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Tucked close to Flushing’s bustling downtown and along fast and furious, pedal-to-the-metal Main Street is Queens’ own official Botanical Garden at 43-50 Main Street at Elder Avenue. It may be smaller than the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx or Brooklyn’s Botanic Gardens at Prospect Park (Brooklyn, just to be different, loses the -al) but it is no less beautiful.

QBG evolved from the “Gardens of Paradise” exhibit at the 1939-1940 World’s Fair, continued after World War II as the Queens Botanical Garden Society. It opened in its current location in 1961.

Among the original plantings from the 1939 site are two blue atlas cedars framing a tree gate sculpture at the park’s entrance. Today the park is a 39-acre oasis in one of New York City’s busiest neighborhoods.

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Among the most popular attractions in the garden this time of year is the blooming Rose Garden, where several different species of roses in a rainbow of colors are exhibited. The Garden’s holdings include many classical and well-known varieties, including hybrid tea, floribunda, grandiflora and shrub roses.

Many of the rose species have low water and nutrient needs (important after dry springs like this one) and are also disease and pest resistant.

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The Garden hosts trials led  by the American Gardens Rose Selections to test the hardiness of newly developed roses. Such trials aid in the cultivation and domestication of roses from wild roses along the sides of main roads or deep in the woods. Wild roses are recognizable from fewer petals, while domesticated roses have been bred to have multiple petals, giving them the rich visual appearance seen here.

Roses are not only bred for visual beauty. The fruit of the rose is called a “rose hip,” and can be used to produce teas and jellies.

The rose has long been a symbol of Queens and appears on the borough’s official flag, representing English settlers.

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Elsewhere in the Queens Botanical Garden, a lengthy walk is lined with pin oak trees and is called the Oak Allée.

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The Garden’s new Visitor and Administration Building is New York’s first public green building certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The 15,000 square foot center contains an auditorium, reception and gallery spaces, meeting rooms, public restrooms, and offices.

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The Helen and Martin Kaltman Fragrance Walk is found near the Queens Botanical Garden entrance gate. It’s a collection of shrubs, perennials and bulbs that are especially fragrant during the growing season. Essential oils found in flowers, leaves, seeds, bark and roots give these plants their strong scent.

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This past Memorial Day weekend, the Garden featured a mini electric train exhibit that also also contained models of 1964-1965 World’s Fair exhibits set up by the Long Island Garden Railway Society. The centerpiece was the wood mini-Unisphere and reflecting pool, created by scale modeler Rick Bishop.

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The Garden also features several honeybee hives. The honeybee, amazingly an increasingly endangered species, pollinates more than 80 percent of the world’s cash crops. As bees gather plant nectar used for food and to nourish the young, they collect plant pollen on their feet and bring it from flower to flower, aiding in plant reproduction.

Upcoming events at the Queens Botanical Garden include:

Sunday, June 14, 2:30 pm Quintet of the Americas, a musical presentation featuring the debut of “Variable Winds”  by Flushing composer Daniel Ott.

Saturday, July 11, 11 am to 6 pm Festival de las Flores, a celebration of the Colombian tradition of creating large medallions made of flowers, known as silletos, with music and dance performances. Nearby Corona is one of New York City’s largest strongholds of Colombian immigrants.

Saturday, July 25, Noon-3 pm and 4 to 7 pm Botanical Brew Fest, in which a selection of craft beers from local and national breweries will be available, plus food vendors and music.

Adult admission to the Garden is $4.00; free hours are Wednesday from 3 to 6 pm and Sunday from 4 to 6 pm. An annual $50 membership is good for free admission for an entire year.

The Queens Botanical Garden is accessible from the Main Street stop on the 7 train and the Flushing Main Street stop on the LIRR, and an approximate 10-minute walk south to the front gate at Elder Avenue. The Garden is also near exits of the Long Island and Van Wyck Expressways.


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