The Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Tucked into the innards of the city that never sleeps lies the Brooklyn Botanic garden. The compound is a vast 52 acre location that includes a number of specialty areas and collections creating different subsections devoted to a particular theme. Among these is the Steinhardt Conservatory that houses the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum, clime themed plant pavilions, an art gallery and a wonderful aquatic plant house built from white cast iron and glass. The garden is very popular among locals and tourists alike and greets over 700 thousand visitors yearly. Clearly a classic city landmark that no student from an English school New York should miss.

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The Cherry Tree Esplanade

Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden

For those who love views of the Far East the garden is certainly the place to be. Housing more than 200 cherry trees that span over forty two species, the Brooklyn Botanical is simply one of the foremost cherry tree viewing sites worldwide. The trees have long been a traditional feature of the garden and the first were received as a gift from the Japanese government and planted shortly after World War I. If you are in New York for spring (for instance, if you are attending any English courses NYC offers you can do it on spring break), you should make a point to attend Hanami, a month long cherry blossom festival held when the trees are in bloom that culminates in the celebration Sakura Matsuri.

The Japanese Hill and Pond Garden

The Botanical Garden has the first Japanese garden ever to be created in America. Opening to the public in 1915, it is considered to be the great masterpiece of Japanese landscape designer Takeo Shiota. Mr. Shiota was an immigrant that was born on a tiny Japanese village outside of Tokyo and spend his youth trekking across Japan to discover its many natural marvels.

The garden blends the classic hill and pond style with a more modern look that puts the emphasis on the traveler experience. The stroll garden style, as it is called, works by slowly revealing new and different features of the garden as the visitor walks over its winding paths. With a respectable size of 3 acres, the garden contains rolling hills, a waterfall, a pond and an island. Other architectural elements include: placed rocks, wooden arc bridges, store lanterns, a viewing pavilion, a torii (a classic gateway from Japan's early history) and a Shinto shrine. The garden was restored in the year 2000 and has been awarded the New York Landmark Conservancy's Preservation Award.

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden is just one of the many wonderful features New York has to offer and is another great incentive to come to the city. Keep that in mind when you are choosing your travel location of deciding whether you should really attend that English school in Los Angeles.