Spring/Summer 2018 by Berkshire Botanical Garden

B E R K S H I R E B OTA N I C A L G A R D E N

SPRING/SUMMER 2018

ART GARDEN

SPRING/SUMMER 2018

MAY TO

OCT ART/GARDEN featuring Ellsworth Kelly’s iconic plant lithographs in the Leonhardt Gallery, and a collection of contemporary sculpture throughout the Garden’s grounds.

Art in the Garden. . .Priceless! M AY 6 – O C T 8

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M AY 2 6

JUNE 29

Ellsworth Kelly

Plants-and-Answers

Fête des Fleurs

Exhibition of iconic plant lithographs on display in the Center House Leonhardt Galleries.

The Be-a-Better-Gardener (BBG) Plant Sale is back on Mother’s Day weekend. Jump-start the growing season!

BBG’s summer gala featuring the opening of our ART/GARDEN sculpture exhibition “Beautiful Strangers: Artists Discover the Garden.”

Cocktails in Great Gardens Our 10th season opens at a private garden in Kinderhook, NY.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Matt Larkin, Chairman Madeline Hooper, Vice Chairman Janet Laudenslager, Secretary Rob Williams, Treasurer Jeannene Booher David Carls Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo Mary Copeland Adaline Frelinghuysen Ellen Greendale Lauretta Harris Ian Hooper Tom Ingersoll

Daniel Kasper Wendy Philbrick Martha Piper Ramelle Pulitzer John Spellman Kip Towl Mark Walker KK Zutter

S TA F F Michael Beck Executive Director

Dan Mullen Buildings and Grounds Assistant

Christine Caccamo Senior Gardener

Robin Parow Director of Marketing Communications

Duke Douillet Senior Gardener Alex Fylypovych Camp Director Katarina Goldenberg Seasonal Gardener Cynthia Grippaldi Membership and Volunteer Manager

John Ryan Seasonal Gardener Jamie Samowitz Youth Education Coordinator Julie Schwartz Director of Development Bridgette Stone Education Coordinator

Deborah Helmke Gardener

Elizabeth Veraldi Office Manager

Dorthe Hviid Director of Horticulture

Chris Wellens Director of Education

Christopher Kupernik Buildings and Grounds Manager CUTTINGS Robin Parow, Editor Julie Hammill, Hammill Design, Design

Summer in the Garden: A wonderful destination for engagement photos, weddings, and special events. Photo by Tricia McCormack

Cover photo by Jack Sprano

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Berkshire Woodworkers Guild Fine Woodwork Show

Family Fridays

The Grow Show

Family-friendly workshops and demonstrations featuring animals large and small.

What's growing in your garden? Enter the Grow Show or just visit and enjoy the harvest!

Featuring designs by professional woodworkers from throughout the region.

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

B E R K S H I R E B OTA N I C A L G A R D E N

DIRECTOR’S CORNER MICHAEL BECK

Gardens = Art!

Nurturing the seeds of earth stewardship by connecting children to the environment and to one another.

berkshirebotanical.org/ farm-garden-camp

understory LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Landscape and Garden Planning

P.O. Box 252 Dalton, MA 01227 413-446-2347

donnakittredge1@gmail.com

Cuttings For advertising opportunities, please call 413-298-3926.

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In the most basic sense, we garden lovers already understand that concept. We seek out artistic horticulture design and learn to appreciate the aesthetics of individual flowers and leaves. We study color wheels when planning a new border. We talk about using a “plant palette.” We grapple with light and shadow, with forced perspective, shape and form, just like any art student would. Small wonder then that botanical gardens can and should be compared to art museums. I have heard them referred to as “museums of living things.” That makes a lot of sense. Certainly our federal government thinks of us as museums. At a recent Public Garden Association conference, I learned that the Institute of Museum and Library Services, based in Washington D.C., provides significant funding assistance to botanical gardens for accreditation, for collections assessment and for strategic planning. Who knew that BBG could be in the company of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Clark Art Institute when seeking these federal grants! While our visitors have always cherished the display gardens at Berkshire Botanical Garden for their enduring beauty and design, this year we will seek to inspire with art in the garden like never before. We are calling the season simply “ART/GARDEN,” to convey the fundamental connection between the two concepts (though personally I thought “ART/ BASIL” would have been just as apropos!) Beginning on May 6, we will be exhibiting the transcendental beauty of Ellsworth Kelly’s plant lithographs in the Center House Leonhardt Galleries. These deceptively simple line drawings, taken from nature as observed by the artist many decades ago, are evocative despite their lack of color or shading. Installed inside a sparse 18th century building, they will form a quiet counterpoint to the riot of color in the surrounding gardens. But what else awaits in those gardens? Ten contemporary artists will take the visitor on a journey of discovery beginning on May 26, when we will open a sculpture show entitled “Beautiful Strangers” at our annual Fête des Fleurs garden party. Be prepared to be dazzled by art that may be concealed by, or highlighted by, our trees and shrubs and flowers. Explore our 15 acres to find all of these beauties hiding in plain sight, all season long! But we have more in store this summer. If you’ve visited us before and enjoyed our informative volunteer-led garden tours, you will be happy to know we have expanded the schedule to feature these free introductions to BBG seven days a week all summer long. In addition, we will for the first time be offering free audio tours so you can get the most out of your visit no matter when you stop in. And finally, as I write this, we are putting finishing touches on the design for a brand new garden area, an entry garden in front of Center House that will be modern and sculptural in its own right, featuring earth and water and even fire. The result of a nationwide student design competition, the entry garden will take its place among our collection of living things before too long. I look forward to welcoming you to our garden museum!

The Art of Creating a Meaningful Landscape by Dorthe B. Hviid, Director of Horticulture

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

Taking an artful approach to your garden can be a truly personal expression, whether you are creating a new garden or continuing to work on an existing one. A good place to start is by considering what you would like the feeling and purpose of your garden to be. It might be designed foremost to evoke a sense of serenity, a retreat from the busy world, or maybe a haven for birds and pollinators in a native plant setting. Your garden might be a plant collector’s paradise, a water garden, rock garden, or maybe more of a functional garden designed as a place to grow food, have dinner, or play croquet. Next you might think about whether the garden will blend gradually into the adjacent landscape, or be closed off to the surrounding area, a “garden room” with an inward focus resembling our Procter Mixed Border Garden, designed by Gilette Wilcox in 1965. Maybe there are fine views from your garden that would allow for you to create a “borrowed landscape” as in our Vista Garden. Designed by Cudnohufsky Associates and myself in 1997, this garden offers long views across the de Gersdorff Perennial Border and the Frelinghuysen Shade Border all the way down to the Pond Garden.

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Will your garden be a formal space with clean rectilinear lines in the style of our Vegetable Garden, possibly with a focal point drawing you forward through the various planted spaces? Or maybe your preferences run more in the direction of an informal garden with curving pathways that slowly reveal the landscape as you walk through it in an imitation of nature. A good example of this is our Pond Garden, first created in the 1950s, with a water’s-edge native border designed by Anthony ArcherWills and added in 2010. As far as plants go, you might consider a garden of woody plants,

Left: An annual planting in predominantly pink and blue colors in the intermingled meadow style forms a garden room in The Tatkon Entry Garden. Center: Large drifts of perennials in an informalplanting at the Pond Garden consist of a peaceful mélange of various shades of green. The urn forms a strong focal point. Right: Annuals grouped in a more traditional English border style and an analogous color scheme.

perennials or annuals. Or maybe a mixed border garden consisting of all these groups, such as our Tatkon Entry Garden, is more to your taste. It was designed by Cudnohufsky Associates in 2002, and is planted each spring with 2,000 annuals grouped by color. Speaking of color, are you drawn to the warm colors of yellow, orange and red, or do you prefer the more tranquil blues and purples that recede into the landscape, making the garden seem larger? A garden can also be a riot of all colors mixed together or a peaceful mélange of

various shades of green, like our Hosta Garden. All these considerations come together to give your garden its character, while allowing you to express your wishes and interests. For me, a garden with a sense of enclosure in a natural setting, a pleasing combination of interesting plants including some natives, and an analogous color scheme make a great garden. I always strive to incorporate plants that have good foliage throughout the season. Flowers are fleeting, but foliage is a true asset from May through October. A good example of this is our Frelinghuysen Shade Border designed in 1999 by Edith Eddleman and Doug Ruhren.

This border relies heavily on the foliage of perennials such as hellebores, Kirengeshoma and Ligularia to provide the real show. Consider also how the plants in your garden will be arranged. Will they be displayed in the traditional English border style with groups of tall plants at the rear of the border, medium sized plants in the middle and short ones at the front? Or are you ready to try a new way to group your plants? Since the late 20th century, a new design movement has caught on in Europe and is slowly spreading to the US and Asia. It is a naturalistic garden style that in some cases is based on grouping plants that flourish in the

same habitat in the wild. Many exciting gardens, both public and private, have grown out of this approach, with perennials taking a leading role. Piet Oudolf from Holland started developing a prominent style in the 1980s, using perennials of similar height in large drifts, lending a meadow feeling to the landscape. The de Gersdorff Perennial Border, first designed in 1954 by Lyle Blundell, has developed over many years to take its character from this style. Oudolf focuses on plants that have a long season of interest. He values good foliage and seed heads over beautiful flowers for the longer season of interest they provide. His perennials are not Continued on next page

Come visit and see what makes Bay State special!

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

deadheaded, but rather left to go to seed, and only cut back in late winter, providing food and shelter for wildlife up till then. You may know his work from Battery Park and the Highline in New York City. The work of Cassian Schmidt at Hermannshof, a public garden in southern Germany, is primarily focused on the ecological requirements of perennials. The idea was inspired by the book Perennials and their Garden Habitats by Richard Hansen and Friedrich Stahl.* Some concepts that come out of this approach suggest that if an area has moist, rich soil in light shade, that bed might be planted with columbine, Hellebore and primrose in an imitation of the plants that thrive in a woodland edge habitat in the wild. Another part of the garden may be an open meadow habitat in full sun with moist, loamy soil, where plants like Baptisia, Coreopsis, Phlox and Rudbeckia would be used. The idea is that you build communities of garden plants that are adapted so well to their setting that they interact as they would in the wild and mostly look after themselves. The low-maintenance aspect of this style of planting is further enhanced by Schmidt’s advocating for using vigorous plants that will grow together and self-seed in the bed, leaving little room for weeds. Several of us from the Berkshire Botanical Garden went to Boston to hear Cassian Schmidt speak about 10 years ago. It was a revelation. He spoke of covering a new garden bed with black plastic to solarize it for a year before planting to kill weed seed dormant in the soil; about using plants together that originate in the same habitat in the wild; and how to plant in a meadow-style so different from the English border style that has been prevalent in gardens for many years. He is a captivating speaker and I was very taken with these new ideas. The following spring, we started creating the New Wave Garden to introduce this new European style to our visitors. The area we selected is in full sun with moderately dry, loamy soil, so

JUNE 26 – AUGUST 19

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The warm colors of the annuals in this part of the TatkonEntry Garden help draw tourists to the Visitors Center.

we selected perennials like Calamintha, Nepeta, Russian sage, Sedum, yarrow and switchgrass. The garden has done really well. It is especially beautiful in May and June, when the meadow style is most evident and elicits quite a bit of interest from our students and visitors alike. At the same time, Nigel Dunnet and James Hitchmough, professors at the University of Sheffield, England, have been promoting and creating meadow gardens, often from seed, in urban settings with a more relaxed and naturalistic approach as part of the same design movement. These gardens have a more deconstructed look as the flowers are not planted in drifts but intermingled. Whether it involves bulbs, annuals, or perennials, this style has become very popular. It has the feeling of a naturally occurring meadow rather than a designed garden, and if planned right there will always be something in bloom throughout the season. A large drift of bee balm or Astilbe won’t look like much when their few weeks of bloom have passed, but if they are mixed in among tulips, iris, anemone, monkshood and asters there

will always be some blossoms to enjoy. In this country, landscape architect Claudia West promotes planting perennial borders in the same naturalistic meadow style using landscape plugs. She lays the plugs out in random fashion, spaced relatively close to achieve the intermingled meadow style. West is a consultant for North Creek Nursery which offers many perennials as landscape plugs. Apart from starting from seed, this is by far the most affordable way to establish a new garden bed or a meadow. For the last few years, we have been adopting the intermingled meadow planting style here at the Garden in our annual plantings. Since annuals are replanted each year it is much easier to experiment with new planting patterns within this group of plants. I still make sure that really tall perennials don’t get planted in the front of the border, but will allow plants of medium height to escape backwards or forwards in the bed for a more natural look. It creates a surprisingly beautiful and fresh display. I hope that these questions and examples will motivate you to examine

important qualities of your home landscape with fresh eyes, and inspire you to start thinking about your garden in a broader context. I encourage you to be brave and try something new in your garden, whether it’s creating a “garden room,” a new color scheme or trying out a naturalistic planting design. Photos by Robin Parow and Dorthe Hviid

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

ART GARDEN

Beautiful Str angers: Artists Discover the Garden Editor’s note: In preparation of this issue of Cuttings, BBG board chairman Matt Larkin and art curator James Salomon discussed Beautiful Strangers — this season’s exhibition of contemporary sculpture in the Garden — along with the elements that brought James to the international art world and of course the Berkshires. James Salomon

Matt Larkin: How did you get into the art business?

MAY

26 Beautiful Strangers Exhibit opens at the Garden’s annual gala, Fête des Fleurs, and will remain on display through October 8.

James Salomon: By mistake! I was living in Paris right after college and I wanted to work in a bookshop, just as a regular job. I love the smell of bookshops. It’s intoxicating, like walking into a florist. Well, I was walking around in the Latin Quarter with CVs in my hand, when I came across Librarie Maeght on Rue du Bac. This was the editions house for a famous gallery that originates from the marvelous Fondation Maeght in St Paul de Vence. It was out of my realm of thinking but I was really wowed visually, and I gave someone my CV. They called me to offer a summer internship. This was in 1995, and I still love going back there.

ML: For Beautiful Strangers, you bring ten amazing sculptors to the Garden. Is curating site-specific installations a forté of yours? JS: I’ve done a lot of gallery shows with great artists that I’m proud of, but to be given a fresh locale is fun and exciting for me. Particularly outdoors, where nature provides the variables and possibilities. After leaving behind a “storefront” gallery in 2016, I was figuring things out — what I wanted, where I can take things on and keep my mind fresh. I already had a project in the hopper for a great Hamptons artist named Jill Musnicki. We did a weekend photography show on this gorgeous manicured wooded property, complete with fox holes and a carpet of pine needles. I thought how magical it was, Continued on page 10

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Beautiful Strangers: Artists Discover the Garden features the following contemporary artists: ALICE AYCOCK is a sculptor and installation artist. She was an early artist in the land art movement in the 1970s, and has created many large-scale metal sculptures around the world. Aycock’s drawings and sculptures of architectural and mechanical fantasies combine logic and imagination, and intermingle science and faith. Her piece, as part of the Twister series, evolved from the Park Avenue Paper Chase project in 2014. WENDELL CASTLE has recently passed on, but had been creating unique pieces of handmade sculpture and furniture for over four decades. From the outset of his career, Castle consistently challenged the traditional boundaries of functional design and established himself as the father of the American studio furniture. His bronze installation, Grand Temptation, joins the Beautiful Strangers exhibition.

E.V. DAY is a New York based artist whose work explores themes of sexuality and humor while employing gravity-defying suspension techniques. By manipulating iconic imagery from popular culture, Day re-animates the recognizable into new forms that illuminate contradictions in gender roles and stretch the confines of social stereotypes. FITZHUGH KAROL works in wood, metal, and clay, and creates work that ruminates on man’s imprint in the landscape. His installation, Pulse, 2013 consists of five separate white pine structures sited near the Pond Garden. MARK MENNIN is a stone sculptor specializing in granite. His BBG installation, Classical Interiors, is part of a series where he has transformed the meanings and functions of recycled granite column sections originating from a quarry in Quincy, Massachusetts.

MICHELE OKA DONER’s art spans five

decades. Her work is fueled by a lifelong study and appreciation of the natural world from which she derives her formal vocabulary. TONI ROSS has long had an interest

in enclosed sculptural forms where the interiors are uncertain and infused with a sense of mystery. For Beautiful Strangers, she will create an installation on site at the Garden; a first for this artist. NED SMYTH, considered a pioneer of

public art, was among the first sculptors to work with architectural concepts and build site-specific, large-scale public installations. Male Torso, is a 14' sculpture derived from a 4" piece of glacial till. STEPHEN TALASNIK expands the visual language of architecture and engineering through drawing, sculpture, and sitespecific installations. His installation TreeHive #3 will be created on site as a large, flat reed hive that will naturally change in color throughout the course of the seasons in the Garden. ROB WYNNE tests the boundaries of kitsch and beauty, sappiness and profundity in his delicately crafted mixed-media objects, installations, drawings, and canvases. His bronze installation, Teardrops, will be exhibited on one of BBG’s mature trees.

Rob Wynne, Teardrops, 2015. Bronze. © Rob Wynne, Courtesy Domaine du Muy, Photo: JC Lett.

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

F ête des Fleurs

SAVE THE DATE! May 26, 2018 5–7:30 p.m. Our annual gala returns to BBG this year for good reason! We tip our hats to Beautiful Strangers: Artists Discover the Garden, a summer-long sculpture exhibition spotlighting ten noted contemporary artists and curated by James Salomon. Wear your fanciest hat and enjoy cocktails, music and the twinkling magic of the Garden at twilight at this very special event. Sponsorships are available.

For more information call 413 320-4794 or visit berkshirebotanical.org.

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and wanted to keep that vibe going. I immediately ask myself what makes this property or environment so special, and tap into that. ML: Do you have personal relationships with these artists? JS: I have great personal and professional stories with almost all of the artists in the show. Alice Aycock and Ned Smyth I have known the longest, since my first days at Salomon Contemporary Warehouse in East Hampton. They were both extremely influential and helpful in my development. ML: What’s the thought process behind creating Beautiful Strangers? JS: All my group shows have a loose narrative. I like to start with an intriguing title, and lately I’ve been sifting through song titles for inspiration. I just did a show in

INTERIORS LIGHTING FURNITURE

Washington Depot, Connecticut called A Hazy Shade of Winter, based and loosely themed on the Simon and Garfunkel song. For BBG, I arrived at Frank Sinatra and heard Beautiful Strangers which I liked a lot, thinking of introducing the sculpture to the trees as if they never met and are just “passing through” for a season. Then for the heck of it I googled “Beautiful Strangers” and came across a completely different song by this young Texan folk singer named Kevin Morby. I thought: “That’s It!!! That’s exactly how I want this show to feel.” This exhibition was made possible through the generous assistance of the Dorothea Leonhardt Fund at the Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc.

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ART GARDEN

Ellsworth Kelly’s Suite of Plant Lithographs Grace the Leonhardt Galleries By Robin Parow

Ellsworth Kelly is described as having the “suddenness of miracles, and the improbability.” How improbable that a shy, art-smitten, bird-watching child from Newburgh, New York would become a famed abstract artist while holding true to his innate desire to stay rooted in nature. The art of drawing plants was introduced to Kelly by his grandmother at age five, and he continued the practice almost daily throughout his lifetime, which no doubt helped form what is considered the root of his practice: observation and perception. These qualities are recognized in his Suite of Plant Lithographs on exhibit in the Garden’s Center House Leonhardt Galleries from May 6 through October 8.

Ellsworth Kelly Catalpa Leaf (Feuille) 1965-66 Lithograph on Rives BFK paper 35 3/8 x 24 5/8 inches (89.9 x 62.5 cm) Edition of 75 © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation and Maeght Éditeur

Throughout his seven-decade career, Kelly’s plant drawings were rendered in a variety of mediums, including watercolor and ink washes, but he preferred graphite pencil and the use of line only to express the plants’ intrinsic qualities. Carter Foster, considered an authority on the life and work of Ellsworth Kelly and the author of an introductory essay appearing in the 72-page catalogue produced for this exhibition, describes Kelly’s creative process: For the series of 1964-66 lithographs that are the subject of this exhibition, he mostly chose from a range of pencil studies he’d recently made, which he then reworked on transfer paper in order to create the print portfolio. He was therefore redrawing—from his own drawing—a specimen he’d first drawn from life. In other cases, he drew while directly observing the plant, right on the transfer paper used to make the lithograph. In another case—Catalpa Leaf—he drew the form from memory. This series, taken as a whole, has a uniformity provided

by the consistent size and color of the paper and by the harmonious, roughly centered placement of the forms on each sheet, even though there were several modes of generating the form: observation from life, copying, and memory. It is quite a different act to re-draw one’s own drawing or to draw from memory than to draw from life, from the object itself. In the first case, for example, one could change —even perfect — what may not have been fully satisfactory the first time. That Kelly’s Suite of Plant Lithographs appears as the first major exhibition at the Garden’s Leonhardt Galleries is a marriage of aspirations and hard labor. BBG Board Chairman Matt Larkin and Executive Director Mike Beck, in their original vision of what the new c. 1800s Center House could be, stated a clear objective: create within the structure unique gallery spaces for artists who truly find their inspiration in horticulture and the natural world. A threeyear planning, renovation, and

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

construction project of the building yielded three galleries bathed in natural light while displaying their own artistic proclamations — beautiful, exposed hand-hewn beams from trees harvested centuries ago exhibit an array of unique knots and even some random charring reminiscent of a fire or smoke damage long forgotten. 14

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Kelly in the garden

Visitors to the Leonhardt Gallery, which was dedicated on December 1, 2017, routinely remark on its natural beauty and serenity, a testament to thoughtfully creating indoor spaces that also reflect the surrounding landscape of the Garden. Another natural link between Kelly’s work and BBG is the proximity of the

artist’s studio to the Garden. Crossing west into Columbia County, New York is the little hamlet of Spencertown, Kelly’s studio, and his home of 32 years with husband Jack Shear. The creation of the studio in Spencertown arrived by way of a detour, however. In 1970, searching for a brightly lit location within a short drive from home, Kelly’s attention turned to Main Street in Chatham, where a vast building with a brick façade and four nearly twelvefoot tall windows caught his eye. What followed is described in an essay by Ann Temkin written for the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, The Chatham Series, a 2013 exhibition in celebration of Kelly’s 90th birthday: Kelly’s target happened to be above a men’s clothing store and a barber shop. One day Kelly asked the barber, whose patron he would soon become, about the building’s upper floor. It turned out that the barber co-owned it with the shopkeeper next door, and that the space was used to store the town’s Christmas lights. Kelly asked if he could take it as a studio; the barber agreed to relocate the decorations and to rent the space to him for $50 a month. To convert this storied space into a painting studio, Kelly had to install plumbing and heating and do an intensive cleanup. . . the twenty-foothigh walls had decades worth of peeling paint; Kelly covered them with panels of sheetrock. He used the north wall as a painting wall and hung finished paintings on the east wall, between the windows. Kelly’s legacy is a contrast between rural kindness and worldly influence. Locally, he is remembered as a passionate advocate for arts and education. Beginning in 2002, he donated millions to school districts through the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation to “enrich in wonderful

and imaginative ways the education of Columbia County public school students.” On the grandest of scales, he is acknowledged throughout the world as one who shaped a distinctive style of American painting through hundreds of exhibitions including Ellsworth Kelly at the Museum of Modern Art in 1973; Ellsworth Kelly Recent Paintings and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1979; Ellsworth Kelly Sculpture in 1982 at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Saint Louis Art Museum; and Ellsworth Kelly: A Retrospective in 1996 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Tate, London and the Haus der Kunst in Munich. Kelly’s final work is Austin, a 2,715-square-foot building he designed with three colored glass wall installations, an 18-foot redwood totem, and a series of black-and-white marble wall panels. Commissioned by the University of Texas at Austin in 2015, Austin was inaugurated into the Blanton Museum of Art’s permanent

collection in February, 2018. The “suddenness of miracles” that have brought Ellsworth Kelly’s iconic plant lithographs to the Garden came in a roundabout manner, requiring the resources of many and brute strength of others to pave the way to the opening of the Leonhardt Galleries. In a foreword written for the exhibition catalogue, references are made to those who made this extraordinary exhibition possible: To Ellsworth Kelly’s husband Jack Shear, President of the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, we owe our sincere thanks for so generously allowing us to mount a show of Kelly’s masterpieces in Berkshire County for the very first time. Thank you also to Mary Anne Lee and Eva Walters of the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation for their valuable assistance throughout the planning phases of this project. We are indebted to Carter E. Foster, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, a close friend of Kelly’s, for his insightful introductory essay on the artist’s work. Our gratitude also goes to Joseph

Cho and Stefanie Lew of Binocular Design, for their generosity, professionalism and skill in producing this catalogue. And finally, we wish to thank all those who helped us realize the restoration of Center House over the past three years. We would not have been able to undertake such an ambitious project without the help of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which provided an initial grant that ignited broad community support and that allowed us to conclude a substantial capital campaign by the time the building reopened. Most importantly, we thank all of the current and former trustees of the Berkshire Botanical Garden for their guidance and vision in supporting the construction of the new Center House, and especially Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo for bringing her deep knowledge and love of art to the Garden in such a profound way. This exhibition and the accompanying catalogue are made possible through the generous assistance of the Dorothea Leonhardt Fund at the Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc.

1815 N. Main St, Rte 7, Sheffield, MA 413.528.1857 Open Daily 10-5 www.campodefiori.com BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

DIY

Rustic Garden Art By Duke Douillet, Senior Gardener

The Possibilities are Endless! 1

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The notion of art in the garden is rich in history and lends itself to broad interpretation. Sculptures, garden gnomes, sundials, wind spinners, whirligigs, gazing balls, rocks and natural materials, and old farm implements all potentially qualify. Other possibilities include rustic constructions – informal pieces you can create yourself using mostly found materials. This type of construction requires minimal building skills, with a certain wonkiness of style often a virtue. Choosing the right material is important. Most likely you’ll want wood that will last more than a season and also has some character. I tend to favor eastern red cedar, mountain laurel, and sugar maple (in descending order of durability). Equipped with a cordless drill, tape measure, folding saw (the Felco 600 is very handy), and a box of deck screws, you’re ready to take on most projects. Here are a few examples of DIY rustic garden art, some of which double as trellises or plant supports while adding dimension and interest to the garden. 1. Tepee-style trellis constructed of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) branches designed to support a small Clematis vine. 2. A traditional fan-shaped trellis made of sugar maple branches. Two or three strands of wire running vertically will be added later to accommodate annual vines such as Thunbergia or scarlet runner bean, or possibly a Clematis vine. 3. This qualifies as garden art if you allow “garden” to include the nearby landscape. This mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) branch has been stripped of bark, selectively trimmed, and fastened with wire. Mountain laurel branches have all sorts of quirks and irregularities that lend themselves to rustic construction. Any fair-sized stand of these shrubs will more than likely have dead branches that can be harvested. 4. Mountain laurel twigs cinched at both ends with rusted wire create a focal point in the garden or as an adornment for a garden shed. Rusty wire is unobtrusive and adds a slightly “aged” look when incorporated in a piece of this type.

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5. This frame of sugar maple limbs was created to form a portable fence section that can be used to discourage unwanted foot traffic. Mountain laurel branches add a decorative effect.

JACOBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PILLOW D A N C E

Pilobolus; photo Christopher Duggan

F E S T I VA L 2 0 1 8

250+ free performances, talks & tours, events, exhibits, classes & more!

JUNE 20-AUGUST 26, 2018

13th annual 2018 BIFFMA.ORG

413.243.0745 | jacobspillow.org

bear

witness

GET YOUR PASSES OR TICKETS

2018 MAY 31-JUNE 3 2019 MAY 30-JUNE 2 great barrington // pittsfield

visit BIFFMA.ORG call 866.811.4111 info 413.528.8030

to become a REEL Friend and view year-round events visit BIFFMA.ORG

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

2018

BARRINGTONSTAGECO.ORG

BOOK NOW FOR BEST SEATS! 413.236.8888

MAINSTAGE

ST. GERMAIN STAGE

THE ROYAL FAMILY OF BROADWAY

TYPHOID MARY

WORLD PREMIERE

JUNE 7–JULY 7

A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2

MAY 23–JUNE 16

THE CAKE

JUNE 21–JULY 14

JULY 12–28

THE CHINESE LADY

WEST SIDE STORY

JULY 19–AUGUST 11

AUGUST 3–SEPTEMBER 1

THE GLASS MENAGERIE OCTOBER 3–21

WELL INTENTIONED WHITE PEOPLE WORLD PREMIERE

AUGUST 16–SEPTEMBER 8

YOUTH THEATRE AT THE BERKSHIRE MUSEUM

ROALD DAHL’S JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH JULY 25–AUGUST 12

Aaron Tveit and the cast of Company, 2017

WORLD PREMIERE

Always something new to see! The Fantastical Art of Tony DiTerlizzi This exhibition is supported in part by The Keator Group, LLC & The Pittsfield Cooperative Bank.

Rockwell’s Art for Look Magazine The Holidays Illustrated Triple Self Portrait (detail) © SEPS 1960, Norman Rockwell Museum Collections.

through February 4, 2018

CUTTINGS

Gloria Stoll Karn: Pulp Romance opens February 10, 2018

nrm.org Stockbridge, MA 413.298.4100 open daily

SPRING/SUMMER 2018

EDUCATION

APRIL â&#x20AC;&#x201C; AUGUST 2018

Education Our education program provides a diverse selection of learning opportunities throughout the year, from hands-on classes and inspiring talks to offsite field studies near and far. We look forward to exploring gardens with you throughout the summer including Wave Hill, Scott Arboretum, Cricket Hill Nursery, and a late-summer trip to the historic gardens of Bar Harbor and Mt. Desert, Maine. In recognition of our ART/GARDEN theme this season, we also have included in the curriculum four summer art workshops taught by several of our most beloved instructors, some of whom return year after year to inspire creativity in the Garden. For more information on classes and events happening at the Garden, visit our website at berkshirebotanical.org.

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

EDUCATION

Classes, Lectures, and Workshops War on Weeds: Controlling Invasive Plants Saturday, April 21, 10 – 11:30 am Members $15/Non-members: $25 A book sale and signing of select books written by Teri Dunn Chase will follow the talk. Learn about invasive plants and how to control them in your landscape. Weeds and invasive plants are on the minds of gardeners, landscapers, environmentalists — anyone who cares about the environment. This talk, which is geared towards the homeowner, will discuss this important problem with a focus on practical information. Teri Dunn Chace will define “weed,” and discuss the scope of the problem and what gardeners can realistically expect to achieve in their battle. She then reviews a variety of ways to fight back, both organic and nonorganic options, and will save herbicides for last. Because glyphosate/Roundup is the most well-known and widely used (and perhaps most controversial) weed killer, she spends extra time describing what it is and how it works, as well as noting its benefits and risks.

DIY Body Care: The Complete Herbal Facial Saturday, April 21, 1 – 3 pm Members: $15/Non-members: $25 Supply Fee: $20 (to be paid directly to the instructor at the beginning of class) Bring a small towel. Join Jamie Samowitz, educator and herbalist, for a dive into the sensory world of herbal body care products. Working with clay, aromatic herbs, and essential oils, we will craft nourishing and soothing skin care products that are tailored to our body’s own needs. As a class we will make an herbal facial steam, a facial exfoliant, a clay mask, and an astringent toner, and will sample and go home with a recipe for a homemade face cream. We will discover the joy of working with fragrant and healing herbs and of giving ourselves the experience of a luxurious spa right in our own homes. Bring a small towel—we’re going to be applying the products during the workshop!

Gardening and Mindfulness Sunday, April 22 – Thursday, April 26 Register through Kripalu at Kripalu.com Berkshire Botanical Garden is proud to partner with The Kripalu Center to offer a unique exploration of the intersection of gardening activities and mindfulness practice. For anyone who has created a home garden or tilled the soil, whether in a plot or a container, the meditative qualities of gardening are naturally evident. You often find yourself connected to the present moment, senses engaged directly with the earth, lost in the calming act of planting and cultivating. In this program, you experience: Daily workshops on basic gardening skills, including seed starting and container garden techniques, walking tours of the Kripalu campus and Berkshire Botanical Garden, meditation classes focused on mindfulness practices and how to apply them at home, gentle group yoga and movement sessions. Led by Jurian Hughes, the garden component of this program will be led by BBG instructors Chris Wellens and Jenna O’Brien. Join us to discover a whole new way to practice this ancient and joyous activity.

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EDUCATION

Transplanting Shrubs and Planting Small Ornamental Trees Saturday, April 28, 9:30 am – 1:30 pm Members: $15/Non-members: $25 Participants should dress warmly and bring pruners and work gloves; dress for the weather. Learn by doing in this hands-on shrub and tree planting/transplanting workshop led by arborist Ken Gooch. All aspects of successful planting will be demonstrated, and participants will assist in transplanting a multi-stem shrub and planting a small tree. Learn how to successfully transplant shrubs by correct timing and placement and techniques designed to create minimal disturbance and ensure smooth transition to a new site. Consider the differences between bare-root, container-grown, or balled-and-burlapped trees, and understand the importance of siting.

Enjoy your BBG mEmBEr BEnEfits whilE EarninG GardEn rEwards Ask In-store for More Information on How to Join

Ward’s Where Gardeners Grow

BBG Backyard Beekeeping Group Join local beekeepers on the second Tuesday of each month at 6pm on the grounds of Berkshire Botanical Garden. Each month’s meeting, will involve season-appropriate discussions and demonstrations using the BBG apiary, weather permitting. We will focus on sustainable beekeeping techniques: raising and sourcing bees locally, managing pests and diseases ecologically, and creating beneficial habitats for honeybees and native pollinators alike.

Ward’s Nursery & Garden Center 600 S. Main Street - Gt. Barrington Open Daily 8 am - 6:00 pm 413-528-0166 www.wardsnursery.com

All levels of experience are welcome. New to beekeeping? Come learn how to get started with your first hives. Are you a seasoned beekeeper? Your experience and knowledge will be invaluable to others in the group! Upcoming meeting dates: May 8, June 12, July 10, August 14, and September 11. All meetings are at 6:00pm at BBG.

Installing a New Hive Saturday, April 28, 10 am – noon Members: $5/Non-members: $10 Installing a new hive can be both exhilarating and daunting. This workshop, instructed by Chris Wellens, will discuss the preparations to take so beekeepers are ready to install a new hive when their nucs or packages arrive. Topics to be covered will include equipment needed, installation techniques, feeding, and care for the first few months. A hands-on demonstration of installing a hive will follow this talk at a later date depending on the arrival date of the bees. This date will be announced on berkshirebotanical.org and on BBG’s Facebook page.

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BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

EDUCATION

Trade Secrets Saturday, May 19, 9 am – 2 pm Members: $65/Non-Members: $80 (includes admission to Trade Secrets) Join members of the BBG staff as we attend the 18th annual Trade Secrets Rare Plant and Garden Antique Sale, held at Lion Rock Farm in Sharon, CT. Up to 60 vendors will bring their rare and unusual plants and garden antiques for you to take home with you. Trade Secrets is a fundraiser for Women’s Support Services. Price includes admission to Trade Secrets Regular Buying and transportation to and from BBG.

Inspecting Your Honey Bee Hive Saturday, May 26, 10 am – noon Members: $5, Non-Members: $10 Beehives should be inspected every week or two. This course, taught by Richard Clapper, will guide participants through a basic hive check. Topics covered will include monitoring hives throughout the seasons; finding eggs, larvae, and queens; record keeping; and checking for mites and other signs of diseases. A hands-on demo of a hive check will take place, weather permitting. Participants are advised to bring their own veil or other protective equipment.

Offsite Field Study to Cricket Hill Nursery Sunday, May 27, 11:30am - 2:30pm Members: $35/Non-members: $45 Cricket Hill Garden, in Litchfield, CT, has something to interest every gardener. For nearly 30 years, the owners have propagated and sold true-to-name varieties of rare Chinese peonies in a six-acre display garden named Peony Heaven. Combine that with a collection of unusual varieties of landscape edibles such as Asian pears, pawpaws, persimmons, heirloom apples, and medlars. Our visit will include a tour led by co-owner Dan Furman and will give participants ample time to enjoy the peonies at their peak bloom as well as time to shop the nursery.

Gardening with Mushrooms Saturday, June 2, 10 am – 1 pm Members: $45/Non-members: $55 (all materials costs included) Dress for working outdoors; bring work gloves. Join Willie Crosby of Fungi Ally for this hands-on workshop to turn your garden into an arena of decomposition and mushroom production! Gain the tools and knowledge to transform agricultural waste to grow your own food and medicine for your family and community. We will work with three mushrooms in particular: wine caps, almond portobellos, and oysters. Participants will become familiar with techniques of cultivating these mushrooms for food, medicine, or mycoremediation purposes. This workshop will include building a wood-chip bed of wine cap mushrooms (go home with myceliated chips to start your own mushroom bed), adding Almond Portobellos to your garden via compost, and growing oyster mushrooms in mulch. We will also discuss transferring and expanding these mushrooms without buying spawn, and using Wine Cap mushrooms in mycoremediation applications.

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EDUCATION

Annual Field Trip: Serenity on the Hudson at Wave Hill Tuesday, June 12, 8 am – 6 pm Members: $130/Non-Members: $150 Join the staff of BBG for a special tour of Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. With a notable tree collection serving as the cornerstone of the landscape, Wave Hill consists of 13 designed garden areas on 28 acres. An aquatic garden hugged with tropical plants. A wild garden championed by William Robinson offers winding pathways and spectacular river views. A conservatory filled with ferns, bromeliads, rainforest cacti plus The Cactus and Succulent House which displays plump and spiny plants from arid regions of the world. And the Elliptical Garden featuring primarily native plants using a formal design pattern. This trip, a great way to spend a day with likeminded garden and art lovers, is not to be missed. Coach bus leaves Berkshire Botanical Garden promptly at 8am. Dress for the weather: comfortable, sturdy footwear; warm, waterproof outerwear; umbrella. Bring a bag lunch (limited access to a garden cafe is available for those wishing to purchase lunch).

Offsite Field Study to Washington, Connecticut’s Two Fabulous Gardens Tuesday, June 19, 9 am – 4:30 pm Members: $50/Non-Members: $65 Visit two fabulous gardens in Washington, CT in one day: the beautiful, panoramic Highmeadows Garden, the private estate of Linda Allard, and Hollister House, an American interpretation of such classic English gardens as Sissinghurst, Great Dixter and Hidcote. A tour of Hollister House will be led by head gardener Krista Adams. Participants should bring a lunch and dress for the weather. Transportation to and from BBG included in price and time.

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Foraging & Feasting: Plant Walk, Cooking Demo & Tasting Saturday, June 23, 11 am – 2 pm Members: $45/Non-Members: $55 Explore the culinary treasures hidden in local wild foods with instructor Dina Falconi. Learn to identify, harvest, and prepare these ancient foods so you can easily incorporate them into your daily meals. Using basic sensory skills, we will survey the wild plants and herbs of the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Inside we will prep and taste a few of the delicious, nutrient-dense recipes from the instructor’s book Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook. Signed copies of Foraging & Feasting will be available at this presentation.

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

EDUCATION

Join Us for Art in the Garden! Become part of our ART/GARDEN celebration this season by enrolling in our art programs! Our workshops are geared towards artists of all levels — beginner students are especially encouraged to join! In case of rain or high winds during classes, we are pleased to offer a beautiful, brightly lit classroom in the newly renovated Center House for uninterrupted creativity. Our summer art classes routinely sell out — register early at berkshirebotanical.org.

The Garden in Watercolors Session I Wednesdays, July 11 – August 1, 10 am – 1 pm Members: $155/Non-Members: $175 Individual Class: $45/Non-Members: $60 (Available June 1, space permitting.) Enjoy the Garden through the pleasure of watercolor painting. Each class will be introduced in the new Center House classroom where the instructor will demonstrate assignments and offer helpful tips. We will then move outdoors into the Garden to translate its vistas and details into paintings. Ann Kremers will circulate among students throughout the class offering encouragement and suggestions. Beginners and experienced painters are welcome. In case of rain, the Center House offers a lovely waterproof venue.

Basic Drawing: Observing Nature with Graphite Pencil Monday, August 6 & Tuesday, August 7, 10 am – 4 pm Members $225, Non-members: $250 All levels, beginners encouraged Bring a bag lunch. Materials list at www.berkshirebotanical.org Drawing is a great way to observe nature and have fun recording what you see. However, it may cease to be fun if you aren’t sure about how to begin or can’t achieve the likeness of your subject that you would like. This two-day drawing workshop will give you the basic concepts and skills to get started. Under the guidance of Carol Ann Morley you will learn how to look at the natural world and give shape and definition to your subject. Through graphite shading techniques you will understand how to accurately render some basic shapes that underlie any subject you choose to draw from a plant to landscape, giving depth and meaning to your art. Open to any level student from beginner to those with drawing skills.

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Drawing Daylilies in the Garden Wednesday, August 8 – Friday, August 10, 10 am – 4 pm Members: $315/Non-Members: $350 All Levels Bring a bag lunch. Materials list at www.berkshirebotanical.org Capture the beauty of daylilies and other flowers that grow at Berkshire Botanical Garden with artist Carol Ann Morley. Sit amongst the daylilies and bring their beauty to life on the page of your sketchbook. Bring along a camera to document what you draw and see. In the classroom explore ways to enhance your field studies, bring more depth to petals and leaves and record their vibrant colors applying a variety of graphite and colored pencil techniques. Create a final page of garden flowers.

The Garden in Watercolors Session II Wednesdays, August 8 – August 29, 10 am – 1 pm Members: $155/Non-Members: $175 Individual Class: $45/Non-Members: $60 (Available June 1, space permitting) Enjoy the garden through the pleasure of watercolor painting with Ann Kremers. Each class will be introduced in the new Center House classroom where the instructor will demonstrate and offer helpful assignments. We will then move outdoors into the Garden to translate its vistas and details into paintings. Ann will circulate among students throughout the class offering encouragement and suggestions. Beginners and experienced painters are welcome. In case of rain the Center House offers a lovely waterproof venue.

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EDUCATION

New England Heritage Gardens Offsite Field Study at The Bidwell House Monday, August 20, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm Members: $35/Non-Members: $45 Join us on a tour led by Ruth Green, head gardener at the Bidwell House, for a behind-the-scenes view of this outstanding museum. The Bidwell House Museum’s extensive ornamental gardens are designed to showcase historical, native, and pollinator-friendly plants, as well as herbs used by 18th century settlers. The main garden bed highlights the shrubs and perennials common to New England gardens of the era. The Heritage Garden gives visitors a look at the likely design and crops the Bidwells would have grown to feed their family and many community members. The Museum plants vegetable varieties that were present in New England in the mid-18th century, including Hubbard True Green squash, Red Wethersfield onions and Blue Pod Capucijners peas. The Museum has also started a collection of heirloom apple varieties that originated in Massachusetts in the same period, including Hightop Sweet and Westfield-Seek-No-Further. The four-square layout of the garden would have reminded the Bidwells of English garden design, a feature that was common throughout New England at the time. Transportation to and from BBG included in price and time.

Church House Tour with Page Dickey Offsite Field Study Sunday, September 1, 9:30 am – 1:30 pm Members: $35/Non-Members: $45 Join us for a unique opportunity to tour Church House, Page Dickey’s gardens and surrounding 17 acres of fields and woods located in Falls Village, CT. Ideally situated with a view of the Berkshire Hills, it is a gardener’s classroom with groves of shadblow (Amelanchier), a saltwater pool accented by hydrangeas and flowering shrubs, and a small cottage garden surrounding the house. Meadow paths rich in native flowers lead to a lime rock-strewn woodland and ravine with a vernal pool. Transportation to and from BBG is included in price and time. Please dress for the weather.

The Gardens of Bar Harbor and Mt. Desert Island Thursday, September 6 – Sunday, September 9 Pricing available through Classical Excursions Mt. Desert Island is considered one of Maine’s most revered summer resort islands where such towns as Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor and Northeast Harbor dot the area. A major aspect of Mt. Desert Island is nature and the cultivation of beautiful gardens. One person stands out for her highly talented contribution: the legendary landscape designer Beatrix Farrand, who summered at Bar Harbor for over half a century, creating over 60 gardens on the island. One of her greatest projects was the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden at Seal Harbor. Collections of plants from her Reef Point home can now be seen at the Asticou Azalea Garden and Thuya Garden, both at Northeast Harbor. Another Farrand garden can be found at her last home, Garland Farm, Salisbury Cove, now maintained by the Beatrix Farrand Society. The Berkshire Botanical Garden invites you to join an exclusive tour to discover these gardens and more, including a collection of private gardens scattered throughout the island: a garden still maintained as designed by Farrand, a charming floral garden overlooking a harbor, and the naturalistic landscaping that encloses a 1920s stone house whose owner is known for gracious living. For further information, visit berkshirebotanical.org.

Withdrawals: To withdraw your registration from a class, please contact us as soon as possible so we can make your space available to others. If you give us at least 7 days’ notice prior to the event, we will offer a refund less an administrative fee equaling 25% of the program cost. Please note: we cannot offer refunds for withdrawals less than 7 days before a class.

CREATING BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES 413-448-2215 churchillgardens.com TO R EG IST E R, V IS IT W W W.B E RKS H IRE B OTANICAL.O RG

est

1998 BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

EDUCATION

SAVE THE DATE! Gardener’s Study Weekend in the Brandywine Valley Perennial Plant Symposium at Scott Arboretum Thursday – Saturday, October 18 – 20 Departs Thursday, October 18, 7 am from Berkshire Botanical Garden Returns Saturday, October 20, 6 pm Members only: $1,075

Cuttings For advertising opportunities, please call 413-298-3926.

Join garden staff members for a three-day study weekend in the Brandywine Valley of Pennsylvania. The cornerstone of this trip includes attendance to the Perennial Plant Conference held at the extraordinary Scotts Arboretum located on the campus of Swarthmore College. Attended by professionals and avid home gardeners from the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, this conference is by far the most sophisticated, cutting edge gardening conference held on the East Coast. This three-day trip includes transportation, tours of exceptional gardens and admission to a world class gardening conference. There will be a bit of free time for relaxing and resting weary feet! The BBG staff is eager to share this wonderful gardening adventure with you.

Native Habitat Restoration Returning Balance to Nature

Wetlands Woodlands Meadows Fields

Included in the cost: Motor coach transportation, Attendance at the Fall Perennial Plant Conference at Swarthmore College, Admission to Mt. Cuba Center, Longwood Garden, Kennett Square, PA, Scotts Arboretum, Swarthmore, PA., Overnight accommodation Thursday and Friday night, All breakfasts and lunches.

Invasive Plant Control

Evening meals are on your own; a variety of different restaurants are located within walking distance of the hotel. The cost includes a $150 tax deductible donation to the Berkshire Botanical Garden.

(organic options)

Winter Cuttings: 4.75”W x 3.5 “H

Pollinator Habitats Field Reclamation Wetland Restoration

(413) 358-7400

NativeHabitatRestoration.weebly.com Licensed in MA . CT . NY . VT

WINDY HILL FARM NURSERY • ORCHARD • GARDEN SHOP Superb plantS, extenSive Knowledge outStanding Quality, Selection & value We offer our own Berkshire field-gown specimens, including Kousa dogwood; American, European, Green and Copper Beech; native birch; hybrid lilacs; viburnums; hydrangea paniculata; Fringe trees; witchhazels; resistant American elms; blueberries; winterberry; espaliered fruit trees; mature apple, peach and pear trees; herbaceous and tree peonies.

686 Stockbridge road, great barrington, Ma 01230 www . windyhillfarMinc . coM (413) 298-3217 26

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GARDEN NEWS

Family Fridays at the Garden

Welcome Gardeners We are pleased to announce the addtion of Deborah Helmke and Katarina Goldenberg to the BBG staff. DEBORAH HELMKE, GARDENER

Our popular Family Fridays offer lectures and demonstrations that are interactive, educational, and fun. Join us for three programs focusing on the natural world as we explore the lives of mammals, animal habitats, and birds of prey. All programs are free to Garden members and children under 12, and free to non-members with admission to the Garden.

Mammals in the Backyard Rick Roth - The Creature Teachers Friday, August 10, 10 am This program is designed for all ages and highlights some of the furry creatures that inhabit the landscape with us. Travelling under cover of darkness, many of these amazing mammals seldom show themselves to humans during the day. Instructor Rick Roth will encourage families to get to know these mammals, learn about their natural history, and help develop appreciation and respect for these wild animals that often live in our own backyards. The talk will include live specimens including a fisher cat, grey fox, skunk, flying squirrels and more.

Animals Around the World Rick Roth - The Creature Teachers Friday, August 17, 10am Come take a trip around the world with us and find out where our live animals come from. This program explores the diverse habitats of our planet and the animals that live within them. See why some animals are well suited for certain areas and why some are not.

Debbie brings creativity and a passion for gardening to her new position. An experienced apparel designer who transitioned to a professional gardener, Debbie is a 2016 graduate of BBG’s Horticulture Certificate Program. She has tended her own gardens for nearly 20 years and divides her time between working at BBG and maintaining home gardens for private clients.

KATARINA GOLDENBERG, SEASONAL GARDENER

Katarina Goldenberg joins us as a seasonal gardener this summer. Katarina’s experience as a flower grower at both Tiny Hearts Farm in Copake and Allandale Farm in Brookline, MA make her a great match for BBG! Her experience also includes CSA management at Drumlin Farm, Massachusetts Audubon in Lincoln, MA, where she assisted in crop planning, greenhouse seeding, merchandising, and management of the maple sugaring harvest.

Birds of Prey Tom Ricardi, Wildlife Rehabilitator Friday, August 24 10:00 am Join wildlife rehabilitator Tom Ricardi for his ever popular presentation on birds of prey. This program is designed for all ages. Tom will share the natural history of these magnificent birds, demonstrate some of their unique behaviors and inspire children of all ages to appreciate, respect and conserve these important members of our wild kingdom.

BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

GARDEN NEWS

Welcome New Trustee We’re pleased to announce the appointment of John Spellman to our Board of Trustees. John is an investment professional with over 30 years of experience as a fixed income financial analyst. He will be involved in both the Garden’s finance and horticulture committees — two areas of interest representing his profession as well as a lifelong interest in botany and gardening in the Berkshires. He has also served for ten years as the Finance Committee Chair for the Norman Rockwell Museum. We are grateful for John’s generous contribution of his time and talents to the Garden.

Welcome Interns

We are delighted to welcome four talented students into our summer internship program (pictured above, left to right): Korey Adwell, Northwest Missouri State University Erica Hecht, Kansas State University Chloe Smith, University of Illinois Yesenia Vega, Springfield Technical Community College Our program is designed for college students aspiring towards a career in horticulture, public gardening, landscape architecture or design, and provides an opportunity for hands-on experience at two public gardens: BBG and Naumkeag. Interns work with the horticulture staff and volunteers at both locations in all phases of garden maintenance and development including planting, weeding, watering, mulching, pruning and interacting with visitors. Students are also invited to participate in special projects including accession records, garden inventories, plant signage, or photography. Intern training sessions, public educational programs, and staff field trips are also offered to help broaden the students’ horticultural horizons. We look forward to the contagious enthusiasm that our summer interns bring to all aspects of the Garden! BBG’s Summer Internship Program is funded through the generous support of The Lenox Garden Club and The Marcia Brady Tucker Foundation. 28

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Photo by Tricia McCormack

Garden Membership Can Take You in So Many Directions! Membership benefits include free garden admission and discounts on classes, trips and purchases in our Visitor Center. Members have access to the Garden’s botanical library and receive Cuttings to stay apprised of Garden events and programs. Interested in members-only offsite travel and field studies? That’s a membership benefit as well! In addition, our members receive invitations to private gallery events and movie nights at the Center House, early buying privileges at our Plant Sale and Holiday Marketplace, and enjoy the benefits of The American Horticultural Society’s Reciprocal Admission Program, which offers free admission and/or additional benefits at over 300 gardens throughout North America, Grand Cayman and St. Croix. Best of all, when you become a member, you join a garden community and take part in the life of the Garden year-round. Your financial support through membership dues allow us to create new landscapes and features, enhance existing gardens, and support our ever-growing educational programs and special events. Become a member today, or give the gift of membership to a favorite gardener in your life. Memberships come in several levels. . .choose one that’s just right for you by visiting our website, berkshirebotanical.org.

MEMBER’S SPECIAL EVENTS

Members Opening - Plant Lithographs by Ellsworth Kelly Sunday, May 6, 10 – 11 am

Insider’s View with The Clark and Berkshire Botanical Garden Thursday, July 12, 4 pm

Join us for an exclusive member’s opening of Ellsworth Kelly’s iconic plant lithographs on display in the Center House Leonhardt Galleries. Refreshments will be served.

Birding for Members Wednesday May 16 (rain date May 18) 7 am Join renowned ornithologist and past president of the Hoffmann Bird Club, Ed Neumuth for an early-morning excursion around the Garden. Bring along your binoculars and bird ID book; we’ll have the coffee on for you!

Member Night in the Garden Friday, July 6, 5:30 – 7:30 pm Celebrate your BBG membership with an evening dedicated just for you! Enjoy sunset in the gardens at peak season, mingle, browse our ART/ GARDEN exhibitions, and simply enjoy! Refreshments will be served.

BBG and Clark members are invited to BBG for a presentation by Senior Curator, Esther Bell, who will speak on The Clark’s summer show featuring works by Jennifer Steinkamp. BBG Executive Director Mike Beck will be on hand to describe the Garden’s summer exhibitions. A reception follows. RSVP for all events to membership@berkshirebotanical.org or call 413-298-3926, x15.

SAVE THE DATE!

Members Only Gardener’s Study Weekend in the Brandywine Valley Perennial Plant Symposium at Scott Arboretum Thursday–Saturday, October 18–20 See the education section in this issue of Cuttings for more details.

www.berkshirebotanical.org BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Qualprint 5 West Stockbridge Road Stockbridge, MA 01262 413-298-3926 • berkshirebotanical.org

ROOTED IN PLACE Ecological Gardening Symposium SAVE THE DATE

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11 Berkshire School, Sheffield, MA

and Answers PLANTS

41 ST ANNUAL BE-A-BETTER-GARDENER PLANT SALE

FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 11 & 12 (MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND) Annuals • Perennials • Vegetables • Herbs • Expert Gardening Advice • Rare Trees & Shrubs • Woodland Plants • Containers • Tools • Answers to your Garden Questions • Garden Flea Market & Silent Auction Plus... a variety of craft, food, and garden vendors!

EARLY BUYING FOR BBG MEMBERS: FRIDAY 9:00 -11:00 AM. Hours for the general public: Friday 11:00 am – 5:00 pm, Saturday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. 5 West Stockbridge Road (Routes 183 & 102), Stockbridge, MA 413 298-3926 berkshirebotanical.org