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Grand Holiday Illumination

11/26/2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,

I am pleased to share the details below for our tenth annual Grand Holiday Illumination, a joyous community celebration that is free to all. The Walled Garden will be aglow with thousands of lights as seasonal music from many cultural traditions resounds and visitors warm themselves with complimentary hot chocolate served by friendly volunteers.

This year, the Conservancy is establishing a new tradition—the Grand March—which will take place most nights at 6:30 p.m. (see schedule on website) on the lower terrace lawn, weather permitting. Lasting about ten minutes, this guided line dance is appropriate for all ages and promises to be a fun experience that adds warmth and camaraderie to the evening. The dance will be accompanied by lively march music as participants form twosomes, foursomes, a tunnel, a spiral, and a runaround.

We are grateful to the Yonkers Economic Development Corporation for their leadership support of the Illumination and to all our sponsors: ArtsWestchester, AVR Realty Company, ENT & Allergy Associates, MacQuesten Development, LLC, Montefiore Einstein, Schildwachter Fuel Oil, St. John’s Riverside Hospital, Sound Associates, Inc., and Orange Bank & Trust Company.

The Illumination opens on Saturday, December 6 at 5:30 p.m. It will then run daily December 7 through January 4 from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. Please join us.

Kind regards,

Stephen F. Byrns, President

New Sculptures

11/5/2025

November 5, 2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,

Recently, we dedicated seven large bronze busts of Hudson River School painters by the noted sculptor Greg Wyatt against a stupendous backdrop of the Hudson River and Palisades in the Long Garden. Depicting Thomas Cole, Frederic E. Church, Jasper Cropsey, Thomas Moran, Asher B. Durand, Albert Bierstadt, and Sanford R. Gifford, the impressive ensemble is punctuated by our two towering ancient Roman columns at the Vista Overlook. A most generous gift of the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, they recall the artistic displays that peppered the landscape in Samuel Untermyer’s time. An engraved label on the back of each sculpture provides a detailed biography of the artist.

Earlier this week, the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy received the 2025 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award, which was presented by the Preservation League of New York State, the state’s leading preservation organization. It honored the Conservancy’s role in the metamorphosis of Untermyer Gardens over the past fifteen years and continues the regional and national recognition we have received. Samuel Untermyer’s ambition for the garden was grand, and so is ours.

With colder weather setting in, winter preparations are underway in the garden. Tropical plants are being moved indoors, annuals are being cut down, the cascades and canals will soon be drained, and our intrepid volunteer greeters are off duty until the spring. We are blessed with a huge community of volunteers who help in so many ways, and at the end of the season we celebrate them at our annual Volunteer Party. Look at all these happy faces!

Our high school interns conducted the last harvest in the Vegetable Garden, and it was quite a haul. They were the third cohort this year and did an outstanding job. The garden now looks somewhat bare, but its underlying geometry is still quite interesting.

Work on the Stumpery has picked up speed. The gardeners and garden class members have planted about 200 woody plants, and our creative masons went to town building ten whimsical stone cairns. Some of them contain bits of flotsam that have been recovered from the garden over the years. The Stumpery will be one of the most distinctive and original features of the garden, and I believe it will be the largest in the world when it’s completed.

Timothy Tilghman is here to share how he and his team go about installing the Grand Holiday Illumination – it’s quite an operation!

Kind regards,

Stephen F. Byrns, President

Good News

10/28/2025

October 28, 2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,

It’s amazing to think it was nearly 15 years ago that I started the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy, when the garden was just a shadow of its former self. To date, about two-thirds of the garden has been gloriously restored and is now appreciated by 300,000 visitors every year. The combination of sophisticated horticulture married to monumental architecture is hard to beat, especially when accompanied by a compelling historical narrative and an incredible view.

To date we have restored four of Samuel Untermyer’s original gardens—the Walled Garden, the Vista, the Rock and Stream Garden, and the Temple of Love. We have reimagined two gardens that reference earlier ones—the Ornamental Vegetable Garden and Orchard and the Rhododendron Walk. We have created three wholly new garden features that are evolving beautifully—the Ruin Garden, the Meadow, and the Stumpery.

Alongside the garden’s rebirth, we have introduced a rich array of classes, tours, and music and dance performances. Our dazzling Grand Holiday Illumination, now in its tenth year (and also free to the public), has become a cherished multicultural holiday tradition. And our outreach to the Yonkers Public Schools is growing rapidly, with more than 1,600 students visiting this year.

This is a project like no other, and it has seized the imagination and passion of so many people. Our team of gardeners has grown from the one and only (literally!) Timothy Tilghman to eleven this year. Just as Timothy found he needed more hands to care for the garden, I gradually brought in more hands to help me manage an organization that now raises more than $2 million every year to operate the garden and run our many programs.

I am delighted to report that Michele Rossetti will become the Conservancy’s first Executive Director on January 2. Michele is well known in and knowledgeable about the world of public gardens, having spent 29 years at nearby Wave Hill, nine of them as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. A lifelong Yonkers resident and longtime friend to the garden, she has generously assisted us behind the scenes over the years. She will bring managerial expertise, extensive experience in education and outreach, and fresh insights to enrich the formula that has served us so well. As she takes on the role of managing our operations and our partnership with the City of Yonkers, Michele will help propel us to an even higher level.

I have known Michele since 2000, so our mutual respect is deep. As a trusted partner, Michele will allow me to reduce my workload as I pursue an ambitious goal: to drive the completion of the final third of the garden’s reinvention with the critical fundraising this entails. There is much work ahead—renovations (the Color Gardens, the Long Garden, the Sun Dial Garden), innovations (the Quiet Garden), and building and rebuilding infrastructure essential to sustain the garden in its next century.

Stephen F. Byrns, President; Michele Rossetti, Executive Director; and Peter Boodell, Chair

I will continue as President, at my same desk by the window, but my presence will be somewhat less constant. And it will be my pleasure to continue to write this newsletter as long as you continue to read it!
Meanwhile, thank you for the role you have played in making Untermyer Gardens one of America’s finest gardens once again. I hope Michele and I, together with our board of directors, can count on your continued support during the Conservancy’s next exciting phase.

Kind regards,

Stephen F. Byrns, President

Understory Plants

10/16/2025

October 16, 2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,

Fall is the best time to plant trees and shrubs, given its milder temperatures. A top priority for us is the Stumpery, where hundreds of understory plants are now going into the ground, such as bottlebrush buckeye, shadbush, chokeberry, buttonbush, redbud, dogwood, clethra, bush honeysuckle, witch hazel, holly, and more! They will complement the primary trees that were planted last year and will be followed by thousands of herbaceous and ephemeral plants in the years to come.

One of the outstanding features of Untermyer Gardens is its topography, which offers views that overlook the lower levels and architecturally interesting stairs to traverse, though some find them precarious. In addition to the array of accessible ramps that are being installed this year, we have added more handrails at some of the stairs. Here is one at the amphitheater, which will come in handy for many people attending our concerts.

We were excited to see the recent installation of seven larger than life bronze busts of Hudson River School painters by the internationally noted sculptor Greg Wyatt. Representing Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Jasper Cropsey, Thomas Moran, Asher Durand, Albert Bierstadt, and Sanford Gifford, they anchor a future garden to be called the Long Garden, next to the Vegetable Garden. I love how their placement reinforces the existing geometry and complements the ancient Roman columns. The presence of the Hudson River in the background couldn’t be more appropriate. Greg Wyatt’s Peace Fountain at St. John the Divine in New York City is well known, as are his sculptures at Arlington National Cemetery and around the world. The sculptures are the generous gift of the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, located in nearby Hastings-on-Hudson.

Every year, one of my favorite autumnal activities is to lead a tour of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, whose culmination of course is the Untermyer Memorial, where members of the family are buried. Woodlawn is one of the great cemeteries of the world, with splendid architecture, sculpture, stained glass, and towering trees. Like Untermyer Gardens, it is one of a kind! The tour will include a visit to the interior of the Collis Huntington mausoleum as well as the burial sites of Admiral David Farragut, R. H. Macy, William Earl Dodge, and Leopold Damrosch, among many others. Fall will be at its peak color, and tickets are available here.

Our annual Family Fun Day last week was our best ever, with perfect weather making it a big hit for the kids and their parents. Animals, magic, art, picnicking on the grass, and sundry games were enjoyed by all.

Kind regards,

Stephen F. Byrns, President

Last Hurrah

9/30/2025

September 30, 2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,

As we move ahead into autumn, it is time to give thanks to our outstanding team of gardeners. Their skills become ever sharper, and their work ethic is unsurpassed. You need only tour around the garden to see the exacting level of maintenance they provide. Led by Timothy Tilghman, we thank them for an outstanding year and look forward to a burst of planting during the cooler days ahead.

The Stumpery is the scene of much activity right now as a series of stone cairns is being assembled as a counterpoint to the plethora of stumps accentuating the landscape. They will house a surprising water feature, to be revealed next spring. Also underway is the installation of a whimsical rustic seating area that will overlook the entire Stumpery, perhaps one day with a subtle river view!

My favorite horticultural “last hurrah” of the season is the panorama of asters sweeping down the hillside adjacent to the Temple of Love cascades. Short, medium, tall—they are often covered with pollinators greedily ingesting the tasty offerings of the flowers. Yum-yum, they seem to say!

The grasses in the ziggurat beds flanking the Persian Pool are quite dense and shaggy now. While their geometric pattern is a bit blurred at the moment, they make a novel statement where one would expect to find a planting of flowers. It’s nice to be surprised.

Please note that our annual Family Fun Day will take place on Sunday, October 5. This is a great opportunity to bring children to the garden for a picnic on the grass, a magic show, a visiting menagerie of pettable animals, art projects, a scavenger hunt, and more in a magical setting. Much of the Walled Garden will be reserved for you and your little ones, so please indulge them.

Timothy Tilghman is back to share progress in the Stumpery.

Kind regards,

Stephen F. Byrns, President

No Goats

9/17/2025

September 17, 2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,

I am pleased to say we are making great strides in our goal to make more of the garden accessible to more people. Thanks to the generous response to the paddle raise at our Sunset Soirée in June, we have now installed a gently sloping paved path to the lower terrace entrance to the Walled Garden. For the first time, visitors who rely on wheelchairs or other assisting devices can get close to the restored Persian Pool, as well as the lower terrace’s stunning views and plantings. Soon, a steel ramp to the loggia will allow access to the spectacular view from the top of the Vista.

I recently learned that the gardeners are trying an experiment to eradicate a giant thicket of Japanese knotweed at the lowest stretch of the future meadow. There is no easy fix, and I have read that public parks and gardens spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get rid of it. Or they bring in a herd of goats for many months. Our solution is regular mowing, which robs the knotweed of needed photosynthesis, thereby greatly weakening it and enabling other plants to take over. We shall see what happens …

The Conservancy has worked for 14 years to restore a ruined landscape that is now looking quite spectacular. While I believe that we are about two-thirds of the way to total restoration, what has been accomplished has seized the imagination of the public. So it is with real pride that we learned that we have won an award from the Preservation League of New York State, to be presented in November. Here is the press release.

While the garden is friendly to families every day, our special annual family event is coming up in three weeks on Sunday, October 5. Family Fun Day will take place in the Walled Garden, where picnic lunches will be permitted for one day only. Come see the magic show in the amphitheater, followed by a chance to cozy up to a variety of pettable animals from the Nature Center at Greenburgh. There will be a scavenger hunt, a creative recycled art activity, sea creature tattoos, and story time.

The final two Minnie Untermyer concerts are just around the corner and offer a splendid opportunity to experience early fall in the garden at its peak. Returning are Tom Gold Dance on Saturday, September 20, and Marc Molomot & Friends on Saturday, September 27, performing selections from The Great American Songbook and art songs. I hope you will join us.

Kind regards,

Stephen F. Byrns, President

Every Nook and Cranny

8/28/2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,

I encourage you to block out a bigger chunk of time than usual so you can enjoy a truly comprehensive experience on your next visit. So many people say that each time they come, they are surprised at the new things they discover in every nook and cranny. For instance, take a look at the castor beans in the pots in the amphitheater. The scale of the leaves works well in this monumental setting.

Or enter the magical world we call Drewtopia at the north loggia of the lower terrace in the Walled Garden. Pots of all kinds display an amazing array of tree ferns, staghorn ferns, bromeliads, palms, and various succulents. At the center is the Apollo Belvedere, a replacement for the one Samuel Untermyer once had.

Construction work continues, with new concrete gutters along the carriage trail below the meadow. This completes the first third of an extensive restoration of the trail and its drainage system.

As you enter the Walled Garden, take a moment to sniff the aroma of caramel, almost like cotton candy, emitted by the aging leaves of our magnificent Katsura trees. It is a seasonal thing, only during late summer, so enjoy it while it lasts.

The last segment of the Minnie Untermyer concerts is approaching. Our first ever presentation of folk music will feature the renowned Tom Chapin on Sunday, September 7. He will be followed by Tom Gold Dance on Saturday, September 20, unveiling an original new dance on our new floor surface. Our final performance will feature Marc Molomot & Friends, who will sing from The Great American Songbook as well as art songs on Saturday, September 27. All three concerts will take place at 5:00 p.m.

Warm regards,

Stephen F. Byrns, President

P.S. I’d like to plug my special VIP President’s Tour on Sunday, September 7, giving a deep dive into all things Untermyer, including some snacks!

Slime Mold

8/7/2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,

Part of the rhythmic horticultural structure of the Walled Garden are the upright, fastigiate European beeches that line the paths flanking the canals. They echo the smaller trees from Samuel Untermyer’s day and add dignity to the magisterial Persian layout. Their downside is the extensive annual pruning required to keep them in proportion to the garden. The gardeners, of course, are up to the task with the help of tall ladders and pruners.

Despite my deep familiarity with the garden, there are times when I am pleasantly caught by surprise. Timothy Tilghman and I recently went on a vehicular expedition through the garden that took us down to the evolving stumpery. Last year, when the gardeners removed some undergrowth near the carriage trail, they discovered two linked pits, whose purpose remains unclear.

Timothy took a shine to them and cleaned them out, while mentioning a desire to do something “woody” there. Voilà! A most interesting basketweave of branches is now being assembled around the pits. Timothy calls it our “dead hedge,” and best of all, it was built by our high school interns, sometimes using branches from the pruned beeches in the Walled Garden.

Thankfully, climate change has not yet dried up Yonkers, which has received a good amount of rain this year. Visible in various areas in the woods are what appear to be small pools of vomit (sorry to be so blunt). Not a pretty picture, but what is it? According to Timothy, what we are looking at is slime mold.

Our last concert for August will feature Sonnambula in a performance of early music on Sunday, August 10, at 5:00 p.m. There will be a harpsichord, a viola da gamba, and a violin—good stuff! Looking ahead to September, we will offer three concerts: the folk singer Tom Chapin on September 7, Tom Gold Dance on September 20, and Marc Molomot and friends on September 27.

Our gardeners John Jacono and Liz Dreeben are co-leaders of our Youth Horticultural Initiative, which receives critical support from the Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation, the St. Faith’s House Foundation, Con Edison, and CDBG/HUD. In this video they will talk about developments in the ornamental vegetable garden, along with our latest team of Yonkers high school interns. As a teaser, here is a photo of an artichoke flower!

Warm regards,
Stephen F. Byrns, President

Miniature Stone Arch

7/7/2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,

Serendipity is a wonderful quality in a garden. Imagine our delight when we spied this miniature stone arch (crafted, no doubt, by miniature hands) on the retaining wall below the Temple of Love. Perhaps it was the work of an aspiring young architect.

The Rock and Stream Garden is looking quite alpine these days as the herbaceous perennials have bushed out quite nicely over the years. One of the genius details of the stream is that additional water is piped into it at intervals to simulate the naturally increasing flow of water downhill. You can hear it, too.

This is the season when our noted hydrangea collection comes into its full glory. It looks like another good year, as we were spared any damaging spring frosts. Come down to the lower terrace of the Walled Garden and behold these beauties for yourself. If you want to learn more about hydrangeas, please sign up for Drew Schuylers's class, All About Hydrangeas, which highlights our more than 50 varieties of hydrangeas.

Some of you have expressed interest in helping out at Untermyer Gardens. During these days of peak visitorship, there is no greater service than to volunteer as a greeter. On weekends through October, greeters work two-hour shifts in teams of two under the tent near the entrance. They are especially helpful in assisting new visitors and are critical in accepting donations to help maintain the garden. Seeing the joy on the faces of our visitors is a bonus. You can learn more and join our volunteer program through our Volunteer webpage.

The month of July will see three performances in our Minnie Untermyer Concert Series, all at 5:00 p.m. On Sunday, July 13, a brass quintet from the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra will perform a mix of classical and popular music. This concert is in memory of Christine Kenney O’Rourke, a beloved Untermyer volunteer.

This is followed by the return of the Victor LaGamma Jazz Quartet on Sunday, July 20, always a well-attended event. Finally, Eléonore Biezunski & Friends will perform Yiddish songs about nature in a lively concert of klezmer music on Sunday, July 27.

Warm regards,

Stephen Byrns, President

Intricate Flashing

6/16/2025

June 16, 2025

Dear Friends of Untermyer Gardens,
The solstice is only a few days away, so come see the garden in its early summer splendor. The cool season annuals along the canals are at their peak and will be removed within two weeks for the summer planting.

Phase four of the carriage trail restoration is now complete and is highly visible from the Persian Pool overlook. We have installed a different, finer, crushed stone surface than what was used earlier, which is now on the carriage paths at Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville. Hopefully, it will hold up during heavy rains. New catch basins have been installed; they will divert the water to a large detention pond in the future meadow. We are now about a third of the way done with the carriage trail project, which will take several more years.

The entry tower restoration is now complete. Dominick Forcello Inc. did an excellent job with the masonry, and Maultz Construction installed the intricate flashing and roofing, which will protect the tower below. This is likely the model we will use going forward when we begin to restore the walls surrounding the Walled Garden, which are in poor shape.

I am thrilled to announce that the Conservancy has purchased a professional portable dance surface for the amphitheater, which will allow dancers to perform to the best of their abilities. It will make its debut this Saturday, June 21, at 5:00 p.m. by Christopher Williams Dances. Nine dancers will perform Christopher’s interpretation of Greek mythological figures, such as Apollo, Diana, Narcissus, Andromeda, and Phaethon. The elegant music will be La Rhétorique des Dieux, composed by Denis Gaultier (1603-72) for unaccompanied lute. This will be our most ambitious and novel performance of the season, and I encourage you to attend! The rain date is Sunday, June 22.

The following weekend, on Sunday, June 29, the renowned Voices of Ascension will return to the Untermyer stage for Love, Renaissance Style. It will take a look at the saucy and secular side of Renaissance music, which should be the perfect way to enjoy a summer evening. Madrigals, love songs, and colorfully naughty lyrics should delight us all.

We are truly privileged to host such outstanding performers, who enlarge our experience of the monumental theatricality of our Walled Garden.
A lifelong Yonkers resident, Ed Sabol has been a friend to the garden in good times and bad. Now, fourteen years since the garden’s transformation by the Conservancy, he swears that picking his favorite spot is like “picking his favorite Beatles album.” Watch the video to discover why Ed is making a legacy gift as a founding member of our Evergreen Circle, a society of donors providing for Untermyer’s future through a bequest or other estate plan.

Warm regards,
Stephen F. Byrns, President

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Grand Holiday Illumination

New Sculptures

Good News

Understory Plants

Last Hurrah

No Goats

Every Nook and Cranny

Slime Mold

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Intricate Flashing

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