New York Botanical Garden

In 1888, prominent American botanists Nathaniel Lord Britton and Elizabeth Gertrude Britton visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in Britain. Envisioning a similar garden that advanced public knowledge of plants, spearheaded cutting-edge botanical research, and conserved the rarest of species, the Brittons opened the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in Bronx Park in 1891. 

The 250-acre NYBG, a National Historic Landmark, continues that mission today as it houses more than 1 million plants across 50 specialty gardens and collections. With the largest botanical and horticultural library in the Western Hemisphere, the second-largest herbarium in the world, and one of only two freestanding botanical garden plant and fungal research centers on the planet, the NYBG stands as a leading and comprehensive plant research institution.

The garden also houses the Enid Annenberg Haupt Conservatory, a greenhouse named after the great aunt of GRoW founder Gregory Annenberg Weingarten. Completed in 1902, the conservatory fell into disrepair in the 1970s. Haupt, a horticulture enthusiast and philanthropist, donated $10 million to renovate the conservatory and endow its operations. Today, the conservatory is a vital hub for the garden and has been designated as a New York City landmark.