This talk is the last in the Gardens Trust series exploring the role of archaeology for garden historians. On February 14 Stephen Wass will discuss The Vyne.
A series of watching briefs on lengthy runs of pipework together with attendance on-site during the dismantling of the old concrete spillway at the lower end of the lake to the north of the house has revealed some major new buried features. Making sense of them whilst working under some of the most difficult and dangerous conditions we have ever encountered has proved to be a particularly challenging task, but it looks as if we will have plenty to say about the early layout of water features within the park.
Dr. Stephen Wass is a researcher and has just completed his D. Phil. on the subject of seventeenth-century water gardens. In addition, he works as a commercial archaeologist. In this capacity most of his projects involve historic gardens and he is currently occupied with a series of archaeological investigations connected with the latest programme of restoration at Stowe Landscape Gardens near Buckingham. He is also working to set up a new research programme alongside the Oxfordshire Gardens Trust into the ‘lost’ Tudor and Jacobean gardens in the county.
In the years between the world wars Norah Lindsay (1873-1948) greatly influenced the course of garden design and planting. Her commissions ranged from the gardens of quiet English manor houses to royal gardens across Europe. She designed the great English gardens at Hidcote with Lawrence Johnston, as well as his extraordinary Mediterranean garden, Serre de la Madone on the French Riviera. She designed gardens for Nancy Astor and Edward VIII, exchanged garden ideas with Vita Sackville-West, vacationed with Edith Wharton, and dined with Winston Churchill.
This entertaining online Gardens Trust lecture on February 9 at 2 pm follows ten years of research traveling in the footsteps of Norah Lindsay. It chronicles the life of Norah Lindsay, including her circle of friends, the gardens that she designed, and her primary design principals. It is based on Ms. Hayward’s biography of Norah Lindsay, and includes many archival images, as well as information from private letters, diaries, and family scrapbooks.
Allyson Hayward is a landscape historian, lecturer, and author who writes and lectures extensively on topics related to gardens and their history. For several years she served as Chairman of the New England Garden History Society. Allyson was awarded a Gold Medal by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for her work in promoting New England’s garden history. Allyson’s published works include the biography, Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer(Frances Lincoln, 2007) and Hill-Stead: The Country Place of Theodate Pope Riddlein Farmington, Connecticut(Princeton Architectural Press, 2009). She has also written articles for several periodicals and scholarly journals. Allyson lives in Palm Springs, California with her two beagles and a cat named Norah. She is a member of the Garden Club of Santa Barbara.
Register (£5) on Eventbrite HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.
Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s annual Urban Tree Symposium is dedicated to exploring the importance of urban forests and ways we can improve our green spaces. Each symposium brings together experts in the fields of forestry, horticulture, biology, technology and more. You can expect to hear current and important information that will impact your work in our communities and your own home. The Urban Tree Symposium is geared towards professionals but all with a curious mind around plants and green spaces is encouraged to attend. The 2023 Urban Tree Symposium on February 3 from 9 – 3 will be entirely virtual. You will receive a link with your confirmation email following registration. Cosponsored with the Ecological Landscape Alliance in partnership with Speak for the Trees. For a full breakdown of this years Urban Tree Symposium check out the information below.
The 2022 Review of Massachusetts State Forest Health will be presented by Felicia Hubacz, Forest Health Specialist with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Description: Every year there are growing concerns and moments of positive progress in our local forests. Monitoring the changes in our ecosystems can better help us plan for the present and future. Join DCR Forest Health Specialist Felicia Hubacz as she discusses the Massachusetts major forest health issues in 2022. Learn to identify current and future threats to our forest and how the DCR Forest Health Program is currently monitoring and managing for them.
Felicia Hubacz is a graduate of UMass Amherst and has worked as a forester with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation since 2010. During that time, she has worked on many forest health related issues including the Asian longhorned Beetle, Emerald Ash Borer, Gypsy Moth, White Pine Needle Disease, and many others.
Nina Bassuk, Professor Emeritus, Urban Horticulture Institute, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, will speak on Beyond the Native/Exotic Debate.
Description: Should you always plant native trees? This presentation will sort out some of the issues dealing with the ‘natives only’ debate and strive to shed more light than heat regarding this hot-button topic. We will get our definitions straight and strive for a scientific basis that support biodiversity and a healthy ecosystem.
Nina Bassuk has been a professor and program leader of the Urban Horticulture Institute at Cornell University for the past 40 years. She is on the Board of Directors of the New York State Urban Forestry Council and is co- author of Trees in the Urban Landscape, a text for landscape architects and horticultural practitioners on establishing trees in disturbed and urban landscapes. In addition, Dr. Bassuk has authored over 100 papers on the physiological problems of plants growing in urban environments, including improved plant selections for difficult sites, soil modification including the development of ‘CU-Structural Soil’ and improved transplanting technology. She works closely with municipalities to help implement best practices in urban forestry management.
Laurence Wiseman, Senior Advisor, Urban Forestry, American Forests, presents More then Beauty: Capturing the Full Value of Urban Trees.
Description: Larry Wiseman will describe how municipalities have attempted to account for the ecosystem benefits that trees provide to their communities. He will discuss different approaches for applying these values to the web of rules and regulations that affect urban trees and forests — from access and equity to zoning and development.
During his four-decade career in forest policy and programs, Larry Wiseman founded and sustained several nonprofit organizations including American Forest Foundation where he served as founding president and CEO until 2009. By then, the Foundation had grown to 32 staff, a budget of $11 million with an endowment of $150 million. Afterward, he served as the Administration-appointed chair of the Congressionally chartered National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council. During his tenure at American Forest Foundation, he oversaw creation of the first US forestry certification system for family forest owners and the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources.
His first foray into urban forestry came when he was asked by the White House in the early ‘80s to help develop and lobby Congress for President George H. W. Bush’s signature America the Beautiful initiative. His work was recognized in a Rose Garden ceremony. Throughout his career he has provided strategic counsel to many organizations, including the Sustainable Urban Forest Coalition – the national umbrella organization for urban forestry in the US. Larry was recognized by the National Arbor Day Foundation with its national Legacy Award for career achievement in forest conservation.
While serving as senior adviser for urban forestry programs at American Forests, he helped draft Atlanta’s and Boston’s urban forest ordinances, co-created the Vibrant Cities Lab, and led the team charged with creating Arlington, Virginia’s urban forest and natural resources plan. This novel component of the county’s comprehensive plan is rooted in equity as well as biophilic and smart growth principles. Wiseman began his career as a film and television producer for a public television national production center. His programs aired locally and nationally on PBS. He earned an AB [Highest Distinction] from Dartmouth College, and an MPA from Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs.
Next, you will hear Tonay Gooday-Ervin, Inventory Arborist, Davey Resource Group, on Finding Kinship with Trees and Arborists.
Description: Comparing and contrasting indigenous perspectives on living in relation to the world and how we live in tandem with trees in New England, this is a personal journey of learning about plants twice, as an indigenous person living in community with all living things and in a professional arboriculture setting. What can we learn from other ways of living in regard to tree work? How can we draw parallels and foster community better with the people and trees around us all? Laugh and learn through a story of finding teachers in unexpected places and saying yes more often.
Tonay Gooday-Ervin (they/them) is a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona, a third generation Cuban-American, an indigenous dancer/artist and an MAA certified arborist. Tonay is a social and environmental justice advocate living in Providence and doing tree work/public education about trees and indigenous knowledge across southern New England. They work at Davey Resource Group out of Worcester as an inventory arborist, as a committee member for the PVD Tree Plan, and for the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program. They are seeking a synthesis where one day indigenous knowledge and traditions are honored and considered in tree work at large.
Finally, hear about Long-term Urban Tree Canopy Change: Complex Drivers in Post-Industrial Cities from Lara Roman, PhD. Research Ecologist, Forest Service.
Description: Municipal leaders throughout the United States are pursuing ambitious goals to increase urban tree canopy (UTC), often tying these goals to planting campaigns, but UTC change is driven by forces besides planting. This presentation will address long-term UTC change in Philadelphia, as well as Holyoke and Chelsea, Massachusetts, which are all post-industrial cities, and our findings point to the need to consider how urban development and socioeconomic trends shape UTC goals. The complex mix of UTC change forces include population declines and associated forest emergence on vacant land, past planting campaigns, and development/redevelopment pressure.
Over the past several decades, tree canopies in post-industrial cities have changed significantly due to shrinking populations, the existence of “weedy” trees on vacant land, and the emergence of tree planting campaigns. This talk will explore these changes over time in large cities such as Philadelphia, as well as small towns in Massachusetts.
Dr. Lara Roman is a Research Ecologist with the USDA Forest Service. Her research centers on the temporal dynamics of urban forests, including tree mortality and growth, canopy cover change, historical legacies, species composition change, citizen science monitoring, and the factors constraining or enabling tree planting in diverse urban neighborhoods. These studies involve close collaborations with urban forestry professionals at municipalities and nonprofit organizations throughout the US, and her contributions to urban forestry practice were recognized with an Early-Career Scientist Award from the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA). She has led or coauthored over 50 publications, including a recent urban tree monitoring field guide that set the standard for longitudinal data collection of city trees. She received a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s in biology and Masters of Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. When she is not measuring trees, she is baking or hiking with her husband and two young daughters.
For nearly 30 years, the American Horticultural Society’s (AHS) National Children & Youth Garden Symposium (NCYGS) has educated thousands of teachers who have, in turn, gone on to educate over a million children: A million children who take this knowledge and apply it to the world around them with curiosity, energy, and genuine appreciation.
Mark your calendar! NCYGS 2023 will take place July 12-15 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Look for more details, including registration information, at www.ahsgardening.org
The Friends of the Public Garden invite you to save the date, May 5, for its major fundraising event, The Green & Whie Ball, at The Newbury in Boston, For more information on sponsorship opportunities email info@friendsofthepublicgarden.org
Valerie Segrest is dedicated to making sure tribal communities throughout North America can access traditional foods. In this inspiring online New York Botanical Garden talk on February 9 at 6 pm, she discusses the many food sovereignty initiatives spearheaded by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest and beyond, including regaining legal control of ancestral lands, organizing harvest and berry festivals, and offering workshops on elk-processing, salmon filleting, and other traditional food preparation techniques.
An enrolled member of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Valerie Segrest is the co-founder of Tahoma Peak Solutions, which specializes in strategic communications and food systems strategies that serve tribal communities. As a Native nutrition educator, Segrest raises awareness and helps identify and overcome barriers so Indigenous peoples are able to access traditional foods. Segrest co-authored Feeding Seven Generations and Indigenous Home Cooking.
On February 23 from 11 – noon online with the New York Botanical Garden, Susana Rojas Saviñón and Hortense Blanchard share what makes their Mexico City practice unique, including their use of aromatic, edible, medicinal, and native Mexican plants, some of which they propagate from wild seeds they collect. The pair will discuss their award-winning Forest Garden, a residential landscape located within an ecological reserve that features a vegetable garden, natural pool, and fern garden. They will also provide a look at Lava Garden, which turned a lawn-covered suburban backyard into a lush oasis that realigns the garden with the land’s original volcanic ecology and the house’s midcentury modernist architecture.
Led by Susana Rojas Saviñón and Hortense Blanchard, Estudio Ome designs gardens that strike the perfect balance between what is built and what is alive. The recipient of Mexico’s 2020 Young Creators Grant and Professor at Mexico City’s Universidad Iberoamericana, Rojas Saviñón holds a MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design. A French landscape architect, Blanchard previously worked for Dan Pearson, Rozana Montiel, and Irène Djao Rakitine.
The webinar is $35 and registration is at www.nybg.org
Berkshire Botanical Garden presents Midori Shintani, head gardener of Japan’s famous Tokachi Millennium Forest, in its online Winter Lecture, “Discovering Tokachi,” on February 18, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Midori will share how she and her team have nurtured the native forests and cultivated garden areas through the seasons. She will also explain how her gardening methods are rooted in the accumulated wisdom of the ancient Japanese belief of mother culture, and how she has built a solid partnership with garden designer Dan Pearson and her garden team.
The Tokachi Millennium Forest is located at the foot of the Hidaka Mountains in Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. The project was originally started in 1990 by a local newspaper company that acquired about 990 acres there to create a carbon-offsetting forest. Eventually this became a project to restore the natural forest ecosystems, to share with the public and be sustainable for the next 1,000 years. The garden project of the Tokachi Millennium Forest began in 1996. In 2008, the forest officially was opened to the public, and has continued to evolve.
Midori Shintani was born and raised in the Fukui Prefecture in central Japan, in the countryside surrounded by sea and mountains. Spending time with plants in this area rich with nature was an early influence. Midori trained in horticulture and landscape architecture at Minami Kyushu University, Japan. In 2002 she moved to Sweden and trained to become a gardener at Millesgården and Rosendals Trädgård. In 2004 she moved back to Japan and worked at a garden design and landscaping company and perennial nursery, gaining experience in both traditional and modern techniques to create her own gardening style. Since 2008 she has been the head gardener of Tokachi Millennium Forest, merging “new Japanese horticulture” into wild nature. She writes and lectures widely.
Tickets for the Winter Lecture are $30 for members of Berkshire Botanical Garden and $35 for non-members and are available online at berkshirebotanical.org/events or by calling 413-320-4794.
Established in 1997, the Winter Lecture Series was initiated by the Berkshire Botanical Garden 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 Tom Coward, Marco Polo Stufano, Dan Hinkley, Edwina von Gal, 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 education programs.
The Gardens Trust presents a series of 4 online talks on some of the well- and lesser known historic gardens of Ireland Wednesdays from 1 Feb £5 each or £16 for all. Register through Eventbrite HERE., or visit https://thegardenstrust.org for more details. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. The first in the series, on February 1, is on Mount Usher.
William Robinson (1838 – 1935) who advocated a naturalistic style of gardening described Mount Usher as ‘a charming example of the gardens that might be made in river valleys’. Edward Walpole had purchased a mill house and land by the Vartry river at Ashford, Co. Wicklow. We examine how from the 1880s his sons, described as ‘Robinson’s disciples’ introduced his ideas as they and later generations planted an 8-ha site and created what remains an outstanding example of a Robinsonian garden in Ireland.
For Dr Mary Forrest, horticulture has been her occupation and gardening her hobby for many years. After studies in amenity horticulture in the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin and commercial horticulture in University College Dublin, Mary was appointed A Taisce Heritage Gardens Fellow – preparing an inventory of trees and shrubs in private and public gardens in Ireland, published as Trees and Shrubs cultivated in Ireland (Carrageen Books, 1985) One of the gardens catalogued was Mount Usher, Co. Wicklow. Following three years as Horticultural Supervisor at Glenveagh National Park, Co. Donegal. Mary was appointed lecturer in UCD where she specialised in ornamental horticulture and garden history from 1986 until retirement in 2020. She has spoken on Irish garden history at the Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Trust’s annual conferences and published papers on women’s horticultural colleges, school gardens, allotments and Arbor Day in 20th century Ireland. She holds an MSc in environmental sciences; a PhD in cut foliage studies and an MA in Carmelite Studies.
This splendid American Horticultural Society tour on May 16 -25, 2023, will bring us to ancient ruins, modern gardens, intriguing museums, and many sensory delights. As always on an AHS Travel Study tour, we will be given exclusive access to spectacular private gardens. Your AHS Hosts will be AHS Board member Jane Diamantis and her husband, George, and Verity Smith of Specialtours. Jane is an accomplished garden designer and owner of a landscape design company. George was born and raised in Greece, and is an avid photographer of plants and gardens around the world.
Our trip begins in the city often called the cradle of Western civilization: Athens. Our itinerary includes the Philodassiki Botanical Gardens, lunch at the water’s edge at a marina, and a late afternoon visit to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon and its other monuments. During our stay in Greece we’ll see two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the medieval city of Rhodes, and the old town of Corfu. There will be leisure time to explore Rhodes, a mosaic of different cultures and civilizations for over 2,000 years. We’ll discover the elegant Old Town of Corfu, with its streets and squares, and tour private gardens all over the island. We’ll also be accompanied by Nigel McGilchrist, art historian and author of the Blue Guide to the Greek Islands, whose personal contacts have opened many doors on this sojourn. His insight and depth of knowledge will greatly enhance our understanding of past and present Greek culture. For complete itinerary and information visit http://ahsgardening.org//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/AHS-GREECE-ANTIQUITY-CULTURE-GARDENS-May-202385719.pdf
