Learn all about cultivating hops for ornamental, homebrewing, and home remedy usage. Hop Gardening, a class to be held at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, on May 1 from 6 – 9, will introduce the novice and expert to hop planting techniques, the growth cycle, pruning, spacing and support methods, harvesting, drying, and diseases and pests. Take home your very own hop rhizome ready for cultivating.
Samantha Ambrose has been cultivating hops most of her life. Samantha’s grandfather cultivated Noble German hops on an 80 acre farm in Old Chatham, NY. In 2006 Samantha won the Gold Medal for Pale Ale category in the Boston Homebrewers competition using home grown hops. In 2004 Yankee Brew News produced a 7 page spread detailing Samantha’s Lancaster, Massachusetts hop garden. Warm, vibrant and engaging, Samantha is at home on the community theater stage or presenting, facilitating, and mentoring on a variety of gardening topics. $39 for Tower Hill members, $47 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.
