New York Botanical Garden’s Enchanting Wonderland

Curiouser and Curiouser…

The current New York Botanical Garden exhibit, Wonderland: Curious Nature is inspired by the imagination of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Don’t be late for this very important date in the gardens where visitors of all ages explore an enchanting wonderland and delight in a world of wild imagination.

Near the entrance to the gardens sits a whimsical 12 foot-tall rabbit with watch and bow tie. More characters from the story appear throughout the 250 acres with rabbit footprints, larger-than-life mushrooms, and a giant chessboard designed by Yoko Ono.

There are children’s programs, and a varied range of events. Trams circle the gardens and the restaurants have themed menus. Of course there is a Mad Hatters tea party. There is much to discover, so follow me down the rabbit-hole!

Down the Rabbit-Hole

Inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is a horticultural wonderland. In the lily pool float otherworldly circular bright green lily pads, Victoria Amazonica. The pads can grow to seven feet in diameter and bear the weight of a small child. They were recently discovered when Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in 1852, and were a curiosity in Victorian England at the lily house in Oxford where Carroll lived.

Past the pool and palms the conservatory opens into a long walk bordered with plants and flowers found in typical English gardens. Many of these were popular during the Victorian era and may have grown in Lewis Carroll’s garden. At the end of the borders scurries the white rabbit. It’s time to follow him into the rabbit-hole.

Into Another Weird and Wonderful World

Once through the rabbit-hole the conservatory opens into another world, a jungle of exotic plants with giant speckled and striped leaves a complete contrast to the Victorian flower borders. Bright red pitcher plants which lure live insects hang from tendrils and nestle in a wooden log. Curiouser and curiouser.

Magic Mushrooms

Outside the conservatory the wonderland continues. Among 100 twisting and globe topiary sit two huge white mushrooms. These grow and expand creating their own fantasy. They are Shrumen Lumen sculptures by FoldHaus Art Collective which in 2016 were part of an installation at Burning Man in California. At night they are illuminated in a rainbow of gleaming LEDs creating a magical dreamworld.

More Mushroom Magic

And there is yet more mushroom magic. A little house with a twisting undulating roof fits right into Alice’s adventures. Is this the house where once inside Alice grew so tall she could only get her arm out of the window? This house is, in fact, even more magical. The bricks are made from mycelium, a network of thread like structures similar to roots which grow beneath mushrooms. Biomaterials company Ecovative has developed a way of training mycelium to grow into molded shapes like bricks. An Alice fantasy or wave of the future?

Who was Alice?

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1865 and has been translated into 174 languages. Who was Alice? Who was the author Lewis Carroll? What inspired a tale that has entranced children around the world for 162 years?

I wanted to find out more and headed over to the Mertz Library in the main NYBG building. On the sixth floor there is an exhibition of literary and botanical history featuring Lewis Carroll and his book. Also there is much background on the Victorian era in which Alice lived.

Yes, there was an Alice and Lewis Carroll was the storyteller. Of course there are curious twists to the story. Lewis Carroll was the pen name for Charles Dogdson, a brilliant scholar and prolific author born in 1832, who lived at Christ Church, Oxford. He created and told stories to Alice Lidell and her sisters. (Carroll denied that the book was based on a real person).

This was the era of Darwin discoveries. The Victorans were avid plant hunters with huge interest in plants found around the world. There was also fascination and experimentation using the hallucinogenic properties of new plant discoveries. In the Mertz library there are faded manuscripts and dried plants which give a glimpse into the era. I began to feel like Alice falling the rabbit hole into another world. Is this why, in the book, the blue catapillar sits on a mushroom smoking a hookah?

Inspiration for artists from Dahli to the Beatles

This tale told on a river bank in Victorian Oxford has not only delighted children throughout the world it has inspired writers and artists: Dahli, Kusama, Beatrix Potter, Aldous Huxley and of course Disney. Creating art inspired by Alice in Wonderland is almost a rite of passage for creatives.

In 1969 White Rabbit was performed by Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock and the Beatles I am a Walrus was inspired by the book. There is much to this tale created on an Oxford riverbank over 160 years ago.

Enchanting Wonderland

So don’t be late for this very important date. Wonderland: Curious Nature has something to delight everyone from a small child to the scholar and artist. Just follow the footprints and hurry to that rabbit-hole into a world of enchantment. The exhibit is at the New York Botanical Garden until October 27, 2024

In 2021 I wrote about the NYBG summer exhibit featuring Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkins Kusama has illustrated an edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.