From Green Right Now Reports
When the New York Botanical Garden opens its new education center in Midtown Manhattan next month, city dwellers will have better access to horticulture and floral design classes.
The new NY Botanical Society Education Center will be in an 18th Century building near Grand Central Terminal
The New York Botanical Garden Midtown Education Center, located at 20 W. 44th Street (between 5th and 6th avenues), will offer adult education and professional courses that could lead to green jobs or help further the goals of urban gardeners, florists and locavores.
Among the inaugural offerings will be the Lynden B. Miller Lecture Series: The Challenges and Rewards of Urban Horticulture. Hosted by New York Botanical Garden Board Member and Director of the Conservatory Garden in Central Park Lynden B. Miller, the three-part series will give guidance to those interested in growing their own produce, greenery and flowers; and it will highlight the successful practices of New York’s notable public horticulturists.
The series lectures, on Wednesdays, from 6 to 7 p.m., will include:
- Up in the Air: Lessons in Urban Horticulture from the High Line, April 21, with Patrick Cullina, Vice President of Horticulture and Park Operations, the High Line
- Our Future, Our Food: The Role of Community Gardens in Urban Agriculture, May 19, with Karen Washington, community activist and gardener, and Member of the Botanical Garden’s Board
- Battery Park City: Maintaining a Public Park with Organic Methods, June 9, with Eric T. Fleisher, Director of Horticulture at Battery Park City Parks Conservancy
The center also will offer lectures in garden and floral design with area experts, such as Ken Smith, the artist and landscape architect who designed the award-winning roof garden at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Those who want to learn more can attend the center’s open house on Saturday, April 10, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The New York Botanical Garden, located in the Bronx, offers seven certificate programs in the botanical arts and horticulture. Its classes in Manhattan, like classes at its other satellites, will be taught by experienced professionals.