Connecticut Flower & Garden Show
Connecticut Convention Center
Sun, Feb 26, 2017
11:00 AM- 4:30 PM
Sunday is the second day of our two-day educational seminar at the Connecticut Flower & Garden Show. We are featuring four speakers on Sunday (described below), in addition to our four speakers on the day before, Saturday, February 25. Click here to see Saturday's lineup of talks and be sure to visit us at Booth B in the landscape display area.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
11:00 a.m.
Highlights from the Garden Conservancy and Open Days
Speaker George Shakespear will take participants on a virtual tour of some of the outstanding American gardens that have been featured in the Garden Conservancy’s signature Open Days program or have been part of the organization’s preservation work. Get inspiration for your own garden from the work of the country’s best gardeners and professional designers.
George Shakespear is the director of communications at the Garden Conservancy. His immersion in gardening began in early childhood and was nurtured by many 4-H Club projects in Michigan. In 1995 and 1996, he and his wife were among the first Open Days garden hosts in Westchester County, New York.
George joined the Garden Conservancy staff in 2009. Prior to that, he was director of science public relations at the New York Botanical Garden and in corporate communications and advertising at J.P. Morgan for eighteen years. George has BA and MFA degrees from Yale University.
12:30 p.m.
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Since the time of ancient Persia, gardens, orchards, and parks have long provided respite as spaces of beauty and personal restoration. Our speaker Florence Williams will explore the emerging science of nature and human health, and what research is revealing about cognition, creativity and mental health. These insights take on more urgency as we become an increasingly urban species, more and more disconnected from our natural world. Learn how gardens can help us reacquaint ourselves with all that nature offers. Photo by Sue Barr
Florence Williams is a contributing editor at Outside magazine and a freelance writer for the New York Times; New York Times Magazine; New York Review of Books; Slate; Mother Jones; High Country News; O, The Oprah Magazine; W Magazine; Bicycling; and numerous other publications. A fellow at the Center for Humans and Nature and a visiting scholar at George Washington University, Williams’s work focuses on the environment, health, and science. In 2007-08, she was a Scripps Fellow at the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado. She has received many awards, including six magazine awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the John Hersey Prize at Yale. Her work has been anthologized in numerous books, including Outside 25, The New Montana Story, How the West Was Warmed, and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008.
Williams was named Author of the Week by The Week in May, 2012. Wall Street Journal calls her writing “droll and crisp,” which makes her feel like a pastry. Her first book, Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History (W.W. Norton, 2012) received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in science and technology and the 2013 Audie in general nonfiction. It was also named a notable book of 2012 by the New York Times. She serves on the board of her favorite non-profit, High Country News, and lives with her family in Washington, DC.
2:00 p.m.
Rediscovering Summer Blooming Bulbs
Take a new look at old-fashioned, or out-of-fashion, bulbs and tubers such as gladiolus, caladiums, tuberous begonia, and dahlias, and discover new friends like ornithogalum, tuberoses, and galtonia. Learn about their history and culture in both containers and garden beds and get tips on container designs and plant combinations. Find out how potted summer bulbs can be used as temporary display plants on decks, terraces, and in the garden.
Speaker Matt Mattus is editor and publisher of Plant Society magazine and the popular rare plant blog “Growing with Plants.”
3:30 p.m.
Ideas for Creating a Beautiful, Deer-Resistant Garden
The population of white-tailed deer in our area is wreaking havoc on our gardens. Deer seem to eat everything we plant! This has dampened people’s enthusiasm for gardening and it feels like we are simply feeding the deer. What to do? Join landscape designer Jan Johnsen, author of the popular garden design book Heaven is a Garden, as she shares inventive ways to create a beautiful garden without erecting a deer fence or spraying every few days. Johnsen will highlight great deer-resistant plants and show how to combine them to create an eye-catching garden. Her beautiful photos of deer-resistant garden ideas are guaranteed to re-ignite your gardening enthusiasm!
Jan Johnsen is a highly regarded landscape designer, author, and teacher with a passion for plants and beautiful gardens. In her latest book, Heaven is a Garden (St. Lynn’s Press, 2014), she draws on ancient traditions and modern trends to reveal the deep connection between the natural world and our emotions. An advocate of the transformational power of nature upon our well-being, she is an award-winning instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and writes the popular blog “Serenity in the Garden.” She is a co-principal of Johnsen Landscapes & Pools, a design/build firm in Westchester County, NY. Her Facebook page is “Heaven is a Garden.”
Location
The Connecticut Convention Center
100 Columbus Blvd. #400
Seminar Room #12
Hartford, CT 06103
Date and Time
Sunday, February 26, 2017
11:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
The Garden Conservancy will also have a table at the flower show on Thursday, February 23 and Friday, February 24, and four additional speakers on Saturday, February 25.
Ticketse
$18 Adults
$5 Children ages 5-12
Children under age 5 are free of charge.
Tickets will be available at the door on the day of the event.
For additional information about these talks, please call Jennifer Hausler at Garden Conservancy headquarters in New York at 845.424.6500, ext. 212 (M-F, 9-5 Eastern Time).
For information about the flower show, visit the Connecticut Flower & Garden Show website.