From cough syrups to pine pollen pancakes and spruce tip salt, discover how common conifers can delight your taste buds and enhance your apothecary. Under herbalist Dawn Petter’s guidance and demonstration, you’ll learn how to craft a few remedies. This online New York Botanical Garden class will take place December 6 at 6:30 pm, and is $45 for NYBG members, $49 for nonmembers. Visit www.nybg.org to register and for a complete materials list to follow along,
Discover how urbanization is changing biodiversity, interspecies relationships, and even animal behavior, in the tri-state area and beyond. Liz Johnson, former manager of AMNH’s Metropolitan Biodiversity Program, will introduce you to the particular habitats found here, as well as which plants and animals are common to each. She’ll also reveal why certain species of flora and fauna (like the new genus of centipede she and K. Catley discovered in Central Park!) thrive in our highly altered, fragmented urban environment, and which do not, and what this means for our collective future.
This New York Botanical Garden class takes place online on three Mondays, November 8 – 22, from 6 – 8. NYBG members $125, nonmembers $139. Register HERE. The class will be repeated February 24 – March 10, 2022, so mark your calendars if the November sessions don’t work for you.
Enjoy drawing and painting in the company of others in a relaxed, supportive environment. Begin a new work of art, continue working on pieces already started, or simply refresh your drawing skills in this dedicated studio time. Explore a variety of techniques and mediums used in creating botanical art while the instructor provides individualized direction. All levels of experience are welcome! Obtain art materials you are familiar with and comfortable using: watercolor, graphite, or colored pencil.
This Mt. Cuba Center program takes place online from 10 – noon on five Thursdays: November 11 to December 16 (No class November 25) $149 for the series. Register at www.mtcubacenter.org
About the Instructor:
Margaret Saylor is the editor/designer of ASBA’s The Botanical Artist journal. She earned a Certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration, with distinction, from the NYBG.
Take inspiration from the woods as you create a rich, textural wreath for your home. Using a grapevine wreath as a base, you’ll add a variety of preserved botanical materials, including seed pods, mosses, flowers, fruits, and pine cones. This New York Botanical Garden workshop will take place online November 6 from 11 – 2. Registered students will receive log in instructions. Taught by Madeline Yanni, the fee is $95. Register at www.nybg.org.
In his latest book, The Nature of Oaks (Timber Press, March 2021), Doug Tallamy pays homage to a giant of the plant kingdom: the mighty oak tree. Oaks sustain a crucial and complex web of wildlife above ground, but are just as impressive underground, producing enormous root systems that make them champions of carbon sequestration, soil stabilization, and watershed management.
Join theNew York Botanical Garden for this November 2 webinar at 11 am, as Doug shares his signature how-to advice, including practical tips on how to plant and care for an oak, as well as information about the best oak species for your area. Doug Tallamy is Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. Tallamy is a prolific researcher and the author of many books, including Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape, Nature’s Best Hope, and his latest The Nature of Oaks.
Please note that registration will end 24 hours prior to this webinar. $15 NYBG members, $18 non-members. Register HERE
The NYBG’s 23rd Annual Landscape Design Portfolios Lecture Series continues on October 18 at 6:30 with an online talk by Michael Boucher on Enduring Landscapes. From the office he founded in Freeport, Maine in 1994, Michael has led project teams in the planning and design of landscapes at a variety of scales and architectural approaches for public and private universities, schools, parks, museums, and churches. He is also recognized for his outstanding works of residential landscape architecture, and this presentation will focus on several of these projects, including a Hamptons beach house, a hilltop residence on a steep promontory in Massachusetts, two projects in Colorado, a home that required a forest restoration, and a Telluride residence on a 100-acre meadow, and a desert residence in Phoenix. In each of these challenging settings, Boucher created simple and restrained designs that exhibit a timeless quality and unite each building with its site. After receiving an A.S. in Plant & Soil Technology and a B.S. in Environmental Design from UMass, Amherst, Michael Boucher, FASL A, received
his ML A from Harvard. A lecturer, teacher, and studio critic, he is also actively engaged in the community, including the Portland Society for Architecture and Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment. Registration fee for each lecture: $15/$18. Register for the series and receive a discount: 222L AN801AO | $39/$49
Register at www.nybg.org.
Mushrooms have been utilized for thousands of years for medicinal and edible purposes. John Michelotti, owner of Catskill Fungi, will show you how to cultivate gourmet mushrooms at home using safe and simple techniques. Using cardboard and coffee grounds, create your own oyster mushroom starter (Pleurotus ostreatus) to take home, while learning about the life cycles, characteristics, and medicinal and culinary properties of fungi.
John Michelotti is the owner of Catskill Fungi, empowering people through Fungi via outdoor guided mushroom classes, cultivation courses, educational talks, and home-made mushroom health supplements.
John is the President of the Mid-Hudson Mycological Association (MHMA), a member of COMA, PVMA, and North American Mycological Association (NA-MA). He has visited dozens of mushroom farms from small-scale farms to the largest operations in the country. He served on the Mushroom Advisory Panel for Certified Naturally Grown to help develop the standards for ecological practices in mushroom production. He has worked with Amazon Mycoren-weal Project to conduct research utilizing Fungi to remediate oil spills and other contaminants.
Please note, while participants are not expected to cook along with the demonstration, the materials list on the registration page explains what supplies you’ll want in the house so you can put what you’ve learned into action after class. $85. Register on the New York Botanical Garden website HERE. The class takes place online on August 30 from 10 – noon.
Don’t let a lack of sun cast a shadow on your garden! Find out which plants thrive in shady conditions while bringing charm and color. You’ll see how to expand your palette from reliable standards such as hosta, and plant for architectural and textural interest across the spectrum of trees, vines, shrubs, and perennials. Discover ways to improve issues that shade presents, so that you can cherish your shade as the calming treasure it is. This New York Botanical Garden online class will take place August 28 from 10:30 – 1:30, and is taught be Lorraine Ballato.
Lorraine Ballato, a Connecticut based horticulturist, wears many hats:lecturer, horticultural consultant, and garden writer/photographer. Her lectures, social media writings, magazine articles and photographs can be found in Connecticut Gardener, Edible Nutmeg, regional symposiums, flower shows, the Connecticut Master Gardener program and elsewhere. She has published two books: Successful Self Watering Containers: Converting Your Favorite Container to a Self-Waterer, and most recently, Success with Hydrangeas: A Gardener’s Guide.
$69. Registered students will receive login instructions. Register at New York Botanical Garden’s website.
Do you prefer simple and clean or wild and lush? Whatever your preference, learn to use basic principles of repetition, symmetry, and color theory to blend your beloved collection of houseplants into a unified design. In this New York Botanical Garden online course, we will discuss a broad palette of plants, how to mix and match them, and how to select the best pots or shelves to complement your decor. Daryl Beyers is the instructor, and the two session class begins August 26 and ends September 2, from 6 – 8. $85. Register HERE. Registered students will receive log in instructions.
NYBG’s Gardening Program Coordinator, Daryl Beyers, brings over 20 years’ experience designing residential gardens and private estates to NYBG. Daryl has gone from the self-described “the guy pushing the wheelbarrow” to the owner of his own design business and an accomplished garden writer. He’s a former editor at Fine Gardening, and his articles have been featured in HGTV Magazine and in Martha Stewart Living, where he also served as Contributing Editor.
Farms and edible gardens are popping up on rooftops across the country. But rooftop, terraces, and balcony spaces have their own unique challenges for soil maintenance, watering, crop management, installation, and more. Manager of NYBG’s Edible Academy Annie Novak, cofounder of America’s first fully landscaped green roof commercial vegetable farm and author of the 2016 bestseller The Rooftop Growing Guide, shows you how to make your rooftop garden thrive. From vegetable selection to pest control to composting, you’ll learn the basics of rooftop, terrace, and balcony growing, covering both container and green roof garden systems. The Rooftop Growing Guide: How to Transform Your Roof, by Annie Novak, is the required text. The New York Botanical Garden’s virtual course will be held every week on Tuesday starting August 17 and running through August 31, from 6:15 – 8:15. $125.00 – register HERE.
