Judith Zuk, 55, President of Brooklyn Botanic Garden
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Judith Zuk, who died Saturday at 55 after a long illness, oversaw the renovation of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and the development of a new master plan as president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden between 1990 and her retirement in 2005.
Trained as a horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England, and other top-drawer gardens around America, Zuk brought a scholar’s eye to the 52 acres of greenery located next to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
In the $3 million Japanese garden renovation, hundreds of cubic yards of sediment were removed from the pond, which had silted up to the point where it was “a big mud puddle,” Zuk said. To restore the garden to its 1915 glory, many new plants were added and the teahouse rebuilt. The project was completed in 2000. It is perhaps the Botanic Garden’s most popular attraction, and in warm weather is often jammed with bridal parties and their photographers.
In 1996, Zuk oversaw the introduction of an entrance fee — initially $3 — for the first time in the garden’s history. Zuk justified the fee on the basis of declining support from state and city governments. Somewhat controversial at the time, the fee proved little impediment to visitors, with garden attendance staying stable at about 700,000 a year. The fee was recently raised to $8.
Zuk also shepherded the garden’s master plan for the 21st century, which sets out ambitious new planting goals, a new visitor center, and renovations to the bonsai exhibit and entrances on Eastern Parkway and Empire Boulevard.
Born September 11, 1951, in Newark, N.J., Zuk received a master’s degree in public garden administration from the University of Delaware and was director of the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College before being selected as the Botanic Garden’s fifth president since its founding in 1910.
She was also co-editor in chief of the “American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants,” an authoritative source for gardeners.
At her retirement, for health reasons, in 2005, the Botanic Garden named Judith D. Zuk Magnolia Plaza in her honor. A magnolia cultivar developed at the garden was also named for her. Deep yellow with a purple base, its flower is said to smell like Fruit Loops.
