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Brooklyn Botanic Garden Review
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Brooklyn Botanic Garden
- Address: 900 Washington Ave., between Crown and Carroll Sts., Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NY | Map It
- Phone: 718/623-7200
- www.bbg.org
- Category: Gardens/Arboretums
- Location: Park Slope
Fodor's Review:
A major attraction at this 52-acre botanic garden, one of the finest in the country, is the beguiling Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden—complete with a 1-acre pond and blazing red torii gate, which signifies (accurately) that a shrine is nearby. The Japanese cherry arbor nearby turns into a breathtaking cloud of pink every spring, and the Cherry Blossom Festival is among the park's most popular events. Also be sure to wander through the Cranford Rose Garden (5,000 bushes, 1,200 varieties); the Fragrance Garden, designed especially for the blind; and the Shakespeare Garden, featuring more than 80 plants immortalized by the Bard.
The Steinhardt Conservatory holds thriving desert, tropical, temperate, and aquatic vegetation, as well as a display charting the evolution of plants over the past 140 million years. Don't miss the extraordinary Bonsai Museum for close to 100 miniature Japanese specimens, some over a century old. Near the conservatory are a café and a gift shop, with bulbs, plants, and gardening books as well as jewelry. Free garden tours are given every weekend at 1 PM. Entrances to the garden are on Eastern Parkway, next to the subway station; on Washington Avenue, behind the Brooklyn Museum; and on Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard.
Across Grand Army Plaza from the park entrance is the Brooklyn Public Library (11201. 718/230-2100. www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org. Tues.-Thurs. 10-9, Fri. and Sat. 10-6, Sun. 1-6), a sleek, modern temple of learning with gold-leaf figures on the facade celebrating art and science. The building is meant to resemble an open book, with the entrance at the book's spine. Bright limestone walls, perfect proportions, and ornate decorative details make this an impressive 20th-century New York building. Inside, more than 1.5 million books and magazines will keep you busy for at least a few hours.
- Cost: $5; free all day Tues. and Sat. before noon. Weekend combo ticket with Brooklyn Museum $11
- Open: Apr.-late Oct., grounds Tues.-Fri. 8-6, weekends 10-6, conservatory daily 10-5:30; late Oct.-Mar., grounds Tues.-Fri. 8-4:30, weekends 10-4:30; conservatory daily 10-4
- Subway: 2, 3 to Eastern Pkwy.; B, Q to Prospect Park
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