Lectures & Workshops
Spring Lecture Series
Doors open at 7 pm and programs begin promptly at 7:30. Please renew your membership at this meeting, or join for the first time.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
7:30 p.m. — Whatcom Museum, Bellingham
Tickets at the door: $7 Members $12 General
Paul Bonine
Xera’s Favorites
You won’t want to miss our first 2013 lecture titled “Xera’s Favorites” presented by Paul Bonine. Paul is a lifelong plantsman, garden writer, lecturer, and owner of the specialty plant nursery Xera Plants, near Portland, Oregon. His talk will feature 32 of the nurserys favorite plants that are Zone 7 hardy.
Paul has worked in the nursery industry for nearly twenty years and been a consultant for NPR, the Sunset Western Garden Book, and The Oregonian.
In 2000 Paul co-founded his nursery with the goal of selling to independent retail nurseries that have an emphasis on organic methods, drought-tolerant plants, and plants adapted to natural rainfall. Xera's market soon stretched from the central Willamette Valley of Oregon all the way north to Puget Sound.
When he is not in his nursery, Paul spends his time writing and on the lecture circuit. He resides in Portland, where he continues to test and select new and useful plants for Pacific Northwest gardens. In 2009 his book Black Plants, in which he profiles 75 of the most alluring plants with black foliage, was published. Paul will be bringing some of his specialty plants to sell at the lecture.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
7:30 p.m. — Whatcom Museum, Bellingham
Tickets at the door: $7 Members $12 General
Lucy Hardiman
Gardening Where We Live: A Northwest Convergence
The Pacific Northwest is a horticultural hotbed of sustainable practices, great gardens, garden makers and the best nurseries in the country. Innovative gardeners throughout the region have created gardens that are historic and heartfelt, functional and fun, bold and beautiful, original and organic, sassy and sensory. Join Lucy for a look at our own horticultural convergence.
Lucy Hardiman, Portland’s celebrated garden designer and writer is a fifth generation Oregon gardener. She is the principal of Perennial Partners, a garden design collaborative, distinguished by their innovative hardscape, playful planting design, creative approaches to problem solving and use of ecological and sustainable practices. She is a past president of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, board member of the Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection and a member of the ‘Great Plant Picks’ perennials committee.
Lucy was a contributing editor for Horticulture Magazine from 2005-2011, is the garden editor for Oregon Home Magazine as well as currently writing for regional and national publications. Her garden is a testimony to her passion for plants, design and colorful accoutrements and has been featured in many books and magazines including Martha Stewart Living and Small Gardens.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
7:30 p.m. — Whatcom Museum, Bellingham
Tickets at the door: $7 Members $12 General
Richard Hartlage
The Chihuly Garden & Glass: On Making the Garden
Recently opened in May 2012, the Chihuly Garden and Glass, located at Seattle Center, provides a look at the inspiration and influences that inform the career of artist Dale Chihuly. It includes an Exhibition Hall, the centerpiece Glasshouse and a lush Garden. The Exhibition Hall contains eight galleries and three Drawing Walls, offering visitors a comprehensive look at Chihuly’s significant series of work; the Glasshouse presents a suspended 1,400-piece, 100-foot-long sculpture and the Garden is a backdrop for four monumental sculptures and other installations.
Through 5 years of planning, Richard will tell us how the new Chihuly Gardens and Glass was designed, installed and how it will be grown into the future. In the spring of 2012, he and his team installed almost 40,000 plants from a selection of nearly 150 different varieties. For a spectacular floral display this spring, they planted 20,000 bulbs in the fall of 2012. Hear Richard explain how his collaboration with the Chihuly Studios was an essential part of the experience of the glass art and its integration with the garden.
Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Richard is a graduate in Ornamental Horticulture from North Carolina State University. In 2010, he received and Outstanding Alumni Award for contributions to public horticulture and landscape architecture. As Director of the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Gardens in Seattle, Richard initiated the highly successful regional education program, ‘Great Plant Picks’, which promotes the best performing plants for the Pacific Northwest.
Richard has his own firm, Land Morphology and is working with private and public clients in NY, NJ, CT, NC, IL and WA. He completed the New Herb & Vegetable Garden at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, the first new garden built in twenty years at this venerable institution.
His work has been featured in the New York Times, Metropolitan Home, Architectural Digest, At Home, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Traditional Home, Pacific Horticulture, Garden Design, The Seattle Times in addition to other publications in the United States, Japan and Europe. He is currently working on a comprehensive book on American garden design.
Save the dates ...
April 25 • Members Only Pot Party • Squalicum Boathouse
June 29 • Annual Tour of Gardens Pre-Tour and Volunteer Party
July 13 & 14 • 27th Annual Tour of Private Gardens
August • Summer Field Trip