Daily Archives: January 19, 2021

Saturday, February 20, 2:00 pm – Berkshire Botanical Garden Winter Lecture, Online

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Berkshire Botanical Garden’s 24th annual Winter Lecture, Make Visible, Instill Value and Engage the Public in Our Shared Landscape Heritage will be held online on Saturday, February 20, 2021 featuring Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, President and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Drawing heavily on both the work of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) and many of their collaborators, this lecture will highlight a diversity of resource types throughout the U.S., emphasizing stewardship strategies and opportunities for public engagement in the Berkshires region. What is the foundational knowledge that informs stewardship/interpretation of our shared landscape legacy? How do we assign value and assess significance for our cultural landscape legacy? How can we work (and communicate) holistically across multiple disciplines? How do we make a landscape’s layers of history, (a.k.a. “palimpsest”), at a cultural landscape like Naumkeag, The Mount or Elm Court understood? Then, armed with this foundational knowledge, how can we tell these stories to the broadest possible public?

Finally, the interface between history/historic preservation and natural systems/ecology in weighing decisions will provide an armature for new ideas and strategies.

The Winter Lecture Series began in 1997 to bring inspiring and noted speakers to the region to talk about horticulture, landscape design and history, plants and plant exploration, and home gardening. Past speakers have included such luminaries as Marco Polo Stufano, Dan Hinkley, Penelope Hobhouse, Bill Cullina, Fergus Garrett, Debs Goodenough, Dr. Michael Dirr, Ken Druse, Anna Pavord, Thomas Woltz and Margaret Roach. Proceeds from ticket sales support the Garden’s educational efforts. Sponsored by The Red Lion Inn, Stockbridge, MA.

Online registration for this program is temporarily unavailable. Please call 413 354-8410 to register. 

Thursdays, February 4 & 11, 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm – Asian Garden Styles, Online

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Explore some of the traditional garden styles of China and Japan in this two-part Berkshire Botanical Garden online class February 4 and 11 with garden historian Marta McDowell. We will study the stylistic elements and horticultural practices of the traditional Chinese scholar garden and the Japanese meditation garden, stroll garden and tea garden. The interactive online sessions will include lectures, video clips, class discussion and small group activities via “breakout groups,” so please be prepared to participate and learn. $35 for BBG members. $45 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/asian-garden-styles

Marta McDowell teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and consults for private clients and public gardens. Her latest book is Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life. She is also the author of The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, New York Times bestselling All the Presidents’ Gardens, and Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, now in its seventh printing, all published by Timber Press. Marta is working on a new book about The Secret Garden and its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, due out from Timber Press in 2021. She is the 2019 recipient of the Garden Club of America’s Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for outstanding literary achievement.