Toronto Botanical Garden

EDWARDS LECTURES 2010

SUMMER 2010

CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS

EVENTS

We’ve searched the world to bring the best of the best – in expertise, in advice and, most importantly, in inspiration. Lectures are held in the Floral Hall, Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Admission: Door sales only. Limited seating.
Public $20 / Students (with valid ID) $15 / FREE for Members of TBG or Reciprocal Gardens
Generously supported by the Edwards Charitable Foundation

Perennials: What’s New and Exciting and Often Overlooked
Wednesday May 26, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
Tony Avent
Download Lecture Slide List here!

Dig it Up!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 7:30pm
Helen Dillon
Renowned author, broadcaster, and garden consultant Helen Dillon says,“it is often said that there are two types of gardener: collectors and makers of garden pictures. I can never decide which I am”. Over the past forty years, she has wrestled with this dichotomy, making a number of changes to her Dublin garden, including the incorporation of vegetables in the borders and the addition of hens at the bottom of the garden. She has experienced the challenges that we all have: lack of room, too much shade, suckering trees etc., and she and her garden – have survived. If you’re thinking of making a garden change, this lecture is a must; you’ll leave with the courage and wisdom to know how and why to make changes without losing either your mind or your sense of humour!

Horticultural Travels in Iran
Thursday, October 14, 2010, 7:30pm John Mitchell
This gardening travelogue will take us from Tehran in the south, through the desert to the Zagros Mountains, the country’s largest mountain range and home of several ecosystems. We’ll tour Estafan, one of the most beautiful cities in the Middle East, head to the ancient city of Alborz in Central Iran and then see Orumiyeh with its therapeutic salt-water lake and fascinating legends. Throughout the trip, we’ll become familiar with the many amazing plants that manage to thrive in varied and often extreme conditions. Hopefully, after this lecture, when we think of Iran, we’ll think first of its natural beauty.

Bringing Nature Home
Wednesday, October 27, 2010, 7:30pm
Douglas Tallamy
In partnership with the North American Native Plant Society
As a child, Douglas Tallamy enjoyed watching pollywogs in a small pond near his home. Suddenly one day, they were no more: a bulldozer destroyed the pond and all the living creatures within to begin a housing development. That incident was the beginning of a lifetime dedicated to preserving the ecosystem. In this very personal lecture, Tallamy will discuss the important ecological roles of the plants in our landscapes, emphasize the benefits of designing gardens with these roles in mind, and explore the consequences of failing to do so. After the lecture, the author will be available to sign his book “Bringing Nature Home”. Reduced admission fee for members of NANPS.

A Sense of Place: Site Specific Design
Tuesday, November 16, 2010, 7:30pm
David Culp
Brandywine Cottage is the home of author, lecturer and hellebore hybridizer David Culp. In this lecture, he uses the cottage and surrounding land as an example of how to design a space that is in tune with its natural surroundings. . His adaptation of a Pennsylvania county garden includes many collections, including galanthus, roses, hepaticas, cyclamen, euphorbias, arums, peonies, iris, and of course, the specialty of the house, hellebores. The garden contains a series of plant habitats dedicated to 4 seasons of interest. If you’re looking for inspiring garden images, this is the lecture for you.

Conifers: Terrific Non-Seasonal Plants
Tuesday November 30, 2010, 7:30 pm
James E. Eckenwalder
Author of the recently released “Conifers of the World: a complete reference”, Eckenwalder is a conifer specialist whose enthusiasms includes the evolution and history of conifers as well as everything gardeners need to know about these terrific all-season plants. If you think you know conifers – think again. You won’t believe the varieties available of these extremely useful and beautiful specimens. After the lecture, he will be available to sign copies of his book.

SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHIES

Helen Dillon: Helen is an author, broadcaster and garden consultant. She has lectured many times in USA, New Zealand, Germany, France, Australia and the UK and has traveled extensively in order to study plants in Nepal, China, South America, South Africa and New Zealand. In 1999, she was awarded the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society in England and in 2003 the George Robert White Medal of Honour from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. In autumn 2004, she was made a distinguished counsellor to the Board of the New York Botanical Garden. The garden at 45 Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland has been open to the public for the last 30 years. Helen Dillon's Garden Book - her latest book - was published November 2007 by Frances Lincoln and was Robin Lane Fox [of the Financial Times]book of the year. This is also published in the US by Timber Press as 'Down to Earth with Helen Dillon'. This was top of the list of bestsellers of Timber Press for 4 months.

John Mitchell: John has worked at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for 26 years in the Herbaceous and Alpine area. He started out as seed and specimen collector and progressed to alpine supervisor 15 years ago. His focus now is to maintain and develop the alpine section which includes the rock garden, woodland garden, peat wall and alpine house and frame area. He has been on expeditions to China, Tibet, Alaska and Iran.

Douglas Tallamy: Doug is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, where he has written more than 65 research articles and has taught insect taxonomy, behavioral ecology, and other subjects. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. In his free time Tallamy enjoys photography (particularly of insects and birds), hiking and backpacking with his wife in remote places, swimming and canoeing, and teaching young people about the importance of the life forms around them.

Daivd Culp: Douglas is a lecturer, a contributing editor for Horticulture magazine, a regular author for Fine Gardening and other magazines, a garden designer, past chair of the PA Hardy Plant Society and a new plant researcher for Sunny Border Nurseries, Kensington, CT.

James E. Eckenwalder: James is associate professor of plant systematics at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto, where he focuses on taxonomy, natural hybridization, and macroevolution. He graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and earned his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. His research, which has resulted in significant changes to conifer taxonomy, emphasizes the classification and evolution of vascular plants, especially trees. His interests include the theoretical and practical bases of plant classification, the tracing of evolutionary histories, the integration of different lines of taxonomic evidence into classifications, the most effective ways of incorporating taxonomically awkward organisms — especially hybrids and fossils — into classifications, and the testing of taxonomic hypotheses.