Join Native Plant Trust for an evening of plant adventure storytelling. Listen to some of the region’s top botanists, horticulturists, and fellow plant geeks share their most riveting and hilarious tales from the field. This one-of-a-kind event will be held live at Garden in the Woods on February 26 at 6 pm and also streamed virtually. $20 for NPT members, $24 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/botany-story-slam/
Join the Garden Club of the Back Bay online on February 23 at 2 pm for a free presentation on America’s Greatest Forgotten Garden: Restoration of the Untermyer Gardens. Stephen Byrns, President and Founder of the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy, will tell the story of Samuel Untermyer who purchased Greystone Estate in Yonkers, NY in 1899 and transformed the grounds into one of the finest gardens in the world. Beaux-Arts Architect, Welles Bosworth designed the 150-acre formal garden into a horticultural wonder. However, over time, the green spaces regressed and the buildings crumbled. Starting In 2011, a successful restoration was underway. Stephen Byrns will explore the revived reflecting pools, mosaic pavements, marble sphinxes and the Temple of Love on top of a rocky bluff. Sweeping views of the Hudson River framed by two 23-foot-tall Roman columns are jaw-dropping.
Note: This program will not be recorded. It is presented on ZOOM. Please rsvp by February 18 by clicking HERE. A ZOOM link will be sent a few days before the program. For additional information email info@bostonflora.com.
The second of Innisfree Garden’s 2022 Roots of Inspiration webinar series will take place February 23 with Brad Roeller.
Innisfree trustee Brad Roeller believes that by learning about the environmental and biological factors which influence deer and their food choices, homeowners and professionals can implement informed strategies for deer-proofing their landscapes. Drawing on over forty years of gardening in deer country and his findings in the Deer Browse Garden he created at the Cary Institute funded by a ten-year grant from Cornell, Brad will share hard-won lessons on how to deter deer from browsing ornamental plants. Over the course of his career, Brad has evaluated hundreds of popular herbaceous and woody ornamentals. He will share those plants showing any inherent resistance to deer plus his top picks from the plethora of products, gadgets, and methods intended to discourage deer from foraging in landscape plantings. This talk will also examine how historic and current land use trends impact deer densities and look at the ramifications of high deer populations.
Retired but actively involved in planning for and managing the Innisfree landscape, Brad Roeller offers a wealth of ideas and expertise to gardeners at every level. Over the past forty years, he has held top horticultural positions at the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies, the New York Botanical Garden, and a storied private estate, has published widely, and has been teaching at NYBG and other major institutions. Reflecting his own interests, his research has focused on ecologically-driven and sustainable landscape practices, gardening in areas with high deer populations, and landscape plants for Northern gardens.
Free for Innisfree members, $15 for nonmembers. Register HERE.
Morven Museum & Garden’s exciting Grand Homes & Gardens Distinguished Speakers Series returns with another stellar lineup. This year we travel to the Roaring 20’s starting at Innisfree in New York, then south to Swan House in Georgia, down to Ca’ D’Zan on Florida’s west coast; finally arriving in Miami’s Vizcaya. Held live in Morven’s Stockton Education Center, adjacent to the Museum, and simulcast on Zoom, in February and March, this illustrated lecture series brightens winter up and down the coast.
In person program includes light refreshments tailored to the theme of each week’s featured lecturer. Online virtual program includes recipes for make-at-home fare. Pricing ranges from $15 to $90 – register HERE.
On February 24 at 6:30, Marissa Hershon, Curator of Ca ‘d’Zan and Decorative Arts at the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, will speak on this Glamorous Icon of the Roaring Twenties. Ca’ d’Zan, the winter residence of John and Mable Ringling in Sarasota, Florida, has been revered as an architectural gem since it was completed in 1926. Designed for the circus magnate, entrepreneur and art collector and his wife, Ca’ d’Zan or House of John in Venetian dialect, was intended as a showplace for entertaining during the mild winter season in Florida. The Mediterranean Revival style mansion is an American masterpiece by New York architect, Dwight James Baum. The architecture and interiors are a reflection of the Ringlings’ taste for Eurocentric design, while the original furnishings the Ringlings purchased show their admiration for ornate fashions of the Gilded Age. While spending winters in Florida, the Ringlings enjoyed hosting family, friends, politicians, and associates in the entertainment industry. Beyond the formal rooms for entertaining, the waterfront property was also a launching point for yachting excursions on the Zalophus. As a glamorous icon of Sarasota’s boom years, Ca’ d’Zan allows visitors to step back in time to the Roaring 20’s.
Join the Morven Museum & Garden for an online afternoon (February 22, 2 pm Eastern) surrounded by roses and lush gardens with renowned rosarian and garden designer Michael Marriott as he presents a special rose workshop just for Morven. Mr. Marriott did this virtual event last year to great acclaim.
This virtual program – live from the UK – will include highlights and history of some of Morven’s roses as well as garden design techniques and Mr. Marriott’s common sense approach to growing and caring for roses.
Michael Marriott was an integral part of David Austin Roses for 35 years and at the firm’s headquarters in Albrighton where he was the font of knowledge for all matters relating to roses. Michael has played an important part in the development and popularization of English Roses and therefore has intimate knowledge of all of the 200 plus English Roses bred and introduced by David Austin Roses.
As a garden designer, he is known for dense romantic beds whether purely roses or mixed in with perennials. He has designed many rose gardens and borders around the world of varying sizes, both public and private. Public gardens include the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Queen Mary’s Rose Garden in Regent’s Park, Hampton Court Palace, Wynyard Hall, Trentham Gardens and the David Austin garden near Osaka in Japan. His private clients are primarily in the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe, but he has also worked on gardens in New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Russia and even Bhutan.
$10 for Friends of Morven, $15 for general public. A personal Zoom link will be emailed the day of the event. A recording of this lecture will be sent to all registrants following the presentation, Register HERE.
The Springfield Garden Club will host “Herbs, Herbals and Herbalists” presented by Judith Sumner on Friday, February 18 at 11:30 AM. The event will be in person at the Barney Carriage House at Forest Park as well as virtually via Zoom.
Speaker Judith Sumner specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations, and garden history. She has taught extensively both at the college level and at botanical gardens, including the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Garden in the Woods. Judith graduated from Vassar College and completed graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and at the British Museum (Natural History) and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum and is widely published. She will talk on early herbals and plant life, including the Doctrine of Signatures, an ancient practice of using plants for their beneficial capacities through observation.
The meeting will be held at the Carriage House at the Barney Estate, Forest Park, Springfield, MA 01108. Directions to Carriage house at: www.barneycarriagehouse.com.
The presentation is open to the public as well as club members via Zoom. Social hour begins at 11:30, the club business meeting is at noon and the presentation will begin at 12:30. Tickets for guests are $5 and are available at EventBrite.com.
For more information on this and other Springfield Garden Club events go to www.springfieldgardenclubma.org
Learn how to confidently identify trees native to Martha’s Vineyard by their bark, twigs, needles, and fruit. Join Polly Hill Arboretum Grounds Manager and Arborist Ian Jochems for a hands-on introductory Winter Tree ID workshop on February 19 from 10 – 12. We will start in the classroom, then head into the field to look at live specimens in PHA’s native woodland behind the main campus.
Attendees are encouraged to dress for the weather and bring gloves and a hat for the outside portion. All other supplies will be provided by the Arboretum. Space is limited and registration is required. $20 for Polly Hill members, $35 for nonmembres. Register here:
To help prevent the spread of Covid-19, we respectfully require that you bring proof of vaccination and wear a mask for the indoor portion of the class.
The “English” style garden arrived in France shortly after the end of the Seven Years War (1756-1763). The so-called “jardins anglais” or “jardins à l’anglaise” emulated the natural character of English landscape gardens such as Stowe or Blenheim, but on a much reduced scale and with a greater degree of eclecticism and whimsy. A dramatic break with the French Classical tradition, such “irregular” style gardens often combined a naturalistic topography with exotic structures, romantic ruins or antique temples and monuments. They embodied an ideal of nature artistically “improved”. Early examples of jardins à l’anglaise in France include Ermenonville, the Parc Monceau then on the outskirts of Paris, the Château de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, and the Hameau de la Reine (the Queen’s Hamlet) at the Petit Trianon in Versailles, but the two most extensive landscape gardens, complete with follies and picturesque features – parcs à fabriques – were the Désert de Retz near Versailles and the Château de Méréville in the Essonne department south of Paris. The Château de Méréville was built by the financier Jean-Joseph de Laborde between 1784 and 1794. The park’s Romantic – sometimes called Anglo-Chinese – style soon replaced the more formal and symmetrical Classical gardens of the 17th century as the principal gardening style both in France and throughout Europe.
Speaker Gabriel Wick, who gave last week’s talk about the Gardens of Versailles, is a Paris-based landscape historian, writer and curator. He is an adjunct lecturer in architectural and urban history at the Paris campus of New York University. He received his doctorate in history from the University of London (QMUL) in 2017, and holds masters degrees in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley and historic landscape conservation from the National Architecture School of Versailles (ÉNSA – Versailles). He is the author of a number of books and scholarly articles on 18th French landscapes, including Le Domaine de Méréville – Renaissance d’un Jardin (Éditions des Falaises, 2018). He is currently consulting with the Foundation Chambrun on the conservation management plan of the Marquis de Lafayette’s domain of La Grange-Bléneau.
This program is presented by Alliance Française Miami Metro in partnership with the Alliance Française Chicago with communication support from the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA, the French Heritage Society, the Garden Conservancy, the Historic Gardens Foundation, and WICE. $10 for members of a sponsoring organization, $20 for nonmembers. Register HERE. Garden Conservancy members use code MERCIAFMM. The program is presented in English.
Prismatic is an orchid exhibition running at Tower Hill Botanic Garden February 12 through March 20. Read all about it HERE. Experience the brilliance of the Orchid Exhibition after-hours with special evenings of jazz and drinks. Escape the cold and see the exhibition in a whole new light, with a unique ambience perfect for a Friday night. Ticket price includes one free drink of your choice. A cash bar and light bites will be available for purchase throughout the evening. THBG Member: $20, Non-Member: $28 Click to reserve your ticket All who are able must wear masks indoors at Tower Hill Botanic Garden until further notice. Tower Hill is following the mask guidance provided by the CDC.
Our cities and suburbs desperately need more inspiring, ecologically rich planting. Yet budgets are tight, and crews and gardeners are often unfamiliar with more diverse planting typologies. Claudia West will share the scientific models and hands-on techniques her landscape architecture firm, Phyto Studio, applies to tackle the maintenance challenge and create rich and stable planting. Come away with a new understanding of planting design and management, as well as a practical tool set for your next garden challenge.
Claudia West, ASLA, is a leading voice in the field of ecological planting design. A widely sought speaker and consultant, she has worked as designer, grower, installer, and land manager-grounding innovative work in pragmatic solutions that address the realities of our urbanizing world. West holds a Master’s in Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning from the Technical University of Munich and is co-author of the critically acclaimed Planting in a Post-Wild World.
The New York Botanical Garden is sponsoring this February 24 lecture at the Ross Lecture Hall at the NYBG, 2900 Southern Boulevard in the Bronx. They are in the process of working on a hybrid, online option for their Winter Lecture Series, so if you are interested in hearing this talk, email adulted@nybg.org or call 718-817-8720. $32 for NYBG members, $35 for nonmembers.
