“Spanish Paradise: Gardens of the Alhambra” opens today in the Conservatory of the New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York, and will be on view today through August 21, 2011.

Travel to southern Spain in just an afternoon. This unprecedented exhibition explores the collaboration of sublime nature and dramatic design that created an earthly paradise. Read the works of Federico García Lorca as you stroll the gardens surrounding the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, enjoy flamenco each weekend, and discover the food and culture of Spain.

The exhibition features flowing fountains, elegant arches, and a broad palette of Old World plants anchored by date palms, pomegranate trees, Italian cypress, and more—all within the Victorian elegance of the Conservatory.

On view along Perennial Garden Way, 16 poetry boards present Federico García Lorca’s poems, many of them referencing plants, flowers, and gardens.

Rare prints, historical photographs, watercolor drawings and objects from the collections of the Hispanic Society of America are on view in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s William D. Rondina and Giovanni Foroni LoFaro Gallery, immersing visitors in the Alhambra’s history and design. Perspectives from tourists to the Alambra, including its most famous, Washington Irving, will be featured.

(Image courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America)