Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Flowering Generosity at NYBG
The plants looked sturdy Thursday at the New York Botanical Garden, and so did the garden’s patrons. In this instance, looks did not deceive: Both the garden’s plants and its patrons are steadfast.
Just as there are dahlias that bloom year after year in the perennial garden designed by Lynden Miller, there are the women who return year after year to the Conservatory Ball, dressed in bursts of color to honor their surroundings, among them, Mary Davidson, Susan Burke, Jeanne Jones, Sabrina Forsythe, and Whitney Fairchild.
On this night, they and their husbands and friends — some 600 guests — celebrated the 32nd edition of the ball, which raised $2 million. It’s not just a number to toss off: private donations in 2006 accounted for 39% of the budget.
Covering annual expenses is just one component of the garden’s fundraising activities. In the past 15 years, totaling private and public contributions, the garden has raised $600 million for capital investment, the president of the garden, Gregory Long, told guests.
The garden’s “overall renaissance,” as Mr. Long put it, started with the “Plan for 1993-1999,” which focused on capital improvements to the conservatory, the library, and the children’s garden. The campaign poured $210 million into improvements.
The next phase, the “Campaign for a New Era 2001–2007,” brought in $326 million to build a new visitor’s center; the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections (named after the chairman of the garden, Wilson Nolen), and a plant research laboratory where scholars study plant genomics and conservation and sustainability.
For the third, as yet unnamed phase, $64 million has been raised for the broad aim of “securing the financial stability and institutional sustainability of the progress made to date.” That includes continued growth of the endowment, which now provides 16% of the garden’s annual budget.
“The garden has completely transformed. It just gets more and more beautiful,” Mrs. Davidson, who shared the title of Conservatory Ball chairwoman with Maureen Chilton, said as trumpeters in red velvet signaled the start of dinner.
Affluent patrons are only one category of garden user (last year 700,000 visited). A farmer’s market featuring Hudson Valley vendors will open Wednesday, June 27 and run through October. The garden also runs a hotline on plant selection and care (the telephone number is 718-817-8681).
