Even in the temperate Northern climate it is possible to consider succulents as attractive outdoor additions to the home or formal garden. In this lecture, Harnek Singh will speak in the Far Barn at the Polly Hill Arboretum, 809 State Road in West Tisbury, on August 28 at 5:30 about his many years of creative design as a Horticulturist at Wave Hill in Riverdale, NY where he is the head of the Cactus/Succulent Greenhouse. He will share the details of what he looks for in plants before choosing them for seasonal succulent displays, including how leaf texture, color, maintenance needs, and propagation ease are carefully considered in these succulents and their companion plants. $10 for Polly Hill members, $20 for the general public. Registration is required: bit.ly/PHA-Succulent-Lecture
Saturated colors, intricate patterns, striking architecture: Umberto Pasti’s house and garden in Tangier is the ultimate example of a well-curated Moroccan villa. Set in a lush hillside garden filled with the native flora of northern Morocco, the house offers glimpses of the serene landscapes and fountains through windows, archways and loggias, as well as Pasti’s scholarly collection of tiles and rare textiles from Africa, the Middle East, and southern Europe.
In this Garden Conservancy online talk on May 4 at 2 pm Eastern time, writer Umberto Pasti and photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo will talk about their latest book, The House of a Lifetime and explore the subjects of Jbala Berbers, Northern Moroccan flora, and its influence on Moroccan art. $5 for Garden Conservancy members $15 for nonmembers. 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
Umberto Pasti graduated in philosophy of history in his native Milano. After traveling extensively in North Africa and the Middle East, nearly forty years ago he bought a place in Tangier. Now he lives between Milano, Tangier, and Rohuna, a small village on the Atlantic Coast of Northern Morocco. He is a writer, a gardener, and a garden designer. He has published several books, A House of a Lifetime, about his home in Tangier, is published in January 2023.
Ngoc Minh Ngo is a New York-based photographer and author of three books, Bringing Nature Home: Floral Arrangements Inspired by Nature; In Bloom: Creating and Living with Flowers, andEden Revisited: A Garden in Northern Morocco, all published by Rizzoli. Her work has been the subject of solo shows at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech and Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center in the Bronx, New York. Ngoc received the Land Place Spirit Award from Longhouse Reserve in 2022.
Join garden historian and author Dr. Toby Musgrave online on a ‘Grand Tour’ showcasing America’s great and inspiring gardens, revealing their diversity and richness, and exploring their contribution to global garden art.
We’ll explore a variety of gardens in a variety of locations and climates around the United States, each of which is open to the public and can be visited and experienced in person. From the eastern seaboard to the west coast; the cold, high Rockies to the tropical southeast; balmy California to hot, dry deserts; the warm, wet Pacific northwest to the Prairies and the cool northeast create the full spectrum of garden design possibilities. Ranging across historical periods and styles, we will visit well known (and lesser well-known) gardens around the country to reveal in broad terms the evolution of American garden design over time. Beginning with early Colonial gardens on the East Coast and Mission gardens in California, we will move on to English Landscape-style gardens and French Baroque influenced antebellum plantation gardens. As we move chronologically ahead, we will also study the opulence of the Beaux-Arts-inspired Country Place Era and how it evolved into the innovative “homegrown” styles such as Prairie Gardens. We will conclude with a look at modern and contemporary American garden design.
Gardens featured include: Colonial Williamsburg, San Diego Mission, Mount Vernon, Monticello, Middleton Place, Rosedown Plantation, Biltmore, Dumbarton Oaks, Filoli, Innisfree, Longwood, Naumkeag, the Huntington Library, Untermeyer, Wave Hill, Longue Vue, Casa del Herro, J Irwin House and Garden, El Novillero, Lotusland, Sunnylands, Chanticleer, Chase Garden, Getty Centre, Hollister House and Windcliff.
Led by an expert on gardens and garden history, Dr Toby Musgrave, this Context interactive seminar will showcase and celebrate America’s great and inspiring gardens. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased knowledge and understanding of America’s great garden heritage. $36.50. Register at www.contextlearning.com
Dumbarton Oaks (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Join horticulturist Harnek Singh at the Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury on July 24 at 5:30 pm for a photographic tour of the Flower Garden at Wave Hill, a private estate turned public garden located along the Hudson River in the Bronx. Harnek will speak about how he selects plants to cultivate for the Flower Garden, how he edits self-sowing plants, and how flower shape, leaf texture, and color are carefully considered for an optimal display. $10 for general public, $5 for PHA members.
Join the staff of Berkshire Botanical Garden for a special tour of Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. With a notable tree collection serving as the cornerstone of the landscape, Wave Hill consists of 13 designed garden areas on 28 acres. An aquatic garden hugged with tropical plants. A wild garden championed by William Robinson offers winding pathways and spectacular river views. A conservatory filled with ferns, bromeliads, rainforest cacti plus The Cactus and Succulent House which displays plump and spiny plants from arid regions of the world. And the Elliptical Garden featuring primarily native plants using a formal design pattern. This trip, a great way to spend a day with like-minded garden and art lovers, is not to be missed.
Coach bus leaves Berkshire Botanical Garden promptly at 8am. Dress for the weather: comfortable, sturdy footwear; warm, waterproof outerwear, umbrella. Bring a bag lunch (limited access to a garden cafe is available for those wishing to purchase lunch). $130 for BBG members, $150 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/annual-field-trip-serenity-hudson-wave-hill
Join the Berkshire Botanical Garden staff on Thursday May 22 for a day-long adventure to the southeast coast of Rhode Island to explore an extraordinary garden, nurseries and more. Sakonnet Garden, in Little Compton, RI, will be the featured visit of the day. This “exceptional American garden†(as quoted by Marco Polo Stufano, former Director of Wave Hill, and John Trexler, former Director of Tower Hill Botanic Garden) is a garden full of inspiration. Sakonnet is a secret garden embedded within a native coastal fields landscape. At the diminutive scale of a cottage garden, it is conceived of as an intimate place to explore, with multiple paths leading one onward to unexpected experiences.
Owners John Gywnne and Mikal Folcarelli will lead a tour of their property. First, consider a restored meadow managed for endangered bobolinks. Learn about the ecological theory behind the meadow’s management and hopefully spot one of these wonderful upland meadow birds. Then, explore the small walled garden, designed as a series of small garden rooms. Following the tour, Ed Bowen from Opus Nursery of Little Compton, RI, will be on hand to sell some of his great Zone 5 plants.
Enjoy a picnic lunch on the lawn—or wait—for the next stop! As we leave the coast, we will stop at the head of the Sakonnet River for a take-out order of fish ‘n’ chips (optional, of course). Enjoy this Rhode Island tradition at well known Evelyn’s Clam Shack (as seen on the Food Channel: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, hosted by Guy Fieri). The coastal scenery, including boats in the harbor, will be a special treat for us upland creatures. On the return trip we will detour into western Connecticut for a tour of the fabled greenhouses of Logee’s. In business since 1892, this series of five connected greenhouses holds an extensive collection of tropical, semi-tropical and tender perennial plants, as well as orchids, begonias, scented geraniums, citrus and so much more. The staff of Logee’s will give an introduction to the group, and participants can roam the greenhouses and purchase special plants to take home. Enjoy the hosting skills of the BBG staff, including a mid-morning snack and afternoon wine and cheese.
Dress for the weather, bring a bag lunch and wear comfortable, sturdy footwear. Those wishing to order the take-out meal of fish ‘n’ chips will be charged an additional $20. Coach bus leaves Berkshire Botanical Garden promptly at 7:30 am. If you wish to join the group in Rhode Island, call Elisabeth Cary at 413-298-3926, x 15. BBG members $100, nonmembers $120. Register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org.
Maureen Bovet presents the green side of the Big Apple to The Garden Club of the Back Bay on Wednesday, March 6, beginning at 10 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. This photo show explores the wonderful public parks of New York City. Maureen was born and raised in NYC and her passion for gardening began there. She offers a unique view of the green spaces available to be enjoyed by natives and visitors alike. The history and the horticulture of these parks are illustrated by beautiful slides from her collection. Included are Wave Hill, the garden at The Cloisters, Olmsted-designed Central Park, with its 70-year-old Conservatory Garden, the new High Line Park modeled on a Paris railroad bed reuse, The New York Botanical Garden, and Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan looking out at the Statue of Liberty. She will discuss garden design and plant cultivation along with the fascinating history of these parks. Maureen is a Museum Associate at the MFA on the Flower Team, a graduate of Wellesley College, and a former student at the Arnold Arboretum Landscape Institute and the UMass Green School. An optional lunch ($20) will follow the presentation. Free to GCBB and College Club members, $5 contribution requested from nonmembers. If you wish to attend, please email info@bostonflora.com to put your name on the list.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay opens its 2012/2013 program year focused on Gardens of America on Thursday, September 20, beginning at 10 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue. Join Adriana O’Sullivan for a spectacular armchair garden tour from Washington, DC to Mount Desert Island in Maine. This one-hour presentation focuses on some of the finest gardens the Northeast has to offer. Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C., designed by Beatrix Farrand between 1921 and 1941, Wave Hill Botanic Garden in The Bronx, Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate in Sleepy Hollow, NY (pictured below), the magnificent gardens at Old Westbury on Long Island, Edith Wharton’s estate ‘The Mount’, and Naumkeag in the Berkshire hills. In New Hampshire we visit the home and studio of Augustus Saint Gaudens and on Mount Desert Island in Maine we will see the Thuya Gardens, the Asticou Azalea Garden and the famous Abby Aldridge Rockefeller Garden. All gardens are a feast for the eye and all are open to the public. GC members will receive written notification. The public is invited, with a requested $5 donation, and may rsvp at info@bostonflora.com.
Join Pacific Horticulture Board member Greg Graves on a fabulous trip visiting riverside estates in New York, May 9 – 16, 2011. In New York City, see the Metropolitan Museum’s exquisite Cloister Garden, innovative community and pocket gardens, exciting new developments along the harbor, and attend a theater evening. Enjoy private guided visits to Wave Hill’s 28 acres of exuberant plantings overlooking the Hudson River, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Vanderbilt Mansion with spectacular views of Newport Harbor, Rockefeller’s lovely Kykuit Estate, and attend a special luncheon at the Culinary Institute. We have coveted invitations to private gardens designed by Richard Hartlage, and two artists’ gardens in the Hamptons; Madoo, Robert Dash’s ever-changing masterpiece, subject of his book, and Jack Larsen’s Longhouse Reserve, housing great sculpture and ethnic art.
Historic New England (www.historicnewengland.org) invites you to Castle Tucker, 2 Lee Street in Wiscasset, Maine on Sunday, July 18, from 3 to 4:30 pm, when author Martha McDowell explores the development of an American landscaping style from the formal plans of the eighteenth century to the elaborate designs of Victorian high style. The program is co-sponsored by the Maine Antiques Dealers’ Association.
Marta McDowell lives, writes and gardens in Chatham, New Jersey. She shares her garden with her husband, Kirke Bent, her crested cockatiel, Sydney, and approximately 30,000 honeybees. Her garden writing has appeared in popular publications such as Woman’s Day, Fine Gardening and The New York Times. Scholars and specialists have read her essays on American authors and their horticultural interests in the journals Hortus and Arnoldia.
Following the relationship between the pen and the trowel led Marta to the poet Emily Dickinson. Marta’s book, Emily Dickinson’s Gardens, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2005. If you visit the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts, you can stroll the grounds with a landscape audio tour that Marta scripted in 2007.
Marta teaches landscape history and preservation at the New York Botanical Garden and Drew University. She teaches gardening classes for the Chautauqua Institution. A popular lecturer on topics ranging from design history to plant combinations, she has been a featured speaker at locations ranging from Wave Hill to the Garden Club of Philadelphia and the Cummer Museum of Art in Jacksonville, Florida.
Marta’s latest gardening adventure was a six-month working holiday in England. She interned at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Rosemoor in Devon and at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London.
Her husband summed up Marta’s biography as “I am, therefore I dig.”
$5 for Members of Historic New England, $10 for non-Members. Pre-registration is recommended.
