2023 Spring | Summer Catalog by gardenconservancy.org

The Catalog

2023 SPRING I SUMMER

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

A Note from the President and CEO: Gardens, whether dry, meadow-y, full of fruits and vegetables, urban, or country, wild or clipped, are about abundance, and best when shared!

In this spirit we are pleased to share with you our most abundant and varied offering of programs ever, detailed in the pages of this catalog. As a committed community of gardeners, we are all aware that our thoughts about “gardens,” in all their forms, are not confined to specific months of the calendar year. The Garden Conservancy, through an ongoing rich roster of public programs, will always address the “why” of gardening and seek to create a national cohort of engaged and curious enthusiasts!

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.

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.

I hope you will join us both in person and online and join in the conversation!

James Brayton Hall President and CEO

Front Cover and page 2: Lucile Halsell Conservatory/San Antonio Botanical Garden. Photographs courtesy of Emilio Ambasz. Photography by Wade Zimmerman.

Dear Friends,

As this catalog hits mailboxes, the Spring National Speaking Tour with author Sue Stuart-Smith will be in full swing with stops in Florida, Massachusetts, New York, and California. Later this season we’ll be announcing lecture stops for our Fall National Speaker, rewilding pioneer Lady Isabella Tree.

But there’s a whole lot more programming in the meantime! Nearly 30 Digging Deeper events between now and the end of July, fabulous new Garden Master Series, and a full variety of webinars on new and notable books, plus the inaugural episode of Troy Scott Smith’s “Sissinghurst Through the Seasons”—an exciting new venture in our virtual program offerings.

Alongside these offerings are of course Open Days. To whet your appetite we invited veteran Regional Ambassador Panayoti Kelaidis to reflect on the unique value of garden visiting. You’ll find his charming essay on page 13.

Looking forward to seeing you online and in the garden —

Horatio

H. Horatio Joyce, PhD Director of Public Programs & Education

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, 9–5 Eastern)

Scan code to view www.gardenconservancy.org/education

Explore Our Offerings

Be sure to check www.gardenconservancy.org for the most current information and latest additions to our educational offerings, including Open Days, our signature garden-visiting program.

SISSINGHURST THROUGH THE SEASONS I PAGE 5

This new four-part virtual program explores a year of gardening at Sissinghurst in England, one of the world’s most romantic gardens.

AUTHOR WEBINARS I PAGE 7

Join authors of new and notable titles for conversations about the joy of gardening and why gardens matter more than ever.

AMBASSADOR INSIGHT I PAGE 12

Ever wondered what goes into making Open Days? Read the firsthand account of the Denver area Regional Ambassador, Panayoti Kelaidis, about the magic of sharing gardens.

AMBASSADOR INFORMATION SESSIONS I PAGE 14

Are you passionate about gardens and engaged in your regional gardening community? You could be a Regional Ambassador!

DIGGING DEEPERS I PAGE 15

Inspired by the fascinating conversations that happen at so many Open Days, we launched our Digging Deeper to bring together intimate groups for unique and, in most cases, site-specific garden experiences. These programs feature informative talks and workshops with experts from every facet of the gardening world.

GARDEN MASTERS SERIES I PAGE 25

The Garden Masters Series offers in-depth study programs that bring garden enthusiasts together in exclusive and significant landscapes with experts in horticulture and design and innovative thought-leaders. These programs provide the opportunity to meet new friends while exploring the philosophy of garden creation, design theory, and diverse gardening traditions.

Sissinghurst Through the Seasons: Four-Part Virtual Program

Sissinghurst Through the Seasons: Spring Episode

Troy Scott Smith, Head Gardener at Sissinghurst Castle Garden, England

Thursday, March 23 I 2 p.m. Eastern

Dates for the Summer, Fall, and Winter episodes will be announced one month prior.

$5 Garden Conservancy members I $15 General

Sissinghurst Through the Seasons is a new four-part Virtual Program that explores a year of gardening at Sissinghurst, one of the world’s most romantic gardens. Hosted by Head Gardener Troy Scott Smith, this series of online talks offers an experience of the changing seasons at Sissinghurst and explains how this extraordinary place, created by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson in the 1930s, is maintained and interpreted today.

For the first episode Troy will delve into the anticipation and excitement that Spring brings.

Winter is a time for doing, to be lost in actions and practicalities, but as the spring garden slowly begins to reveal itself, take time to look and enjoy the beauty of the garden. At Sissinghurst a

duvet of Crocus washes over the entire garden, rendering a purple hue, soon followed by a myriad of other spring bulbs in a “succession of delights.”

More about Sissinghurst Through the Seasons

Throughout this four-part series, Troy Scott Smith will guide you through the course of a gardening year at Sissinghurst. Troy will share how the garden looks, which flowers are blooming at each season, and what the garden looked like when it was first created in the 1930s. He will uncover the secrets of pruning and propagation and the art of the English Garden. Each episode will be packed with information, all simply explained and illustrated, giving you techniques and confidence to put into practice in your own garden.

About Sissinghurst and Troy Scott Smith

Sissinghurst was created nearly a century ago by the writers Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson as a private home and as refuge dedicated to natural beauty. Today it is owned by the National Trust and visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.

Troy’s career has been devoted to the beauty and romance of gardening. Since joining the National Trust of England, Wales & Northern Ireland in 1990, Troy has led some of the world’s most beautiful gardens, among them the Courts (Wiltshire), Bodnant (Wales), and two stints at Sissinghurst (Kent), where he has led a remarkable transformation and restoration of the Vita Sackville-West gardens.

The Garden Conservancy educational programs are made possible in part by the Coleman and Susan Burke Distinguished Lecture Fund and the Lenhardt Education Fund.

Additional support is provided by The Celia Hegyi Matching Challenge Grant Ritchie Battle • Camille Butrus Courtnay and Terrence Daniels • Rise S. Johnson

Susan and William McKinley

Michelle and Perry Griffith • the Antonia Breck Fund

Author Webinars

NEW AND NOTABLE TITLES

Curating a New Nature

Emilio Ambasz and Barry Bergdoll

Thursday, April 6 I 2 p.m. Eastern

$5 Garden Conservancy members

$15 General

Famously labeled “the father, poet, and prophet” of green architecture and a proponent of the idea that any project in architecture or design must present new or better ways of living or be deemed immoral, Emilio Ambasz is an award-winning architect, industrial designer, and protean maker of forms.

Long a pioneer in architecture, Ambasz has retained a belief in the environment— or rather the larger ecology—as fundamental in viewing the world. As author Barry Bergdoll notes in the introduction of his new book, Emilio Ambasz: Curating a New Nature, “his philosophy of ‘green over gray’ may often have fallen on deaf ears at the height of Postmodernism, but it today seems profoundly relevant.”

EMILIO AMBASZ, born in Argentina, studied architecture at Princeton University and served for many years as the Curator of Design at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is renowned for his pioneering architecture integrating nature with architecture. Among his most celebrated buildings are The Lucille Halsell Conservatory at the San Antonio Botanical Center and the Prefectural International Hall in Fukuoka, Japan.

BARRY BERGDOLL is Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University and former Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Black Flora: A Conversation About Inspiring Black Flower Farmers

+ Florists

Teri Speight

Thursday, April 20 I 2 p.m. Eastern

$5 Garden Conservancy members

$15 General

The book Black Flora is about the Black flower farmers and florists who are often overlooked in the industry. In many instances, the people in this book have pivoted from different careers and have found peace in working with flowers. In other instances, the choice to grow flowers and create with them is a way of life versus traditional employment. This work is not easy; however, each person in this book is dedicated to working with flowers. Boldly stepping out from behind the scenes, these floral professionals have been brought to life, and it is hoped they will inspire the next generation of floral professionals.

TERESA J. SPEIGHT is an author, podcaster, and garden writer from Washington, DC. With ancestral sharecropping roots originating in North and South Carolina, she feels deeply connected with the earth. Teresa also works to reconnect people with the soil through one-on-one garden coaching and by offering curated “garden experiences” for small groups.

In addition to being the author of Black Flora: Profiles of Inspiring Black Flower Farmers + Florists, Teresa has also coauthored The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City. On her podcast Cottage in the Court (available on Anchor or Apple Podcasts), Teresa introduces interesting people, discovers unique places, and adds a little poetry to remind everyone to embrace the garden, as it is here for us.

Photo credits left to right: Urban Buds, Netflix, Niesha Blancas, Lauren Crew, Eleise Theuer Photography

The House of a Lifetime: Collecting Northern Morocco Memories

Umberto Pasti and Ngoc Minh Ngo

Thursday, May 4 I 2 p.m. Eastern

$5 Garden Conservancy members

$15 General

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 talk, 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 their influence on Moroccan art.

UMBERTO PASTI has a degree in philosophy of history in his native Milano. After traveling extensively in North Africa and the Middle East, nearly 40 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, including A House of a Lifetime, about his home in Tangier, which was published in 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; and Eden 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, NY. Ngoc received the Land Place Spirit Award from Longhouse Reserve in 2022.

Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden

Camille T. Dungy

Thursday, June 22 I 2 p.m. Eastern

$5 Garden Conservancy members

$15 General

In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013, the community held restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens. In resistance to the homogenous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Dungy employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for the ways in which homogeneity threatens the future of our planet, and why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it.

Definitive and singular, Soil functions at the nexus of nature writing, environmental justice, and prose to encourage you to recognize the relationship between the peoples of the African diaspora and the land on which they live, and to understand that wherever soil rests beneath their feet is home.

CAMILLE T. DUNGY is the author of the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has edited three anthologies, including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. Her honors include the 2021 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an American Book Award. She is a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.

Ambassador Insight with Panayoti Kelaidis

Ambassador Insight is a new series where we share firsthand experiences of being a Regional Ambassador for Open Days. Our inaugural insight appeared in the 2023 Open Days Directory. Next up is Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator & Director of Outreach at the Denver Botanic Gardens. He is the Denver-area Regional Ambassador and below he reflects on the magic of touring and sharing gardens.

Educators tell us everyone has a different “mode” of learning—some learn best through the eyes, a few are listeners, while others prefer reading text (nowadays, no doubt on one’s phone!). But when it comes to horticulture, nothing beats a garden visit. Of course, gardens are the ultimate immersible experience—you are surrounded by color, sounds, and smells. For most of us cocooned indoors, especially in offices, the surround-sound sensory experience of a garden often makes one feel almost naked—but in a good way!

I remember attending my first formal garden tour in Denver as a teenager with my mentor-neighbors (who went to England every year, the lucky bums!). I was shocked to see exotic Japanese jack-in-the-pulpits I didn’t know, and bowers with enormous shrub roses in gardens that no longer exist on the map but persist in my heart. That tour was sponsored by volunteers from Denver Botanic Gardens, where I have now been employed for 42 years. You can imagine my delight that this year, my workplace is partnering with The Garden Conservancy to revive the Open Days program not only in our area but throughout the state.

The Garden Conservancy has expanded and is perfecting its reach. I have been delighted with the staff there with whom we’ve collaborated this year. Unless you’ve staged your own garden tour, you have no idea of the complexity and challenges faced by organizers. The Garden Conservancy has staged so many that they make it look like a piece of cake! I can only imagine the youngsters who will go on this year’s tours and get so excited by their experiences that they are inspired to make gardening their livelihood (like I was!). I know every garden is so distinct and beautiful that every visitor will come away inspired. What more can you ask?

Panayoti Kelaidis

For the 2023 Season, Panayoti brought the Open Days program back to Colorado for the first time since 2018.

He helped coordinate the Denver Metropolitan Area’s Open Day on Saturday, August 26. This Open Day features three gardens new to the program, in addition to one returning for the first time since 2010.

Be sure to visit Colorado’s other Open Days— Saturday, July 8 in Steamboat Springs, and Saturday, September 9 in Fort Collins!

Bring Open Days to Your Neighborhood by Becoming a Regional Ambassador

Are you passionate about the wonders of great gardens and engaged in your regional gardening community?

Are you looking to become involved in a fun, rewarding, and worthy project?

You might be a perfect fit as a Regional Ambassador!

Ambassadors help make the Open Days program run— they identify great gardens, support organizing Open Days logistics, help to recruit volunteers, and raise awareness of The Garden Conservancy regionally.

If you would like to learn more about how you can become a Regional Ambassador, please join us for one of these information sessions over Zoom: Friday, March 31 | 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT Monday, April 3 | 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT

Or email us at opendays@gardenconservancy.org to learn more

Photo: Keeyla Meadows

Digging Deeper

Design and Construction Tips for the Conifer Garden

Ridge Goodwin

Saturday, April 29 I 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The Gardens at Half Moon I New Hope, PA

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

The successful blending of color, shape, texture, and form is essential for creating a conifer garden. The grouping of dwarf, slow-growing, intermediate, and fast-growing conifers and developing a sense of how to place them in relationship to one another is essential for optimal effects. Knowing the growth habits of individual conifers is important for the proper spacing of plants, but with the understanding that it is not such a terrible thing if in time the plants grow into one another! Make sure you provide for irrigation of a new garden, as dwarf plants are particularly sensitive to drying out before becoming established. Utilize dwarf or unusual grafted conifers in landscapes for color, texture, and form.

Cultivating Edible Mushrooms: A Mushroom Inoculation Workshop

Steve Shapson and MJ Jansen

Saturday, May 6 I Two sessions: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday, May 7 I 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The Shapson Garden I Mequon, WI

$45 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $50 General

This Digging Deeper event with wild mushroom foragers Steve Shapson and MJ Jansen introduces you to the world of cultivating mushrooms. Besides learning about mushrooms, you will be participating in a workshop where you will inoculate specially harvested logs with shiitake, oyster, and chestnut mushrooms spawn as part of an assembly-line process. The price of the workshop includes one of each type of log with the option to purchase additional logs. Your logs can be placed in a shady spot on your property or integrated into a shade border. Complete written instructions for taking care of your logs, along with other information about cultivated and wild mushrooms, will be provided as part of the workshop.

This Digging Deeper is not appropriate for children under the age of 15.

This Digging Deeper is presented in partnership with The Garden Club of Greater Milwaukee.

Renewing and Restoring a 67-Year-Old Overgrown Garden

Ron Carter

Saturday, May 6 I Two sessions: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The Secret Garden @ 377–The Gotelli Garden I Harrison Park Towers, East Orange, NJ

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

How is the top floor of a parking garage in East Orange, New Jersey, transformed into a botanical oasis? Learn about the history of this Italianate garden designed by William T. Gotelli, from its installation in 1956 to its restoration in 2009, and how an extraordinary collection of azaleas, hydrangeas, lilacs, hostas, peonies, tree peonies, and a variety of spring-blooming trees exists alongside a 300-unit cooperative apartment community. Now celebrating its 67th anniversary, learn about this botanical treasure from those who have tended and ensured its legacy. We will tour and focus on renewal pruning of viburnum, azalea, ilex, yew, and other evergreens.

Addressing Drought through Plant Selection and Hardscape Solutions

Keeyla Meadows

Saturday, May 13 I 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Keeyla Meadows Gardens & Art I Albany, CA

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

A recent trip to desert gardens in Santa Fe, NM, confirmed Keeyla’s view that you can have a beautiful, well-designed garden that uses less water. This program will discuss Keeyla’s lifelong passion and practice of designing garden habitats that not only benefit birds, butterflies, and bees, but are also functional and attractive to human inhabitants. Selection of waterwise and habitat-enhancing plants—in addition to giving attention to hardscape, including paving, walls, seating, entertainment, and meditation areas—offer opportunities to enhance the landscape while reducing water usage and saving water. Keeyla will review basic design principles as laid out in her book, Fearless Color Gardens, as they apply to the changing landscape of the Bay Area. She will also discuss and share new strategies to help us move forward enthusiastically with our garden passions while being mindful of the changing environment.

The Garden's Development and Evolution

George Biercuk and Robert Luckey

Saturday, May 13 I 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Biercuk & Luckey Garden I Wainscott, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

The Biercuk & Luckey Garden is the work of 22 years. A south-facing, wooded lot was specifically selected for the house's location to accommodate the owners' obsession with growing myriad rhododendrons and azaleas. When the house was completed, development of the property began—SLOWLY—following the natural topography gradations. Learn about the garden's growth and evolution, from laying curving paths, planting selection, siting of the pool, and how and why features were chosen. The once-treed surroundings are now gone, so the garden is a peninsula bird sanctuary, adapting to dramatic changes in wind and sunlight. Thus far, the garden has been most resilient. Learn how the garden adapts and endures, creating a haven for both the owners and surrounding wildlife.

Creative Repurposing in the Garden

Organic Mechanics

Saturday, May 20 I 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Geary Street Gardens I San Francisco, CA

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

James Pettigrew and Sean Stout (aka Organic Mechanics) will use existing paths, walls, and patios in their home gardens to demonstrate elevated materials repurposing. Memorial stone, various orphaned hardscape materials, and even metal elements find their way into the mix. Attendees will leave with a basic understanding of installation techniques and inspiration to try their own one-of-a-kind hardscape project.

Power of Place at Manitoga, Garden & Home of Russel Wright

Manitoga’s Landscape Collection and Conservation Staff

Saturday, May 20 I Two sessions: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center I Garrison, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

The Landscape Collection and Conservation staff lead a spring exploration of the “power of place” at Manitoga, highlighting the dogwood and special wildflowers in the woodland garden of the Mid-century Modern home of pioneering industrial designer Russel Wright and his wife Mary Wright.

This Digging Deeper is presented in partnership with Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center

Designing in Three Dimensions at Olana: A Guided Landscape Walk and Workshop

David Dew Bruner and Glenda Berman

Saturday, May 27 I 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Olana State Historic Site I Hudson, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy and Olana Members I $40 General

Join The Olana Partnership’s landscape architect and artist David Dew Bruner, and Master Gardener Glenda Berman, for a special walk and workshop on training your eye to see the design in Olana’s every detail. Learn more about nineteenthcentury gardening ideals that informed Church’s masterwork, and examine how these principles could be be incorporated in your own home garden. Through optional artmaking exercises, participants will be invited to explore three-dimensional aspects of garden design by studying Olana’s landscape. The program will consist of a guided walk along 1.75 miles of carriage road, participatory conversation with program guides, and end with a wine and cheese reception in a special location outside Olana’s main house.

This Digging Deeper is presented in partnership with The Olana Partnership

A Naturalistic Edible Landscape in an Artist-Built Environment

Cynthia and Eugene Nikitin

Saturday, June 3 I 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Brunel Park: Brunel Sculpture Garden I Boiceville, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

Hosts Cynthia and Eugene Nikitin will spirit guests around their 1.5-acre sculpture garden to learn about their unique collection of native and non-native fruiting trees and vines and Japanese tree peonies, all under the protective gaze of Emile Brunel’s 40-foot-tall concrete totems and statuary. The history of the man who created these amazing sculptures of Le Chalet Indien Resort and the preservation efforts spearheaded by the Friends of Brunel Park will be shared through a PowerPoint presentation and during the guided tour.

This Digging Deeper is presented in partnership with Friends of Brunel Park

Photo: Peter Aaron

From Ashes to a Garden Haven

Anne-Marie Lamarche, Mark Menke, and Keeyla Meadows

Saturday, June 3 I 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Bristol Glen I Kenwood, CA

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

From the ashes of Sonoma Valley’s 2017 Nuns Fire has emerged a new home and garden designed around food, family, and outdoor Wine Country living. Despite its recent creation, the garden already has an established feel—from the 2017 Provençal white garden to the recently added allée of dogwoods and Japanese styrax. Connection is maximized between the rebuilt barn-like guest house with its surrounding pollinator garden, while year-round planting interest celebrates the changing seasons. The dry garden balances water use with the park-like lawn areas shaded by five species of oaks, while the bocce ball court can welcome friends for a game or serves as the setting for large dinners or cocktail parties. An enclosed vegetable garden and fruit trees produce a bounty for preserving and serving; family and friends harvest olives in the fall to press into oil. The native garden hums with bees and birds, and the “Fairy Forest” under the redwoods is the perfect place for tea with granddaughters. You are invited to join homeowners Anne-Marie Lamarche and Mark Menke with garden designer Keeyla Meadows to experience the varied gardens, their textures, colors, and plant combinations. We will discuss the garden’s planning and evolution, explain the use of color and texture, and sample some of the home-grown foods.

Tree Care and Maintenance

Brian Rombaugh, Silas Mountsier, and Graeme Hardie

Saturday, June 3 I 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Mountsier Garden I Nutley, NJ

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

Three generations of the Rombaugh family have cared for the trees at the Mountsier Garden since it was purchased in 1946, including its towering 300-year-old oaks. Join licensed tree expert and certified arborist Brian Rombaugh and the owners for a discussion of tree care and maintenance across the property, and how you can keep your trees in top shape. Topics discussed will include managing pest pressure, and other issues facing our trees today.

Eco-friendly Yard to Vase Floral Design

Georgia Lee

Sunday, June 4 I 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.

The Spalding Garden I Milton, MA

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

I began flower arranging when I was around five years old, and I did florals for my first party when I was twelve years old—it was a post-recital dinner and I offered to make bouquets for all the tables using flowers from my mom’s bounteous garden. This yard-to-vase floral design session will teach basic design principles and how to incorporate blossoms and greenery from guests’ gardens into beautiful bouquets.

The Underlying Principles in Building a Japanese Garden

Bob Levine

Sunday, June 4 I 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Japanese Gardens at Cedar Hill I Roxbury, CT

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

During this program, we will explore the underlying principles which are applied in the creation and development of Japanese gardens. Stone selection and placement are critical elements in providing a foundation, enhanced by the addition of trees and shrubs chosen for their color, texture, and form. The overall goal is balance and harmony.

The Secret Lives of Plants: Unusual Histories and Unique Adaptations

Martin Cline

Saturday, June 10 I 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Panoramic Garden I Stinson Beach, CA

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

The garden has more than 200 species of plants from many parts of the world and many habitats. In their native environments, some plants grow under extremely moist conditions, whereas others survive under extremes of water deprivation. Some have developed unique strategies for pollination, others have evolved mechanisms to survive the depredations of browsing animals. Several species have been rescued from the brink of extinction, and many have interesting histories of discovery or Indigenous uses. For more than twenty years we have been adapting areas of this coastal garden to accommodate these diverse species. “Digging Deeper” will be the story of this journey.

Long Hill: A Living History

Joann

Vieira, Director of Horticulture

Sunday, June 11 I 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Long Hill I Essex, MA

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy & The Trustees of the Reservations

$40 General

In this Digging Deeper session, Trustees Director of Horticulture Joann Vieira will share the history and evolution of the gardens at Long Hill—sharing images from the garden’s inception through its recent transformation to one of the Trustees’ flagship public gardens. Long Hill is a living example of passionate plant collecting and the impact of time on a landscape. Photographs, notes, and records left by previous owners, and Trustees’ staff, help inform decisions and highlight the importance of documenting a garden or landscape as it changes through time. Do you wonder what that silverbell you planted last spring might look like in 100 years? Or whether your weeping cherry can possibly survive longer than a decade or two? Joann’s visual presentation of the garden’s past and recent transformation will be followed by a stroll through the historic gardens to visit some of the oldest and most unusual specimens and explore stories.

This Digging Deeper is presented in partnership with The Trustees of the Reservations

A Rose Is Never Just a Rose: Plants in Community

Mathew McDowell

Saturday, June 17 I 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

James and Ellen Best’s Sarah Stein Garden I Pound Ridge, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

Mathew McDowell is a horticulturist and naturalist who specializes primarily in regional native plants, invasive species management, and designing of planted spaces attractive to humans and wildlife. He’s the Garden Director of the Leon Levy Native Plant Garden for Bedford Audubon Society and is a Wildflower Island tour guide at Teatown Lake Reservation. Plants are complicated beings. Each is a product of its own evolutionary history, and most importantly of its relations with the other plants and animals (humans included) with which it shares its habitat. In this walking guided tour, we’ll be exploring the unique adaptations of plants found within the Sarah Stein Garden, many of which might be found growing wild in New York. In particular, we’ll focus on the native species present and their complex interrelationships with local wildlife and each other, as well as threats they’re facing.

Garden Rooms

Gordon and Mary Hayward

Saturday, June 17 I 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Gordon and Mary Hayward’s Garden I Westminster West, VT

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

Welcoming places in a garden for sitting, gathering, being alone, or with others has taken on new meaning after COVID. Join Gordon and Mary Hayward as they discuss the universal design principles that informed the creation of their garden rooms of six different sizes, designs, and moods—each separate from one another over their acre and a half garden. The goal of this two-hour walkabout is to enable participants to confidently design their own garden rooms that gently fit into their overall gardens. Many design principles will inevitably surface during this two-hour design stroll.

Gardening for the Birds

Page Dickey

Saturday, June 17 I 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Church House—The Garden of Page Dickey and Bosco Schell I Falls Village, CT

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

Throw strict neatness to the wind and garden with birds and biodiversity in mind. During this Digging Deeper, guests will learn how Page is encouraging natives—and discouraging invasives—without herbicides. Topics discussed will include growing roses without chemicals, and selecting shrubs and trees for birds. Additionally, guests will discuss the delight of self-seeding, the challenge of editing it in the garden, and opting for a certain contained wildness.

The Garden as a Unifying Force

Larry Carlson

Saturday, June 17 I 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Villa des Amis I Bridgehampton, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

Larry Carlson’s design philosophy is rooted in the belief that a garden is a spiritual place: a place to not only feel more connected to something larger than one’s self but also a place to feel more connected. This Digging Deeper will explore the designer’s efforts to build connections in the garden, through both design and “unity consciousness.”

Bold in the Northeast: Designing with Tropical and Tropical-like Plants on the North Fork

Dennis Schrader, co-owner of Landcraft Environments

Saturday, July 8 I 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Landcraft Environments I Mattituck, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy & Landcraft Garden Foundation

$40 General

Tour the gardens at Landcraft Garden Foundation with designer Dennis Schrader— an expert on combining and growing tropical plants in temperate zones. The co-author of Hot Plants for Cool Climates and Extraordinary Leaves, Dennis will highlight exceptional plants in the garden that lend themselves to transporting the viewer to much warmer climates but can also thrive in the humid summers of our region. As he writes, “the aim is to create a riotous exuberance of growth and brilliant color in the context of restrained abandon. Here more is better because it’s an exotic, wild look that is the hallmark of tropical-style gardens.” Be whisked away to paradise where you’d least expect —and without booking a flight. Learn how the inclusion of just a few choice plants could transform your garden into something extraordinary and exotic. Dennis will offer tips and tricks for the care of rare plants and overwintering tender tropical plants outdoors and indoors.

Ecological Gardening: Gardening as if Survival Mattered

Linda Trapkin and Janet Allen

Saturday, July 15 I 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The Gardens at 404 I Solvay, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

The hosts have been gardening at The Gardens at 404 since 1993 and initially were heavily influenced, as is very common, by English gardens. Over the decades, it has become very obvious that the bird and insect population has sharply declined. This Digging Deeper will discuss the hosts’ journey as they pivoted to ecological gardening that supports the native environment, a switch made all the more challenging by the increasingly unpredictable weather. Topics discussed will emphasize awareness of choosing plants to support the entire life cycles of the birds and insects we are trying to save, the timing of maintenance routines to avoid interference with those life cycles, and the importance of gardening as if survival mattered.

Hillside Gardening Solutions

Gail Lyman, Elrick McShayne, and Megan Shay

Saturday, July 15 I 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The Lyman Hillside Gardens I Ithaca, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General Admission

This session is an on-site intensive in slope gardening that delves deeply into water management from run-off, groundwater, and stream beds, as well as looking at hardscape both as a water management tool and with regard to its protection and preservation. Slope garden design choices will be discussed, including terracing techniques and plant selection for hillside gardens.

Gardening Against the Grain

Barbara Tiffany

Saturday, July 22 I 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Gardens at Mill Fleurs I Point Pleasant, PA

$55 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $65 General

The Gardens at Mill Fleurs is a testament to diversity. During this Digging Deeper, Host Barbara Tiffany will discuss her approach and philosophy to diversity in the garden, even when it goes against conventional gardening advice.

Shabby Chic Maintenance for Garden and Grounds

Bindy Kaye

Saturday, July 29 I 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Lithgow Cottage Farm I Millbrook, NY

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy I $40 General

Can’t find garden help (or don’t want to foot the bill for it)? Bindy Kaye has wrestled with this issue for more than 45 years of gardening at Lithgow Cottage Farm. In this Digging Deeper event, she will show-and-tell how a less-than-neatnik approach helped evolve her garden from a labor-intensive parterre to a low-maintenance landscape that integrates this and other features with a quarter-acre pond.

Behind the Scenes at Naumkeag

Stephen Zelno, Naumkeag’s Horticulturalist

Sunday, July 30 I 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Naumkeag I Stockbridge, MA

$30 Members of The Garden Conservancy & The Trustees of the Reservations

$40 General

Get a glimpse of the garden’s history, new plantings, and upcoming projects while taking a tour with Naumkeag’s horticulturist, Stephen Zelno. Learn about container gardening in the Afternoon Garden, cutting gardens at the Blue Steps, and propagation in a behind-the-scenes tour of the greenhouse. Leave the tour with new plant knowledge and ideas for your own garden at home.

This Digging Deeper is presented in partnership with The Trustees of the Reservations

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, 9–5 Eastern)

Scan code to view www.gardenconservancy.org/education

Garden Masters Series

The Cook and the Gardener, May 3rd Garden Master Series

The Garden Conservancy Goes to MoMA

Martino Stierli and Evangelos Kotsioris

Friday, March 24

10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Museum of Modern Art New York, NY

$80 Garden Conservancy members

$95 General

Join The Museum of Modern Art curators Martino Stierli and Evangelos Kotsioris for an exclusive exhibition tour and private lunch at the museum. The exhibition, Architecture Now: New York, New Publics, features a number of inventive design proposals for turning the city into a greener and safer place. The works range from waterfront parks and public pools to cultural spaces for local community gardens. One project in the exhibition, Testbeds by New Affiliates and Samuel Stewart-Halevy, received a Garden Futures Grant from The Garden Conservancy in 2022.

The exhibition comprises models, sketches, drawings, and photographs featured alongside full-scale architectural components, prototypes, and an augmented-reality installation. Each project is accompanied by a newly produced video that provides a glimpse into the daily uses of these architectural reimaginings.

The Cook and the Gardener: Spring Edition

Fred Landman and Seen Lippert

Wednesday, May 3

10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Sleepy Cat Farm

Greenwich, CT

$225 Garden Conservancy members

$250 General

Spend a morning with Sleepy Cat Farm owners Fred Landman, the gardener, and Seen Lippert, the cook, exploring some of the edible things found on their property in Greenwich, CT. Sleepy Cat Farm is nestled on fourteen acres of woodland and formal gardens, parterres, potagers, koi pond, grotto, and golden pathways. Begin the morning with a short walk through the garden, followed by a demonstration and tasting in the barn kitchen. Seen, a former chef from the famed Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, CA, will discuss uses for seasonal produce, edible flowers, herbs, and even weeds! Learn new uses for your own garden harvest and new techniques to enjoy and preserve the season.

Can I eat this? Come find out and share this unique opportunity with a passionate gardener, a professional chef, and a world of things to taste!

Rewilding a California Ranch and Garden

Tom Lloyd-Butler

Sunday, May 7

10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Ventura County, California

$225 Garden Conservancy members

$250 General

Spend the day exploring the gardens, grounds, and orchards of Rancho Santa Clara del Norte, an 1837 Mexican land grant. Tom Lloyd-Butler, a fifth-generation descendant, will guide you around the ranch’s 200-year-old adobe house and six acres of landscaped grounds—home to nearly 6,000 trees and plants representing 600 species and cultivars. Join Tom and members of the ranch staff for lunch on the porch, featuring a menu drawn from the ranch’s produce and lovingly prepared at home.

The 1,250-acre ranch tells two stories: The first is its long history of plant and wildlife dating from the modern, colonial, and Native American periods. Its plant collections include hundreds of new palms and cycads, Victorian-era ferns, begonias, and edible and remedial native salvias. The second story involves the symbiotic connection between the gardens and the thriving farming operations. Native plants culled from the riparian and pasture lands support a biodiverse insect population with more than 126 species of native bees, and its stumpery gardens support thriving fungal networks that improve the quality of our soils.

A Private Garden with a Public Legacy: A Curated Conversation at Jack Lenor

Larsen’s LongHouse Reserve

Carrie Rebora Barratt

Deborah Nevins

James Brayton Hall

Sunday, June 18

10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

East Hampton, NY

$125 Garden Conservancy members

$135 General

Jack Lenor Larsen (1927–2020) was the preeminent textile designer of the 20th century, working and weaving locally and globally, exploring color theory, challenging traditional notions of texture and pattern, and broad concepts of materiality. Starting in 1990, he translated his practice to gardening, manifesting LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, New York, a 16-acre sculpture garden surrounding his modernist house based on the Ise Shrine. He spent the next 40 years experimenting with plants in the same way he had explored fabric, and collaborated with artists to celebrate art in all forms. He left us with inspiring lessons based on color, structure, resilience, and choice, a personal artistic statement in a public sanctuary. What does his personal, artistic statement mean to us now? How did Larsen’s eye influence both his choices of plant material and his shaping of the garden’s spaces for pure enjoyment?

Join LongHouse Reserve Director Carrie Rebora Barratt, celebrated landscape designer Deborah Nevins, and Garden Conservancy President and CEO James Brayton Hall as they lead a walking conversation about ways in which we see, experience, and preserve this significant artist’s garden, and anticipate its future. The conversation will continue over a private catered lunch at the garden.

The Camp Rosemary Experience

Marya Padour

Sunday, July 16

2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Lake Forest, IL

$125 Garden Conservancy members

$150 General

Spend an extraordinary Sunday afternoon in July at Camp Rosemary, one of America’s most spectacular private gardens. This expansive Lake Forest estate, designed in part by Rose Standish Nicols in the 1920s and later enhanced by other prominent landscape architects and designers, includes an array of captivating English-style garden rooms, a lush, wooded ravine garden, and an exquisite pool house.

Head gardener Marya Padour will lead guests through the intensely and imaginatively cultivated property and discuss the expert horticultural techniques used to make this garden shine. Camp Rosemary was featured in Gardens of the North Shore of Chicago, by author Ben Lenhardt.

In addition to visual riches, guests will be lavished with attention, from valet parking and music to cocktails and hors d’oeuvres while exploring the garden.

Your Program Participation Supports Our...

Preservation Work

Since 1989, The Garden Conservancy has worked with more than 100 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 garden owners, managers, and community organizations across the country to address a wide range of challenges—from historic rehabilitation and organizational development to collections management and documentation.

The gardens we partner with, from the smallest to the largest, express the artistic spirits of their creators and showcase the broad diversity of garden history and styles found in North America.

To learn more about our preservation work, visit gardenconservancy.org/preservation

Garden Futures Grants

In 2021 The Garden Conservancy launched a new initiative—since named the Garden Futures Grants—to award grants between $5,000 and $10,000 to small public gardens and organizations who are making a significant impact in their communities. In 2022, we awarded $155,000 to nineteen organizations nationwide.

For more information about The Garden Conservancy’s grant opportunities, visit gardenconservancy.org/news/gardensfutures-grants or email gardenfutures@gardenconservancy.org.

Former Mayor of Lynchburg, VA, Dr. Treney Tweedy, and Executive Director Shaun Spencer-Hester interviewed at the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum.

Photo: Christine Ashburn Photography

Become a Member

Join a national community passionate about gardens and the essential role they play in our culture, history, and lives.

Membership helps fund our educational programs and preservation work while keeping you connected to all we do through exclusive member benefits.

Members enjoy invitations and discounted admission to our educational events and special programs, stay connected through subscription to our print and electronic newsletters, and so much more!

Discover all The Garden Conservancy has to offer by becoming a member today.

Visit gardenconservancy.org/membership or call 845.424.6500 to learn more.