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Stroll through Brooklyn Botanic Garden before the rain returns

July 26, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
A bronze sculpture by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth welcomes visitors to Cranford Rose Garden in Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan
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The lilies are lovely to look at this time of year.

You should see them when there’s a break in the weather.

The fine fleurs can be found in the Cranford Rose Garden.

This floral oasis is one of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s summer attractions. It’s a visitor magnet after spring comes and goes, and the garden’s famous cherry blossoms are just a memory.

On Sunday, it’s supposed to stop raining in Brooklyn, Weather.com predicts. So you can get outdoors and stroll around the grounds of the 52-acre horticultural institution at the edge of Prospect Heights.

If a storm or two does sneak into our borough while you’re at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, you can escape the rain by ducking into Steinhardt Conservatory. Inside this greenhouse complex you’ll find the blissfully arid Desert Pavilion — plus a lush microenvironment where you’ll see a rare and endangered plant called osa pulchra with enormous trumpet-shaped flowers.

Consider the Lilies of the Field

So. Here’s a look at what you can expect to see outdoors at Brooklyn Botanic Garden at this point in the summer growing season.

For starters, there’s a striking bronze sculpture called “Roses of Yesterday” by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth standing like a sentinel at Cranford Rose Garden’s entrance.

This sculpture of a young woman holds a sundial with the Latin inscription “Perennis Amor,” which means “endless love.”

The artist was born in 1880 and lived to the age of 99. From 1917 to 1945, she belonged to a group called the Philadelphia Ten that helped women artists who had a hard time exhibiting their work in the male-dominated art world of that era.  

The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns her 7-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a female dancer, which is called “The Vine.”  

There are lilies in Cranford Rose Garden — as well as other types of plants besides roses — because their presence creates “a more healthy, pollinator-friendly and pest-resistant ecosystem,” Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s website says.

The massive, brightly colored lilies grow on tall stalks.   

 

More than 1,000 Types of Roses

Cranford Rose Garden was dedicated in 1928. Some of the plants growing in it today have survived since its opening.

Today, there are more than 1,000 types of roses in the garden. It is one of the largest rose collections in  North America.

Just outside Cranford Rose Garden there’s a semi-circular walkway called the Rose Arc. More eye-popping lilies grow there, as well as roses, of course.

Also, this time of year the flowers that grow beside the Lily Pool Terrace look especially beautiful.

Here’s a historical tidbit about Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which opened in 1911.

Its original site plan was drawn up by the Olmsted Brothers.

Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and John Charles Olmsted founded this landscape architecture firm.

The former was the son and the latter was the stepson of famous Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., who designed Central Park.  

 

 

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