Boston Flora

Tag: Garden Conservancy

  • Thursday, December 11, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Sleepy Cat Farm, Part IV – Planning and Perfecting with the Future in Mind, Online

    Sleepy Cat Farm embodies the vision of Fred Landman who, since acquiring a Georgian Revival house and six acres of neglected grounds in Greenwich, CT, has transformed his property into a magical thirteen-acre landscape that serves as a testament to his belief in the harmony between house and garden. This four-part Virtual Program, which began with two episodes in the spring and summer, continues to explore the evolution of Fred’s vision from 1994 to today. It tells the story of how the talented architects, horticulturists and artisans he collaborates with have married landscape and architecture to create a series of highly personal sanctuaries. Fred delights in sharing these spaces with hundreds of visitors every year.

    Our final episode in the story of Sleepy Cat Farm’s evolution looks to the future with Kristi Wright, who succeeded Alan Gorkin as Head Horticulturist in 2024. Kristi likes to think of the garden’s design as a stage set on which the scene continually changes according to the season, the gardener’s hand, or on occasion, the whim of Mother Nature. She seeks to maintain the design integrity of each of the garden’s features when it’s time to edit an overgrown area; reassess sun/shade issues, introduce unusual species, or face the challenges that climate change presents. Another objective is creating opportunities for Sleepy Cat Farm to serve the wider community. Local food banks rely on Sleepy Cat’s vegetable garden and orchard for produce. A six-month internship program is in the works, and a volunteer program is a possibility for the future. Kristi hopes to create a plant list on the garden’s website in order to share the staff’s horticultural knowledge with gardeners everywhere. For now, however, Kristi, her team, and Fred Landman can’t wait to show off to the next wave of Open Day visitors all the wonders that Sleepy Cat Farm has to offer. $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-sleepy-cat-farm-part-iv-12-11-2025

  • Tuesday, November 18, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Life with Flowers: Inspiration and Lessons from the Garden, Online

    Drawing on insights from her latest publication, Life with Flowers: Inspiration and Lessons From the Garden, Frances Palmer will discuss her approach to gardening, consisting of six growing periods, from prevernal—those late winter days when the first snowdrops and hellebores appear—through summer and fall, with its dahlias and Japanese anemones, to hibernal, as we move back indoors and enjoy forced bulbs and greenhouse flowers. Join Palmer as she shares her rich and varied experience growing a life with flowers, offering practical tips, DIY projects, favorite floral recipes, meditations on patience, and more.

    FRANCES PALMER, celebrated author, ceramist, gardener and photographer, trained as an art historian at Columbia University and for the past 38 years has focused on the process of changing ideas into form in her functional work—handmade ceramics. Her work is represented in leading private craft and contemporary art collections around the world.

    Note: You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-life-with-flowers-11-18-2025

  • Tuesday, October 30, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – The White House Rose Garden: Renovation of an Iconic Space

    In 2018, OvS embarked on one of its most ambitious projects in the firm’s history: the renovation of the White House Rose Garden. In this Garden Conservancy online presentation on October 30 at 2 pm Eastern, Eric Groft, Principal-in-Charge of the project, will illustrate the research, planning, and design that helped guide the Garden’s renewal and curate an outdoor experience transcendent of each administration. The presentation will address OvS’ White House Rose Garden Landscape Report, and how it informed the design updates that allow for universal accessibility, modernized systems of irrigation and drainage, improved media technology and other electrical infrastructure, as well as a renewed palette of roses and other blight-resistant species that are better suited for this hallowed space. The talk should be enlightening in view of the recent destruction of the garden and transformation into a paved space for parties.

    ERIC GROFT CEO and Director of OEHME, VAN SWEDEN | OvS, is renowned for his diversity in residential, commercial, and institutional work. He prides himself on a sense of regionalism, attention to the vernacular, and his work with cultural landscapes. Eric’s commissions include landscape master planning and design efforts for residential gardens throughout the east end of Long Island and the northeastern region of the United States. His commercial body of work features the American Museum and Gardens in Bath, UK, the Federal Reserve Campus in Washington, DC, as well as the 2020 renovation of the White House Rose Garden. Eric has a passion for horticulture and is dedicated to shepherding the evolution of OvS’ New American Garden Style. He is widely recognized as an industry leader in ecological sensitivity, environmental/wetland restoration, and shoreline stabilization/revetment. He frequently lectures on these topics and the work of OvS.

    Note: You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-white-house-rose-garden-10-30-2025

  • Tuesday, October 7, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – The Contemporary Garden, Online

    Join The Garden Conservancy on October 7 for a virtual roundtable discussion to celebrate the publication of The Contemporary Garden (Phaidon, 2025) with a panel of designers and garden experts featured in the book. Spanning the late twentieth century to the present, The Contemporary Garden showcases 300 stunning gardens, from roof gardens to wildflower meadows, each celebrated with a large-format image and an insightful description that will deepen the reader’s understanding of the creator’s work. Organized alphabetically by designer, this stunning book celebrates the visual beauty and creativity of gardens and demonstrates how our evolving stylistic and horticultural aesthetic fosters an increasingly strong connection with the natural world. Curated in collaboration with an international team of horticultural experts, this wide-ranging collection includes established and lesser-known designers, capturing the global rise of garden design and offering a rich source of inspiration. Note: You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar.  $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-contemporary-garden-10-7-2025

  • Tuesday, October 21, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – The New Beautiful: Innovative Spaces and the Changing Face of Gardens, Online

    A new, motivated generation of garden makers are just as, if not more, concerned with ecology as aesthetics. This might require that we accept a wider definition of “garden”, and a broader sense of what beauty can be, but the reward for embracing a different ethos is a deeper, more fulfilling relationship with the little world outside your back door. These gardens are a good news story to give us hope, as well as dynamic works of art and activism, science and sustenance. They offer a glimpse of what’s possible, a brighter future, and a gentle plea for nature.

    The Garden Conservancy presents a webinar on October 21 from 2 – 3 with Stephanie Mahon. $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers. Note: You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-new-beautiful-10-21-2025

    STEPHANIE MAHON is Editor of Gardens Illustrated and host of the Talking Gardens podcast. Twice winner of the Garden Journalist of the Year Award, she previously edited The English Garden magazine and the Society of Garden Designers’ Garden Design Journal. She is author of several books, including Wild Gardens: Inspired by Nature for the National Trust.

  • Thursday, October 2, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Sleepy Cat Farm, Part III – A Horticultural Perspective, Online

    Sleepy Cat Farm embodies the vision of Fred Landman who, since acquiring a Georgian Revival house and six acres of neglected grounds in Greenwich, CT, has transformed his property into a magical thirteen-acre landscape that serves as a testament to his belief in the harmony between house and garden. This four-part Virtual Program, which began with two episodes in the spring and summer, continues to explore the evolution of Fred’s vision from 1994 to today. It tells the story of how the talented architects, horticulturists and artisans he collaborates with have married landscape and architecture to create a series of highly personal sanctuaries. Fred delights in sharing these spaces with hundreds of visitors every year.

    The Garden Conservancy’s series on Sleepy Cat Farm resumes October 2 at 2 pm Eastern. Horticulturist Alan Gorkin discusses how his role in the garden expanded as the garden itself evolved. Alan came to Sleepy Cat Farm’s expanded greenhouses and vegetable gardens in 2008, after working at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Cranford Rose Garden, and as head grower and cutting garden supervisor for Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island. For a while he was the garden’s only full-time employee; a landscaping service managed the overall maintenance program. It wasn’t long before Fred Landman recognized that Alan’s talents could be utilized in a broader capacity. Fred put Alan in charge of a handpicked staff and oversight of the landscaping service and let Alan build on the bones of the garden that he and landscape architect Charles Stick created. Drawing partly on lessons from Charles and partly on his own horticultural expertise, Alan complemented the garden’s pathways, vistas and architecture with unique plantings until his retirement last year. His longtime contributions to the garden underlie much of Sleepy Cat Farm’s magical charm. 

    $5 for Garden Conservancy members. $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-sleepy-cat-farm-part-iii-10-2-2025. Note: You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. 

  • Thursday, September 25, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – A Garden Inferior to Few: The Williamsburg Garden of John Custis IV, Online

    John Custis IV, in addition to being a member of the political elite and the first father-in-law of Martha Washington, was the creator of one of the most renowned colonial gardens of the early eighteenth century. The four-acre garden was said to contain gravel paths, topiary, hundreds of native and imported plant varieties, and statues. While his correspondence with gardening luminaries such as Peter Collinson revealed much about the plants, the appearance and layout remained a mystery—until now. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation concluded a five-year archaeological excavation to uncover this important lost landscape. We will explore the evidence to discover the design for the garden, revealing a truly baroque layout.

    JACK GARY is Executive Director of Archaeology for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He leads a team of archaeologists, curators, and scholars to reveal the hidden stories of Williamsburg’s past. He is the former Director of Archaeology and Landscapes for Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest.

    The Garden Conservancy will present a webinar on September 25 at 2 pm with Jack Gary. Note: You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-john-custis-9-25-2025

  • Tuesday, September 9, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Back to the Land, a New Way of Life in the Country, Online

    The fall season of virtual programming from The Garden Conservancy begins September 9 at 2 pm Eastern. Pieter Estersohn will address the current pulse point of farming in the Hudson River Valley. He will speak about the diverse populations entering the field and the varied business models being introduced, or in many cases, reintroduced to the area by farmers who must exercise tactics based in being hyper-present in order to stay profitable within ethical parameters. Thirty-five farms will be covered, each offering insight into the challenges and rewards inherent in farming in 2025.

    PIETER ESTERSOHN is a photographer and author who has worked on over 60 books covering design, architecture, and now agriculture. He is on the Advisory Council with The Magazine Antiques and is a frequent contributor to The World of Interiors.

    Note: You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. $5 Conservancy members, $15 general public. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-back-to-the-land-9-9-2025

  • Saturday, August 16, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Hampden and Hampshire Counties Open Day

    The Garden Conservancy’s Hampden and Hampshire Counties Open Day will take place August 16.

    Rock Valley Paradise in Holyoke includes a small orchard of fifteen fruit trees—apples, peaches, plums, pears, apricots, and cherries. The berries include blueberries, goji berries, elderberries, raspberries and blackberries and black, red, and champagne currants. The ‘Concord’ grapes provide lots of juice for the winter months. Seasonally the owners grow all kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, eggplant, and all the other “regular veggies.” The homestead also boasts two dairy goats, a dozen chickens, and two hives of honey bees.

    Thayer Garden in Hadley is centered around a 1747 farmhouse and an 1884 barn, with phlox, iris, daylilies, peonies, lilacs, and wisteria.

    Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/garden-directory/open-days/

  • Saturday, September 13, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Digging Deeper: Gardening to Create an Insect Sanctuary

    Contrary to what many people have traditionally believed, insects are at the heart of a successful garden. This two acre garden in Lincoln, forty years in the making, has from the start considered attracting – and providing for – insects as key to a successful horticultural venture. Birds, mammals, amphibians -and humans- have been the ancillary beneficiaries of this endeavor. The Garden Conservancy will host this two hour Digging Deeper event on September 13 beginning at 10 am. Registrants will be sent the exact address. Visit https://gardenconservancy.org/garden-directory/open-days/digging-deeper-gardening-to-create-an-insect-sanctuary

    $30 Garden Conservancy Members | $40 General. Digging Deeper events sell out quickly so early registration is recommended.