GardenDesignOnline

Happenings April 2025

Selected Events Around the Country:

Orchid Shows:

Thru April 13, Orchid Show, Atlanta, GA
"Orchid Daze," Atlanta Botanical Garden
Thru April 27, Orchid Show, Washington DC
"Masters of Deception," US Botanic Garden & Smithsonian Gardens
Thru April 27, Bronx, NY
The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism
NY Botanical Garden

Events:

April 1-30, California
April 1, Lecture, LA Thomas Wolz, , ONLINE
2-3pm EST, "The Land is Full." Garden Conservancy
April 3, Garden Symposium, Newport, RI
8:30am-4pm, "Italian Influence in Newport," TCLF
April 5, Garden Dialogues, Phoenix, AZ
10am-1pm, Garden Tours & Talks, TCLF
April 5 & 26, Garden Conservancy Open Day, Nutley, NJ

April 9, Evenings with Experts, "Cultivated Places," ONLINE
7-8:30pm, Author & Broadcaster Jennifer Jewell, GROW NATIVE M
April 9, Botanical Talk & Tour, Boston, MA
12:30-2pm, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
April 10-12, 78th Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium, Williamsburg, VA
"The Influence of Great English Gardens,"  Also ONLINE
April 10, "Gardening Year-Round," AHS LIVE, ONLINE
7-8 pm ET, Lecture, Liz Reyes, Asst. Director, Heronswood
April 10, Lecture, "Gertrude Jekyll's Munstead Wood, ONLINE
2-3pm, "The Next 100 Years," Garden Conservancy
April 12, Garden Conservancy Open Day, Campobello, SC

April 16, Lecture, LA Thomas Woltz, Washington DC
6:30-8:30pm, National Building Museum, "The Land is Full."
April 17, "Saving Nature with Your Yard," AHS LIVE, ONLINE
2-3 pm ET, Lecture, author & professor Dr. Douglas Tallamy
April 19, Garden Conservancy Open Day, East Hampton, NY

April 24, "Native Plant Groundcovers," AHS LIVE, ONLINE
2-3 pm ET, Lecture, Designer Kathy Connolly
April 24, Lecture, Sleepy Cat Farm, Part I, ONLINE
2-3pm, Garden Conservancy
April 25, Univ. N. Carolina Garden Tour, Charlotte, NC
10:30am-noon ET, Charlotte Botanical Gardens, with Director Jeff Gillman

April 26-May 3, Historic Garden Week, various sites, Virginia
April 26, Liberty Hall Museum, Union, NJ
10am-noon, Tour & Talk, Garden Conservancy
April 26-27 Garden Conservancy Open Days: MA, NJ, NY, TX
MA: Hampshire Cty; NJ: Essex, Hunterdon Ctys; NY: Westchester Cty; TX: Harris Cty

LOOKAHEAD:

May 9-10 Dumbarton Oaks Landscape Symposium, Washington, DC
"The Land Has More to Tell Us," Dumbarton Oaks
May 20-24, Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK

June 2-5, Am. Public Gardens Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO
July 11-20, Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival, Cape Cod, MA

Flower Cascades

Gardner Museum, photo Siena Scarff

If you've never been to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, April is the time to go, as you'll be able to enjoy one of the great flower displays in the country: the annual show of hanging nasturtiums.

The nasturtium show only lasts for about three weeks; it's an annual tradition that starts each year around Easter time.

photo Siena Scarff

According to the museum's blog, Isabella started growing the flowers at her home in Brookline by 1913 and placed them on the courtyard balconies in honor of her birthday.  She sold the property in 1919, but museum trustees bought new hothouses in 1926 and revived the tradition, which has goes on today.

photo: Gardner museum

The vines are started from seed every June, planted in late summer, and trained in greenhouses throughout the winter.  The nasturtiums require continuous care to ensure they reach their dramatic length of approximately 20 feet in time for their museum debut. 

 

 

Philly Flower Show 2025

Click to enlarge images

As you enter this year's show, you're instantly transported to the future, fitting perfectly with this year's theme, "Gardens of Tomorrow."  The entrance garden, "Future Florentia," was designed by PHS artists, and as Flower Show creative director Seth Pearsoll explains, the show "is a celebration of innovation, resilience, and creativity in gardening."

Some of my favorites from the show:

Tomorrow's Eden is a collaboration between Japanese garden designers Kazuyuki Ishihara and Iftikhar Ahmed of Treeline Designz. It's a two-tiered garden with waterfall and other natural features, and the designers say it's a landscape that "embodies two powerful truths: the boundless resilience of nature and the fragile responsibility humanity holds in preserving it." You'll definitely want to take a good look at this garden from both the front and the back to appreciate all of its elements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most popular exhibits, Welcoming Wildlife Home by Jennifer Designs, explores the role of wildlife in a thriving ecosystem.  The animals seated at the table represent human interaction with nature, and the surrounding plants are those that particularly support various species. 

I was also struck by the Signature of Time by Mark Cook Landscaping, whose exhibit represents "a life of journeys and experiences shared through architecture, color, texture, and plants from multiple time zones.

There is, of course, much more to the show than landscape exhibits, so head over to Philadelphia for an experience you won't want to miss.