The Jardin Anglais movement culminated in two vast and extravagant landscape gardens created on the eve of the Revolution, the Marquis de Laborde’s Méréville and the Princesse de Monaco’s Betz. Created on vast sites with essentially unlimited budgets, both landscapes offered a succession of arcadian, and lyrical scenes punctuated by unsettling confrontations with the force of ‘untamed nature’ and melancholic ruins. Laborde and Monaco would bring together France’s foremost artistic talents – Hubert Robert, Pajou, Belanger and Brongniart – to create these total immersive artworks. While Betz is currently inaccessible, a forthcoming exhibition at Chantilly will explore the story of its owner and her remarkable creation. Méréville, after long years of ruin and neglect, which endowed the garden with its own poetry, is currently the subject of one of the most ambitious and costly garden restoration projects on the continent. In this final Gardens Trust lecture on April 11 at 2 pm, Gabriel Wick will speak on this garden, part of the Jardin Anglais movement. £5Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days priorand a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after and will be available for 1 week.
Gabriel Wick is a lecturer at the Paris campus of New York University, and an independent researcher and curator. He has authored a number of monographs and articles on 18th-century French landscape gardens, including La Roche-Guyon, the domain of the Noailles, Monceau, Méréville, Betz and Rambouillet. He is currently curating a permanent exhibition at Rambouillet on its Jardin Anglais and advising the Fondation Chambrun on the restoration of Lafayette’s Lagrange. He received his doctorate in history from the University of London (QMUL) and holds a master’s in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley and historic landscape conservation from the École Nationale Superieure d’Architecture – Versailles.
Myths abound about how hard it is to care for this ever-popular orchid. Dispel them with plenty of sensible advice on how to treat your phalaenopsis so that it blooms year after year. Light, water, nutrients, repotting, and root care are all key. You’ll gain the confidence you need to make your orchids thrive. This New York Botanical Garden virtual class will take place April 14 from 6 – 8 with instructor Chris Satch. $55 for NYBG members, $59 for nonmembers. Register here at www.nybg.org
The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) is developing the Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2025 and 2030 that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide job benefits to Massachusetts residents. We invite you to join in upcoming public hearings to provide feedback on EEA’s proposal for 2025 and 2030, including economy-wide emissions limits, emissions sublimits for specific sectors, goals on natural and working lands, and policies to achieve these emissions limits, sublimits, and goals.
The meetings will be virtual with a presentation, followed by public comment. The presentation will be recorded in multiple languages and posted on www.mass.gov/2030CECP afterwards. Written feedback on the proposal is accepted at gwsa@mass.gov until April 30, 2022.
Hearing Focused on Electric Power, Transportation, and Non-Energy Sectors:
The composite family is notorious for its difficulty to botanize in the field. The genera Hieracium and Pilosella (formerly included in a single genus) are challenging to distinguish due to their subtle distinctions, the importance of micromorphological details, and hybridization. This Native Plant Trust webinar will explain the rationale for splitting the two genera, using visuals to guide identification. We will also discuss species of conservation concern that could benefit from additional field surveys. The session will take place April 8 from 1 – 2, and is $12 for NPT members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/hawkweeds-and-king-devils/
Wright-Locke Farm has launched Farm-to-Table Suppers for 2022 with featured Chef Kim Lambrechts, owner and head chef of A Borrowed Chef, for a very special Farm to Table Fundraising Supper.
Three-Course Plated Dinner Menu
Maine Jonah Crab Cake, Rocket & Watercress Salad, Shaved Fennel & Radishes, Lime Vinaigrette, Basil & Spring Onion Aioli Vegan Substitute: Black Bean & Toasted Quinoa Cake
Middle Eastern Spiced Crispy Free Range Chicken, Young Potato & Leek Fondue, Apple Wood Smoked Bacon Wrapped Asparagus Bundle
Vegan Substitute: Tofu Tempura
Rhubarb Creme Brûlée , Minted Strawberry Salad
Kim Lambrechts has made food and the exploration of the world’s culinary destinations his life’s passion. As a child in his native Belgium, Kim learned the value of a meal well served at his family table where Sunday suppers took hours to prepare and even longer to enjoy with friends and neighbors. The European tradition of savoring friendships over a leisurely meal has been at the heart of his professional life and continues to be a tradition he shares with his own family and friends.
Classically trained at Institute Technique Des Metiers De L’alimentation in Tournai, Belgium, Kim worked in a Michelin One Star restaurant in Brussels and at Manoir de St Aubert where he earned multiple awards including the Special Award of Excellence from Master Chefs of Belgium Pierre Fonteyne, multiple Master Chefs of Belgium Awards, (3) Silver Medals, (1) Gold Medal and a Special Prize at Salon Culinaire International competition in Dubai.From Brussels, Kim went on to work in Washington DC, Boston, Abu Dhabi, Mauritius and Cambridge, MA in progressively senior roles. In Boston he has held executive positions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Hotel @ MIT (now Le Meridien), SPIRE Restaurant and The Bay Tower Room. His professional journey has taken him to boutique hotels in Newport, Rhode Island and Stowe, Vermont as well as a large resort in Colorado. In 2006 joined Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and opened the world class property in Kuda Hura, Republic of Maldives and has most recently worked as a chef and General Manager at the Bristol Restaurant and Bar at the 5 star Four Seasons Hotel Boston. To register for this dinner, click here
Container gardening know-how is in high demand. Learn how to create a container garden for your patio, terrace, or entryway that is at once functional and gorgeous—and discover techniques for ensuring that your plants thrive in all four seasons. This four-session virtual New York Botanical Garden class begins Thursday, April 14, and continues each Thursday through May 5 from 10 – noon. Renee Marsh is the instructor. $229 NYBG members, $249 nonmembers. Register HERE.
Join Smithsonian Associates and geologist Kirt Kempter online on April 11 at 7 pm for a fascinating survey of the African continent that covers a distinctive geologic history that extends from billions of years ago to today.
Enhanced by numerous maps, photos, diagrams, and Google Earth imagery, Kempter explores the big-picture geology of the continent of Africa before looking more closely at the Great Rift Valley, which traverses Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. The rift is actively tearing the continent apart, fostering grand volcanic landforms such as Kilimanjaro and the Ngorongoro caldera. In addition to rift-related volcanic activity, he examines sedimentary deposits within the rift, such as those at Olduvai gorge, that have preserved countless vertebrate fossils, including a variety of important hominin fossil discoveries over the past five decades. $25 for Smithsonian Associates members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org
The Gardens Trust is delighted to partner with English Heritage to show you some of the magnificent gardens under their stewardship, guided by the people who know them the best, their Head Gardeners. The series of four online talks will take place on Wednesdays, April 6 – 27, at 1:30 Eastern time. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. This ticket costs £16 for the entire course of 4 sessions or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £5. Please note the slightly later starting time than usual. You may register through Eventbrite by clicking HERE.
April 6 brings Audley End House and Gardens, with Louise Ellis. English Heritage’s Audley End is a grand Jacobean house with a 100-acre garden and landscape situated near the historic market town of Saffron Walden, Essex. The parkland was designed by Capability Brown, and an 1832 Parterre Garden designed by William Sawrey Gilpin has now been restored by English Heritage using appropriate plants. There is a magnificent and again recently restored 2.5 acre walled Kitchen Garden, a Pond Garden with a Pulhamite rockery, and a cascade designed by Richard Woods. Louise Ellis is head Gardener at Audley End. A post she has held since 2018. Originally in social care, Louise switched careers and studied horticulture at Brooksby Melton College in Leicestershire. Additional practical experience was gained working at Wyevale Garden Centre, a local tree and shrub nursery, and large-scale bedding grower. In 2007, after completing the National Diploma in Horticulture, she joined the team at Audley End as a Historic and Botanic Garden Training Programme trainee. Here her career has flourished, and promotions followed first as a temporary Gardener, then Senior Gardener where she focussed on the ornamental gardens at Audley End before her current position as Head Gardener.
April 13 features Down House, with Antony O’Rourke. Down House was the home of Charles and Emma Darwin for 40 years, where they raised their large family. It was at Down House where Darwin, most known for his round the world journey of discovery on HMS Beagle and writing On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, used the grounds and surrounding countryside as his natural ‘Living Landscape Laboratory.’ He used this space to make observations and predictions at a time not known to Victorian society, and carried out meticulous observations on flowers, insectivorous plants and plant movement to discover the processes behind evolutionary theory. Antony O’Rourke is a graduate of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. He has worked in numerous botanical gardens including the University of Bristol, Tresco Abbey in the Isles of Scilly and the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens in Israel where he managed their centre for plant introduction and propagation. Antony is a passionate plants person and has amassed extensive knowledge in the cultivation and natural history of many plant groups. His particular passion is for carnivorous plants, orchids, tropical plants and hardy herbaceous. Antony has been at Down for five years and set about a programme of restoration of Emma Darwin’s mingled border and perennial weed eradication. Says Antony, ‘I’m looking forward to presenting the garden as the Darwin’s would have known it, from the ornamental beds through to the produce grown in the kitchen garden and of course bringing to life the narrative of the experimental Mr. Darwin at Down.’
April 20 takes us to Osborne House, pictured below, on the Isle of Wight with Toby Beasley. Osborne was the seaside home of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; a place where they could get away from the pressures of court life and enjoy some privacy. Prince Albert was the driving force behind the improvements at Osborne, taking the property from a Georgian manor house to royal palace. He had no official royal role so he pursued his interests in architecture, agriculture, forestry, and horticulture. This talk will look at the creation of Prince Albert’s Garden and the improvements to the wider estate, the garden’s restoration in the 1990’s and our current task of ‘restoring the restoration’ now that more archive evidence has been uncovered. It will also include some of the challenges we face today in managing and presenting an historical garden and estate. Toby Beasley has spent his entire working life in horticulture. On leaving school he first worked in a nursery growing trees and shrubs and then at Torbay Parks Department. In 1996 he attended Writtle Agricultural College where he gained a BSc Degree in Horticulture, after which he worked at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden. Toby then joined English Heritage where he helped to restore the walled garden at Osborne House, one of English Heritage’s ‘Contemporary Heritage Garden’ project restorations. He was later head gardener at Down House, helping to recreate Darwin’s Garden experiments for visitors to see. In 2008 he returned as head gardener to Osborne House.
Finally, on April 27 we go to Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, Yorkshire, with Daniel Hale. Brodsworth Hall survives as a mid-Victorian vision of a comfortable country house. The formal gardens were primarily laid out in the 1860s but had some Edwardian additions. The gardens were well maintained until the early 20th century but began to slowly decline after the First World War. By the 1990s, when English Heritage acquired the property, the garden was very neglected. This talk will discuss their restoration back to their Victorian grandeur, offering vibrant formal bedding, colourful herbaceous borders, topiary, ferns and more than 100 varieties of roses, and a fine collection of ornamental trees. Daniel Hale has been in the horticulture industry for 15 years. He gained experience as a landscape gardener in his early career before moving into historic gardens. He was acting head gardener at Wentworth Castle gardens before joining English Heritage and has been Head Gardener at Brodsworth Hall since 2015. Daniel has taken a key role in the restoration of the gardens, and loves formal gardens, making Brodsworth the perfect place for him.
Sean Halloran, Plant Propagator at The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, will speak to us about Tree Propagation. Sean will start off with a brief overview of the plant conservation efforts at the Arnold Arboretum, and how plant conservation fits into every part of the Arnold’s mission. He will then cover the basics of seed biology, and how seed biology and plant sexuality guide decisions about conservation and propagation. Sean will conclude by covering the many roles an urban tree may play, while highlighting a few underutilized native trees and shrubs. Questions are welcome throughout, with more opportunity for discussion at the conclusion of the talk.
Sean Halloran received a Bachelor’s in Horticulture and a Master’s degree in Plant & Environmental Science from Clemson University where he focused on nutrient media in tissue culture propagation. His professional background includes private residential horticulture, greenhouse and nursery production, plant nutrient management in soil-less media, and temperate woody plant propagation and conservation. As the Arnold Arboretum’s Plant Propagator, Sean continues a 150-year tradition of growing woody temperate species from seed, cuttings, grafts, layers, and more; as well as being given the honor to travel and wild collect plants for the Arnold Arboretum.
rsvp to Jolinda Taylor before April 8 by clicking HERE. Tea and light refreshments will be served after the lecture. Please be sure to let Jolinda know if you’ll be staying afterwards.
Note the change of location. This program was originally planned to be at the Lutheran Church but will now be at the College Club
In 1871, the Smithsonian-backed geologist-explorer Ferdinand Hayden led a team of scientists through a narrow canyon into Yellowstone Basin, one of the last unmapped places on the continent, in hopes of proving that the rumors of majestic landscapes and untold natural wonders were true.
Upon returning, Hayden and his team urged Congress to take ownership of the land and give control of it to the Department of the Interior, an unprecedented extension of the federal government’s authority. On March 1, 1872, with little fanfare, the Yellowstone Act was signed into law by President Grant.
Author Megan Kate Nelson traces Yellowstone’s journey online on April 5 from 7 – 8:30. Her new book, Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America, traces Yellowstone’s journey from unexplored landscape to national icon.
Far more than a story of adventure and exploration, it exposes the conflicting interests in this wilderness of individuals ranging from Sitting Bull, who tried to protect the rights of the Hunkpapa Lakota peoples, to railroad magnate Jay Cooke, who hoped to exploit the region to expand his business.
It also recalls how the Yellowstone Act came to overshadow Congressional investigations into the Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction-era South, and how the focus on “unifying” the country through this symbolic act denied newly freed Black citizens desperately needed federal support. Ultimately, the Yellowstone story reveals how the government tested the reach of its power across an expanding and divided nation.
$20 for Smithsonian members, $25 for nonmembers. Register HERE. A purchase discount for the book is available through the link.
