Many native plants make great choices for container gardens. From shade to sun, perennials to shrubs, spring to fall, there are options that will bring a host of beneficial insects and birds to your yard, patio, deck, or balcony. Berkshire Botanical Garden sponsors this online lecture, led by Duncan Himmelman, on Wednesday, March 29 from 5:30 – 7 Eastern time. $12 for BBG members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/native-plants-container-gardens
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.
Although mulch is a commonly used groundcover, a beautiful tapestry of foliage and flowers is more visually dynamic and ecologically valuable. Discover a selection of tough, versatile plants to use as groundcovers in a variety of growing conditions. Presented by Duncan Himmelman, this online Berkshire Botanical Garden program will take place March 15 from 5:30 – 7 pm Eastern time. $12 for BBG members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org
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.
The Berkshire Botanical Garden presents a personal introduction to the design principles of Piet Oudolf — one of the world’s leading naturalistic landscape designers. His work includes New York’s High Line, Chicago’s Lurie Garden, the Oudolf Meadow at Delaware Botanic Gardens, and Oudolf Garden Detroit. Deborah Chud’s five years of research on Oudolf’s gardens led to her own Oudolfian garden and the only known database of his plant combinations. Part 1 of this class traces her discovery of Oudolf’s work, her research on his plant combinations and her use of that research to create a garden in his style. Part 2 explores the historical context in which he emerged as a landscape designer. Part 3 provides an introduction to his design principles, particularly his concept of structure and the special balance he creates between coherence and contrast. At the end of the talk, participants will enjoy some practical Oudolfian “do’s and don’ts” for solving the problem of excessive contrast. Co-hosted with New England Botanic Garden. $12 for BBG and NEBG members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/birth-new-perennial-garden
Deborah Chud is a retired Massachusetts physician turned garden maker, consultant and educator. Her five years of research on Piet Oudolf have generated the most comprehensive database of his plant combinations. In the fall of 2020, she presented her work at an international event organized by Oudolf’s co-author, Noel Kingsbury, under the aegis of gardenmasterclass.org. Deborah has also presented to members of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, the United States Botanical Garden in Washington, D.C., the Ecological Landscape Alliance, the Northwest Perennial Alliance, Toronto Botanical Garden, and Delaware Botanic Gardens. The latter two public gardens contain Oudolf-designed sections.
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.
Whether you are an amateur or professional horticulturist, you are a steward of the landscape. This Berkshire Botanical Garden in-person course is designed for those who might not necessarily be the first to climb 100 feet up an Eastern White Pine or wrangle the chainsaw to fell a dead American elm, but want to better understand the largest plants in the landscape. Learn from arborist Tom Ingersoll the basics of tree biology and identification, the tree’s role in the ecosystem, proper selection, siting, planting considerations, pruning of young trees, fertilization, pest identification, and when to call in the professionals! $200 for BBG members, $225 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/tree-care-gardeners-2
Tom Ingersoll is a Massachusetts certified arborist and also certified by the International Society of Arboriculture. He owns and operates Ingersoll Land Care in Sheffield, Mass., and has worked in the landscape industry for the past 28 years. His passion is tree care, and he serves both public and private clients in the tri-state region. Additionally, he serves on the boards of the Berkshire Botanical Garden and The Sheffield Tree Project.
While Houston is often associated with oil and energy companies, big business, and NASA’s Houston Space Center, it is also home to many cultural institutions. The Museum District comprises nineteen museums, galleries, and community spaces – including the world-famous Rothko Chapel and Menil Collection. Participants in this Berkshire Botanical Garden tour, arranged by Classical Excursions, on March 14 – 17 will enjoy a three-night stay at The Lancaster Hotel, in the heart of the Theater District. This historic hotel from the 1920’s has been fully updated as a contemporary boutique hotel, and today is a member of Preferred Hotels.
The City of Houston was founded in 1837 after Augustus and John Allen had acquired land to establish a new town at the junction of Buffalo and White Oak bayous in 1836. Houston served as the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas. In 1912, the Rice Institute became the first institute of higher learning in the area. Also, by 1912, Houston was home to twenty-five “tall buildings” ranging from six to sixteen stories. An interest in gardening swept the country during the 1920s at the height of the “City Beautiful” movement, which promoted urban planning and beautification. In accordance with this concept, 27 women formed a neighborhood garden club, whose objectives — as described in a 1927 newspaper article — were “the study of flowers and their cultivation, beautification of backyards, conservation of wildflowers, presentation of flower shows and competitive garden designs.” The most famous residential section of town is River Oaks, where that garden club was founded. For complete itinerary visit www.berkshirebotanical.org
Berkshire Botanical Garden presents Midori Shintani, head gardener of Japan’s famous Tokachi Millennium Forest, in its online Winter Lecture, “Discovering Tokachi,” on February 18, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Midori will share how she and her team have nurtured the native forests and cultivated garden areas through the seasons. She will also explain how her gardening methods are rooted in the accumulated wisdom of the ancient Japanese belief of mother culture, and how she has built a solid partnership with garden designer Dan Pearson and her garden team.
The Tokachi Millennium Forest is located at the foot of the Hidaka Mountains in Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. The project was originally started in 1990 by a local newspaper company that acquired about 990 acres there to create a carbon-offsetting forest. Eventually this became a project to restore the natural forest ecosystems, to share with the public and be sustainable for the next 1,000 years. The garden project of the Tokachi Millennium Forest began in 1996. In 2008, the forest officially was opened to the public, and has continued to evolve.
Midori Shintani was born and raised in the Fukui Prefecture in central Japan, in the countryside surrounded by sea and mountains. Spending time with plants in this area rich with nature was an early influence. Midori trained in horticulture and landscape architecture at Minami Kyushu University, Japan. In 2002 she moved to Sweden and trained to become a gardener at Millesgården and Rosendals Trädgård. In 2004 she moved back to Japan and worked at a garden design and landscaping company and perennial nursery, gaining experience in both traditional and modern techniques to create her own gardening style. Since 2008 she has been the head gardener of Tokachi Millennium Forest, merging “new Japanese horticulture” into wild nature. She writes and lectures widely.
Tickets for the Winter Lecture are $30 for members of Berkshire Botanical Garden and $35 for non-members and are available online at berkshirebotanical.org/events or by calling 413-320-4794.
Established in 1997, the Winter Lecture Series was initiated by the Berkshire Botanical Garden to bring inspiring and noted speakers to the region to talk about horticulture, landscape design and history, plants and plant exploration, and home gardening. Past speakers have included such luminaries as Tom Coward, Marco Polo Stufano, Dan Hinkley, Edwina von Gal, Penelope Hobhouse, Bill Cullina, Fergus Garrett, Debs Goodenough, Dr. Michael Dirr, Ken Druse, Anna Pavord, Thomas Woltz and Margaret Roach. Proceeds from ticket sales support the Garden’s education programs.
Berkshire Botanical Garden’s first art exhibition of 2023 features the work of Karlene Jean Kantner. The show, “Volumes,” will include nearly two dozen of her works. It runs in the Leonhardt Galleries from January 20 through February 26.
The opening reception on Friday, January 20, will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Kantner will give an artist talk in the gallery on Saturday, February 11, at 3 p.m.
Raised in Montana, a denizen of the outdoors, Kantner began her artistic undertakings as a child making fresh batches of hand-pressed, sunbaked “mud cookies” that looked good enough to eat. After earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Montana and teaching art to children for several years, she came East with her partner, Chris Powell, a West Stockbridge native.
Once settled in the Berkshires, among her first acts was digging out a pit fire oven — that is to say, an open-air fire pit about a foot-and-a-half deep by four-feet wide in which she bakes much of her artwork, turning clay to ceramic. Her pit-firing is limited to Massachusetts’ open-air brush-burning season (from January 15 and May 1). The rest of the season, Kantner uses an electric kiln.
But she prefers the pit fire process, in which she places her clay creations directly onto burning coals before she slowly builds the fire again until it’s raging. The process requires care, patience and the thoughtful tolerance that everything could go horribly wrong. Indeed, not all pieces survive the firing process.
Dreaming of a luscious cutting garden that produces blooms all season long? Join Colie Collen, the grower and designer behind Flower Scout, for this comprehensive Berkshire Botanical Garden online course on planning, starting, troubleshooting and maintaining a prolific cut flower garden.
Colie Collen, founder, farmer, and designer at Flower Scout, brings her love of all things wild and seasonal to her work. After many years of farming on the West and East Coasts, in 2012 her interest turned to flower production, and subsequently, to design. She seeks to create individual experiences for clients based on the colors, textures and shapes the land, garden and season are creating at a particular moment, with customers’ aesthetic preferences continually in mind.
Led by Bridgette Stone, Director of Education at Berkshire Botanical Garden, this class is designed for those starting or caring for a vegetable garden. This Berkshire Botanical Garden online course will include discussion of seed selection, seeding schedules, bed preparation and successful planting practice. During the first two sessions, students will learn about these practices, as well as what different vegetable families need to be successful. For the third class, students will demonstrate their learning by completing a vegetable garden design to be implemented at their own homes. Classes are January 18- February 1, from 5 – 6:30. $55 for BBG members, $65 for nonmembers. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org
