Workshops, Talks & Tours


Gardens of Lower Manhattan
A Tour with Nancy Berner & Susan Lowry
Wednesday, September 8

Explore the lesser known public gardens of Lower Manhattan with "Garden Guide: New York City" experts Nancy Berner and Susan Lowry, who will reveal the wonders of special places like Hanover Square Garden, the Elevated Acre at 55 Water St., and the Gardens at the Battery in this farewell to summer tour.

Please note: The first 5 registrants for this tour will receive a free copy of the revised edition of
 Garden Guide New York City.

Tour begins at 6pm;
The British Garden at Hanover Square
Hort members $10; non-members $20
REGISTER ONLINE or call (212) 757-0915 x109





Hort Book Club Meeting
Tuesday, September 14

The Hort Library Book Club meets to discuss
"Oak: Frame of Civilization" by William Bryant Logan. The book thoroughly explores the many contributions the tree has made to the flourishing of western civilization in lively, insightful prose that is a pleasure to read.

Join us as we resume our monthly discussions of some of the best books on gardening, the environment, landscape design, natural history and plant hunting. We welcome your participation!

Meet Bill Logan at the Hort for the screening of 'Dirt'...



Meeting begins at 6pm
For more information and to RSVP,
please email kpowis@hsny.org



Tranquility by Design: Creating a Serenity Garden
A Lecture with Jan Johnsen
Thursday, September 16




"There is life in a stone, a plant, a tree and even water. When we are in a serene garden we connect to an 'aliveness' that resides in these living forms..."
-Jan Johnsen

We are pleased to welcome award winning landscape designer and author, Jan Johnsen as she reveals little known design secrets that can be applied to any outdoor space, large or small. Find out why a garden on the north side of a house is best suited for a viewing garden and why east is considered 'the most auspicious direction'. Learn what the 'moth theory' is and how to use it for the best outdoor lighting layout! Enjoy a lively discussion about geomagnetics and determining the 'power spot' in a landscape. And discover how the colors in a garden can arouse or calm and which plants are best for a serene outdoor space...Look at her blog for more about this.

Jan Johnsen has been in the professional landscape design and planning professions for over 35 years. She has worked in landscape architecture offices in Japan, Kenya, Hawaii, Vermont and New York. Her firm, Johnsen Landscapes & Pools designs and installs large scale projects in the Northeast. She teaches at Columbia University and the New York Botanical Garden. She is currently writing a book about her unique approach to landscape design.

Doors open at 6pm; Lecture starts at 6:30pm
Hort members $5; non-members $15
REGISTER ONLINE or call (212) 757-0915 x115







Botanic Watercolor Explorations
A workshop with Albert Massimi
Monday, September 20




Fall flowers and watercolor - the perfect combination! Learn how to capture the beauty of nature and improve your painting skills. We will focus on using warm and cool colors to your advantage, adding dimension to a work of art, designing with a focus in mind and creating a balanced composition. Whether you are a beginner or have been painting for some time, the goal is to move your art to another level.

Albert Massimi is President of the Brooklyn Watercolor Society. While in the Peace Corps in Korea, he studied brush and ink with a Korean master. Upon completing his graduate degree from Columbia University, he began painting at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where he has been teaching botanic watercolor classes for the past several years. His work has been exhibited throughout the metropolitan area. You can view his work on his website, albertleemassimi.com.

Morning Session: 10am to 1pm
Afternoon Session: 2 to 5pm
Course Fee (for both sessions): Hort Members $100; Non-members $135
REGISTER ONLINE or call (212) 757-0915 x121
Click here to view a list of materials (PDF)



The Complete Mushroom Hunter
A lecture & workshop with Gary Lincoff
Tuesday, October 12 (tentative date)



Gathering edible wild food is a wonderful way to forge a connection to the earth. Mushrooms are the ultimate local food source; they grow literally everywhere, from Central Park to your own backyard. The Complete Mushroom Hunter: An Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying Wild Mushrooms invites readers to connect with a hobby that will enrich their understanding of the natural world and build an appreciation for an ancient, critically relevant, and useful body of knowledge. Here, amateur mycologists and mushroom enthusiasts will find a source and guidebook for their passion. Mushroom guru Gary Lincoff escorts the reader from the mushroom's earliest culinary awakening, through getting started and equipped for mushroom forays, to preparing and serving the fruits of the foray, wherever you live. This is the only mushrooming book that treats you to the not-so "underground" hobby of mushroom hunting and gathering.

Gary will be presenting an illustrated lecture on his new book and leading a workshop with a hands-on demonstration of how to create your own mushroom spore print. All supplies will be included. (Sample print below.)

Gary Lincoff is the author, co-author or editor of several books and articles on mushrooms, including The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. He teaches courses on mushroom identification and use at the New York Botanical garden. He has led mushroom study trips and forays to 30 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and South, Central, and North America. Lincoff co founded and helped organize the Telluride Mushroom Festival for 25 years (1980-2004), and still participates as its principal speaker. Gary Lincoff is also a featured “myco visionary” in the award-winning documentary Know Your Mushrooms, by Ron Mann.

Doors open at 6pm; Lecture starts at 6:30pm
Space is limited, RSVP required
Hort members $10; non-members $25
REGISTER ONLINE or call (212) 757-0915 x115






Painting Autumn Apples in Watercolor
A workshop with Karen Kluglein
Monday, October 18




October is apple picking time and the orchards are full of many varieties in a wondrous display of color. Besides being delicious to eat they can be a beautiful subject for botanical painting. The form of the apple and texture of a branch or leaves can be very interesting. Students will observe, compose, draw and paint in watercolor, working with volume, color, and texture. Apples, fresh from the orchard, will be provided as subjects.

Karen Kluglein graduated from The School of Visual Arts and worked as a commercial food illustrator. Her love of painting nature inspired her to pursue her talent as a botanical artist. Kluglein is currently represented by Susan Frei Nathan Fine Works on Paper, NY, and The River Gallery, Chattanooga, TN. Her work is in private collections throughout the country and she has received numerous awards for her botanical masterpieces. She currently lives and works in East Hampton, NY.

Two of Kluglein’s paintings are featured in The 13th Annual International Juried Botanical Art Exhibition, currently on view at The Hort Gallery through November 24.

Morning Session: 10am to 1pm
Afternoon Session: 2 to 5pm
Course Fee (for both sessions): Hort Members $100; Non-members $135
REGISTER ONLINE or call (212) 757-0915 x121
Click here to view a list of materials (PDF)



No Experience Necessary: Drawing in Graphite
A workshop with Carol E. Hamilton
Friday, November 19




If you’ve always wanted to learn to draw this is the class for you! With tools as simple as pencil and paper, we will develop the building blocks of realistic drawing technique that are the gateway to all other media. The workshop will focus on training eye and hand, as we learn to take control of the pencil for shading, creating texture, mastering perspective, identifying and drawing the basic shapes, and employing classical light and shadow to bring your subject matter to life.

Carol E. Hamilton has paintings in the collections of the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium and a number of private collections. Her work has been shown extensively in museums, galleries and botanical institutions. The watercolorist is published in Today’s Botanical Artists, by Marcus and Kyer (Schiffer, 2008). She is also the 2009 recipient of the "ASBA Award for Service to Botanical Art" for her 10 years of service to the Board. Hamilton has served as President of the ASBA, as well as the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Greater NY Chapter.

Hamilton is one of the jurors for The 13th Annual International Juried Botanical Art Exhibition, currently on view at The Hort Gallery through November 24.

Morning Session: 10am to 1pm
Afternoon Session: 2 to 5pm
Course Fee (for both sessions):
Hort Members $100; Non-members $135
REGISTER ONLINE or call (212) 757-0915 x121
Click here to view a list of materials (PDF)





Past Programs



Global Change and its Effect on Native Pollinators
A Lecture with Ignasi Bartomeus
Thursday, August 12



Most plants depend on insect pollination for reproduction. As pollinators, bees engage in a symbiotic relationship with plants. They depend on nectar to survive while they are crucial for a plant’s pollination. This exchange between more than 20,000 bee species and plants is being affected, putting our bees and the environment as a whole at risk. Surprisingly, despite its ecological and economical importance, we know very few things about most bee species. We invite you to learn about the lives of bees that are natives to the New York area and exactly how human impacts are threatening them.

Ignasi Bartomeus completed his PhD dissertation in 2008 at Barcelona Autonomous University studying the integration and impact of invasive plant species on native plant-pollinator communities. He now works as a PostDoctoral Researcher at Winfree lab (Rutgers University) studying how different drivers of global change (land use, climate, pesticides) are affecting native pollinator communities.



6:30pm
Hort members $5; non-members $15
For more information call (212) 757-0915 x115









Hort Book Club Meeting
Tuesday, August 10

Book club member Kaitilin Griffin has offered to host our group at her digs in Central Park on August 10 at 6 pm. Kaitilin is the librarian for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. In addition to her research responsibilities there, she maintains the container plantings on the rooftop garden at The Arsenal.

Join us for a delightful summer evening out-of-doors (weather permitting, that is!). We'll have fun meeting new members, catching up with one another, and putting together a great reading list for the fall and winter. Bring your good ideas, your bookish selves,
and let's have a drink to summer's passing.

Free and open to all. Pre-registration is required as space is limited.

5th Avenue at 64th St., 6pm
For more information, please email kpowis@hsny.org



Family Day at the Noguchi Museum
Saturday, July 24



Please join us at the Noguchi Museum as we co-host this year’s annual Summer Family Day. The event will highlight the beautiful and serene sculpture garden designed by Isamu Noguchi. Families are invited to explore and discover the garden and Museum galleries. The Hort will create three scale model gardens based on eastern and western design. The workshop encourages families to make individual sculptures to scale, while they consider design and placement within a space. Their sculptures will then be installed in the model garden of their choice and photographed.

The event will also feature live performances at
12:30 and 1:30pm by Jukebox Radio.

For further information, please email education@noguchi.org or call (718)204-7088 x203.
Admission is free for families with children between the ages of 2 and 12.



Change: The Passage of Time in the Garden
A Lecture with Sydney Eddison
Thursday, July 22



Change in a garden can be gradual as in the maturation of woody plants, like rhododendrons, or it can be sudden as in the felling of a large oak by lightning. But like it or not, gardens change from hour to hour, day to day, season to season, from one year to another, over a period of many years. Although this process is ongoing and inevitable, change is one of the least talked about aspects of gardening and one of the most fascinating.

For gardeners, time is the fourth dimension. How we respond to changes that occur due to the passage of time depends on our temperaments and on our gardening styles, but respond we must. Plants wax and wane. Some are long-lived; some are not. The decisions we make as we go along are what gives each garden its special character.

Join us as author Sydney Eddison presents an illustrated lecture and reading from her seventh and most recent book, Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as you Grow Older.

Sydney Eddison writes with the joy, enthusiasm, and experience of a life-long gardener. She has written seven books on gardening including The Gardener's Palette: Creating Color in the Garden and The Gardener’s Color Wheel: A Guide to Using Color in the Garden. For her work, she received the Connecticut Horticultural Society’s Gustav A. L. Melquist Award in 2002; the New England Wild Flower Society Kathryn S. Taylor Award in 2005, The Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut’s Bronze Medal in 2006, and in 2010 the National Garden Clubs, Inc. Award of Excellence. A former scene designer and teacher of drama, Ms. Eddison writes for Fine Gardening and other publications and is a popular lecturer.

6-7:30pm
Hort members $10; non-members $20
For more information, please call
(212) 757-0915 x115
Photographs were taken at Eddison's garden in Connecticut





Terrarium Workshop
with George Pisegna
Tuesday, July 13



Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned gardener, join us at The Hort and discover one of the simplest ways to garden. George Pisegna, our Director of Horticulture, will share his secrets on how to create a wonderful garden under glass. Terrariums come in many shapes and sizes, from simple wine glasses to elaborate Wardian cases. Since space is a luxury to most city-dwellers, a terrarium is a perfect way to bring your favorite plants into your home.

After a short lecture, George will help you create your own magical terrarium with simple step-by-step instructions on choosing your materials, designing, and
planting your garden under glass. We will provide everything you need to create your terrarium project. Be sure to bring something with you to carry your finished terrarium home.

6:30pm
Hort Members $70; non-members $85
For more information call (212) 757-0915 x115
Center photograph courtesy of Lisa Hubbard













The Visionary Reloaded:
New Scales of Operation in the Age of Information
Wednesday, June 23



A book launch and panel discussion featuring:

Amale Andraos & Dan Wood, WORK Architecture Co.
Fritz Haeg, Artist, Edible Estates
Adam Michaels, Project Projects & Inventory Books
Susan Gregory Thomas, author of Buy, Buy Baby
James Wines, SITE
Moderated by Jeff Gordinier, Details Magazine

In celebration of the launch of two books, WORKac’s Above the Pavement—the Farm!: Architecture and Agriculture at PF1, and the expanded second edition of Fritz Haeg’s Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn please join us for a discussion focusing on how a new generation of visionaries utilizes media, design and activism to promote radical “green” change.

The evening will be moderated by Jeff Gordinier,
author of X Saves the World.

Doors open at 6pm; Event begins 6:30pm
Book signing and reception to follow


Admission $10; Students $5
Free for Hort & ASLA members
Admission & copy of Above the Pavement-the Farm! $20
For more information call (212) 757-0915 x100




Vegetable Container Gardening
with George Pisegna
Tuesday, June 22



Please note workshop date has been moved from June 14 to June 22

Not everyone has the room for a big edible garden, but even if you're limited to a lone container, you can still enjoy a summer's worth of homegrown produce. A windowsill, patio, balcony or doorstep can provide sufficient space for a productive container garden. Fruits, vegetables, and herbs provide wonderful aroma
and taste, and many varieties perform well in
containers. What's more, vegetables herbs, flowers, and other plants grow well together, as companion plants.

Container gardening is an easy and low-maintenance way to satisfy that garden urge. A dull patio area can be brightened by the addition of baskets with cascading tomatoes or a colorful herb mix. Planter boxes with trellises filled with beans and peas can be used to create a cool shady place on an apartment balcony. Container gardening presents opportunities for many innovative ideas.

Let HSNY's own George Pisegna teach you the basics of container gardening including soil mixes, plant and container choices, fertilizing and general plant care.
There will be a brief lecture followed by a demonstration
of how to plant a container garden.

6 - 8pm
Hort Members $50; non-members $65
For more information call (212) 757-0915 x115







Celebrating Forgotten Treasures:
The Use of Uncommon Roses in Today's Landscape
with Sarah Owens
Thursday, June 17







The rose has inspired artists, writers, and composers for centuries. Gardeners have been cultivating roses to perform in specific ways and possess desired traits for almost as long. Whether you’re a novice gardener wanting to know the basics of roses or a seasoned horticulturalist looking for tips on improving your blooms let Sarah Owens, curator of BBG's Cranford Rose Garden, offer her expert advice on how to include and care for roses in your garden.

Sarah will discuss the use of old roses and species roses with emphasis not just on flower but also fall color, bark, and hip display. Various landscaping issues and situations will be covered such as shade areas, prostrate roses for embankments, creating hedges, using specimens for interest, pergolas and trellises, fragrant roses for the landscape and companion plantings.

Sarah Owens is the curator of the historic Cranford Rose Garden and the Rose Arc Pool at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Prior to joining BBG, she was head gardener at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. At the Battery Park Conservancy garden she worked to improve the garden’s aesthetics according to Piet Oudolf’s design. Owens also helped design and install the Native Plant Meadow and Edible Garden there. In addition, Owens is a ceramic artist, having designed sculpture and functional pottery for national retail and wholesale accounts, galleries, and exhibitions.

Doors open at 6pm
Lecture starts promptly at 6:30pm
Hort Members $15; Non-members $25
For more information call (212) 757-0915 x115
















Drawing and Painting Roses
A Botanical Illustration Workshop with Maria Cecilia Freeman
Monday, June 14




Roses are an alluring but challenging subject for any artist. In conjunction with her exhibition, Rose Studies, the artist Maria Cecilia Freeman will be giving a 2-session full day workshop on the botanical illustration of roses. The workshop will start with an introduction to rose botany and techniques for drawing these complex, delicate flowers. We will observe and draw from live plants (to be provided), moving from preliminary sketches to an edited drawing on watercolor paper. We will note color patterns, discuss color mixing, and practice some techniques of watercolor brushwork useful for painting rose petals and leaves. There will be ample time for individual attention while you develop your own drawings and begin painting. All levels
welcome—suitable for beginners as well as experienced
artists.

Maria Cecilia Freeman is a botanical artist based in Santa Cruz, California. Her work includes scientific illustration and botanically accurate fine art, often combining the two. She likes to create art that will serve the goals of education and conservation, with a particular interest in documenting rose species and heritage roses, and in portraying native plant species with a view to their preservation. Her work is included in the American Society of Botanical Artists’ exhibition Losing Paradise? Endangered Plants Here and Around the World, currently on display at the New York Botanical Garden through July 25. She is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, serving on the board of the Northern California SBA, and the Guild
of Natural Science Illustrators. She is also a member of
the California Native Plant Society, the American Rose
Society and Heritage Rose Foundation.

Morning Session: 10am to 1pm
Afternoon Session: 2 to 5pm
Course Fee (for both sessions): Hort Members $140; Non-members $165
For more information call (212) 757-0915 x100
Click here to view a list of materials (PDF)



The Gardens of Florence
An illustrated tour and book signing with author Katie Campbell
Thursday, June 10


Not going to Florence this summer? Join us for an illustrated tour Paradise of Exiles: The Anglo-American Gardens of Florence by British journalist Katie Campbell. The crumbling, abandoned villas above Florence proved irresistible to an eccentric colony of late 19th century expatriates. Campbell's book features 20 of these characters and the unusual gardens they created. Book signing to follow.




Doors open at 6pm; lecture begins at 6:30pm
Hort Members $10; Non-members $10
For more information call (212) 757-0915 x100




The Hort Library Book Club discusses
A Reunion of Trees
by Stephen A. Spongberg
Tuesday, June 8

Dear Reader:
We hope you can join us in the library for our next session. We are reading "A reunion of trees :the discovery of exotic plants and their introduction into North America and European landscapes" by Stephen A. Spongberg. It's a fascinating story.

Free and open to the public; bring a friend!
6pm at The Hort Library
Contact Katherine Powis at (212) 757-0915 x109
for more information or to RSVP.





Word for Word Series: Green Acres, Green Gardens
A Panel Discussion in Bryant Park
Wednesday, June 2




Hosted by Maureen Hackett, Director of Horticulture, Bryant Park Corporation

Whether you have an atrium, yard, terrace, or a plant, join us for useful gardening tips by Bryant Park's own Maureen Hackett, and a host of writers and specialists in the field, including George Pisegna, HSNY Director of Horticulture and Peter Kukielski, Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden Curator, New York Botanical Garden and Author of Sustainable Rose Garden: Exploring 21st Century Environmental Rose Gardening

At Bryant Park Reading Room
12:30 — 1:45 pm
Click here for more information.









Overlooked Assets: Sustainable Urban Yards
Friday, May 14





Do you live in a building that has a front, side or back area that is concrete, neglected or just plain unsightly? Join us in discovering how to convert your outdoor space into a sustainable oasis.

This day-long seminar featuring noted landscape and environmental professionals will inform and inspire you to reclaim overlooked City "yards" hidden behind rowhouses and apartment buildings by demonstrating how recycled materials, native endangered species and permeable surfaces can be used to maximize the environmental benefits of these overlooked spaces while beautifying and improving quality of life for all who breathe our city's air and drink its water.

Moderated by George Pisegna, HSNY Director of Horticulture

Speakers include:
Ken Smith, Ken Smith Landscape Architects
Mariellé Anzelone, DROSERA
Jennifer Bolstad, Local Office Landscape Architecture
Rebecca Cole, Rebecca Cole GROWs
Tricia Martin, WE Design
Evan Mason, Sustainable Yards
Tatiana Morin, NYC Soil and Water Conservation District
Steven Tupu, Terrain NYC

Sponsored by: The Horticultural Society of New York, The NY Chapter of The American Society of Landscape Architects, and Sustainable Yards

10am - 3:45pm, lunch provided
$35 Hort/ASLA members; $50 non-members
LACES credits (2.5) available for an additional:
$25 ASLA members; $45 non-members


Click here to view seminar schedule (PDF)





The Coastal Flowers at Big Sur
with Dodo Loechle
Thursday, May 13




Join us for an illustrated presentation on the magnificent flora of the Pacific Coast. Dodo Loechle has just returned from a month long trek to Big Sur to witness the explosion of spring flowers following this year’s phenomenal winter rains.

When you think of Big Sur, thoughts of sea-swept cliffs and expansive ocean views come to mind. What many do not experience are the exceptional biodiversity of the coastal plant communities, like the wildflower filled prairie, yucca-studded chaparral, and the oak woodlands and old-growth redwood forests.

With stunning photographs, Dodo will take us on a journey through one of America’s most beautiful coast along with a wide and varied ecosystem of unique plants.

Dodo Loechle is a certified horticulturist with extensive experience in chemical free gardening, concentrating on container and rooftops gardens. She has worked for various botanic gardens, including Kirstenbosch in Cape Town, Africa, where she worked exclusively with native cape flora. Specializing in plant identification, Dodo has logged countless hours as a tour guide along with putting her talents to use as an instructor at the NYBG and the BBG.

Doors open at 6pm
Lecture starts promptly at 6:30pm
Hort Members $15; Non-members $25
For more information call (212) 757-0915 x100