I’m writing this on a soon-to-be rainy day, remembering a sunny day, about a month back, when we last visited Cornell Botanic Gardens.
*I say “last” (or most recently) because we’ve been visiting for over twenty years. And will do so again.
*A visit stretches you from the 19th century into the 21st… from the cozy Cornell of upstate New York to one of the great universities of the world. The welcome center is a modern masterpiece of glass with swooping lines and landscape-friendly placement. But next door is the old center, quiet and dignified like a gentle dowager at a baby shower.
*Vine-covered bowers shade the flagstoned walk. In the adjoining space are raised brick-walled beds with herbs and flowers, edged with a sloped rock garden. Some creative gardeners have organized plants by topic – herbs mentioned in literature, herbs used in religious ceremonies, herbs used by Native American peoples. Juncos and robins hop around at our feet in the grass, while blue jays yack and yell from the bowers and the trees. In the distance, a pair of Canada geese serenely survey the lawn.
*Next to Beebee Lake we take the circular walk that wends around the rhododendron-covered Comstock Knoll. When we stop to look at the young shoots on the branch of an overhanging evergreen, we’re rewarded with a puff that unleashes a cloud of pollen… a sight that we’ve never seen before.
*Though we enjoyed our visit immensely, we only touched on a fraction of the 4300 acres that come under the Botanic Gardens umbrella. And, of course, we didn’t touch at all on the vast academic and scientific dimension of the gardens.
*If you’re visiting Ithaca, you might also like the Sapsucker Woods nature preserve operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. If you like public gardens, don’t miss Sonnenberg Mansion and Gardens in Canandaigua. Then there’s the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, and the delightful gardens at Highland Park and Ellwanger Garden in Rochester. Genesee Country Village has 13 heirloom gardens scattered across the grounds.
*How many more summers are you going to get to look at flowers? Close the computer, and go take a walk.