The Catalog
A Note from the President and CEO
After seven years of leading the Garden Conservancy, I still enjoy going out on summer weekends to meet people who are experiencing our public programs. The Garden Conservancy is both an advocate for garden preservation and an organization that hosts a growing roster of amazing activities that promote the joy of gardening. It is the mix of advocacy and events focused on the history and culture of American gardens that I find irresistible. Our Summer/Fall Catalog has something for everyone. I look forward to seeing you out there.
With deep gratitude,
James Brayton Hall President and CEO
OUR MISSION
The mission of the Garden Conservancy is to preserve, share, and celebrate America’s gardens and diverse gardening traditions for the education and inspiration of the public.
The Garden Conservancy educational programs are made possible in part by:
The Coleman and Susan Burke Distinguished Lecture Fund
Courtnay and Terrence Daniels
The Lenhardt Education Fund
Susan and William McKinley
Additional support is provided by:
The Celia Hegyi Matching Challenge Grant
Ritchie Battle
The Antonia Breck Fund
Camille Butrus
Michelle and Perry Griffith
Rise S. Johnson
The Krehbiel Family Foundation
Sleepy Cat Farm Foundation
John S. Troy, FASLA
OUR VISION
The Garden Conservancy will be the champion and steward of the vital role gardens play in America’s history, culture, and quality of life.
The Garden Conservancy’s Summer/Fall Season
Public programming was not always a formal aspect of the Garden Conservancy’s mission, but it quickly became a natural extension of our work. A recently discovered early speech by our founder, Frank Cabot, makes this point clear. Cabot envisioned the Conservancy not only transforming private gardens into public spaces nationwide, but also fostering “garden visiting” as a popular national pastime.
This vision began with our Open Days program and expanded to include Digging Deeper and Garden Master Series educational events, as well as our National Speakers Tour. Most recently, we have added Virtual Programs to our offerings. We continue to fulfill Cabot’s vision in innovative and ever-evolving ways and invite you to explore our exciting late-season offerings!
Looking forward to seeing you online and in the garden.
H. Horatio Joyce, PhD Director of Public Programs & Education
Cover: Detail of Digitalis, an evening dress by Mary Katrantzou, Spring/Summer 2018, featured in Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Virtual Program on page 8. Photo: Rhododendrites; licensed under CC BY 4.0
Left: Taliesin West Photo: Andrew Pielage
Advance registration is required for these programs. Space is limited; sign up today!
Visit gardenconservancy.org for more detailed event descriptions and to register online. Additional programs will be added during the year.
You may also register by calling The Garden Conservancy at 845.424.6500 (Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern)
Scan code to view gardenconservancy.org/education
Explore Our Offerings
Be sure to check gardenconservancy.org for the most current information and latest additions to our educational offerings, including Open Days, our signature garden-visiting program.
NATIONAL SPEAKING TOUR I PAGE 5
The partners of Hollander Design Landscape Architects are making stops in the Midwest and West Coast.
VIRTUAL PROGRAMS I PAGE 7
Join online webinars with thinkers and authors from across the world of gardening and beyond.
DIGGING DEEPER I PAGE 15
Digging Deeper events bring together intimate groups for unique and, in most cases, site-specific garden experiences from our Open Days program.
GARDEN MASTERS SERIES I PAGE 23
The Garden Masters Series offers in-depth study programs that bring garden enthusiasts together in exclusive and significant landscapes with innovative thought leaders in horticulture and design.
Designer Lauren Springer’s home garden in Fort Collins, CO. See the Virtual Program on page 13. Photo: Claire Takacs
National Speaking Tour
Hollander Design Landscape Architects
The Landscape of Home
Thursday, September 26 I 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO
Geoff Valentino and Stephen Eich will speak at Missouri Botanical Garden
Thursday, October 17 I 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Filoli Historic House & Museum, Woodside, CA
Edmund Hollander will speak at Filoli
$45 Members I $55 General
The partners of Hollander Design explore the idea of home as the natural surroundings that people live in; a place of living, changing beauty, and joy, where family and friends gather to create a lifetime of memories. Based on the new book, The Landscape of Home, the discussion will focus on the firm’s work, process, and how they create a rich diversity of landscapes for homes, from country estates to rooftop gardens. They will discuss essential elements in the firm’s work; the importance of the procession of entry to a house, as well as its context in the landscape; the positioning of plant life and trees; the way people move into and through a property; and the way a garden looks and changes through the seasons.
Within each project are a striking variety of components — outdoor rooms for living and lounging, including ocean-side hearths, infinity pools, and verdant dining spaces, as well as pollinator gardens, naturalistic meadows, and tranquil allées. The talk features exceptional photography that captures moments large and small, from views of winding pathways to a vine-covered arbor and butterfly gardens at dawn.
Edmund Hollander is President of Hollander Design Landscape Architects, one of few landscape architecture firms ever included in Architectural Digest’s AD100 List of Top Architects & Designers. Hollander has celebrated projects in the Hamptons, Palm Beach, and throughout the West, and has created urban landscapes in New York City, and recently embarked on a large venture in Taiwan. In each environment, Hollander design is committed to creating healthy landscapes, including earth-friendly planting strategies and prioritizing the native or vernacular landscape to create aesthetically beautiful gardens and landscapes that protect and preserve the future of their surrounding environment.
Geoff Valentino is the director of Hollander Design’s Chicago office. With twenty years of experience in landscape architecture, Geoff leads his team in a wide variety of projects, from large-scale estates and civic campuses to intimate rooftop gardens and urban parks. Since joining the firm in 2011, Geoff has played an integral role in the firm’s growth. Under his direction, the Chicago studio has both residential and commercial projects in nearly every geography covered by the firm, from across the continental United States to the Caribbean, Europe, and China.
Stephen Eich leads Hollander Design’s Urban Studio, which oversees the design, development and construction of the firm’s city-based projects ranging in type and scale from residential terraces to corporate headquarters and public plazas. Since joining the firm in 2010, Stephen has overseen design and management of some of the firm’s most highly publicized and notable projects in New York City and abroad. Recent award-winning projects include 11 Hoyt Street, a residential tower and public plaza in Downtown Brooklyn, and the luxury residences at The Belnord, which won accolades from Architectural Digest and a Stanford White Award from the ICAA.
Left to right: Geoff Valentino, Edmund Hollander, Melissa Reavis, and Stephen Eich.
Registration Information
Advance registration is required for these programs. Space is limited; sign up today!
Visit gardenconservancy.org for more detailed event descriptions and to register online. Additional programs will be added during the year.
You may also register by calling The Garden Conservancy at 845.424.6500
(Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern)
Scan code to view gardenconservancy.org/education
Virtual Programs
Expand your gardening horizons and connect with a passionate community— all from the comfort of your own home.
Sleeping Beauties at the Met Museum
Dominic Leong
Thursday, August 22 I 2 p.m. Eastern $5 Members I $15 General
In May, the Met Gala marked the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Costume Institute exhibition Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. In this webinar, Dominic Leong, the founding partner of Leong Leong, the architectural firm behind the exhibition design, will present the exhibition design concept and process. The exhibition reawakens the Costume Institute’s archive through the senses and is united through the theme of nature. With a series of multi-sensory activations, the exhibition draws on the concepts of a garden and a scientific laboratory as two contrasting environments that shape our relationship to nature.
Leong Leong’s projects are situated at the intersection of art and living to build regenerative worlds. For this program, Dominic will also discuss notable projects including the Anita May Rosenstein LGBTQ Campus, Hancock Park House, and Hawai’i Nonlinear. These projects will demonstrate the firm’s approach to an expanded concept of the garden and their commitment to designing for regenerative ecosystems.
DOMINIC LEONG is a founding partner at Leong Leong, an internationally recognized architecture studio based in New York. He focuses on architecture as an aesthetic, social, and ecological practice. The studio collaborates with diverse partners to advance social agendas within the built environment. Dominic is also a co-founder and current advisor to Hawai’i Nonlinear, a Honolulu-based nonprofit that supports grassroots ‘āina (Land/That Which Feeds) movements through Native innovation, storytelling, and creative design. He has held invited academic appointments at Columbia University, MIT, and Cooper Union, and is the 2024 Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale School of Architecture.
Photo: Naho Kubota
Photo: Naho Kubota
Taliesin West, the Desert Laboratory
Thursday, September 12 I 2 p.m. Eastern $5 Members I $15 General
In 2023, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation commissioned the integrated design practice at Sasaki to complete a new master plan of Taliesin West, the former home and studio of architect Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale, AZ. In this conversation between Sasaki landscape architects and senior staff from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the history of the site will be discussed along with the impetus and aims of the project and broader lessons for everyone who cares about landscapes.
Taliesin West embodies Wright’s principles of organic architecture blending harmoniously with the surrounding landscape. The Sonoran Desert surrounding Taliesin West is an integral component of its design and plays a crucial role in the site’s development and sustainability; it is also one of the most biologically diverse deserts in the world, home to many distinct species of flora and fauna adapted to survive in its harsh and arid conditions. The buildings and landscapes face new challenges from climate change, invasive species, and development. The new master plan by Sasaki will respect the site’s heritage while considering contemporary developments in ecology and sustainability, allowing the site to remain a resilient and alluring destination for visitors seeking horticulture and culture alike.
SUSANNAH C. DRAKE, FASLA FAIA, is a Principal at Sasaki and founder of DLANDstudio. She lectures globally about resilient urban design and has taught at leading design schools including Harvard, Cooper Union, and Illinois Institute of Technology. She received the 2020 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Climate Action and her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
STUART GRAFF began studying Frank Lloyd Wright’s work more than fifty years ago, sustaining a lifelong passion for the work of America’s greatest architect. Since 2016, as the President and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, he has stewarded one of the world’s great cultural legacies to ensure its relevance for our time and for the future: teaching us how to build and live better, as one with the world around us.
JENNIFER GRAY, PhD, is the Director of the Taliesin Institute at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. She is an architectural historian and curator with a focus on modern architecture, landscape, and social politics. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.
ANDREW SELL is a Senior Associate Ecologist and Landscape Architect at Sasaki specializing in landscape restoration and ecological design for a changing climate. Before joining Sasaki in 2017, Andy practiced environmental education and ecological restoration at Glacier National Park, Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum.
Courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Photos: Andrew Pielage
Right: Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AZ. Photo: Andrew Pielage
The Garden Politic in Nineteenth-Century America
Mary Kuhn
Thursday, October 3 I 2 p.m. Eastern
$5 Members I $15 General
This program appeared in the 2024 Spring/Summer Catalog and has been rescheduled for October 3.
How did ordinary home gardeners in nineteenth-century America perceive their gardens as tied to the fates of the nation and the world? This webinar event explores how caring for plants brought these gardeners face-to-face with the greatest political issues of the day: colonialism, conquest, slavery, and democracy. It focuses on a selection of gardeners who were also famous writers—including Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Frederick Douglass—and shows how their homes and gardens were important places for broader environmental thinking. This talk draws on research from Mary Kuhn’s new book, The Garden Politic: Global Plants and Botanical Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century America.
MARY KUHN is an assistant professor of English at the University of Virginia. She is the author of The Garden Politic and many articles on the relationship between people, plants, and politics. At UVA, she routinely teaches courses in nineteenth-century literary studies, environmental literature, and the environmental humanities.
Drawing from Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward’s On the Growth of Plants in Closely-Glazed Cases, 1852. Image from J. Veitch & Sons’ seed catalog
Visionary: Gardens and Landscapes for Our Future
Claire Takacs and Giacomo Guzzon
Thursday, October 31 I 2 p.m. Eastern
$5 Members I $15 General
Photographer Claire Takacs and landscape architect and planting design expert Giacomo Guzzon will present their new book, Visionary: Gardens and Landscapes for Our Future. They will share stunning imagery and discuss key themes and findings, highlighting a selection of the book’s eighty gardens and public landscapes from around the world. These featured spaces showcase innovative, inspiring, and beautiful ways to work with our changing climate across diverse scales, climates, applications, and budgets.
CLAIRE TAKACS is a multi-awardwinning photographer who, for the last twenty years, has specialized in capturing the world’s best and most beautiful gardens and landscapes. Her work is defined by her use of light and her ability to capture defining moments in gardens, revealing their essence and excellence in design and planting. Her work features regularly in leading international magazines and books.
GIACOMO GUZZON is a landscape architect who also lectures in planting design at the University of Greenwich, University of Sheffield, and the KLC School of Design in London. He is a principal landscape architect and head of planting design at the international landscape architecture firm Gillespies in London. Giacomo contributes to a variety of international conferences and publications. He has lectured in Hong Kong, the United States, and Europe.
Garden in Ibiza, Spain. Photo: Juan Masedospain
Gardening, A Love Story: Creating Brush Hill
Barbara Paul Robinson
Thursday, November 14 I 2 p.m. Eastern
$5 Members I $15 General
Longtime Open Days Garden Host Barbara Paul Robinson will discuss her new book, Creating Brush Hill, the love story of Barbara and her husband, Charlie, and the garden they created together over five decades. Narrated by Barbara, it is the story of how two people of quite different temperaments and skills worked to create a place of great beauty. Brush Hill covers over ten acres of gardens, all created and tended by Barbara, as well as several garden features built by Charlie. Each year visitors and tour groups from near and far are welcome. Barbara makes clear that while they were busy creating this magical garden, the garden was working its magic on them. Full of wonders and frustrations of the garden, this delightful tale will appeal to serious gardeners, want-to-be-gardeners, and non-gardeners alike. Their ongoing love story offers inspiration, encouragement, honest and funny tales of garden mistakes and the demanding work that a garden entails, along with the garden’s many joys.
During a sabbatical from the leading international law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton, where she was the first woman partner, BARBARA PAUL ROBINSON worked as a gardener for Rosemary Verey at Barnsley House, then for Penelope Hobhouse at Tintinhull. She credits those life transforming experiences with returning to become President of the New York City Bar Association, the first woman to serve in the position since its founding in 1870.
The Serge Hill Project
Sue and Tom Stuart-Smith
Thursday, December 12 I 2 p.m. Eastern $5 Members I $15 General
The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity, and Health was set up in 2021 by the wife-and-husband team of Sue and Tom Stuart-Smith. Based in an old orchard in Hertfordshire, England, the project draws on Sue’s work as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, and Tom’s horticultural expertise as an internationally renowned landscape architect.
This program will explore how the idea for Serge Hill developed from an old orchard near their home into a not-for-profit initiative based on the understanding that working with nature can radically transform people’s health and well-being. They will explain how the programs and educational resources at Serge Hill are engaging those in the community who have the least opportunity to access the natural world.
SUE STUART-SMITH is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and author of The Well Gardened Mind, which analyses the relationship between gardening and mental health. She was the Garden Conservancy’s National Speaker in Spring 2023. Sue studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge before qualifying as a doctor and working in the National Health Service for many years, becoming the lead clinician for psychotherapy in Hertfordshire.
TOM STUART-SMITH is a landscape architect who works on a wide range of projects, from small private gardens to large parks. In 2024, he designed a garden for the National Garden Scheme at the Chelsea Flower Show and won his ninth gold medal. He runs a design studio with a team of twenty from next to his home in Hertfordshire. He is a trustee of the Garden Museum and was awarded an OBE in 2023. He is a Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society.
Orchard Barn and Plant Library, Hertfordshire, UK. Photo: Jiaji Wu
We celebrate the diversity of America’s gardens and gardening traditions through the Open Days program. We invite you to share your garden as a Garden Host.
Contact our office at opendays@gardenconservancy.org to begin your journey as a Garden Host. Want
We are always on the lookout for gardens throughout the United States that highlight exceptional design and smart ways to garden. Gardens take many forms—from beautiful estates, to small farms combining form and function, to tiny backyard jewel-box gardens—all are welcome! •
Apples growing at Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens in Stone Ridge, NY.
Digging Deeper
Go beyond the blooms and delve into the fascinating world of gardening with informative talks and hands-on-workshops covering a wide range of topics.
Urban Pollinator Gardening
Becky Ramskogler
Saturday, August 10 I 2 p.m.
Becky’s Wild and Wonderful Garden I Akron, OH
$30 Members I $40 General
Immerse yourself in a thriving pollinator garden! Master Gardener Becky Ramskogler will guide you through a vibrant display of native wildflowers, exotic tropicals, and even delicious vegetables. Discover how this compact space provides a haven for a stunning diversity of pollinators with food and shelter. Learn valuable tips and tricks to create your own pollinator haven at home, no matter the size of your garden!
Discover the Magic of the Cedarburg Bog
See gardenconservancy.org/education for specific guide information
Sunday, August 11 I 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
The Cedarburg Bog I Saukville, WI
$35 Members I $40 General
The Cedarburg Bog, a Wisconsin State Natural Area and National Natural Landmark, is a unique and diverse ecosystem. Among its wonders, it contains the southernmost string bog in North America. See what makes the Cedarburg Bog so special by walking with a trained naturalist on the University Trail, a boardwalk only available to guided visitors. This 1.5-mile, round-trip journey takes you deep into the Bog with opportunities to discover many of its treasures, including carnivorous plants and many native species of plants and birds that are on the southern edge of their range. The morning guide, Jim Reinartz, has worked in and studied the Bog for forty-four years. The guide for the afternoon tour, Kate Redmond, is a noted nature photographer and educator and is known as the Bug Lady for, among other things, her column Bug of the Week which can be found on the University of Maryland website.
Landscaping for Wildlife — Gardening with a Purpose
Michael Nerrie
Sunday, August 11 I 3 p.m
Distant Hill Gardens — Garden of Michael and Kathy Nerrie I Walpole, NH
$30 Members I $40 General
Join Michael Nerrie, the designer and builder of Distant Hill Gardens, for a tour of the gardens to discuss ways you can design your landscape to attract wildlife to your own garden, including birds, pollinators, and beneficial insects. You’ll learn about native versus non-native plants, straight native species versus native cultivars, some of the best plants to attract wildlife, and some tips and tricks to help you increase the biodiversity of your property.
“Biological diversity is the key to the maintenance of the world as we know it.” — E.O. Wilson
The History of Greenwood Gardens
Saturday, September 7 I 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Greenwood Gardens I Short Hills, NJ
$30 Members I $40 General
In 2003, Peter P. Blanchard III and his wife, Sofia, set out to fulfill the wishes of Peter’s late father by turning the former private estate into a public garden, conserving it for posterity in the process. This Digging Deeper program at Greenwood will provide a narrated slide presentation, From Pleasant Days to Greenwood, a Century of Change in the Garden, followed by a one-hour guided walking tour of the grounds led by volunteer docents who will share details of the site’s history, landscape, and architecture.
Late Summer on Long Island
Loren Skeist
Saturday, September 7 I 4 p.m.
Entwood Garden I Bridgehampton, NY
$30 Members I $40 General
The late summer on the eastern end of Long Island is magical, and Entwood Garden showcases a variety of late summer to early autumn-blooming trees and shrubs. Join us for a tour of this garden, highlighting Entwood Garden’s spectacular collection of late-season trees including the Heptacodium (the seven-son flower), clethra, and late (or re-blooming!) varieties of spring favorites such as rhododendron and azaleas.
Diversity on a Cut Flower Farm
Karin and Dennis Skalla
Saturday, September 7 I 2 p.m.
Glenerie Farm I Saugerties, NY
$30 Members I $40 General
Glenerie Farm, started in 2012, has sold specialty cut flowers to their community since 2019. Learn how owners Karin and Dennis Skalla have navigated different enterprises, balancing the promises of permaculture techniques with the realities of a small scale, diversified farm. Discover the processes which best support all aspects of life on the farm, from its flowers to its livestock, to the native flora and fauna. Hear from these farmers how they continue to improve the health of the land they steward while growing a wide variety of flowers for wholesale and retail sale.
Dynamic Successional Mosaic Landscape
David Nyzio
Saturday, September 7 I 10 a.m.
David Nyzio’s Garden I Stone Ridge, NY
$30 Members I $40 General
Prioritizing the reintroduction of native plants and the removal of problematic species, this landscape project eschews the typical gardening practices of weeding, watering, mulching, and thinning. Instead, this project focuses solely on mowing management. Tilling the soil, while tempting, exposes a seed bank of undesirable plants, making it a less desirable option. Once the plants are established, mowing frequency and pattern become the primary tools for managing the landscape. Different plant species have varying needs and respond differently to mowing pressure. The goal is to foster a diverse plant and animal community that becomes increasingly stable over time, requiring less intensive invasive species removal.
Extending the Season with Flowers, Foliage, and Fruit
Kristi Stromberg Wright, Horticulturist, and Alan Gorkin, Head Gardener
Saturday, September 14 I 4 p.m.
Sleepy Cat Farm I Greenwich, CT
$60 Members I $75 General
Join Sleepy Cat Farm’s gardeners for a fall tour of the garden with an in-depth look at plants that extend the beauty of the season. We will discuss plants with late summer or fall blooms, striking fall foliage, late season fruit, and winter interest during the tour.
Bees, Bees, Bees!
Cindy Shumate and Gabriele Kallenborn
Saturday, September 14 I 10 a.m.
Prospect Gardens Westport I Westport, CT
$30 Members I $40 General
Did you know some bees live less than forty days, visit at least one thousand flowers, and produce less than a teaspoon of honey, but for them it is the work of a lifetime? Gabriele Kallenborn has been beekeeping for over twenty years and has started more than thirty hive communities in the Fairfield County area. During this session she will talk through a year of a bee’s lifetime, including raising young bees, their reproduction cycle, and how she winters them over. She will also show how the interior of a hive is set up and explain feeding. Gabriele tends to six to seven hives at Prospect Gardens which produce an annual honey harvest of about seventy-five pounds. Meet Gabriele at the beehives in the Wildflower Meadow for this session.
Kathy Landman
Sharing Your Garden as a Community Garden
Katherine Brown
Saturday, September 14 I 4 p.m.
Sycamore Farm Community Garden I Providence, RI
$30 Members I $40 General
Thinking about starting a community garden on your property? Join Katherine Brown for a lively, informal discussion of some of the wonderful benefits that are possible. We’ll also talk frankly about some challenges. You’ll learn tips for designing beds and other garden features to accommodate gardeners; organizing clean-up work parties and other community-building events; clarifying authority and responsibilities; crafting agreements; fees; handling conflicts; liability questions, etc. A resource list with links to online information will be provided.
Fall Blooming Flowers
Hilary Clayton
Saturday, September 21 I 3 p.m.
The Hay, Honey Farm I Far Hills, NJ
$30 Members I $40 General
Extend the season with fall blooming flowers! This tour will discuss fall-blooming flowers that are hardy to zone 5b/6 for blooms in late September and October (and occasionally even November!).
Discovering Blithewood: Guided Garden and Arboretum Tour
Friends of Blithewood Garden
Saturday, September 21 I 10 a.m.
Blithewood Garden I Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
$30 Members I $40 General
Join us for a delightful experience exploring the grounds of the Blithewood Estate on Bard College campus. This guided outdoor tour will provide an immersive experience of the landscape of Blithewood Garden. Learn about historic and current plantings, garden architecture and its current rehabilitation project, and what’s in bloom. Enjoy the natural splendor of the grand landscape overlooking the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains from a restored historic viewpoint. The Friends of Blithewood Garden will provide the tour. All proceeds from this event will support the rehabilitation of Blithewood Garden.
Tour
of Missouri Botanical Garden’s Oertli
Family Hardy Plant Nursery
Derek Lyle, Nursery Senior Manager
Tuesday, September 24 I 10 a.m.
Missouri Botanical Garden I St. Louis, MO
$30 Members I $40 General
Where did the Botanical Garden start the plants for the new Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center? The Oertli Family Hardy Plant Nursery produces hardy herbaceous perennials and woody plants that you see in the Garden’s new gardens around the Taylor Visitor Center and across the Garden grounds while also supporting the Garden’s research and conservation efforts. Explore this six-acre nursery and modern greenhouses with the Garden’s Senior Nursery Manager, Derek Lyle.
Living Works of Art
Mathew McGrath, Artist and Founder at Farallon Gardens
Saturday, October 12 I 5 p.m.
Home Garden and Studio of Mathew McGrath I Rodeo, CA
$30 Members I $40 General
As a landscape designer and artist, Mat McGrath’s home garden is a constantly evolving, living painting and sculpture garden. The owners collect found objects and salvaged materials to create sculptures set within the garden context. Learn how to incorporate beautiful, unconventional pieces to create works of art and sculpture for your garden.
Blooming Prairie: A Fall Tour of Sustainable Flower Farming at Cassiopeia Farm
Samantha Eberhardt, Texas Master Naturalist, and Daniel Poole
Saturday, October 12 I 10 a.m.
Cassiopeia Farm I Austin, TX
$30 Members I $40 General
At Cassiopeia Farm, Samantha Eberhardt and Daniel Poole weave a spirit of land stewardship into the world of cut flower farming on their ten acres of the Blackland Prairie ecoregion. Unique in the floriculture industry, the farm grows many native Texas flowers, grasses, and shrubs, which brings local character to their floral arrangements and bouquets while providing valuable ecosystem services. Learn more about sustainable flower farming practices; the challenges and rewards of growing native plants as cut flowers; and the unique history of cultivating this land on this tour.
Tom Incrocci
Unusual Edibles: Treasures for Garden and Table
Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano
Saturday, October 19 I 11 a.m.
Hortus Arboretum & Botanical Gardens I Stone Ridge, NY
$30 Members I $40 General
Prepare to get inspired (and hungry) while learning to surround your home and grace your table with rare and beautiful fruits and nuts. Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano are both botanical artists who moved to the Catskill Mountains twenty-four years ago. Their interests have expanded well beyond paper and canvas, and they now garden all year long at Hortus, a nonprofit, accredited botanical garden and arboretum. Trying plants from around the globe, their goal is to create a “living textbook” of plant life, particularly edibles, that can be grown in New York’s Hudson Valley. These range from hardy citrus to ancient medlars, new types of quinces that can be eaten raw, and many unusual berries and nuts. Allyson and Scott are passionate about sharing their expertise and this walking tour will be filled with practical tips to ensure you can enjoy such a bounty, too. Refreshments featuring some of these choice edibles will be served.
Find Your Home in Nature
Andrea Hurd, Founder and General Manager at Mariposa
Saturday, October 19 I 4 p.m.
Berkeley Pollinator Playground I Berkeley, CA
$30 Members I $40 General
Mariposa designs gardens that nurture the lives of birds, butterflies, and bees. They believe in working collaboratively with nature and fostering life throughout the soil and above. Their designs prioritize both visual appeal and creating a rich ecological environment. Mariposa’s goal is to cultivate a connection with the natural world for all their clients. By following these principles in your garden design, construction, and maintenance, you can significantly reduce or even eliminate pest issues as a natural consequence of increased biodiversity. This will also boost production of fruits and vegetables. The resulting garden fosters beauty and harmony for both humans and wildlife, contributing to a greater sense of peace and happiness. Your garden can become a haven for pollinators, aiding in the fight against declining populations, while providing you with nutrient-rich, healthy food. This is how Mariposa helps you create a home within nature.
Power of Place at Manitoga; Garden and Home of Russel Wright
Manitoga’s Landscape Collection and Conservation Staff
Saturday, October 26 I Two Sessions: 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Manitoga I The Russel Wright Design Center I Garrison, NY
$30 Members I $40 General
Landscape Collection and Conservation staff lead an exploration of the “power of place” at Manitoga, the woodland garden and mid-century modern home of pioneering industrial designer Russel Wright and his wife Mary Wright. In its concept, design, and management, Manitoga unites science, culture, and nature with an ecology that is both human and spiritual. By employing the language of the forest to rehabilitate disturbed land, Wright demonstrated a sense of social responsibility and environmental sensitivity that continues to be relevant for both at-home and professional garden designers.
Advance registration is required for these programs. Space is limited; sign up today!
Visit gardenconservancy.org for more detailed event descriptions and to register online. Additional programs will be added during the year.
Registration Information
You may also register by calling The Garden Conservancy at 845.424.6500
(Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern)
Scan code to view gardenconservancy.org/education
Aerial view of Stowe,1739 Etching.
The Trustees of the British Museum
Garden Masters Series
Explore the philosophy behind creating a garden, design theory, and the rich tapestry of global gardening traditions.
Stowe Gardens
Vanessa Wilkie
Monday, October 21
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Huntington Library
San Marino, California
$130 Members
$150 General
In 1925, Henry E. Huntington purchased a vast archive documenting the eighteenth-century gardens at Stowe House in Buckinghamshire, England, Europe’s greatest picturesque landscape. This private appointment to see the Stowe collection at the Huntington Library will explore the extraordinary story behind the creation of Stowe Gardens, worked on by a succession of England’s finest landscape architects, Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, and Lancelot “Capability” Brown. Hosted by Vanessa Wilkie, the Huntington’s Senior Curator of Medieval Manuscripts and British History, participants will be introduced to the full expansiveness of the papers: accounts, deeds, rental records, legal documents, manorial court records, household books, inventories, correspondence, and financial records. The program includes lunch and passes to see the Huntington’s gardens and galleries after the program.
“View from the Portico of the House to the Park” by Bernard Baron and John Francis Rigaud, 1739. Engraved print of Stowe Gardens, Buckinghamshire. Image courtesy of the Huntington
A Garden for Cutting, Arranging and Photographing
Frances Palmer
Friday, September 13
10 a.m. to 1 pm.
Westport, CT
$160 Members
$180 General
Frances Palmer has been making ceramics since 1987. She was trained as an art historian and yet has always made work with her hands. First as a printmaker and now as a potter and gardener, she loves the process of changing ideas into form. This program will be hosted by Frances in her studio and garden in Westport, a longtime Open Days favorite, giving participants an intimate peek into her creative process. After a welcome with coffee, tea, and a cake baked by Frances, she will take participants through her two cutting gardens. At this time of year, the dahlias will be in full array. Then, she will discuss which flowers are best for cutting and how to arrange and photograph them, followed by a delicious boxed lunch from a local bakery.
Frances Palmer’s Cutting Garden in Westport, CT. Photo: Frances Palmer
Your Program Participation Supports Our...
Preservation Work
Since 1989, the Garden Conservancy has provided resources to more than one hundred gardens to advance our mission to preserve, share, and celebrate America’s gardens and diverse gardening traditions for the education and inspiration of the public.
The Garden Conservancy’s preservation department assists gardens across the country to address a wide range of challenges — from historic rehabilitation and organizational development to creating conservation easements, collections management, and film documentation.
Most recently, we released a film about the garden of Louise Wrinkle that offers an in-depth exploration of her design philosophy. Our next major and highly anticipated project is the premiere of our documentary film on Harlem Renaissance poet and Civil Rights advocate Anne Spencer and her garden, coming early January 2025.
To learn more about our preservation work, visit gardenconservancy.org/preservation.
Garden Futures Grants
The Garden Conservancy awards Garden Futures Grants for small public gardens and other nonprofit organizations making a significant impact in their communities through garden-based programming or by contributing to the study and preservation of garden history. In 2023, we awarded over $100,000 to fifteen organizations nationwide.
For more information about the Garden Conservancy’s grant opportunities, email gardenfutures@gardenconservancy.org.
Shaun Spencer-Hester, executive director and curator of the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum, looks through the Spencer family archival collections at the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library with curator and archivist Krystal Appiah.
Gaining Ground, a nonprofit organic farm in Concord, MA, is a 2023 Garden Futures Grant recipient.
Dig Us? Then Join Us!
Whether you prefer to visit other people’s gardens, cultivate your own, or a combination of both, the Garden Conservancy offers membership opportunities to learn, explore, and be inspired!
Become a Garden Conservancy member and join a growing national community passionate about gardens and the essential role they play in our lives. Membership connects you to all we do through exclusive member benefits including complimentary credits redeemable for Open Days or Virtual Talks, member pricing on all events, Conservancy publications, and more. Memberships start at just $50 and last a full year!
Visit gardenconservancy.org/ membership or call 845.424.6500 to join today!
Interested in Supporting Us at a Higher Level?
The Society of Fellows is a committed group of garden enthusiasts, supporters, and philanthropists who help advance our work and programs.
Fellows are afforded all the benefits of our general membership program plus more, including invitations to attend exclusive garden-study tours, as well as other special events that showcase gardens and landscapes in distinctive regions in the United States and abroad. Participants learn from renowned horticulturists, designers, and historians, and enjoy gracious hosting in private homes and public institutions.
Visit gardenconservancy.org/ joinfellows
Sleepy Cat Farm, Greenwich, CT. Photo: Brian Jones
Fellows touring a garden in Valldemossa, Mallorca, Spain.
Mathew McGrath’s home garden and studio, Rodeo, CA. See page 22.
