Fall 2022 Newsletter

Friends of WCBG

We’ll Miss You, Tony

It’s true! Tony Antonucci has retired after a 40-year career at Wellesley. He succeeded Del Nickerson as Botanic Gardens Senior Horticulturist in 2001. Tony’s first day on the job in 1982 coincided with the beginning of the renovation of the old greenhouses, as the outer shell, the picturesque old cypress timbers, beautiful vestibules and curved, single-pane glass skin were stripped away and replaced with the metal frame and double-paned glass that became so familiar, and which now is also gone. Tony’s first task was to dismantle the nasturtium arch which, of course, was restored later and continued for many years.

During Tony’s early years, Del and Tony came up with the idea of providing entering students with young plants both to familiarize them with the greenhouses and to make their rooms more home-like. They chose the most hardy, neglect-tolerant plants; “dorm-proof” as Tony characterizes them. That tradition goes on today. Young Rhoeo spathacea and pothos, plus various succulents grown from cuttings in a new greenhouse were adopted by incoming students for this year’s plant giveaway.

For Tony, high points over the years were the public exhibits, opportunities to show the beauty of the plants to a wider audience than visited campus. In the early years the Wellesley greenhouses

provided displays to the New England Spring Flower Show and occasional plant exhibits at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. It was a lot of work, Tony recalls. “We did everything, from researching and writing labels and building exhibit frames to preparing and moving plants, and then maintaining them at the show.” Tony was proud of the result. “We had a fantastic collection, known for its aesthetic value and the educational worth of the plants.”

But times change. In more recent years Tony has concentrated on the Light Show as the peak of the season. It started as an evening event in a single house to celebrate the season—“Mum Night” or “Bulb Night”—and then expanded to encompass the lighting of featured plants throughout the greenhouses. Most recently, in February 2020, lights were strung throughout Global Flora celebrating the architecture as well as the plants.

While the shows provided high points, the constant Tony emphasized that made his job special was the relationships with students, especially once students were employed to help keep the gardens over the summer. “We’ve had wonderful students,” he says, describing how he worked with them. “I always try to explain why they’re doing a task.” he says. If it’s washing a flower pot, “they should know that they are getting rid of harmful salts

Tony Antonucci has completed a 40-year career at Wellesley.

NOTES from the Director

Greetings from Wellesley!

It is a time of healing on campus, of finding community again and seeing smiles. A “Healing Plants” exhibit in the Global Flora conservatory, by Botanic Gardens Student Assistant Nafisa Rashid ’23, is the inspiration for this year’s Greenhouse Light Show, coming in February. Nafisa and several other students are exploring myriad connections between plants and healing for the show, and are excited to put on an event that will further build and nurture the WCBG community.

And it is beyond exciting to finally be able to open Global Flora to the public! We are so looking forward to welcoming all Friends who can join us for a sneak preview on November 3, followed by open visitor hours for the general public starting November 11 (see sidebar on p. 3 for details). We are learning how best to juggle the various demands on the space (including taking care of the plants!) and may occasionally need to close during visitor hours to accommodate class use or other activities. Our brand new Greenhouse Horticulturist, Sean Halloran, jumped right in and is eagerly getting to

know the plants and the intricacies of our unique conservatory.

A favorite tradition got even better this year, as all of the plants for our New Student Plant Giveaway were grown in our new greenhouse, and most were propagated by our summer interns from plants in Global Flora! There were a lot of smiles as some of these students helped the new folks select their healthy, beautiful plants.

Outside the climate-controlled bubble of the greenhouses, it has been a wild ride of a growing season. Last fall, the maple swamp was overflowing across the path and into Paramecium Pond, which had swelled to include the bog garden and more. In the spring it was a huge relief to see the majestic old silver maple that anchors the maple swamp leaf out, after spending the winter with its roots under many inches of ice. Others were less resilient, including the flooded red maple that had turned red very early (pictured in the Fall 2021 newsletter). That poor tree never leafed out and had to be removed. We brought in a wetlands expert, Tom Biebighauser, who reassured us that many of the previously healthy trees should be okay if the flooding lasted less than a year (akin to being flooded by beaver activity). Then came a very dry summer; by September the maple swamp had no standing water and the tree roots could breathe again. While the summer drought brought relief to the flooded low-lying areas of the gardens, the severity of the drought was very stressful elsewhere, especially along the Silver Thread brook, which has been without added water for over a year due to issues with the campus water supply. Trees and shrubs not acclimated to drought really struggled.

Our returning summer assistant from Dining Services, Sam Tiki, spent most of his time individually watering stressed trees and shrubs from a small tank on the back of a cart a heroic effort that likely saved many of them. However, there was little time for the other pressing summer work of managing invasive plants, pruning, and mulching, especially once our summer internship program ended.

Now we are very fortunate to have a fabulous crew of returning student assistants, several of whom are working in the outdoor gardens with our interim Gardens Horticulturist Rachel Moon and Postbac Fellow Chelsea Braz. This great team is busy getting the landscape back in shape while Senior Gardens Horticulturist Anne Beckley is home for the semester with Margot Rose Beckley, born Sept. 9! The team also is documenting impacts of flooding and drought to inform our planning for improving the climate resilience of the gardens.

Best wishes for a healthy and peaceful fall season, and lots of time with plants.

Kristina Niovi Jones, Director Wellesley College Botanic Gardens kjones@wellesley.edu 781.283.3027

106 Central Street Wellesley, Massachusetts 02481-8203

781.283.3094 wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu www.wellesley.edu/wcbgfriends

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Kristina Niovi Jones

Jenn Yang ’12 Eileen Sprague

Vivi Leavy ’62 Gail Kahn

Botanic Gardens Student Assistants Angela Douglass ’24, Nafisa Rashid ’23, Rohini Narayanan ’25, Kathryn Zaia ’25, and Ayumi Fong ’25 (left to right) with student-propagated plants at the New Student Plant Giveaway.

Invasive Plants in the Garden: It’s Complicated!

When I first heard about a project to document invasive plants in the landscape known as Public Gardens as Sentinels against Invasive Plants (PGSIP) in the winter of 2020, I was intrigued. I was about six months into my position as the horticulturist leading the care of Wellesley College’s 22 acres of outdoor botanic gardens, and it was quickly apparent that managing invasive species would be a top priority and a longterm, time-intensive project. As I became more familiar with our accessioned plants, I realized that a number of the species we were scrambling to remove were either currently or historically part of our collection, planted before their invasiveness was well understood. I registered myself to contribute to the database, and took the next year to better understand the dynamics of the garden before submitting our data. During that time I spent many hours with our student assistants removing invasives from the landscape, helped Maren Frye ’23 develop a WCBG invasive species field guide, and began an invasive species mapping program.

The invasive species guide developed by Maren Frye ’23.

understanding of plant ranges, interactions, and reproduction. It is also enlightening to look through the database for particular species and see where other gardens are reporting the same. For example, I found that sapphire berry, Symplocos paniculata, highly invasive in our garden and a plant I was unfamiliar with before coming to Wellesley, was also reported as invasive by a garden in the mid-west.

When it was time to submit data the following fall, I attended one of the PGSIP working group’s workshops. This, along with their document on data submission guidelines, made the data entry process clear and quick. My process for submitting data was relatively simple and likely made more so due to our very small staff. While having a lean staff is challenging in other ways, in this case it streamlined the process as I didn’t need to gather information from various people managing different sections of the garden, or spend time building consensus to participate in the project. I just let the other staff know what I was doing, listened to any concerns (there were none!), gathered the data I needed and submitted it. When I combed through our collection inventory to be sure I reported everything, I realized that there was a whole subset of plants that either needed confirmation that they were still in the garden, needed further identification work (for example, we once had numerous honeysuckles (Loniceras) in the collection), or a better understanding of their extent. I put these plants aside and collected more data during the past growing season.

Participating in this program has been illuminating. As we at Wellesley learn more about the behavior of plants in our collection, we’re able to share it with the larger botanic gardens community and together gain a better understanding of what plants may be becoming problematic. This is particularly important as climate change alters our previous

The aspect that will be most valuable to our garden in the long term is that, in the process of collecting data, we were able to carefully examine our collection and begin to prioritize projects to address problematic species. As our centennial anniversary approaches, we have a significant opportunity to use what we’ve learned to educate and build consensus amongst our stakeholders on and off campus, and to re-envision and update our collection. In some cases this might mean altering significant sections of the garden that have collections dominated by known invasives. In other areas, perhaps we should reduce the collection to one plant and wait to see if it still forms fruit or seed. Each species will need to be considered individually. Some, like our stately and much beloved Amur cork trees, will be significantly more challenging than others. We hope to find a graceful way to honor the garden’s past while using our spaces to demonstrate good ecological management practices and resilience.

by Anne Beckley, Senior Gardens Horticulturist

Original article submitted to the PGSIP newsletter of the American Public Gardens Association in Spring 2022.

Visit Global Flora!

WCBG Friends Welcome Back Gathering and Global Flora tours: Thurs., Nov. 3, 1:00-4:00 p.m. RSVP at tinyurl.com/wcbg-nov3 or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu

General Visitor Hours start Fri., Nov. 11: Tues.-Fri., 12:00 - 4:00 p.m (Closed for holidays and campus breaks)

To plan a visit, please check for up-to-date information including event closures and parking on our website: wellesley.edu/wcbg

Follow us on Instagram: @wellesleybotanicgardens and@wellesleybotanicalart

No Sweat?: A Summer of Horticultural Exploration

This past June to August, eight full-time interns joined the Botanic Gardens team for a nine-and-a-half week internship of daily hands-on horticultural experiences. This summer, we piloted two new features. For the first time, Botanic Gardens interns split their time between our own gardens and the neighboring Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Elm Bank gardens, where they worked on a restoration project, supported educational programs, and learned about garden operations from a variety of staff members.

In addition, for the first time two interns held specialized roles. Marcela Hernandez ’23 focused on creating informational media, including multiple videos, about the Botanic Gardens

This summer interns happily enjoyed larger group field trips and in-person alumnae visits, which had been on hiatus during the pandemic. Jenny Goldleaf ’12 led a hands-on landscape design workshop, and Alejandra Narvaez ’20 hosted a lively conversation on environmental careers and navigating the workplace. Students also visited The Food Project farm in Lincoln, Garden in the Woods in Framingham, and the Museum of Science, among other local botanical spots.

When asked to reflect on their experience at the end of the summer, interns had a range of insights. Rohini Narayanan ’25 was excited to delve deeper after working during their first year as a WCBG student assistant. They explained that, “through this internship, I was able to see many different types of horticultural work. I realized that I’m particularly interested in how plants function and adapt, which made me rearrange my class schedule to add biology next semester! I am also interested in decolonization and intersections with race in botanical spaces. Exposure to different horticultural organizations made me realize that there is a lot of work to be done in these areas.”

Maeve Galvin ’25 thrived on the camaraderie. “The sense of community this internship holds was my favorite part of the summer. Everyone was exceptionally warm and welcoming, never leaving me to feel stressed or that I didn’t belong. I’m really grateful for the little touches that made us feel we were appreciated like the

and this summer’s intern experience. Her goal was to help the Gardens reach more students and better support the community at Wellesley and beyond. Kayli Hattley ’22, who has worked with the Botanic Gardens all her four years as a student, led the intern team in community building, orientation activities, and as a near-peer mentor throughout the summer.

WCBG interns also worked with Paulson Initiative interns on their summer project of removing pervasive species like roundleaved bittersweet, wisteria and yellow iris, and using them to create beautiful natural crafts and dyes. Together they led collaborative tours, scavenger hunts, and other botanical activities for the campus community to enjoy over the summer.

Other elements of the summer internship experience were more familiar. Interns provided essential work to keep our gardens growing, from pruning, planting and weeding outdoors, to completing plant inventories and implementing integrated pest management in Global Flora, to propagating houseplants for the annual New Student Plant Giveaway in September.

snacks, CSA shares and activities. This internship has brought me a deep connection to the land that I live on and love.”

All the summer interns likely shared Shea McCarthy’s ’23 conclusion, “I’ve gained an appreciation for all the labor that goes into keeping gardens and green spaces healthy and beautiful. It is not an easy feat.”

by Jenn Yang ’12, WCBG Associate Director

Jenny Goldleaf ’12 (left) shares ideas for the Global Flora landscape design with summer interns.

Kathryn Zaia ’25 and Rena Ramaraju ’25 practice pruning cuts in the Rhododendron Dell during a training workshop.

Kayli Hattley ’22—Not Gonna Let Her Leave

You’ve probably seen her picture before, in our newsletter or Instagram or spotlighted on Wellesley’s website. Kayli Hattley’s career as a student was remarkably rich and impactful within and beyond the Botanic Gardens. Now she is embarking on a second act at Wellesley, and it is amazing to have her as a colleague!

Kayli came to Wellesley in 2018 as a Posse Foundation Scholar from Houston. Interested in people, medicine, and community, she became a Biology major and took on increasing responsibilities in the campus Residential Life program, culminating as house president for Tower Court. In the summer of 2019 Kayli was working as an Orientation Coordinator in the Dean of Students office and looking for additional work on campus. I introduced her to the brand new Global Flora conservatory and saw her eyes light up at the mangrove tank and paludarium.

From an initial research project that summer on how best to sample water quality in these planted mini-ecosystems, Kayli became the leader of the Global Flora Fish Team for the next three years. She declared Global Flora her second home, and took responsibility for regular monitoring of fish behavior, water chemistry and tank maintenance along with trouble-shooting everything from fish illness and algae blooms to pump failures. A strong systems thinker with great scientific curiosity, Kayli gained a great depth of understanding of these aquatic ecosystems, training other students along the way. She also got to know the plants through hands-on horticulture shifts and serving as a greenhouse weekend waterer. Somehow she also did research in developmental biology with Professor Yui Suzuki, worked several hours a week at a pharmacy, and played drums and violin, earning a minor in Music. And in the summer of 2020, she did an internship with the Paulson Ecology of Place Initiative exploring effects of the Texas landscape on equity and inclusion, with a focus

on fostering connections to nature and improving science communication.

After graduation in May, we brought her back as the Mildred Kemper Intern to help lead our summer student interns, who were unanimous in praising Kayli as a positive force and role model.

Now Kayli has taken a leap to administration as the new Program Coordinator for the Frost Center for the Environment, which has big goals to connect all environmentally-interested people and groups on campus into a collaborative community. Just two weeks into the job, Kayli helped run an outstanding Project Handprint Symposium, including moderating a panel of amazing alumnae working towards positive impacts on intersectional issues of climate justice and health.

The Frost Center should be a great platform for Kayli to continue having her own positive impact on Wellesley and beyond, and we are excited to collaborate with her and be part of this hub of environmental activity on campus. Congratulations, Kayli! We’re so glad you’re (still) here.

by Kristina Niovi Jones, WCBG Director

Welcome New Botanic Gardens Staff

Kayli (third from left) with the summer interns at a design workshop in July.

Interim Gardens Horticulturist Rachel Moon is enthusiastically filling in for Anne Beckley.

Postbac Fellow Chelsea Braz is interested in landscape design and climate resilience.

New Greenhouse Horticulturist Sean Halloran has taken over Tony Antonucci’s duties.

Returning to her Roots: Courtney Streett ’09

Staying connected with Wellesley botanical alumnae is a gift. Courtney Streett ’09, an Environmental Studies and Africana Studies major at Wellesley, shared stories of her favorite greenhouse memories in an interview in the Spring 2022 Blue Heron Quarterly, a newsletter created by students and staff of the Paulson Initiative. Courtney reconnected with the Botanic Gardens in several ways over the pandemic, including hosting a fall 2020 Zoom conversation with Wellesley students about her journey and work with the Native Roots Farm Foundation (NRFF), of which she is co-founder and President/Executive Director. She returned to campus in person this fall to lead a workshop in the Edible Ecosystem at The Project Handprint Symposium.

the greenhouse including Tony Antonucci and Professor Kristina Jones; they’re an incredible team and so welcoming. I really loved being able to just be in nature in the greenhouse. Tony would come over and tell me about the swiss cheese plant or tell me about various other plants as he was making his rounds. It’s one of my favorite spots on campus.

How did working in the Botanic Gardens affect your experience at Wellesley and your experiences after you graduated?

My junior year, I did research with Kristina Jones, investigating whether plants are producing more flowers and seeds and are happier with non-organic or organic fertilizer. The evidence was clear; organic was the way to go. The fertilizer that we used in the experiment I still use today on my own land! The community in the Botanic Gardens and the greenhouses really made a huge difference and had an impact on me. Everybody there is incredibly kind, thoughtful, generous, encouraging and enthusiastic about what they’re doing. When NRFF has land that we’re working on, and when anybody comes ready to get their hands dirty, I hope that I can be that encouraging and have those kind words and be the role model that they were for me.

How has your personal experience shaped how you think about land use and agriculture?

Project Handprint was launched in 2013 to connect alumnae who work toward a positive impact (“handprint” rather than “footprint”) on the environment and fight climate change in different fields and industries. On September 24, many botanical alumnae returned for the first Project Handprint Symposium since the pandemic, hosted by the Frost Center for the Environment, the Paulson Initiative, and the Botanic Gardens.

The excerpts below are from the interview which was conducted by Rachel Carethers ’24.

Where on campus did you feel a sense of belonging?

I would say the greenhouses. My mom’s family was from the Caribbean, and my dad’s family does not do winter. I only operate when it’s above 70°F. So, to have the literal warmth of the greenhouse in a snowy New England winter or spring was just super comforting. And, to have the warmth of the people at

In many Indigenous cultures, people have a relationship with every aspect of the natural world. This is a tree, this is water, this is a rock. We have a relationship with it even though it may be a rock, or an inanimate object. For indigenous communities, it is considered animate. It’s important to recognize that relationship and take care of that relationship. You respect the natural world and in turn, it respects you, it nurtures you. This is something that I’ve learned through NRFF, through reading, and through interaction with our chiefs in Delaware. I didn’t realize it as a child or as a young adult. It is only in the past few years that I truly recognized my relationship with the natural world, and my entire life has been appreciating this and celebrating plants.

Do you have a favorite native plant on the farm? Did you plant it or was it already there?

Depends on the season, or the month, and what’s in bloom. I love redbuds and they’re edible! Redbud was the first edible wild plant that I learned about and that I recognized. In the late summer, it’s probably pawpaw or maypop or sunflowers. Wintertime: witch hazel. The leaves are beautiful and they’re blooming in December.

Learn more about Native Roots Farm Foundation: nativerootsde.org or follow them on Instagram: @nativeroots_de.

Courtney leads Project Handprint participants to the Edible Ecosystem.

Learn With Us

WCBG Friends is offering both remote and in-person instruction for our fall and winter courses. Check individual course listings for details.

Remote instruction will be through the Zoom video conferencing app. In-person instruction is taking place at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Gardens at Elm Bank on a limited, socially distant basis.

Mass Hort has two classrooms at Elm Bank available for our use: the Cheney classroom in the Education Center the Putnam classroom, next to the production greenhouses

Pre-registration is required for all classes. Specific directions to the classroom will be sent along with the materials list prior to the start of the class.

See more course offerings on our website: www.wellesley.edu/wcbg/learn Courses are announced via email to our current art students. Email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu to be added to our course emails.

Drawing and Painting for the Petrified

Especially for beginners!

Sarah Roche encourages your observational skills to grow in this relaxed seminar with plenty of helpful demonstrations. All experience levels welcome.

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3 Wednesdays: Nov. 2, 9, 16 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. In person at Putnam classroom, Elm Bank Members $150 | Non-Members $175

Capturing Seasonal Color: Fall Treasures

Tara Connaughton helps you sharpen your drawing and painting skills through small studies of fall treasures such as leaves and dried fruits. For students who have completed at least one Foundations class.

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4 mornings: Wed. & Fri., Nov. 2, 4, 9 & 11 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Online via Zoom Members $150 | Non-Members $190

Celebrating the Season: Holiday Card Workshop

Sarah Roche helps you create a painting with pen, ink and watercolor that can be used for holiday cards, gift tags and notepaper. For Techniques and experienced Foundations students.

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2 mornings: Dec. 8 & 9 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. In person at Putnam classroom, Elm Bank Members $135 | Non-Members $175

Tonal Drawing Review

Carol Ann Morley reviews fundamentals of light and shade in drawing. Revisit the basic shapes of cubes, cones, spheres and cylinders and observe how these shapes underlie all forms in nature.

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1 day: Mon., Jan. 9 (snow date: Jan. 13) 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. In person at Elm Bank Members $125 | Non-Members $165

Tonal Drawing Applied

Give your drawings clarity, balance and visual depth. Carol Ann Morley helps you interpret natural forms through their underlying basic shape and the study of light on form.

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3 days: Tues., Jan. 10 – Thurs., Jan. 12 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. (snow date: Fri., Jan. 13)

In person at Elm Bank Members $325 | Non-Members $400

Back to Basics: Create Your Own Sketchbook

Tara Connaughton teaches you how to bind your own one-of-a-kind sketchbook using your favorite watercolor paper and a bookbinding kit. (Students will receive details on the recommended kit to order).

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1 day: Wed., Jan. 18 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Online via Zoom Members $75 | Non-Members $100

Botanical Art on Instagram

In June, the WCBG Friends Botanical Art Program introduced a new Instagram account. By sharing about classes and instructors and by featuring our students’ work, we hope to introduce our program to potential students and instructors worldwide. We’re thrilled to be able to share our love of botanical art and our program on social media. Be sure to check us out at @wellesleybotanicalart. Student botanical artists, please tag us so we can share your art on our account!

© Tara Connaughton

© Sarah Roche

We’ll Miss You, Tony

and cleaning out crevices where pests might hide, as well as making it look better.” Alumnae have returned to tell him about the sense of calm they cherished while doing mundane gardening tasks.

Every docent leading a group through the greenhouses has enjoyed running into Tony, who led tours himself in the early years. He would often interrupt his work to explain what he was doing and why, enlightening the docent as well as the visitors. He might explain that removing scale insects from a plant mechanically, carefully rubbing and cleaning each leaf, as opposed to spraying it with insecticide, benefits both the plant and the soil beneath by avoiding a build-up of pesticide residue. Or he might point out a tree frog resting on the trunk of the big cycad, delighting adults as well as children.

Of course the major challenge of Tony’s recent years has been taking care of the

plants during the demolition and rebuilding of the greenhouses and then in Global Flora during the pandemic. It was an enormous project—triaging plants, disposing of some, giving away others, moving and caring for the remainder in their various storage locations. It feels like a miracle to see the Banyan tree, which had its huge aerial roots

cut back severely and lived in a box in a Hunnewell Estate glasshouse for months, today growing toward the ceiling in the temperate zone of Global Flora. Nearby, the cannonball tree, which spent its outcast years in the Focus of the Science Center and lost all its leaves multiple times, is now fully leafed out. Will it flower again? It looks as if it has a chance.

And what does the future hold for Tony? He has no concrete plans. Back before he started at Wellesley he enjoyed bicycletouring. Maybe he’ll ride to the Cape, he says. He can’t see himself sitting under a tree. “I’m young at heart and I want to get stuff done.” His wife Kathy has a “honeydo” list for him, so he’ll start with that. Afterwards . . . well the world is wide and they like to travel, especially to the tropics.

by Vivi Leavy ’62, Newsletter Editor Tony explained scale removal to Emma Conrad-Rooney ’20.