Join Berkshire Botanical Garden for some food and drink, followed by a tour in Spanish using our audio guide app on your phone on Sunday, September 14, from 5 to 8 p.m. Luana Dias David will begin a salsa dance lesson and party inside the Education Center after the tour. Admission is free, registration is encouraged (below).
Luana Dias David is a Brazilian performing artist, choreographer and cultural educator whose work bridges tradition and innovation in Afro-Latin dance. Born in São Paulo, she carries over 20 years of international experience, performing and teaching across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Her artistry is deeply rooted in the rhythms of Samba, Capoeira and Latin dance, shaped by her training in classical ballet, jazz and breakdancing.
Kevin West, author of The Cook’s Garden: A Gardener’s Guide to Selecting, Growing, and Savoring the Tastiest Vegetables of Each Season, will lead a talk on growing your own garden and incorporating homegrown produce into everyday cooking on Saturday, September 6, at the Berkshire Botanical Garden from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The event includes a kitchen demonstration.
Kevin West comes from East Tennessee farmers and Smoky Mountain settlers, country people with generations of commitment to growing delicious food. He is the author of Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling, and Preserving (Knopf). He also coauthored The Grand Central Market Cookbook (Clarkson Potter) and contributed to Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original (The University of North Carolina Press). He gardens and cooks in the Berkshires. $25 for BBG members, $40 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/cooks-garden-kevin-west
Grasses are an integral component of naturalistic plantings, the garden style popularized by New York City’s High Line and the “Dutch Wave.” But with names like Schizachyrium, Spodiopogon, and Hakonechloa, they can be bewildering to even experienced gardeners. Join plantsman Robert Clyde Anderson at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Friday, September 5, from 2 to 5 p.m., for an overview of the most useful and beautiful species and cultivars for our climate, with an emphasis on their ecological value, distinguishing characteristics, and design possibilities. This three-hour session will include an illustrated lecture, handouts, and an on-site walkabout on the BBG grounds, as well as time for questions and shared experiences.
Robert Clyde Anderson is a garden designer, consultant and writer who found his way to the Hudson Valley after a New York City career in illustration and book design. A native of Louisiana and a lifelong gardener, he has designed and maintained gardens in Columbia County as well as working in area nurseries, most recently at Pondside Nursery in Hudson for five years and before that, at Loomis Creek Nursery in Claverack for eight years. Robert makes his home in Stuyvesant, where he maintains a two-acre “laboratory” garden that includes shrub borders, a sunny, terraced xeric garden, a shady, wooded streamside area, a moist meadow planting, a kitchen garden, and a small flock of chickens.
Taught by Lee Buttala, this Berkshire Botanical Garden essential course for the serious gardener covers basic herbaceous plants used in the garden setting, including identification, planting, fertilizing, pest control and pruning. Perennial selection will be the focus, although some time will be spent on annuals and bulbs. (4 Classes) All students participating in this class as part of the Horticulture Certificate Program are required to complete a final project. BBG Members $215/Non-members $240. The class, running Tuesdays September 2 – 23 from 5:30 – 8:30, will be taught on site.
Lee Buttala is the former Executive Director of Seed Savers Exchange, an heirloom vegetable genebank that is the only non-governmental organization storing seed at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. He has also worked for BBG and the Garden Conservancy, and currently serves as chair of the Historic Landscapes Committee of the APGA. Lee won an Emmy award for his role as a garden television producer for Martha Stewart Living and was the creator of PBS’s Cultivating Life. He is the editor of the award-winning book, The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Saving Seed, writes a weekly garden column for the Berkshire Edge and serves on the board of Hollister House Garden in Washington, CT. Lee studied garden design at the Chelsea Physic Garden, the New York Botanical Garden and the Kyoto School of Art and Design. He lives in Ashley Falls, MA. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/herbaceous-plants-5
Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Cocktails in Great Gardens series provides a rare opportunity for guests to savor a drink and a nibble in some of the finest private gardens in the region. Book early, as tickets may be limited, and they always go fast! On September 12 from 5 – 7, visit The Gardens at Kenmore Hall in Richmond. Exact location and directions will be emailed to you upon registration. $40 for BBG members, $60 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/cocktails-great-gardens-september-12
This summer, step into the world of Frances Palmer — potter, gardener and photographer — through an immersive new exhibition at Berkshire Botanical Garden that runs in the Leonhardt Galleries from Augus 15 through October 5. The public is invited to the opening reception on Friday, August 15, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Frances Palmer will bring together three intimately connected aspects of her artistic life, showcasing her signature terracotta ceramics, platinum palladium photographs of garden flowers and luminous color photographs of floral arrangements. A self-taught potter for nearly four decades, Palmer has long explored the relationship between earth and bloom. She began growing flowers in her Connecticut garden specifically to arrange in her handmade vessels and photograph in her studio.
“The pottery and the flowers are the two halves of my earthly paradise,” Palmer says. “I honestly can’t imagine one without the other.”
Visitors will encounter Palmer’s warm, expressive terracotta pots — some of which will be thoughtfully composed using blossoms grown at BBG. Her photographs, known for their dreamy, meditative quality, reveal a deep reverence for the ephemeral beauty of flowers and the everyday magic of the natural world. Palmer’s work has been featured in The New York Times Style Magazine, Vogue, House & Garden, and Veranda, and is held in collections around the world. She is the author of “Life in the Studio,” and her newest book, “Life with Flowers: Inspiration and Lessons from the Garden” (Artisan Books), offers a deeper look into her creative process and garden philosophy.
“I love the scale of Berkshire Botanical Garden and the beautiful setting,” she says. “The exhibition will, in a way, serve as a conversation or dialogue with the Garden’s living landscape.”
Established in 1934 as the “Berkshire Garden Center” and revered as one of the older public display gardens in the Northeast, Berkshire Botanical Garden is a not-for-profit, membership-supported educational organization encompassing 24 acres of land at the intersection of Routes 102 and 183 in Stockbridge. It’s mission is to “provide information, education and inspiration concerning the science, art and joy of gardening and its role in preserving the environment.”
Continuing a 54-year tradition of growing and showing at Berkshire Botanical Garden, the Grow Show is back! Floral designers and backyard gardeners are the celebrities at the Garden’s annual Grow Show on Aug. 9 – 10, where beautiful floral arrangements and the peak summer harvest are spotlighted in this upbeat, judged event featuring five design and nearly 80 horticulture classes on display in the Exhibition Hall. Details here.
This summer, Berkshire Botanical Garden has become a sanctuary for art lovers with “DayDream,” a captivating exhibition showcasing works by celebrated contemporary and modern artists. As part of the exhibition’s summer programming, curator James Salomon will host a special evening of conversation and exploration on Saturday, July 26, from 5 to 7 p.m. Salomon will be joined by a selection of featured artists — John Gordon Gauld, Peter D. Gerakaris, Ann Getsinger, Cate Pasquarelli, Anastasia Traina, and Cynthia Wick — for an engaging gallery talk that delves into the ideas and inspiration behind their work. They may even read passages from the exhibition catalogue, where every participating artist contributes their personal daydreaming stories and insights. For more information, and to register, visit https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/daydream-curator-and-artist-talk
Spend the day on Saturday, August 16 with Berkshire Botanical Garden at Rockland Farm in Canaan, N.Y., for an immersive symposium on ornamental garden design. Hosted in a beautifully restored barn surrounded by gardens, this event features presentations from Roy Diblick, Kathryn Herman, Frances Palmer, and Dean Riddle. Morning refreshments and lunch are included. The day will conclude with cocktails and a guided tour by our hosts, Madeline and Ian Hooper.
Roy Diblick is co-owner of Northwind Perennial Farm in Burlington, Wis. He has been growing traditional and native perennials since 1978. His garden designs emphasize plant relationships to maintenance strategies and costs. Diblick’s design and planting projects include the Louis Sullivan Arch for the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago and the lakeside plantings at the Shedd Aquarium. He recently designed the perennial plantings for Scott Byron’s new garden design for the Chicago History Museum and a 12,000-square-foot gravel garden for the Argonne National Laboratory, which houses the world’s biggest computer. His book The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden (Timber Press) highlights his perennial gardening practice.
Kathryn Herman is the principal at Kathryn Herman Design, based in New Canaan, Conn. With 28 years of experience, she brings a rich horticultural background, a deep appreciation for architecture and insights gained from extensive global travel to her residential and commercial projects across the United States and internationally. Her thoughtful and sophisticated designs have earned widespread recognition, including multiple Palladio and Stanford White Awards, as well as honors from the Connecticut and New York Chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Her work has been featured in leading publications both in the U.S. and abroad, including Veranda, House & Garden UK and Architectural Digest. In 2012, Kathryn was inducted into the New England Design Hall of Fame for her contributions to landscape architecture in the region. She was named a “Star of Design” by the Pacific Design Center in 2017, and in 2018 she received the prestigious Arthur Ross Award.
Frances Palmer has been working in ceramics since 1987. Though trained as an art historian, she has always been drawn to creating with her hands. She began as a printmaker, but over time her creative practice evolved to include pottery and gardening — two disciplines that, like printmaking, transform ideas into tangible form. Palmer doesn’t create or cultivate to keep things for herself; instead, she finds joy in sending her work out into the world for others to use and appreciate. Her ceramics—whether everyday dishware or distinctive vases — are functional pieces of art, thoughtfully handmade and intended for daily life. Each one, regardless of size or shape, is treated as a unique expression. She feels honored to know that her work is part of people’s lives across the country, especially when it’s present during shared meals, celebrations, and the simple joys of gathering with others.
Dean Riddle first fell in love with the native plants of the southern Appalachians. That passion led him to spend a year interning at Hillier Nurseries in Hampshire, England, where he cared for a renowned collection of shrubs and trees. Still, tucked in the back of his mind were memories of his grandmother’s garden, bursting with ripe tomatoes and colorful zinnias. Later, when he found himself in the Catskills, he planted a kitchen garden for his friend Kate Pierson, singer of the B-52s. “I had gone from being a snooty horticulture student, obsessed with orchards and rare woody plants, to growing a kitchen and flower garden where I could simply go out and pick fresh lettuce,” he told The New York Times. Since 1990, he has run a small garden design/build company in the Catskills and Hudson Valley. Riddle is the author of the book Out in the Garden: Growing a Beautiful Life (HarperCollins). He lives in Livingston Manor, N.Y.
This summer, Berkshire Botanical Garden will transform into a haven for artistic reverie with “DayDream,” a new exhibition featuring works by some of the most renowned names in contemporary and modern art. DayDream will run from June 6 through August 11, in BBG’s Leonhardt Galleries, inviting visitors to escape the everyday and immerse themselves in the boundless possibilities of the imagination. This summer, Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Leonhardt Galleries are open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The exhibition’s lineup includes legendary figures such as Salvador Dalí, Annie Leibovitz, Yoko Ono, and Jamie Wyeth, alongside a diverse array of contemporary artists like Roz Chast, Will Cotton and Ellsworth Kelly. Spanning painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media, DayDream promises to be a stunning and thought-provoking journey into the artistic subconscious. For complete information visit www.berkshirebotanical.org
