Enjoy a virtual lecture and Q&A session with author Ellen Ecker Ogden about her new book, The New Heirloom Garden. Join the delicious revolution by learning about heirloom vegetables, forgotten fruits, and fragrant flowers. This Tower Hill Botanic Garden Talk will take place February 25 at 6:30, and is $10 for Tower Hill members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.towerhillbg.org/author-talks/
Join us for one of Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s most popular webinars. Foundation and entryway gardens can make or break the “welcome factor” of a home or community building, so let’s consider the problems and opportunities posed by this important space. On February 17 at 6:30 pm, learn how to use winter’s lean lines to assess a foundation area and imagine new designs. Build your plant list during the dark months, a list that includes native perennials, shrubs, grasses, trees, and ferns. Create habitat for birds and pollinators while creating an inviting landscape. Extensive handout and plant lists included.
Kathy Connolly is a landscape designer who specializes in naturalized designs, low-impact techniques, and native plants for homeowners, municipalities, and other organizations. Kathy has a master’s degree in landscape planning and design from the Conway School in Easthampton, MA. She completed the advanced master gardener program and is an Accredited Organic Land Care Professional through NOFA. She is an active member of the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG). She is a regular columnist for The Day community papers which circulate throughout southeastern Connecticut and has written about lawn alternatives for The Spruce/About.com. She gives about 25 talks and workshops each year for conservation organizations, master gardeners, museums, libraries, land trusts, and garden clubs. Her website is www.SpeakingofLandscapes.com.
In this February 10 Tower Hill Botanic Garden webinar beginning at 6:30 pm with Daphne Minner, we will explore the flowering plant life cycle, from seed germination to fruit. The focus will be on sexual reproduction and the intricate interplay between native plants and pollinators. You will learn about common pollinators to native New England and learn how various gardening practices can impact pollinators and climate change.
A lifelong gardener, Daphne has merged her love of plants and science education into botanical education curricula for both children and adults seeking enrichment from nonformal organizations like Native Plant Trust, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and Penn State’s Shaver’s Creek. For more than 25 years, Daphne has worked to improve science and ecology education in both formal K-12 and informal settings. She has developed a certified wildlife habitat in her small urban yard that supports a wide diversity of plant and animal species. Through her careful observation and research, the fascinating relationship between plants and animals are illuminated in her own yard. She holds a certificate in field botany from the Native Plant Trust and a doctorate in Human Development.
$10 for Tower Hill members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org
Learn about color theory, composition and how to paint from observation, in this Tower Hill Botanic Garden class on February 12 from 1 – 3:30. Winter greens such as pine, eucalyptus, cedar and brightly colored citrus fruit will be the inspiration for our compositions. All material is included. This program will be held indoors in one of our well-ventilated classrooms. Group size will not exceed current state restrictions.
Suzanne Hauerstein is a professional teaching artist and the Coordinator of Volunteer & Intern Services at Tower Hill. She has over 25 years of experience designing and facilitating art-based programs for informal learning environments. Suzanne is committed to creating programs that are accessible, positive, and enjoyable learning experiences for students of all ages and abilities.
$40 for Tower Hill members, $55 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org
This Tower Hill Botanic Garden program with Suzanne Hauerstein will be held indoors in one of our well-ventilated classrooms on Monday, November 16 from 10:30 – 1. Group size will not exceed current state restrictions. Max Participants: 10
Using natural wool and neutral colored yarns learn to weave this warm wall hanging. Different weaving techniques and natural materials will be used. All materials will be included.
Suzanne Hauerstein is a professional teaching artist and the Coordinator of Volunteer & Intern Services at Tower Hill. She has over 25 years of experience designing and facilitating art-based programs for informal learning environments. Suzanne is committed to creating programs that are accessible, positive, and enjoyable learning experiences for students of all ages and abilities. $46 for Tower Hill members, $60 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.
Enjoy a virtual lecture and Q&A session on November 23 at 5:30 with author Dr. Chris Thorogood about his new book, Weird Plants. In this little book of horrors, Chris Thorogood reveals the weird, the wonky, and the sinister specimens he has encountered during his travels in the wide world of plants. Far from passively absorbing the sun’s rays, these plants kill, steal and kidnap, making them dynamic participants in the ecosystems around them. From orchids that duplicitously look, feel and even smell like a female insect to bamboozle sex-crazed male bees, to giant pitcher plants that have evolved toilets for tree shrews to carnivorous plants that drug, drown, and consume unsuspecting insect prey, Weird Plants takes us deep inside the worlds of plants whose imaginative and calculating survival methods are startlingly reminiscent of human schemes.
Dr. Chris Thorogood is the Deputy Director and Head of Science of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum in the UK, and a lecturer in biology at the University of Oxford’s Department of Plant Sciences.
Chris’s research focuses on the evolution of ‘weird plants’ – parasites and carnivores, as well as their conservation. He also works on plant diversity in the Mediterranean Basin and Japan, and the uses of plants in technology (biomimetics).
Chris is an ambassador for public engagement with plant sciences, and makes regular television appearances, He is also an international best-selling author of specialist and non-specialist titles including three specialist field guides to the wild flowers of the Mediterranean published by Kew (the Algarve, the western Mediterranean and eastern Mediterranean), popular title ‘Weird Plants’ (which has a focus on parasitic plants) and the children’s book Perfectly Peculiar Plants.
The Zoom author book talk is sponsored by Tower Hill Botanic Garden, $10 for Tower Hill members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.
Enjoy a virtual lecture and Q&A session on October 22 at 6:30 with author Page Dickey about her new book, Uprooted: A Gardener Reflects on Beginning Again. Page Dickey knew the transitions she faced walking away from her celebrated garden at Duck Hill after thirty-four years. What surprised her were the happy opportunities that came with starting over. Uprooted follows Dickey’s evolution from old to new, cultivated to wild, and from one type of gardener to another. It is a story for anyone who has had to begin anew—in gardening or in life. This virtual Author Talk is presented by Tower Hill Botanic Garden in collaboration with Berkshire Botanical Garden and Timber Press, an imprint of Workman Publishing. All books available for purchase through Tower Hill’s online Garden Shop. A link to the Zoom webinar will be sent after registration in the confirmation email. Author Talks will only be available live. They will not be recorded. $10 for sponsor members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org or at www.berkshirebotanical.org
Page Dickey has been gardening passionately since her early twenties and writing about gardening, as well as designing gardens for others, for three decades. She has written eight books and edited another, most of which concentrate on aspects of garden design such as creating gardens that reflect their settings. Page was the editor of Outstanding American Gardens, celebrating 25 years of the Garden Conservancy with photographs by Marion Brenner. Her new book, Uprooted: A Gardener Reflects on Beginning Again, describes leaving a beloved garden of thirty-four years, finding a home in the northwest corner of Connecticut and falling in love with its land. Page lectures around the country about plants and garden design and has written for House and Garden, House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Horticulture, Elle Décor, Garden Design and The New York Times. She serves on the boards of the Garden Conservancy; Stonecrop Garden in Cold Spring, NY; Hollister House Garden in Washington, CT and The Little Guild in Cornwall, CT and is a member of the Friends of Horticulture at Wave Hill. Page was recently elected an Honorary Member of The Garden Club of America.
Strawberries are one of the most loved fruits to grow in a home garden, especially for families with small children. On Wednesday, October 21 at 6:30 pm, we’ll go over some of the important elements of how to be successful in pursuit of the perfect strawberry harvest; site, soil, nutrition requirements, innovative planting ideas and pest/disease management. This program will be held virtually. Once you register for this Tower Hill Botanic Garden webinar you will receive a Zoom link in the confirmation. This webinar will also be RECORDED and available for 2 months to all registrants. Tower Hill members $10, nonmembers $15. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.
Sonia Schloemann trained in Plant and Soil Sciences at UMass with both Bachelors and Masters degrees. She worked for UMass Extension for over 30 years as a Small Fruit Specialist, delivering educational programming to commercial growers and conducting research on sustainable practices for commercial fruit production. She has conducted Master Gardener trainings for over 20 years. She lives and garden in Amherst, MA.
Join Betsy Williams of The Proper Season for a fascinating session at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Sunday, October 25 beginning at 12:30 pm, entitled A Pumpkin Full of Flowers. Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater may have kept his wife in a pumpkin shell, but you can fill your sugar pumpkin shell with beautiful fall flowers as a grand welcome to the harvest season and Halloween. After you have hollowed out a pumpkin, you’ll fill it with colorful, long-lasting fall flowers, preserved leaves, grasses and berries. All materials are included. Please bring floral scissors and an apron to class, since pumpkin cleaning can be a messy job. This program will be held under our open sided outdoor canopy tent. If it is too cold indoors, we will retreat in one of our well-ventelated classrooms. Group size will not exceed current state restrictions (10).
The cost of the session is $75 for Tower Hill members, $90 for non-members. Registration may be done on line at www.towerhillbg.org.
Join Tower Hill Botanic Garden for the first Autumn Illuminated experience on select evenings this October. The lighted path through the gardens will highlight fall colors and provide a special after dark walk through the heart of Tower Hill. Our one-way route and timed ticketing is designed to provide a fun and safe way to connect with nature’s magic. Visitors are encouraged to wear festive costumes to celebrate the season. (Please be sure that face masks are worn and children can walk safely.)
Entry tickets must be reserved online in advance. A limited number of members and guests will be allowed on the property each evening. You must register all visitors, including children. Same-day reservations are permitted as space allows but tickets must still be reserved online. There will be no on-site ticket sales or reservations. Tickets are available HERE.
