Save the date! David Culp’s world famous Galanthus Gala, featuring three superb lectures and a wide variety of vendors selling an incredible array of plants. Visit http://brandywine-cottage.square.site/ to register. Tickets are on sale now. The event takes place at the Friends Meeting House, 800 East Lancaster Avenue in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, but there is a virtual happy hour and lecture on February 27 and a virtual live auction and talk on February 28 with David Culp himself.
Brandywine Cottage announces the 2024 Galanthus Gala dates of March 1 & 2. The spring kick off event takes pace at Downingtown Friends Meetinghouse, 800 East Lancaster Avenue in Downington, Pennsylvania. This is a national event of some renown, so mark your calendars and follow @brandywinecottage on Instagram for more details. Registration is now open.
Award-winning gardener-lecturer-naturalist David Culp has spent more than 30 years creating a four-season blooming habitat and sanctuary on two-acres of hillside nestled between forks of the Brandywine River. As in his latest book, A Year at Brandywine Cottage, Culp encourages us to choose plants for twelve months of interest, weave edibles into the mix, and bring the bounty indoors with simple arrangements and homegrown recipes. David will give an online lecture through the New York Botanical Garden’s Adult Education program on November 17 at 1 pm. $15 for NYBG members, $18 for nonmembers. Register HERE.
Principal of David L. Culp Designs and owner of Brandywine Snowdrops, David Culp has received the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Distinguished Garden Award, and his The Layered Garden was named 2013’s Best Overall Book by the Garden Writers Association.
The Massachusetts Master Gardener Association announces Inspiration for Next Year’s Garden, the 2017 Massachusetts Gardening Symposium to be held Saturday, September 23 from 8:30 – 3:30 at Westford Academy in Westford, Massachusetts. This year’s Symposium speakers come from diverse backgrounds and have different fields of gardening concentration, but all share one passion: teaching others.
Thomas Rainer, author of Planting in a Post-Wild World, will speak on The Garden of the Future: Reimagining the American Yard. Learn how plants fit together in nature and how to use this knowledge to create gardens that are more satisfying, more resilient, and less work.
David L. Culp, Vice President of Sunny Border Nurseries, will present Perennials: The Best Plants of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. How do tried and true favorites compare with new introductions? What are the current trends? And what horticultural advances might the future hold?
Kathleen Gagan, owner of Peony’s Envy, discusses Designing Gardens with Peonies. Learn how to create your own “peony plan” including cultivar and site selection, mixing types of peonies, structuring mixed gardens, and companion planting.
Janet Macunovich, garden designer, author and educator, will follow with The Art of Fall Garden Clean Up. Every hour you spend in the fall can save you 2+ hours in the spring, yield months of winter pleasure, and give your plants a valuable head start for the new season.
Early bird pricing through August 6 – $75 per person. August 7 – September 16 (registration deadline) $90 per person. Price includes lectures, Garden Marketplace, and lunch. No walk-ins. To register online, visit http://massmastergardeners.org/2017-gardening-symposium/
The 11th Annual Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium, April 4 & 5, 2014 at The Equinox Resort in Manchester, Vermont , will be sponsored by: The American Horticultural Society, Corona Tools, Equinox Valley Nursery, Espoma, Gardener’s Supply Company, Liquid Fence, Neptune’s Harvest and Proven Winners.
This premier symposium takes place April 4 & 5, 2014 and will be held at the world-class Equinox Resort (www.equinoxresort.com) in Manchester, VT. The symposium features six dynamic lectures, a Gardener’s Marketplace, great food, door prizes, and gifts. Over 200 gardeners from around the Northeast annually attend this popular event. NEW for 2014 is a special Garden Design Workshop on Friday from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. This workshop is in addition to the symposium. Featured speakers, horticultural experts and notable authors are: David L. Culp: owner of award-winning gardens that have been featured on HGTV and in Martha Stewart Living, VP of Sunny Border Nurseries, instructor at Longwood Gardens (PA), former contributing editor to Horticulture magazine, and author of the top selling book The Layered Garden; Thomas Christopher: a highly respected expert on sustainable gardening practices with articles in The New York Times and Martha Stewart Living; owner of a sustainable lawn consulting business, Greener Grasses/Sustainable Lawns, graduate of the New York Botanical Garden’s school of professional horticulture and editor of a best seller – The New American Landscape: Leading Voices on the Future of Sustainable Gardening, which contains his own chapter on water-wise gardening; Deborah Trickett: a highly applauded container designer who works with clients throughout New England, owner of The Captured Garden, instructor at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, and her work has been featured in The Boston Globe, Garden Gate and New England Home magazines as well as on the TV show New England Dream Home; Adam R. Wheeler: a plant fanatic who is the propagation and new plant development manager for Broken Arrow Nursery – a destination garden center in CT, and adjunct instructor on plant propagation and woody plant identification at Naugatuck Valley Community College; and Kerry Ann Mendez: owner of Perennially Yours, garden designer and consultant, guest on HGTV, former TV garden series host, her gardens have been featured in Garden Gate, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, and Better Homes and Gardens SIP, and author of The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Top Ten Lists and Top Ten Lists for Beautiful Shade Gardens.
How-to, informative lectures include: 50 Perennials I Could Not Live Without; The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year Round Beauty; A Back Yard Revolution – alternative grasses and compatible perennials that provide all the benefits of a conventional lawn; Celebrity Pots, an entertaining presentation on creating flashy containers that portray celebrities like Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and Grace Kelly; Fun with Color: Variegated Foliage in the Garden; and Flashy New or Underused Perennials for 2014. Overnight packages and day only rates are available. Symposium Day Only rates: $98 per person by March 1, $108 after March 1; special rates for groups and Master Gardeners. Overnight packages including symposium programming, accommodations, meals and all taxes & gratuities start at $300.29 for a single or $430.09 for a double ($215.05 per person). For more information and registration details, visit www.pyours.com/symposium.
The 2013 Northeast Region Perennial Plant Symposium will take place Wednesday, September 11, from 8 – 5 at the Elm Bank Horticulture Center in Wellesley, presented by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and The Perennial Plant Association.
Following registration at 8 am, David Culp of Sunny Border Nurseries will speak on The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year Round Beauty. Brandywine Cottage is David Culp’s two-acre garden where he has mastered the design technique of layering – interplanting many different species in the same area. David will illustrate a basic lesson in layering: how to choose the correct plants, how to design a layered garden, and how to keep it maintained.
Following a break and visit to the Elm Bank Gardens, Stephanie Cohen, the Perennial Diva, will share The Path to an Exciting Mixed Border: Perennials and Shrubs. Creating a garden for four seasons is always Stephanie’s goal. In recent years, adding flowering shrubs that play nicely with perennial plants has added a new dimension. Interesting flowers, lovely bark, fall color, berries, and interesting shapes make shrubs and perennials perfect buddies in the border. The Perennial Diva is not only opinionated about perennials, but she has added shrubs to her love ’em or leave ’em list. Her book is illustrated below.
Before lunch, Dr. Denise Adams will lecture on American Home Landscapes. American landscape design certainly has evolved over the years–from Colonial subsistence gardens to Victorian gardens of excess to 1980’s backyard barbecues. This lecture will provide a survey of American residential landscape history. Learn about the major landscape design trends and most popular plants since our country’s establishment to the present with special emphasis on the New England landscape.
After lunch, Lloyd Traven of Peace Tree Farm will speak on Bringing the Awesome Every Day. When you go shopping before a fancy party, do you say to yourself “I hope I can find the same dress everyone is buying?” Do you want your living room decorated just like your neighbor’s? Of course not. Your garden should be no different. All want their garden to stand out, to shine, to stop traffic (in a good way.) We all need fresh ideas, new choices, different methods and a whole new design concept. Water-friendly, edibles, foliage, container combinations – the rules have changed and a new world awaits.
Jennifer Brennan of Chalet Nursery and Garden Shop will speak on Perennials for Problem Areas. Whether it is for our own gardens or for clients and customers, there are always those problem areas that need recommendations of perennials that do not just survive but thrive. Heavy clay soil and deep shade are also included. Whatever the conditions, there are perennials that will work. Expand your problem solving palette with these selections.
Finally, John Friel of Emerald Coast Growers will present Tell Me What’s New! Tell Me What Works! The growing zones of Massachusetts and region encompass great diversity. John will present a roundup of perennials and ornamental grasses, new and known, that will provide great punch to the landscape.
Registration fee is $99 per person before August 25, and $109 per person after August 25. This price includes lunch. The program will be held at 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, and you may register online at www.perennialplant.org or by calling 614-771-8431. You may also mail the registration form found on the website to 3383 Schirtzinger Road, Hilliard, OH. Checks may be made payable to the Perennial Plant Association.
The yearly Perennial Plant Symposium is the only annual symposium devoted entirely to perennials. It is also the oldest with the first symposium presented in 1983. The location changes each year. Enjoy learning about and observing perennials, gardens, and production facilities all across the USA and Canada. This summer the annual meeting of the Perennial Plant Association takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. The conference includes optional tours before and after the symposium, trips to public and private gardens, a trade show, and retail, grower, or designer’s talks and tours. Selected highlights include:
July 4th: Optional walking horticultural tour of Boston, historical tour by bus of Boston, Lexington and Concord, and fireworks cruise
July 5th: Public Day Seminar Speakers
Julie Merservy: Home Outside – Creating the Landscape You Love
Debra Knape: Good Enough To Eat – Designing Edible Landscapes
David Culp:Â Best of Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
Adrian Bloom:  Bloom’s Best Perennials and Grasses
Roger Swain: Ace of Shovels: Finding the Perfect Garden Tool
Laura Deeter: Bringing Your Perennials Up Right
July 6th: Eleven fascinating presentations featuring growers, landscape designers, and retailers, plus Keynote by Julie Merservy: Hearing the Stream With Open Eyes – The Evolution of a Designer
July 7th: Morning Bench to Border Tours of Cavicchio Greenhouses, Stonegate Gardens, Russell’s Garden Center, Garden in the Woods, Weston Nursery, and Tower Hill Botanic Garden.
Afternoon Divine by Design Garden Tours of four private gardens, Elm Bank (Massachusetts Horticultural Society), Weston Nursery, and Tower Hill Botanic Garden.
July 8th – Trade Show and Sixteen Lectures on topics ranging from Biological Controls to New and Upcoming Coreopsis Cultivars to Container Gardening.
July 9 – Optional Tour to garden centers and Newport gardens
July 10 – Option Tour: Journey to the Edge! The Maine Event. Visit five wholesale and retail growers in New Hampshire and Maine, and experience a lobster bake at the Coastal Maine Botanic Garden.
Lectures, reception and the trade show will take place at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, 50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street. The room rate is: $129 for Single or $129 for Double. Non Perennial Plant Association members are invited to register for the entire conference at non-member rates, or just for the public day on July 5th. Registration information will be available at www.perennialplant.org. This is a fabulous opportunity for our Boston area gardening community to participate in one of the nation’s premier horticultural events.
