMF). The results are not surprising, but disheartening nevertheless:

At least 50 varieties of native plants are locally extinct or nearing elimination, say project scientists. Nuttall’s mudflower (Micranthemum micranthemoides), last collected from the region in 1918, is likely extinct throughout its former range. Scarlet Indian paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea), pennywort (Obolaria virginica), sidebells wintergreen (Orthilia secunda), and sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis) are among the wildflower species to have seriously declined in the region. Black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) is locally extinct, without a trace of a population remaining today in the New York City metropolitan area.
- Some Plants Native to NYC Area Have Become Locally Extinct As New Flora Has Moved In, Finds Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Press Release, 2010-04-05

The story has been widely covered in blogs and other media, including New York Times Science. I've included the complete press release below for reference.

I first wrote about NYMF in June of 2006, shortly after I launched this blog, four years ago next month. I've written about native plants countless times (see: Native Plant Profiles, Natives). I have a lifelong interest in the nature around me, especially that which is right around me, where I live. Learning about and understanding the ecosystems where I live is part of finding my place in the world. I come to feel this connection deeply. Without it, my life is impoverished, and I am lost.

The greatest threat to native plants, and the ecosystems they support, is habitat loss. The second is competition and displacement, and further habitat loss, from invasive species, whether they be insects, infectious organisms, or other plants. Roughly half of invasive plant species were deliberately introduced, through agriculture, for civil engineering purposes such as erosion control, and for horticultural purposes.

Hanami begins tomorrow, April 3, at BBG

Cherry Blossoms, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, April 2007, All Rights Reserved


via BBG Press Release

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From April 3 to May 2, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) celebrates Hanami, the Japanese cultural tradition of viewing each moment of the cherry blossom season, from the first buds to the pink blossoms that fall like snow.

During Hanami, visitors can take a free Seasonal Highlights Tour (Saturdays and Sundays at 1 p.m.) focusing on the ethereal beauty of BBG’s Japanese plant collections and specialty gardens, including the more than 220 exquisite flowering cherries, the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum, and the Tree Peony Collection. Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s curator of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, Brian Funk, will also host a Meet the Curator session (Wednesday, April 14, at 4 p.m.). Throughout Hanami, the cherry display will be tracked in real time on BBG’s web-based CherryWatch feature, which maps the entire collection and provides daily blossom updates.

The four weeks of Hanami culminate in the Garden’s legendary two-day festival Sakura Matsuri — popularly referred to as “New York’s rite of spring” — a thrilling tribute to the Garden’s iconic collection of flowering cherries. Sakura Matsuri is scheduled for May 1 and 2, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, with over 60 performances, demonstrations, and exhibits—many of which are new and specially commissioned for the dynamic weekend celebration. Visitors of all ages are welcome to Sakura Matsuri, the nation’s largest event in a public garden.

Making Brooklyn Bloom at BBG, this Saturday, March 13

Making Brooklyn Bloom in March 2008


I'm hoping to attend the 29th annual Making Brooklyn Bloom at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this Saturday. The theme of healthy soils, communities and cities is of interest to me.

via press release

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The urban gardening community will kick off the spring gardening season at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) with the 29th annual Making Brooklyn Bloom, a daylong conference on how to green up the borough, presented by GreenBridge, the community environmental horticulture program at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

This year’s Making Brooklyn Bloom, “Soil in the City: Growing Healthy Neighborhoods from the Ground Up,” focuses on revitalizing our soil, the foundation of life in the garden. The free event features a keynote address by Dr. Nina Bassuk, director of the Urban Horticulture Institute at Cornell University, developer of Cornell Structural Soil, and author of Trees in the Urban Landscape. Exhibits and workshops on rooftop farming, community composting, and soil testing will be offered—all presented by members of BBG’s horticulture staff or experts from other greening organizations in New York City.

We Are the Champion ... Trees!

Via Press Release from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

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Brooklyn, New York—October 26, 2009—On Tuesday, October 27 at 2:45 p.m., the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will award two trees at Brooklyn Botanic Garden “State Champion” status, affirming that they are the largest of their species on record in the state. The trees, a Kansas hawthorn (Crataegus coccinoides) and a Carolina holly (Ilex ambigua var. monticola) are the first trees in New York City to receive this honor. Only native or naturalized, nonhybrid species are eligible for champion designation. These specimens were nominated by a private citizen and their dimensions verified by the DEC.

Brooklyn Leaf Composting Project

A Brooklyn-wide effort to organize locally and restore leaf composting to Brooklyn! There's a brainstorming meeting TOMORROW, Saturday, October 3, at Ozzie's Cafe in Park Slope. See below for full details.

Please join your fellow community gardeners and our friends from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for a brainstorming session that will focus on how we can expand and improve community leaf collection and recycling this fall.

As you know, the City will not be collecting leaves separately from regular trash, again, this fall. That means that it's up to us to find ways to take this rich source of garden nutrients out of the wastestream and bring it into our gardens, where it will do the most good.

Building on a very successful leaf collection and recycling project that was implemented at 6/15 Green garden last year, we hope to coordinate a Brooklyn-wide project that will enable local community gardens to be collection points for bagged leaves from their neighbors for use in the community gardens....and possibly even distributed back to the community in the future.

This is truly a win/win for everyone. Gardens will benefit from the addition of wonderful leaves that they can use as mulch or make into "brown gold" compost and residents will be able to recycle their leaves knowing that they will not be wasted clogging up our landfills.

Study Guide for BBG Plant ID Class

Clerodendrum bungei Steud., Rose Glory Bower


This Wednesday I take the final for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Herbaceous Landscape Plant Identification class. [Spelling counts! So please let me know of any typos.] Thursday, I start Urban Garden Maintenance, the last of the eight classes I need for my Certificate in Urban Horticulture from BBG. I started the program in Winter 2008. This is the home stretch; I can't believe I'm almost done with it.

Unlike the "woodies" class, I already knew most of the plants introduced in the class over the past five weeks. Either I've grown them myself sometime over my 30 years of gardening in NYC, or I've researched and studied them. However, there have been several, such as the interesting Clerodendrum above, which I've never even heard of, or never knew the names of.

This post is the index to my photographic study guide. Plant names are listed by week, in alphabetical order by botanical name within each week. Botanical names are given, corrected for typos, as they were introduced in the class; that's what we'll be tested on for the final this Wednesday evening. Plant names are linked to my Flickr Set, where I have one. You can also browse my Flickr Collection for this class, where all the plants are listed by botanical name.

Week 1, 2009.07.22

Callirhoe involucrata, Purple Poppy-Mallow


Observed:

• Callirhoe involucrata, Poppy Mallow
  
• Epimedium grandiflora 'Lilafee', Barrenwort
  
• Lychnis coronaria, Rose Campion, Ragged Robin
  
• Podophyllum peltatum, Mayapple
  
• Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum 'Variegatum', Variegated Solomon's Seal
  
• Sarracenia sp., Pitcher Plant
  
• Smilacina racemosa, False Solomon's Seal
  
• Verberna bonariensis, Vervain
  

Omitted (these will not be included on the final):

• Aquilegia canadensis, Columbine. This grows as a Spring ephemeral in our region; none were available to observe at this late date.
  
• Geranium macrorrhizum, Bigroot Geranium. Omitted primarily for time constraints; also, it was out of bloom by this time of the year. Too bad, since it's a handsome plant, and there are lots of them around the grounds of BBG.
  

Week 2, 2009-07-29

We got 11 plants this week to make up for being two short the previous week.

• Acanthus hungaricus, Bear's Breeches
  
• Alchemilla mollis, Lady's mantle
  
• Amsonia hubrichtii, Blue Star Amsonia, Threadleaf Bluestar
  
• Asarum splendens, Chinese Wild Ginger
  
• Begonia grandis, Hardy Begonia
  
• Borago officinalis, Borage
  
• Crocosmia 'Lucifer', Montbretia
  
• Helleborus foetidus, Stinking Hellebore
  
• Heuchera micrantha var. diversifolia 'Palace Purple'
  
• Humulus lupulus, Hop Vine
  
• Pachysandra procumbens, Allegheny Spurge
  

Week 3, 2009-08-05

• Agastache rupestris, Hyssop
  
• Asclepias tuberosa, Native Milkweed, Butterfly-Weed
  
• Belamcanda chinensis, Blackberry Lily, Leopard Flower
  
• Clerodendrum bungei, Rose Glory Bower, Mexican Hydrangea
  
• Echinacea purpurea, Purple Coneflower
  
• Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum', Bronze/Copper Fennel
  
• Macleaya cordata, Plume Poppy, Tree Celandine
  
• Passiflora caerulea, Maypop, Passionflower
  
• Stachys byzantina, Wooly Lamb's Ears
  
• Thalictrum rochebrunianum, Meadow Rue, Lavender Mist
  

Week 4, 2009-08-12

This was the only themed week of the class, consisting solely of grasses, ferns and fern allies.

Pennisetum alopecuroides, Fountain Grass

• Adiantum pedatum, Northern/Eastern Maidenhair Fern
  
• Asplenium scolopendrium, Hart's-Tongue Fern
  
• Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum', Japanese Painted Fern
  
• Blechnum spicant, Deer Fern
  
• Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster', Feather Reed Grass
  
• Chasmanthium latifolium, Northern Sea Oats, River Oats, Indian Wood-Oats
  
• Equisetum hyemale, Scouring Rush, Horsetail
  
• Hakonechloa macra, Japanese Forest Grass
  
• Pennisetum alopecuroides, Fountain Grass
  
• Polystichum polyblepharum, Tassel/Bristle Fern
  

Week 5, 2009-08-19

The last class before the in-class final.

Angelica gigas, Purple Angelica

• Anemone x hybrida, Japanese Anemone, Windflower
  
• Angelica gigas, Purple Angelica
  
• Colocasia esculenta 'Illustris', Taro, Imperial Taro, Dasheen, Poi, Elephant Ears
  
• Convallaria majalis, Lily of the Valley
  
• Dicentra eximia, Wild/Fringed/Eastern Bleeding-Heart
  
• Eupatorium dubium, Little Joe Pye Weed
  
• Euphorbia dulcis 'Chameleon', Mole Spurge
  
• Hibiscus coccineus, Scarlet Rose Mallow, Swamp Mallow
  
• Opuntia humifusa, Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus
  
• Tricyrtis hirta, Toad Lily