A collaboration of gardeners, educators, designers and business leaders, the Nantucket Garden Festival highlights the unique and beautiful garden ecosystems on Nantucket and focuses on the importance of sustainability, conservation and gardening ethics for the long-term health of the island. 2026 marks the 17th anniversary of the Festival! Join us for a celebration of gardening through a host of educational workshops, exquisite garden tours, family activities and parties. View the schedule of events here: www.NantucketGardenFestival.org.
Nantucket Lighthouse School’s educational garden and greenhouse provide students with a living laboratory and a deeper connection to the natural world. Advised by the late Russell, Morash, Chair of Childhood Horticulture at Nantucket Lighthouse School, our weekly horticulture classes allow children to grow, experiment, observe, and learn—while also teaching them how to care for the environment.
Your support of the Nantucket Garden Festival, at any level, nurtures a year-round community of Nantucket Lighthouse School students who practice and model the spirit of sustainability every day.
To learn more about NGF26 sponsorship opportunities for individuals and businesses, please contact Nantucket Lighthouse School.
The Nantucket Garden Festival is delighted to welcome Ariella Chezar as this year’s featured floral design artist.
The Floral Design Workshop offers an inspiring, hands on experience as Ariella guides guests through her “farm-to-flower” philosophy and signature approach to creating arrangements that feel natural and expressive.
July 7 | 9:30am-11:30am Harvest Garden 163 Hummock Pond Road
The Nantucket Garden Festival is a celebration of the island’s natural beauty, featuring inspiring garden tours, engaging lectures, and vibrant floral demonstrations. Your sponsorship provides essential support for this beloved event and organization. Don’t miss this opportunity to join us in cultivating beauty and sustainability on Nantucket. Events include a Van Garden Tour with Greyson Keller, a Floral Design Workshop with Kelsey Day, an evening gathering with Todd Forrest, a Children’s Fairy Garden Workshop, ‘Sconset Walking Tour, and a Keynote Lecture and Luncheon with celebrity gardener Wambui Ippolito. For tickets and complete information visit https://www.ackgardenfestival.org/event-schedule
The 14th Annual Nantucket Garden Festival highlights the unique and beautiful garden ecosystems on Nantucket and focuses on the importance of sustainability, conservation and gardening ethics for the long-term health of the island. Scheduled for July 11th-13th, the festival celebrates gardening through creative lectures and workshops, exquisite garden tours, and children’s activities.
Presenters this year include New England based event designer and floral artist Tori Samuel. Also speaking are Nick and Allison McCullough. Based in Ohio, he and his team at McCullough’s Landscape & Nursery create and maintain plant-centric gardens in and around the Midwest that are both ecologically sensitive and family-forward. The Keynote Speaker is Roy Diblik. Inspired by the diversity of plants and their relationships in remnant prairies and woodlands, his design practice is placing plants together encouraging tight plant communities that live well with each other while pursuing compatible and thoughtful stewardship practices. Roy is co-owner of Northwind Perennial Farm located in Burlington, Wisconsin. He has been growing traditional and native perennials since 1978. His garden designs emphasize plant relationships to maintenance strategies and costs. Roy’s design and planting projects include the Louis Sullivan Arch for the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago and the lakeside plantings for the Oceanarium at the Shedd Aquarium and recently the perennial plantings for Scott Byron’s new garden design for the Chicago History Museum. His book The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden highlights his perennial gardening practice.
A collaboration of gardeners, educators, designers and business leaders, the Nantucket Garden Festival highlights the unique and beautiful garden ecosystems on Nantucket and focuses on the importance of sustainability, conservation and gardening ethics for the long-term health of the island. 2022 marks the 13th anniversary of the Festival! Join us for a celebration of gardening through a host of educational workshops, exquisite garden tours, family activities and parties. View the schedule of events here: www.NantucketGardenFestival.org.
The Keynote Presenter will be Kelly Norris, one of the leading horticulturists of his generation. An award winning author and plantsman, Kelly’s work in gardens has been featured in The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening, Garden Design and in numerous television, radio and digital media appearances. His passion for planting at the intersections of horticulture and ecology has culminated in a new book New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden from Cool Springs Press. Kelly also presents plants for Cottage Farms Direct on QVC and lectures widely to consumer and industry audiences. He is the former director of horticulture and education at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, where for 8 years he directed efforts in design, curation, programming, garden and facility management after serving as the owner’s representative to nearly $20 million in capital projects.
Other presenters include Meredith Hanson, a watercolor and acrylic artist, Hafsa Lewis, owner/founder of Hafsa and Co., a local floral design studio that “uses flowers to help businesses stand out”, Austin Eischeid, and independent garden design consultant based in Chicago, Chris Roddick, Head Arborist and Foreman of Grounds at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Rebecca McMackin, Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The Festival raises operating and scholarship funds for Nantucket Lighthouse School, and supports its horticulture curriculum. Nantucket Lighthouse School’s educational garden and greenhouse provides students with a living laboratory and a deeper connection to the natural world. With weekly horticulture classes, a program advised by long-time friend and Festival supporter, Russell Morash, students spend time in the garden and greenhouse planting, weeding, watering, observing and tending to their plants and beds.
As we are moving through these uncertain times, Nantucket Lighthouse School’s Board of Trustees has made the tough decision to postpone the 2020 Nantucket Garden Festival to July 13-15, 2021.
Tjeu are grateful that they will be able to offer the unparalleled line-up of events that was announced for this year next summer, and look forward to welcoming you then. They are thinking about you and your families and hope that you are all well and safe.
The line up will include keynote presenter Christin Geall. Christin Geall is a Canadian floral designer, writer, gardener, photographer, and author of the book Cultivated: Elements of Floral Style (Princeton Architectural Press, 2020). Trained in horticultural at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, she completed a BA in Environmental Studies & Anthropology and a MFA in nonfiction before becoming a gardening columnist for Gardenista, a professor, and designer. Through her company, Cultivated, she teaches floral design in the UK, US, and Canada. Her writing and floral work focuses on the intersections of nature, culture, and horticulture.
A second keynote presenter is Stephen Orr, the Editor-In-Chief of Better Homes and Gardens and Author of The New American Herbaland Tomorrow’s Garden. Orr will be joining us to explore the versatility of herbs in all their beauty and variety.
Orr has been a regularly featured gardening expert on “The CBS Early Show,” “The Martha Stewart Show,” and “The Today Show.” In addition he was a segment producer for the PBS television series “Cultivating Life” and edited two cookbooks by British author Sarah Raven for Rizzoli.
Orr is a featured speaker across the country for organizations such as The Garden Conservancy, The Garden Club of America, the Garden Writers Association, and a variety of national programs.
A third presenter, Jennifer Jewell is the creator/host of Cultivating Place, an award-winning public radio program & podcast on natural history and the human impulse to garden. Her first book, The Earth In Her Hands, 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants, centering women transforming horticulture around the world, is published by Timber Press.
Jewell’s writing and photography have been featured in publications including Gardens Illustrated, House & Garden, and Pacific Horticulture. From 2008 – 2016 Jewell created, wrote and hosted the weekly, regionally-focused In a North State Garden on North State Public Radio. From 2010 -2017 she worked as the curatorial assistant to the director and the curator of the native plant garden at Gateway Science Museum on the campus of CSU, Chico in Chico, CA.
Finally, Peggy Cornett is the Historic Gardener and Curator of Plants at Monticello and received the SGHS Flora Ann Bynum Medal for exemplary service in the garden history field and the Garden Club of America’s Zone VII Horticultural Commendation for Horticultural Expertise.
In addition to managing the historic plant collection, Cornett oversees educational programs at Monticello including the Garden and Grounds tour and the Garden Tasting Tours as well as natural history walks, lectures, and horticultural workshops throughout the year. She is the co-director of the Historic Landscape Institute, a unique one-week educational experience in the theory and practice of historic landscape hosted at Monticello.
Cornett also shares her knowledge in horticulture as a frequent guest on NPR and PBS. She also writes articles and lectures nationwide on vegetable gardens and historic plants.
The 11th Annual Nantucket Garden Festival highlights the unique and beautiful garden ecosystems on Nantucket and focuses on the importance of sustainability, conservation and gardening ethics for the long-term health of the island. Scheduled for July 16th-18th, the festival celebrates gardening through creative workshops, exquisite garden tours, children’s workshops, family activities and an opening night party. Register at http://www.ackgardenfestival.org/
Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch will speak, and Ed Bowen and Taylor Johnston of Issima will give a talk on The Cutting Garden Reimagined.
On Wednesday, July 17 from 6 – 9, the Garden Soiree ($175 before June 30, $225 thereafter) will be held at The Middle Brick, 95 Main Street, a benefit for the Nantucket Lighthouse School. The School is the venue for the three day Garden Marketplace. Five different garden tours are also planned. Buy your tickets now.
The 10th Annual Nantucket Garden Festival highlights the unique and beautiful garden ecosystems on Nantucket and focuses on the importance of sustainability, conservation and gardening ethics for the long-term health of the island. Scheduled for July 17th-19th, the festival celebrates gardening through creative workshops, exquisite garden tours, children’s workshops, family activities and an opening night party. The keynote speaker will be Thomas Rainer, Principal of Phyto Studio in Washington, DC. In a workshop entitled The Inspired Plantsmen: Nature-Inspired Approach to Plant Selection and Composition, Rainer, a leading voice in ecological landscape design, will discuss how plants fit together in nature and how to use this knowledge to create landscapes that are resilient, beautiful, and diverse. Both practical and inspiring, this talk will explore a synthesis of ecology and horticulture—resulting in an intentionally designed and managed plant community where population dynamics are encouraged within an aesthetic framework. Rainer’s workshop will take place on Wednesday, July 18th.
The Festival is also thrilled to be welcoming Jennie Love of Love ‘n Fresh Flowers to Nantucket for the Festival’s first-ever Celebrity Floral Design Workshop. This half-day event, hosted in the Nantucket Yacht Club’s Governor’s Room, will include six hours of hands-on design and instruction. Participants will leave with a bouquet and a centerpiece (an abundance of flowers!). All flowers used during the workshop are grown by Love at her organic, urban flower farm in Philadelphia. Owner and Creative Director at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers, Jennie Love is a trained horticulturist and life-long farmer. Jennie first began flower farming in 2007 and launched her thriving event design studio in 2009. A charismatic and passionate business woman, Jennie found her natural niche as a “farmer florist” for wedding and special event design, becoming a recognized leader in the local flower renaissance with her distinctively lush and textural creations. She has been prominently featured in major press, including the New York Times, for her farm-to-centerpiece efforts, as well as in numerous photo shoots, magazines, style blogs, and books. She was named one of the top wedding florists in the nation by Martha Stewart Weddings (Spring 2015 issue) and received a special In Season spread featuring her work in the Summer 2016 issue of the magazine. This workshop takes place Wednesday, July 18 from 9 – 3. ($1,000 if you register before June 30, $1,250 thereafter)
Jennie has led many design workshops and classes, including the sold-out Seasonal Bouquet Project workshops and several accredited classes for Longwood Gardens’ Floral Design Certificate program. Jennie is currently Vice President for the national Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers and writes a regular column for the Cut Flower Quarterly. More information about Love ‘n Fresh Flowers and Jennie are available at http://www.lovenfreshflowers.com.
On Tuesday from 9 – 11, join a Victory Garden Talk and Tour with Russell Morash, hosted by Russell and Marian Morash and sponsored by Johnny’s Selected Seeds ($85 before June 30, $100 thereafter). Also on Tuesday, from 10 – 12, is a floral arrangement workshop with Megan Soverino ($300/$350), and a Mommy & Me Garden Tea Party from 2 – 4 ($65/$75). If you prefer to be at the other end of the island, there will be two ‘Sconset Walking Garden Tours, one with Jenne Atherton from 2:30 – 4:30 and a second from 3 – 5 with Katie Hemingway (each $75/$85)
Wednesday brings a Lincoln Circle Walking tour with Julie Wood from 9 – 11 and a Lincoln Circle Walking Tour with Fabrizia Lu Macchiavelli from 9:30 – 11:30 ($75/$85). You may wish to participate in Fairy Gardens & Floral Crowns with Alana Cullen and Bee Shay from 10 – noon ($50/$60), and end the day with a Garden Soiree from 6 – 9 at Middle Brick ($150/$200).
Thursday features Monomoy and Polpis Garden Tours with Amy Pallenberg from 9 – 11 ($75/$85) and an Intimate Garden Talk and Lunch with Gordon Hayward at the Nantucket Culinary Center from noon – 2 ($200/$225). The Mommy & Me Garden Tea Party returns to the Nantucket Lighthouse School from 2 – 4 ($65/$75).
The 7th Annual Nantucket Garden Festival highlights the unique and beautiful garden ecosystems on Nantucket and focuses on the importance of sustainability, conservation and gardening ethics for the long-term health of the island. Scheduled for July 22nd & 23rd, the festival celebrates gardening through creative workshops, exquisite garden tours, children’s workshops, family activities and an opening night party. For a complete listing of walking tours, workshops, book signings, and teas, visit www.nantucketgardenfestival.org. Prices vary by event.
The Nantucket Garden Festival highlights the unique and beautiful garden ecosystems on Nantucket and focuses on the importance of sustainability, conservation and gardening ethics for the long-term health of the island. The 2014 Garden Festival will emphasize the evolution of the Nantucket garden.
Scheduled for July 23rd & 24th, the festival celebrates gardening through informative workshops, exquisite garden tours, children’s activities and an opening night party.
The Nantucket Garden Festival benefits Nantucket Lighthouse School, an independent day school serving island children, pre-school through 8th grade. Founded in 1999, Nantucket Lighthouse School provides a developmentally appropriate education that engages the whole child – head, heart, and hand. The concept for the Nantucket Garden Festival was born out of the Lighthouse School’s unique curriculum and organic garden, which provides an outdoor, hands-on classroom for acquiring skills in everything from language arts to science and mathematics.
The Festival kicks off a Wednesday, July 23 with a walking garden tour east of Main Street from 9 – 11, a plein air painting workshop from 9 – noon, a workshop in Fairy Garden Building from 10 – 12 (repeated Thursday,) and that night, from 6 – 9, A Garden Soiree, the opening night celebration, at the Middle Brick Garden, 95 Main Street. On Thursday, a walking garden tour from 9 – 11 covers gardens west of Main Street, a Printmaking Workshop with Bee Shay from 10 – 12, a Cisco Garden Bike Tour from 10 – 1, and from 3 – 5, a Moors End Farm Tour and CSA talk. All events are separately priced. For complete information visit http://nantucketgardenfestival.net/eventschedule/.
