April 20, 2013:Karen Rexrode is a great plantswoman and photographer. Former owner of Windy Hill Plant Farm, Karen is widely sought as a speaker on many plant topics. Janet Draper is a horticulturist with the Smithsonian, in charge of the Ripley Garden, an exquisite Washington, DC landmark. There is so much perennial and other plant knowledge between these two women, all of your questions will be answered! Topics have not yet narrowed down, but this will be an event!!!
Karen Rexrode
Janet Draper
Future Meetings - Unless so noted for an individual meeting - All Meetings are at Blandy in the Library.
2012 - 2013 Programs
September 22, 2012: Allen Hirsh is a plant cold hardiness scientist, ex-nurseryman
and exotic gardener in Silver Spring, MD. His unusual background enables him to lecture
in depth on both interesting plants and winter challenges in the garden. David M.
Roos has a gardening design and consulting practice, worked in nurseries, writes
a newspaper column and gives garden lectures. He has received his design training
at the New York Botanical Garden's Landscape Design certificate program in New York
City. Mr. Roos' gardening philosophy emphasizes a hands-on approach and common sense
practicality. Known for his strident views, Mr. Roos favors the elimination of Latin,
petrochemicals, white-tailed deer and mechanized equipment from the garden.
Allen Hirsh:Cold Hardiness in Plants
David Roos: Gardening 2012
March 16, 2013: Elizabeth Rives is an Environmental Educator for the Alice Ferguson Foundation's award-winning Bridging the Watershed program. She also teaches fall and winter woody plant identification for the Graduate School/Audubon Naturalist Society's Natural History Field Studies certificate program and leads field trips for numerous conservation organizations. Elizabeth teaches tree selection for Tree Stewards of Arlington-Alexandria trainees, and has conducted tree ID surveys, advised on tree care, and researched native flora. B.A., University of Virginia; Certified Naturalist, Graduate School/ANS. Peter Deahl is a certified arborist and owner of The Pruning School, teaching biologically correct pruning techniques to professionals and interested gardeners. In his spare time, he is an accomplished birder, federally licensed to band raptors, and an interpretive naturalist.
Elizabeth Rives – Winter Tree Identification
Peter Deahl – Caring for trees and shrubs
November 17, 2012: Thomas Rainer is a registered landscape architect, teacher, and writer living in Arlington, Virginia. Thomas is an advocate for an ecologically expressive design aesthetic that does not imitate nature, but interprets it. Thomas has designed landscapes for the U.S. Capitol grounds, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and The New York Botanical Garden, as well as many other gardens. A landscape architect for the firm, Rhodeside & Harwell, he teaches planting design at George Washington University. He blogs regularly at the award winning site Grounded Design. Claudia West grew up in a family-owned landscape nursery that specializes in garden design and perennial, woody and cut flower production. Claudia holds a Master's of Landscape Architecture & Landscape Planning from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Previously, she served as a design consultant for Wolfgang Oehme/Carol Oppenheimer: Landscape Architecture, and was employed at Bluemount Nurseries and Sylva Native Nursery. She has an extensive background in horticulture, ecology, and environmental restoration and is a consultant to North Creek Nurseries. NOTE: This meeting will be held at the Learning Center, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley at Glen Burnie in Winchester. The address is 801 Amherst St, Winchester, VA 22601 and their website is www.shenandoahmuseum.org
Thomas Rainer: Advanced Compositional Strategies for Landscape Design
Claudia West: Landscape Color Spectrum in Native Plant Landscape Design
Member Only Tour
On June 8, Richard and Judy Mazzucchelli will host a tour of the gardens at Samarate
for the members of the Piedmont-Blue Ridge Horticulture Society. Samarate, named
after the family’s ancestral home in northern Italy, contains an exquisite walled
garden.
The following description is based on an earlier Garden Club tour:
Owners Judy and Richard Mazzucchelli have been avid gardeners for many years in
addition to having a keen interest in colonial Virginia history. With the assistance
of landscape designer Lisbeth Prins, these interests combined to become the design
theme for their 12,000 square foot brick walled garden, begun in 2008.
The approach from the house to the garden is by brick path and steps leading down
the three curved terraces that are reminiscent of an 18th century riverfront estate.
The terraces are planted with native and deer resistant plant varieties.
Inside the 7.5 feet high walls, clad in the Flemish bond brick pattern prevalent
in the colonial period, a center brick-lined gravel walk bisects the garden. A dry
stacked stone retaining wall, created with native stone gathered on the property,
separates the two garden tiers.
The upper tier pleasure garden is divided into various “rooms” lined with boxwood
hedges and English borders planted with a variety of perennials, spring bulbs, and
parterres formed of holly.
The retaining wall, over-planted with boxwood, separates the lower tier containing
the orchard, vegetable and cutting gardens. A replica of an octagon garden building
used by George Washington at Mount Vernon, based on plans generously shared by the
estate is at the southeast corner.
This will be a very special tour. Registration will be required.
www.pbrhs.org * Copyright 2012 * Design by Evan Clements
