Discover splendid examples of a huge variety of Begonias and Gesneriads sporting a range of colors and textures in this judged show September 24 & 25 at The New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. Enter your own plants for the exhibition.
Get tips for growing these favorite houseplants, attend a lecture on Begonia Propagation with Tovah Martin, and shop for rare and unusual plants. Free with admission. Sponsored by N.E. Chapter, The Gesneriad Society and Buxton Branch, American Begonia Society. For times and more detail, visit www.nebg.org
Add beauty to your garden in the sweet, golden days of autumn with flowers, shrubs, trees, and vines that shine during this season. Discover plants with colorful blooms, rich foliage and dramatic seed heads, and learn strategies that will guide you in designing a vibrant fall garden. This Berkshire Botanical Garden class will take place September 24 from 1 – 2:30 pm, and is $20 for members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/fallscaping
Jana Milbocker is the principal of Enchanted Gardens, a lecturer and author. She combines horticulture, design and travel tips to educate, inspire and delight both new and seasoned gardeners. Jana loves to visit gardens and historic sites in the U.S. and abroad and to share her trips through her books, photos and blog. She published The Garden Tourist: 120 Destination Gardens and Nurseries in the Northeast in 2018, The Garden Tourist’s New England in 2020, and The Garden Tourist’s Florida in 2021. The two-acre garden surrounding her Victorian home features more than 140 varieties of trees and shrubs, perennial gardens, peony and rose beds, water features and shady retreats. Trained as a graphic designer, Jana brings years of critical design thinking, clarity and cohesiveness to her landscape solutions. Her professional experience includes 25 years as an art director and designer. Jana holds a BFA from Syracuse University, an MBA from Boston College and coursework in horticulture and landscape design.
For many gardeners, nothing is more fulfilling than planting bulbs in the fall for spring bloom. In this Berkshire Botanical Garden class on September 24 from 10 – noon, garden writer and horticulturist Lee Buttala plumbs the depths of the geophyte kingdom, highlighting major and minor bulbs, from snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils to species tulips, hyacinths and fritillaria, that bring the spring garden into full focus. This class explores not only the classic techniques for using bulbs in the garden, but it also shows new approaches that pair bulbs with perennials and other plantings that complement them or that take the main stage as the bulb show comes to an end. This class will explore planting methods, post-bloom care for bulbs and how to select varieties best suited to naturalizing.
Lee Buttala is the former executive director of Seed Savers Exchange, an heirloom vegetable genebank that is the only non-governmental organization storing seed at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. He has also worked for BBG and the Garden Conservancy, and currently serves as chair of the Historic Landscapes Committee of the APGA. Lee won an Emmy award for his role as a garden television producer for “Martha Stewart Living” and was the creator of PBS’s “Cultivating Life.” He is the editor of the award-winning book The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Saving Seed, writes a weekly garden column for The Berkshire Edge and serves on the board of Hollister House Garden in Washington, Conn. Lee studied garden design at the Chelsea Physic Garden, the New York Botanical Garden and the Kyoto School of Art and Design. He lives in Ashley Falls, Mass.
