In her American Horticultural Society online talk on October 9 at 7 pm Eastern, Zoë Schlanger will dive into the fascinating realm of plant behavior research, where scientists are uncovering just how complex and capable plants really are. Plants can process information, make wise choices, and adapt to the ever-changing environment in incredibly specific ways. They can communicate, remember, recognize their relatives, and manipulate other species to their benefit. Using insights from her book The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth, Zoë will introduce us to the scientists—and the plant species—who are reshaping our ideas about intelligence, consciousness, and the agency of nonhuman life.  $15 for AHS members, $20 for non-members. Register at www.ahsgardening.org

Zoë Schlanger is currently a staff reporter at the Atlantic, where she covers climate change. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of  Books, Time, Newsweek, The Nation, Quartz, and on NPR among other major outlets, and is cited in the 2022 Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology. A recipient of a 2017 National Association of Science Writers’ reporting award, she is often a guest speaker in schools and universities. Zoë graduated with a B.A. from New York University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and The Light Eaters is her first book. 

Did you know that Southwark once had a zoo? That for a short spell Britain’s first ecological park was built within a stone’s throw of Tower Bridge? Or that one of the capital’s most celebrated botanical gardens now lies beneath the platforms of Waterloo station? The Garden Museum’s next exhibition Lost Gardens of London from October 23 – March 2 will reveal the secret history of some of London’s most beguiling forgotten gardens.

Thousands of gardens have vanished across London over the past five hundred years – ranging from princely pleasure grounds and private botanical gardens, to humble allotments and defunct squares, artists’ gardens, eccentric private menageries and the ecological parks of the twentieth century. Guest curated by landscape architect and historian Dr Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, Lost Gardens of London will explore this legacy and reveal tantalizing glimpses of some of the rich and varied gardens that once embellished the metropolis.

Paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and maps will bring these lost gardens to life, depicting changing trends and fashions in gardening while exploring London’s enduring love affair with nature, and how green spaces have always been a vital part of life in the capital.

In every borough, parks, gardens and green open spaces have succumbed to new roads, street-widenings, railway encroachments and new buildings, or have simply been swallowed up by suburbia. Accompanying public programmes will explore how the remaining green spaces that may be taken for granted in London today have survived thanks to protests, community action and legal protections being put in place. The exhibition is a timely reminder of the vulnerability of urban gardens and access to nature.

Lost Gardens of London coincides with a new book by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan of the same name, to be published by the Modern Art Press (and distributed by Yale University Press) in October 2024.

If you are traveling to Great Britain this coming year, put this exhibition on your itinerary. The Museum is located on Lambeth Palace Road in London. https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/visit/

The Till Wave Gallery, 264 Arlington Street in Watertown, in collaboration with NOFA and the Massachusetts Pollinator Network, have mounted an exhibit entitled New England Pollinators, which will run through November 22. The Gallery hours are Wednesdays, 12:00 noon – 6:00 pm, and Saturdays, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm. The opening reception takes place September 26, 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm, so do stop by if you are available.