I am a title city planner managing municipal construction projects for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, but my formal background is in ornamental horticulture and botany. Happily, a great many of these projects feature a landscape component in which I am able to ply my trade.

Previously, I supervised Parks' horticulture staff in Manhattan, and before that I was in charge of the gardens bordering the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

I also had a treesandshrubs.about.com/sitesearch.htm?q=jonathan+landsm... in 2011, before Google Panda nearly killed About.com.

Crocheron Park, Queens

My Photographs

On this site, I collect my photos of plants and people working with plants. I use these photos for my own study and to support various projects I take on in the course of my work.

Photos tend to be organized into Botanical Gardens, a photo reference of useful shrubs and trees for cities, public parks, and other plant photos, such as the ghost orchid below, a momentous find during a trip to the Fakahatchee Strand.

Brief Background

Before joining NYC Parks in 2009, I studied public horticulture for cities and botanical gardens at Cornell University, as a Cornell Plantations Fellow. Taxonomy, urban landscape design, and plant propagation were studied concurrently with non-profit management in this program for leaders of public gardens.

Before then and during my studies, I worked on the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden's Fairchild Challenge, gardened and managed plant records at Jenkins Arboretum near Philadelphia, and taught in the Children's Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. I still teach there.