Daily Archives: September 5, 2024

Monday, September 16, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern – Longwood Gardens: Still Growing, Online

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Smithsonian Associates presents an online lecture on September 16 at 7 pm on Longwood Gardens. For more than 115 years, Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, has been recognized as one of the world’s most important and beautiful collections of gardens and glasshouses. As he explores its indoor spaces, Karl Gercens, Longwood’s conservatory manager, draws on his quarter century of making and maintaining displays that have dazzled millions of visitors. Learn how the historic Orangery went from utilitarian citrus production to now displaying more than 50,000 pots of blooming flowers and trace the East Conservatory’s history of facelifts since its 1927 debut. 

Gercens also previews the centerpiece of “Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience,” a transformation of 17 acres of its conservatory and grounds. The 32,000-square-foot West Conservatory, scheduled to open in November, is built on the 19th-century tradition of glasshouses and incorporates new sustainable technologies. The steel-and-glass structure’s asymmetrical peaks will rise from a pool on which the entire building will seem to float, and its interior islands of Mediterranean-inspired gardens will be set amid pools, canals, and fountains in a tapestry-like design. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/programs/longwood-gardens-still-growing $25 for Smithsonian members, $30 for nonmembers.

Sunday, September 22, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – The Hurricane That Changed Mount Auburn

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The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 (aka the Yankee Clipper or Long Island Express) was the deadliest and most damaging hurricane to ever strike New York and New England. Making landfall on September 21, the Category 3 storm caused nearly 700 fatalities, left 63,000 people without homes, and toppled 275 million trees. In Massachusetts, storm surges measured between 18-25 feet and the hurricane’s greatest wave height of 50-feet was recorded in Gloucester.   

Mount Auburn Cemetery lost more than 800 trees in a single day and over 1,000 more suffered significant damage. Despite all the damage, the Cemetery saw an opportunity to replant and replace what was lost while expanding and diversifying its collection. From 1939-1940 alone, over 1,500 new trees and shrubs were introduced to the Cemetery, many of which are still standing today. 

Join Jim Gorman, arborist and MAC staff member, on September 22 at 1 pm for a curated tour of several of the now-mature trees planted after the hurricane.  Check in at Story Chapel. Registration required at https://www.mountauburn.org/event/the-hurricane-that-changed-mount-auburn/