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).
To register, and for a complete calendar of events, visit http://www.ackgardenfestival.org/
Widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost horticulturists, Armitage is a professor at the University of Georgia, Athens, where he teaches, conducts research on new garden plants, and runs the University of Georgia Horticulture Gardens. He is generally credited with creating the concept of the independent trial garden, the first one of which opened in Athens in 1982. He is the author of ten books, including Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens and Armitage’s Garden Annuals. He has been cited as one of the ten most influential people or organizations in the floriculture industry.
Armitage is not the only distinguished honoree. The Jackson Dawson Award will go to Pierre Bennerup, president of Sunny Border Nurseries, one of the leading producers of perennial plants for the northeast. Sunny Border, headquartered in Kensington, Connecticut, is known around the world for being on the cutting edge of new plant development. Pierre, the second generation Bennerup in the industry, is an integral part of the global horticulture community and has been instrumental in searching out new plants suitable for North American gardens.
Also to be honored is Holly Shimizu, Executive Director of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. Ms. Shimizu, who will receive the Thomas Roland Medal, has been responsible for the overall operation of the USBG for the past nine years and, under her leadership, the widely acclaimed new National Garden opened 2006. Ms. Shimizu is well known through her work as one of the hosts of The Victory Garden and as a frequent commentator on horticultural topics for National Public Radio.
been featured in Martha Stewart Living and on The Victory Garden. She has received the Connecticut Horticultural Society’s Gustav A.L. Melquist Award in 2002; the New England Wild Flower Society Kathryn S. Taylor Award in 2005 and 2006, and The Federated Garden Club of Connecticut’s Bronze Medal. 
Adrian Bloom starts things off by talking about the practical and inspirational factors for success in a garden. His thesis is that we all know that perennials and grasses have a changing role to play through the seasons but how often do we consider their placing and potential impact in combination with other plants? Elm Bank’s Bressingham Garden is a study in how to make the a garden’s impact greater than the sum total of its plants.
Award-willing author and garden designer Stephanie Cohen will focus on the autumn garden. The lushness of summer need not be followed by a whimper in the fall. Ms. Cohen will show examples of perennials and grasses that peak in autumn, berries and fruits, bark, and glorious color adorning trees and shrubs. You’ll walk away with an understanding that ‘Fallscaping’ ought to be a part of every garden’s design.
In the afternoon, horticulturalist Roger Swain will address the subject of garden tools. His view is that hand tools – the trowels, spades and other implements that extend our reach and power – may have evolved for evolution’s sake rather than for the benefit of the user. His presentation will be a tour through the evolution of familiar garden tools emphasizing the importance of matching not only the tool to the task, but fitting it to the user’s hand and body.
The day’s final speaker will be veteran nurseryman and MassHort executive director Joe Kunkel, who will speak on plant evaluations at Elm Bank. Commercial plant breeders from around the world send Elm Bank hundreds of cultivars for evaluation. Kunkel will highlight the plants that have stood out among their peers in the New England Trial Garden and the Bressingham Garden. He’ll talk about how homeowners can use regional trial gardens to narrow the list of attractive cultivars to a group that not only looks good in a pot at a garden center, but that will thrive in a back yard.