Levy Foundation gives $15 million for new native plant garden | lohud.com | The Journal News

• By Bill Cary
  The Journal News • May 25, 2008

• The Leon Levy Foundation is giving $15 million to The New York Botanical Garden to create a 3.5-acre Native Plant Garden.

  The garden, which will sit adjacent to the Rock Garden and the large native forest in the heart of the Bronx public garden, will serve as a horticultural center for the study and display of plants native to the Northeast. It will also allow visitors to see first-hand the role that native plants and ecosystems play in supporting birds and other wildlife.
  

  Shelby White, who lives in Lewisboro, was instrumental in directing the money to the Botanical Garden in honor of her late husband, Leon Levy. White is founding director of the Leon Levy Foundation and vice chair of the board of directors of the Botanical Garden. In 2004, the foundation helped create the Leon Levy Visitor Center as the main entrance for the garden.

• The new garden will be one of the first projects in the Botanical Garden’s new master plan for its 250-acre site, which includes 50 gardens, plant collections and displays, as well as a 50-acre old-growth forest with some of the oldest trees in the city. Over the next several years, the garden plans to invest more than $100 million in restoration and restoration projects.

  For more information on The New York Botanical Garden, visit www.nybg.org or call 718-817-8700.

  Reach Bill Cary at wcary@lohud.com or 914-696-8554.