Daily Archives: March 1, 2023

Wednesday, March 8, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Eastern – Native Vines, Online

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In this first class in Berkshire Botanical Garden’s online series Native Plants for Every Corner of the Garden, learn how to add height, structure and visual interest to your garden, balcony or containers with a diversity of native vines. An assortment of woody and herbaceous species with colorful flowers and interesting textures will be presented by horticulturist Duncan Himmelman.  The class will take place March 8 from 5:30 – 7, Eastern time. $12 for BBG members, $15 for the general public. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/native-vines

Duncan Himmelman earned his doctorate at Cornell University and taught horticultural science at the college level for 24 years. He recently retired as the education manager at Mt. Cuba Center, a public garden in Delaware devoted to native plant advocacy. He continues to enjoy teaching, designing landscapes and promoting ecologically focused gardening practices.

native wild cucumber

Friday, March 3, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Sue Stuart Smith: The Well-Gardened Mind

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Distinguished psychiatrist and avid gardener Sue Stuart-Smith believes our minds and our gardens interact in ways that can sustain our innermost selves. Her beautifully written UK bestseller, The Well-Gardened Mind, offers inspiring perspectives on the power of gardening to change people’s lives. For Stuart-Smith, a garden is much more than a beloved physical space. It is a mental space where you can hear your thoughts immersed in the primal awareness not only of nature’s beauty, but the eternal cycle of the seasons. Informed by literature, neuroscience and her experiences as therapist and gardener, she celebrates the joys of gardening, but also the life-affirming benefits of tending plants-physical, psychological and metaphorical.

Before practicing as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Sue Stuart-Smith received her degree in English literature at Cambridge. Over the past 30 years, she has worked with her husband, leading UK garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith, on their wonderful Barn Garden in Hertfordshire.

This Garden Conservancy lecture will take place on March 3 from 6 – 7 at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts. To register, visit https://www.gardenconservancy.org/education/2023-speaker-series. The Spring 2023 National Speaking Tour is in partnership with Perfect Earth Project

Monday, October 16 – Saturday, October 21 – A Tour of Florence (Reservation Deadline March 6)

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This autumn, October 16 – 21, join The Royal Oak Foundation for a special tour in Florence. The cradle of the Renaissance, Florence was endowed with magnificent buildings and works of art by the illustrious Medici dynasty. Exploring the city, we will appreciate the endless fascination which it has held for British and American travelers and residents, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Highlights will include admiring Cosimo de Medici’s library of manuscripts in the monastery of San Marco, exclusive visits to Villa La Pietra, home and art collection of the late Sir Harold Acton, and to a villa set in a vast garden – landscaped in the English style – as well as hosted dinners at two of the great Florentine Renaissance palaces.

Traveling with Royal Oak Heritage Circle members is Frank Dabell. Mr. Dabell is a specialist in the Italian Renaissance and teaches history of art at Temple University’s program in Rome, where he has lived for 20 years. Educated in England at Shrewsbury School, he is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and a former Fellow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and lectures for the Met and other museums throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, including past journeys on Sea Cloud II where the Royal Oak Foundation was the co-sponsor with the Met. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and was recently on the advisory committee for the restoration of Piero della Francesca’s Resurrection in Sansepolcro. Deadline to reserve is March 6. View the Brochure and details at https://www.royal-oak.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ROF-FlorenceBrochure.pdf