thinking about visiting lilacs

[redbird]

There are some nice lilacs in my neighborhood, and I grew up with a lilac in the back yard,

Part of what I like about going to the Arboretum, and botanical gardens, is the variety of kinds of lilac, sometimes with noticeably different scents. The arboretum here has a good lilac collection; the Brooklyn Botanic* Garden has an excellent one. The one in Brooklyn is much easier for me to go from shrub to shrub, sniffing, and not worry about falling; the Arnold Arboretum is hillier, and has more non-lilac bushes and even trees planted among the lilacs.

When I lived in New York, I went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden more often than to the New York Botanical Garden (in the Bronx). I think the one in the Bronx had easier transit access from our home, but if I was taking that bus I was usually going to the Bronx Zoo; if I took the train to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, I was going either there or to the Brooklyn Museum. I did once go to the zoo on my way to the Botanic Garden, because it was February and I was on a bus from downtown Brooklyn that passed the zoo, and my zoo membership card lived in my pocket.

There's a smaller botanical garden in Queens, tucked into Flushing Meadow Park, as is the Queens Zoo. My parents took us there sometimes, because we lived in Queens and could drive there. As an adult, I went by myself a couple of times, if I was in that part of Queens for some other reason; it's not convenient by transit starting from the part of Upper Manhattan that we sometimes referred to as "Baja Bronx."

*Yes, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and New York Botanical Garden. I assume this terminology is for historical reasons, along with there being two really excellent botanical gardens in the same city.

Comments

[joseph_teller]

I have to do the opposite... like my mother I'm allergic to Lilacs and must avoid them when they are in bloom (doing things like crossing to the opposite side of the street rather than walking past places that have them growing in yards etc.)

[redbird]

I went to the arboretum alone yesterday because cattitude is allergic to lilacs. He didn't use to be, and misses being able to enjoy them. When we went for a walk a couple of days ago, he hurried to be upwind while I stopped to sniff a lilac.

[conuly]

Well, Brooklyn is its own city, properly.