The Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 21-hectare (52-acre) botanic garden, located in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City.

The garden includes such attractions as the Children's Garden, the first of its kind in the world; Cranford Rose Garden, featuring 1200 varieties of roses; Fragrance Garden, the first of its kind, specializing in fragrant flowers, foliage, and herbs; Herb Garden, featuring 300 kinds of medicinal, culinary, fragrant, and ornamental herbs; and the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, a traditional Japanese-style garden with a pond. Other features include the Local Flora Section, a collection showing plant species native to the New York City area; Osborne Section, a formal, Italian-style garden; Rock Garden, featuring alpine, woodland, alpine meadow, acid-loving, and drought-tolerant plants; and Shakespeare Garden, exhibiting an English style and featuring plants mentioned in the work of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. Greenhouses at the garden house tropical, temperate, and desert plants and trees up to 20 m (65 ft) tall. A total of 12,000 varieties of plants from around the world are represented in the garden. Other features of the garden include concert and performance facilities, scientifically arranged collections, and a café.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden also conducts botanical and biological research; maintains a library of 30,000 volumes and 600 periodicals; and publishes the Plants & Gardens quarterly book series. The garden had 19,000 members in 1994.

Reviewed by: The Brooklyn Botanic Garden