Central Park

The Daily Plant : Wednesday, April 10, 2002

FIELDS OF GOLD BLOOM ACROSS NEW YORK CITY

On Saturday in parks across the city, New Yorkers visited their neighborhood parks to walk among the "fields of gold." In Morningside Park in Manhattan’s District 9, Commissioner Adrian Benepe joined Public Gardener Lynden Miller, Council Member Bill Perkins, the Netherlands' Consul General Bob Hiensch, President of the Friends of Morningside Park Patrice Romulus, and students from Columbia University to commemorate the blooming of 1.5 million daffodils.

Last fall 10,000 volunteers came to 1,000 parks to plant daffodil bulbs as a living memorial for those who died in the September 11 attacks. 500,000 bulbs were donated by B & K Bulbs in the Netherlands and an additional 500,000 bulbs were donated by the City of Rotterdam and Rotterdam’s Port Authority. Parks’ gardeners, staff, and Partnerships of Parks’ Outreach Coordinators helped to organize six weeks of planting projects to ensure the bulbs got in the ground before winter arrived.

The city is now awash in yellow daffodils, which is the color of remembrance. The bloom will last for another few weeks so there is still time to visit parks and take a moment to appreciate their beauty and contemplate why they were planted. For a complete list of sites where the daffodil bulbs were planted visit the Parks website at www.nyc.gov/parks.

Central Park was covered in plaid Saturday. New Yorkers celebrated their Scottish heritage by marching in Scottish PowerTunes of Glory parade up Sixth Avenue and into the park. The parade aided Gilda’s Club Worldwide and Marie Curie Cancer Care, both cancer-related charities. Over 10,000 pipers and drummers marched, setting a new record. Sean Connery served as the Master of Ceremonies and marched with Mayor Bloomberg. Commissioner Benepe was on-hand to celebrate with New York’s Scots.

The festivities to celebrate Tartan Day actually began on Friday, April 5. The Royal Scottish Forestry Society donated a Red oak to New Yorkers as a living memorial to the September 11 attacks and as a symbol of hope. In light of the city’s Asian Longhorned beetle infestation, the Society chose to plant a Red oak tree, which does not play host to the beetle. To the sounds of drums and bagpipes, Deputy Commissioner Kavanagh joined First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell, Royal Scottish Forestry Vice President James Brown, Central Park Conservancy President Regina Peruggi, and United Nation, Consular Corp and Protocol Commissioner Marjorie B. Tiven to plant the tree near Merchant’s Gate in Central Park.

Tartan Day is a holiday commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath, or the Scottish Declaration of Independence. The documents were used by America’s founders as they drafted the American Declaration of Independence. The plaid seen across Central Park on Saturday was more than a fashion statement. Each plaid pattern signifies a person’s clan, or family. In other words, a Campbell plaid is different from a Connery plaid. Last weekend’s Scottish events drew enthusiastic and spirited crowds dressed in a host of different plaid patterns.

Today marked a special occasion. The planet Earth turned four billion, 561 million years old (give or take a week or so). And nearly 2,000 four- and five-year-old preschoolers converged on the Great Lawn in Central Park this morning to pay tribute to the Earth by releasing butterflies, singing and munching on a giant green birthday cake.

The youngsters, some wearing decorative homemade hats, were entertained by Sesame Street’s "Maria" (Sonia Manzano), who led the group in singing "Gardening" and "The Great Big Beautiful Planet." Other performances were given by "Fred the Moose," the dinosaur fairy, "It Zwibble," and costumed clowns and jugglers.

"To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a University education.

These things are all outside a man, and if the inside remains unchanged

you have wasted your labour. You must in some way or other graft upon

the man’s nature a new nature, which has in it the element of the Divine."

(April 10, 1829–1912)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center