Mary Panda, physical therapist and certified hand therapist, will explore proven ways to reduce the strain of gardening through proper tool use and body mechanics in this Tower Hill Botanic Garden course, to be held Saturday, April 16 beginning at 10 am at Tower Hill, 11 French Drive in Boylston. Tower Hill members $15, non members $25. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org or call 508-869-6111, ext 124.
Tower Hill Botanic Garden will host Ariella Chezar, author of The Flower Workshop, on Sunday, April 10 beginning at 1:30 for a talk, demonstration, and book signing. With experience designing flowers everywhere from the White House to the Flower Shool New York, Ariella, one of the nation’s top floral designers, will discuss and demonstrate her approach to seasonally-influenced floral design. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Martha Stewart Weddings, Sweet Paul Magazine, Modern Bride, Oprah Magazine, Garden Design, InStyle, and Town & Country. Tower Hill members $15, nonmembers $25.
Thomas Rainer presents a powerful alternative to traditional horticulture: designed plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities. He is a landscape architect, teacher and writer, and has designed landscapes for the US Capitol grounds, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and the New York Botanical Garden, Hear him speak on Saturday, April 9 at 1 pm at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston. A book signing will follow the talk. Tower Hill members $20, nonmembers $30. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.
Learn basic principles of sustainable, low-impact garden design with Jan Johnsen, author of Heaven is a Garden, on Saturday, April 2, from 1:30 – 3:30 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston. You will later explore how to adapt these principles for your own home. Tower Hill members $25, nonmembers $35. Register at www.towerhillbg.org or call 508-869-6111, ext. 124.
Mingle amidst internationally-acclaimed artist Patrick Dougherty’s striking Stickwork installation and enjoy a rustically elegant evening of signature cocktails, seasonal farm-to-table dinner, live music and auction, all under September’s spectacular Harvest Moon, at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Saturday, September 17. This special evening commemorates the 175th anniversary of the Worcester County Horticultural Society and the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Tower Hill Botanic Garden. We’ll celebrate the incredible vision the Society had for the 132 acre Carter farm in Boylston, and the Worcester County Horticultural Society’s 175 years of connecting people with plants. To receive your formal invitation visit www.towerhillbg.org/harvestmoon.
Tower Hill Botanic Garden is hosting a series of Meet the Chef cooking demonstrations at 11 French Drive in Boylston. Studies continue to show that farm to table is beneficial for taste, nutrition, the environment, and the local economy. That’s why Tower Hill staff invited some of the best area celebrity chefs for cooking demonstrations to offer visitors tips for cooking seasonally, tastings to get guests motivated, and inspiration to escape winter’s chill by visiting Tower Hill. The demonstrations include Bill Brady, the chef at Sonoma Restaurant in Princeton, on Saturday, March 26, at 2 p.m. The demonstration, which is included in the price of admission, has limited seating available on a first come, first served basis. For more information, please visit towerhillbg.org or call 508-869-6111.
Tower Hill Botanic Garden welcomes Page Dickey, editor of Outstanding American Gardens, on Sunday, February 21 from 1 – 2. This beautiful book showcases fifty stunning public and private gardens from coast to coast featured by the Garden Conservancy since 1989. Historic, modernist, traditional, cottage seaside, exotic, tropical, classic Southern, farmhouse, prison, organic and xeric – all are among the many types of gardens exquisitely photographed and described.
Page Dickey has been gardening passionately since her early twenties. She writes about gardening, garden design, and America’s gardens for House and Garden, House Beautiful, Horticulture, Elle Décor, Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and other publications. She is the author of several books, including Gardens in the Spirit of Place, Breaking Ground, and Inside Out. Her first book, Duck Hill Journal, and her most recent, Embroidered Ground, are about Duck Hill in New York, where she lived and gardened for thirty years. Page cofounded the Open Days program in 1995 and has served on the board of directors of the Garden Conservancy since 2004. She also serves on the boards of Stonecrop, Frank Cabot’s garden in Cold Spring, NY, and Hollister House Garden in Washington, CT.
To register for this event, please call Gayle Holland (508) 869-6111 x124 or email gholland@towerhillbg.org. THBG members $15, nonmembers $25.
Many of the gardens at Tower Hill have been purposefully designed to allow the professional staff a chance to paint a fresh scene, and create a new mood, each year with artful plant combinations. These annual and seasonal changes require all the skills that define the field of horticulture – the combination of the art and science of growing plants. It’s not enough to simply choose colors that look good together in the nursery in April – many other factors go into selecting combinations that will go from alluring in April to awe-inspiring in August. Spend an hour at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Sunday, February 14, beginning at 1 pm, with Horticulture Director Joann Vieira learning about where the horticulture team at Tower Hill derives their inspiration for fresh displays; how they balance the science of growing plants with the art of color and texture; and how space and time influence their choices.
To register for this event, please call Gayle Holland (508) 869-6111 x124 or email gholland@towerhillbg.org. Free with admission.
Banish the blahs and bring on the blooms! Join artist/illustrator Helen Byers for a weekend at Tower Hill Botanic Garden immersed in the colors and forms of spring flowers. The class will run February 13 and 14 from 10 – 4. Instruction will cover step-by-step techniques of detailed botanical painting in watercolor, including wet-into-wet for washes and dry-brush for texture. Returning and advanced students who prefer to draw in colored pencil will be welcome to do so. Daily painting demos and personalized instruction. Flowers will be provided, and a list of recommended supplies will be sent to registrants. To see galleries of Helen’s work and slideshows from her courses, visit www.helenbyers.com.
To register for this event, please call Gayle Holland (508) 869-6111 x124 or email gholland@towerhillbg.org. Pardon the inconvenience while Tower Hill updates its online transaction system. THBG members $120, nonmembers $140.
Individuals and Garden Club members display their floral arrangements based on the theme “The Poetry of Plants” at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, on Friday, February 12 through Sunday, February 14, from 9 – 5. Free with admission. For more information visit www.towerhillbg.org.
