Daily Archives: January 10, 2022

Wednesday, January 26 and Thursday, January 27, 9:00 am – 11:45 am – Jumping Worm Conference, Online

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Are you a land manager and have been receiving requests for more information about so-called “jumping/snake worms”? Are you a homeowner who is looking to learn more, ask questions, or perhaps you just found jumping worms on your property in 2021? No matter who you are, if you are curious or concerned about jumping/snake worms, this conference is for you!

Join UMass Extension as we welcome scientists who specialize in jumping/snake worm research to discuss the latest understanding of these earthworms. How to identify jumping/snake worms, what their potential impacts are, and the latest research into how we might manage them to be discussed. Speakers include .Dr. Olga Kostromytska, UMass Stockbridge, Dr. Justin Richardson, UMass Amherst, Dr. Josef Gorres, University of Vermont, and Dr. Annise Dobson, Yale School of the Environment. These LIVE virtual presentations will also give you the chance to get your questions answered following each speaker’s presentation. So, bring your questions! $25 for individual days, $40 if registering for both days, January 26 and 27. For complete schedule and to register visit www.ag.umass.edu

Tuesday, January 18, 10 am GMT- Forgotten Women Gardeners: Alice “The All-Powerful” de Rothschild, Online

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Alice de Rothschild (1847 – 1922) was a member of the immensely rich European banking family of that name. Brought up on the continent, she developed Eythrope, the Buckinghamshire estate adjacent to her brother Ferdinand’s Waddesdon Manor, as ‘a showpiece’ garden. She also had a large property in Grasse, on the French Riviera, where she laid out a garden amongst the olive groves, adapting the paths specially to accommodate Queen Victoria’s donkey carriage on the latter’s various outings.

After her brother’s death Alice inherited the Waddesdon Estate, running all three properties with ‘an unusually strong power of will and inflexibility of purpose […], looking after every detail of her estate, undeterred by any opposition that she might meet with’. This is borne out by a unique series of letters, sent from Grasse back to her head gardener at Waddesdon, which contain detailed instructions for the garden.

Still adhering to the original High Victorian bedding schemes of the late 19th-century, Alice de Rothschild also developed a close friendship with Ellen A Willmott who advocated the much more informal style of gardening of William Robinson. 2022 is the centenary of Alice de Rothschild’s death which will be marked by various exhibitions at Waddesdon Manor and at Eythrope.

Dr Sophie Piebenga is the (part-time) gardens’ archivist at Waddesdon Manor, Bucks. Born and brought up in The Netherlands, she has spent all her adult life in the UK, training originally as a gardener with The National Trust and at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She diverged into the world of garden history, making the works of the landscape gardener W S Gilpin the topic of her DPhil study at the University of York. Now based in The Cotswolds she divides her time between gardening and giving garden advice, undertaking historic landscape research and leading garden tours for Boxwood Tours.

This Gardens Trust lecture is £5, and you may register through Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and a link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.