Public Programs and Education

2022 Season Recap

40,000 people participated in The Garden Conservancy’s programming in 2022! We held 300 Open Days, 29 Digging Deeper events, 18 webinars, 8 Garden Masters Series events, and 7 public lectures. Thank you for participating! Next year is measuring up to be just as exciting with new programs, partners, and regions.

2023 Winter Webinar Sneak Peek

Our 2023 Winter Webinar Series begins in January! The first webinar on January 12th will feature urban garden designer Jason Williams, aka “Cloud Gardener UK.” In his talk, Williams will share his personal story from garden neophyte to RHS Flower Show multi-medalist with three appearances on the BBC’s Gardener’s World, among other shows. It all began during lockdown two years ago when he started a balcony garden on the 18th floor of his apartment building in Manchester, England. Along the way, Williams built up a large online community who followed his progress on YouTube, Tiktock, and Instagram. This year, a replica of his garden, called the The Cirrus Garden, appeared in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and won a Silver Gilt Medal. This was followed by a Silver Medal for The Petit Nuage Garden at The RHS Tatton Park Flower Show. Motivating Williams is his mission to inspire a new generation of urban horticulturists and to show that gardens not only have mental health benefits but also have a direct impact on wildlife and biodiversity. Join Jason Williams at 2:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 12th. Registration, and the rest of the Winter Webinar Series lineup, will be published soon.

A New Original Series: Sissinghurst Through the Seasons

The Garden Conservancy is delighted to announce a virtual program in four parts in 2023, Sissinghurst Through the Seasons with Troy Scott Smith, the Head Gardener at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in England. Smith was our spring 2022 National Speaker and was so impressed by the response on his tour that he’s back to provide a deeper dive into his work in Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson’s famous private garden in Kent, now owned by the National Trust.

“In this series of talks, I will guide you through the course of a gardening year at Sissinghurst. I will share with you how the garden looks, which flowers are blooming at each season, and what it looked like during Sackville-West and Nicolson’s own time. I will show you how to get the best from your garden year-round, uncovering the secrets of pruning and propagation and discover the art of the English Garden. Each lecture will be packed with information, all simply explained and illustrated, and you will come away with techniques and confidence to put into practice in your own garden.” – Troy Scott Smith

Each virtual talk will be held on Zoom and will cost $5 for members ($15 for non-members). But if you register for all four lectures in advance, you’ll also receive video diary updates from Troy filmed on his walks through Sissinghurst’s grounds. The first talk will take place in March 2023. Registration will be announced early in the new year.

The Story Behind Colorado’s 2023 Open Days Comeback

Regional Ambassadors, both existing and new, have helped to expand the upcoming Open Days season. In the summer of 2021, Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator and Director of Outreach at Denver Botanic Gardens and longtime Open Days Regional Ambassador, contacted us about bringing the Open Days program back to Colorado. Open Days has a long history in Colorado, going back to 1998. However, the program hasn’t revisited the state since 2018. When we reached out to begin talking about the 2023 Open Days season, Panayoti’s enthusiastic “Would LOVE to talk!” sparked a full season for Open Days in Colorado, expanding beyond Denver and into Steamboat Springs and Fort Collins. This is just one of the incredible instances of Regional Ambassadors bringing new and engaging programming to the fore.

The Trustees will be Back!

Next summer, The Garden Conservancy and The Trustees of the Reservations will partner on Open Days in Massachusetts for a second year. The Trustees is one of the oldest land groups in the world with more than 27,000 acres of land. They also own a number of historic properties which they have recently transformed into horticultural destinations. On June 11, 2023, The Trustees will open Long Hill in Beverly, home to structured and naturalistic gardens, and Stevens-Coolidge in North Andover, whose bountiful gardens will showcase two contemporary sculptures. On July 30, The Trustees will open Naumkeag, a Gilded Age estate with eight acres of formal gardens, and Mission House, one of only three surviving Fletcher Steele masterworks open to the public.