I spent the last Christmas and Newyears holiday season in New York City with the familia, and if there’s one thing you can count on it’s that NYC on holiday season is going to be expensive. Very expensive. But, we were lucky, and I found a small artistic Brooklyn apartment near the subway and Prospect Park that was large enough and very affordable. During the weekend, my mother and I decided to explore the nearby Prospect Park and ended up at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens at the northern side of the park. These are some very impressive gardens, and it’s a charming way of spending a few hours on a weekend afternoon. Though it was freezing cold, atleast to someone like me who came from Florida / Hong Kong, much of the botanical gardens are indoors, so it was cozy.
Wikipedia has an intro :
Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is a botanical garden in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Park Slope neighborhoods, the 52-acre (21 ha) garden includes a number of specialty "gardens within the Garden," plant collections, and the Steinhardt Conservatory, which houses the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum, three climate-themed plant pavilions, a white cast-iron and glass aquatic plant house, and an art gallery. Founded in 1910, the Garden holds over 10,000 taxa of plants and each year welcomes over 900,000 visitors from around the world.
Here’s a bit of their huge plant collection…
But, to me, the most charming spot of them all was the Japanese garden. Very nicely done, very tranquil, and quite authentic.
If you’re in the area, stop by if only for a quick visit.