Located in the center of the Bronx, just 20 minutes from Grand Central Station and New York airport hotels, is the Botanical Garden. In middle of the bustling city lies 85 acres of exotic plant life, dramatic landscapes with cliffs and waterfalls, rapids, and ancient trees, a natural history of plants and flowers. The Azalea garden alone, is larger than most other botanical gardens of other cities all over the world. Along with the Azalea garden there is a garden of rocks, of plants native to the geographical region, two lakes and the Bronx river. Over 700,000 visitors come to the garden every year and in the next seven years they will witness the changes as the garden will go through renovations and reconstruction. The garden of native plants and garden of azaleas will be created anew, while the forest will be restored. All three projects involve the creation of programs in the education and preservation department for all ages of students.

The reconstruction, funded by the Leon Levy Foundation, has the intention of the educating the public on ecosystems natural to the area, the natural plant life indigenous to the Eastern regions of the United States. The Native Plant Garden is scheduled to re-open in 2012, at the end of the summer. The forest is getting ‘cleaned out’ and restored as crews work to remove the exotic plants that have been placed there over the year, and being re-planted with the wildflowers and trees and other shrubbery that would naturally be growing there. The exotics have squeezed the locals out, and the restoration insures that the species native to the area will be able to grow and thrive in the future. As the forest in the garden gets a face lift, classes and seminars are being planned with the hopes of educating visitors on environmental concerns and the impact the environment has on the ecosystems that live in the natural forests, not just in the garden or in the Bronx, but in forests all over North America and the rest of the world as well. The Azalea garden will open in 2011, with an added 3,000 plants to the already large inventory. Combined with the azaleas will be other flowers and bulbs, planted with care to ensure a flowering and blooming hill side all year long. And in springtime, other gardens will be hard pressed to display such color as will be witnessed here in this garden in the Bronx. These changes will have an affect and will inspire for generation upon generation of visitors in the years to come.

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