New York Restoration Project’s ninth annual Spring Picnic was no ordinary picnic in the park, but a night to remember. NYRP friends and supporters spent the evening of May 17th celebrating the organization’s 15th anniversary in Northern Manhattan’s Fort Washington Park – the very first New York City park Founder Bette Midler and friends began cleaning up in 1995. More than 500 NYRP friends and supporters – clad in their best spring bling – enjoyed a picnic under the stars, while supporting NYRP’s mission.

Joining hostess with the most-ess Bette Midler was Tony and Emmy award-winning performer Nathan Lane, who served as the evening’s often outrageous master of ceremonies. And in usual form, comedian Judy Gold proved to be a hilarious auctioneer for NYRP’s annual tree auction, which raised critical funds for the organization’s tree-planting and greening efforts.

Throughout the event, guests were entertained by acclaimed jazz guitarist and vocalist, John Pizzarelli, and a resounding rendition of “Ol’ Man River” sung by Metropolitan Opera tenor Donovan Singletary. In true Spring Picnic tradition, the Divine Miss M herself led guests in a sing-a-long that had the crowd on their feet and dancing to such classic hits as “Proud Mary” and “Moon River.”

As guests dined , Midler recognized NYRP’s hardworking board and staff, and thanked NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and the entire New York City Department of Parks & Recreation for their ongoing commitment to green NYC.

Adding to the natural beauty of Fort Washington Park, Woolly Pockets – a Leed-certified organization that creates flexible, modular gardening containers that can be used both indoors and outdoors – donated a living green wall and chandelier for the event space.  Additionally, NYRP supporter ZeZe Flowers provided the floral centerpieces.

Honorary Spring Picnic co-chairs included international supermodel Iman and recent Ugly Betty star America Ferrera, who recited the poem, The Heart of the Tree. NYRP wants to also recognize and thank our Spring Picnic co-chairs – The Durst Family, Mica Ertegun, Michael Fuchs, Candy Spelling, William D. Zabel and Ann Ziff – who are all responsible for making the night a fundraising success for the organization.

Relive all the fun from this year's Spring Picnic by clicking here.

Don’t forget to SAVE THE DATE for NYRP’s Hulaween 2010 on Friday, October 29th!

Discover the latest advances in the emerging world of disease-resistant, sustainable rose gardening. Come see the award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden in a daylong program - Sustainability GROW(s)™ Up! - held at The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday, June 12.

In a unique New York appearance, members of the Great Rosarians of the World™ will convene to discuss cutting-edge, environmentally friendly techniques for growing great roses. Don’t miss this chance to meet the world’s foremost rose experts:

• David Austin, GROW™ 2010 Honoree, world-renowned hybridizer of English roses and author of the “must have” Handbook of Roses

• Mike Shoup, antique rose connoisseur who rescues threatened rose varieties from extinction

• Peter Kukielski, Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden Curator

Following the event, there will be a reception in the Rose Garden. Click here to register and to view a schedule of the day’s events.

As part of our third annual MillionTreesNYC Month, New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation joined New York City’s growing band of green thumbs and volunteers to plant thousands of trees throughout the city’s neighborhoods, streets, parks and residential districts. MillionTreesNYC Month highlights include:

April 17 – NYRP staff joined Put Down Roots sponsor JetBlue Airways, JetBlue employees and more than 300 community volunteers to plant more than 175 trees on homeowners’ front and backyards in the neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens.

April 22 – NYRP and our partner City Year celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day by hosting our second annual Root for NY Corporate Challenge in which volunteers from across the city planted more than 100 street trees in Northern Manhattan. The tree planting was supported by lead partner Bank of America, as well as American Express, Deutsche Bank, CA, Fred Alger Management, Legg Mason and The Training Street. Congratulations to the Bank of America team – this year’s winner of the Root for NY Corporate Challenge!

April 24 – The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, NYRP and more than 5,000 NYC volunteers planted 20,000 trees in parks across the city’s five boroughs.

April 30 – To celebrate Arbor Day, NYRP joined employees and representatives from MillionTreesNYC lead sponsors The Home Depot Foundation, Toyota and BNP Paribas to plant trees across the Atlantic Plaza Towers – a Brooklyn residential development.

To learn how you can dig in and support MillionTreesNYC, click here.

 On Saturday, May 1st, Upper Manhattan experienced a spring awakening as part of NYRP’s Spring Festival celebration. Located at Anne Loftus Playground in Fort Tryon Park, the festival brought together more than 750 local residents and families to rejoice in the coming of the season through a series of arts and crafts activities, including kite making, paper flower corsages and face painting.

One of the biggest attractions of the day came from the live petting zoo, where crowds of attendees gathered to watch and play with a variety of farm animals – ranging from chicks to baby goats to the most popular attraction, a week-old lamb.

As the day grew warmer, children danced and played in the park’s water fountain, while participants were treated to complimentary organic, artisan ice cream, topped with fresh fruit. Additional highlights of the event included an impromptu dance competition, NYRP’s traveling animal show – led by our education staff – a chalk garden and an on-site specialty herb market. The day’s festivities culminated with a raffle giveaway in which several lucky participants took home a variety of free prizes.

To view all of NYRP’s upcoming events and community-based activities, visit our online calendar.

More than 30 community gardeners turned out for NYRP’s inaugural Neighborhood Gardening Workshop series, held on April 7th at our Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Garden. The first of a series of four workshops, this outdoor training – entitled Garden Planning 101 – focused on planting seasonally, as well as the importance of succession planting as a tool to maximize a garden’s yield.

Just Food trainer, Solita Stephens, led a detailed discussion in which she identified differences in garden locations, size of planting beds, amount of sunlight and companion planting. Participants left the workshop with a fresh outlook on gardening, an urban planting calendar and guide, a hand trowel, set of gloves and cold weather seeds, as well as a sheet of blank graph paper to map out their own green spaces.

Visit www.nyrp.org to learn about other upcoming NYRP garden workshops near you!

If you have recently dined at NYRP’s New Leaf Restaurant & Bar in Fort Tryon Park, share your experience in Zagat’s New York City Restaurants Survey. Submit your ratings and reviews by Sunday, May 16th and receive a free 2011 New York City Restaurants guide, a 90-day subscription to ZAGAT.com or an entry into the $500 “Night on The Town” sweepstakes. Also, Zagat is giving away $1,000 worth of prize money to top reviewers for the most witty and pithy reviews.

To participate in the survey, visit www.zagat.com/survey today!

To commemorate this year's Arbor Day (April 30),  NYRP staff joined employees from MillionTreesNYC lead sponsors The Home Depot Foundation, Toyota and BNP Paribas to dig in and plant trees all around the Atlantic Plaza Towers, a Brooklyn residential development.

Volunteers were treated to performances by Diana DeGarmo and Constantine Maroulis. NYRP Founder Bette Milder was also in attendence for the tree-planting event. 

NYRP invites all New York City residents to celebrate Arbor Day every day by planting a tree in their front or backyard or adopting a street tree and watering and protecting it all year long. 

Get a free tree today by visiting www.milliontreesnyc.org or contacting MillionTreesNYC Coordinator Pauli Evanson at pevanson@nyrp.org.