june 7 tour, plus wildflower talk

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DO YOU ADMIRE SPRING WILDFLOWERS, and want to learn more about these gems of the native landscape? Plan to attend acclaimed naturalist and author Carol Gracie’s 11 AM lecture “Spring Wildflowers: A Closer Look,” happening just down the road from my house in Copake Falls, New York, when you attend my Saturday, June 7, Garden Conservancy Open Day and plant sale. (That’s my front yard around show time, above.)

in brief:

Garden open 10 AM to 4 PM (get directions; $5 suggested charity donation at gate)
Broken Arrow Nursery plant sale at Margaret’s garden, 10-4
Carol Gracie spring wildflower lecture, 11 AM (buy your ticket in advance); proceeds benefit a local greening charity, Friends of Taconic State Park.
Lots of other local sights, from dramatic woodland and waterfall hikes to farmers markets to scenic rail-trail biking…all detailed at this link.

carol gracie lecture details:

BESIDES THE SHIFT in weather, spring brings the chance to see native wildflowers, whether on hikes in wild spaces, or cultivated stands of them in our gardens. After attending “Spring Wildflowers: A Closer Look,” you will never see these plants quite the same way again, wherever you come upon them. And you will want to add every one to your shade borders.

k9668 Acclaimed naturalist Carol Gracie likes to go beyond their obvious beauty and look even closer at spring’s native flowers like trilliums and trout lilies, baneberry and blue cohosh and more. Carol, author of “Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History” from Princeton University Press, and a longtime staffer of the New York Botanical Garden who also worked for the Nature Conservancy, says her own intense curiosity has led her to look beyond the beauty of the blooms and find out more–about their life histories, their lore, and even their cultural uses, including in modern medicine.

With intimate photos and her deep understanding of the “why’s” and “what’s going on?” Carol will reveal the fascinating life histories of these plants and more, including curiosities of pollination, seed dispersal and even predation (the “who eats what?”) of the woodland community they often hail from.

Buy your ticket in advance.

(Read or listen to Margaret’s recent interview with Carol Gracie for more information about her work.)

garden open day details:

CAROL GRACIE’S TALK COINCIDES with the second of four 2014 Open Days at my garden, plus a plant sale by Broken Arrow Nursery. The garden in Copake Falls, NY, is just down the road from the church where Carol’s 11 AM lecture will be held.

Garden and plant sale happen from 10 AM to 4 PM. Directions and such at the Garden Conservancy website. A $5 suggested donation to the Conservancy can be made at the gate; no tickets required for the garden visit. Other Garden Conservancy Open Day gardens nearby that are open May 10 are also detailed on the Conservancy website page.

My other 2014 Open Days are August 16 and September 20. Details to follow.

plant sale details (yes, you can pre-order!)

BROKEN ARROW, one of the most acclaimed rare-plant nurseries in the country, will be in the driveway at my place from 10-4 on each Open Day, selling some of my favorite woody and herbaceous plants–and theirs. If you want to pre-order a particular things from their even-larger inventory, or a bigger, landscape size of some item, contact Adam Wheeler ahead of time (or call the nursery at 203-288-1026) to discuss what you are seeking, and it will be delivered here that day, just for you. Browse their offerings.

rethinking the lawn, with dan wilder

THE LECTURE that he’s been giving for a number of years is not-so-subtly called “Kill Your Lawn.” Ecological horticulturist Dan Jaffe Wilder knows that starting over and creating an entire native habitat instead of a lawn isn’t for everyone. But Dan just wants to grab our attention and get us to start to make some changes at least in the way we care for the turfgrass we do want in our landscapes. And maybe give up a little square footage of it to some other kind of more diverse planting, too, like the wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana, inset). Alternative, more eco-focused styles of lawn care, along with some lawn alternatives is what he and I talked about on the podcast. Dan is Director of Applied Ecology at Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Wales, Massachusetts, and its 8,000-acre sanctuary. He’s also co-author with Mark Richardson of the book “Native Plants for New England Gardens.”