Skip to content
Menu Close
Close
Silver Bed 10 2020 S Ingh IMG 2013

Horticultural Lectures

Wave Hill Horticultural Lecture Series

Wave Hill’s annual Horticultural Lecture Series, started in 1979, has included such luminaries as Margaret Roach, Christopher Lloyd, Anne Raver, Dan Hinkley, Jamaica Kincaid and Sarah Raven.

This ongoing series, curated by Wave Hill’s Director of Horticulture and the Friends of Horticulture Committee, is devoted to garden design and the meaning of our interactions with plants and the natural world. Below is a list of past lectures.

Horticultural Lectures 2023

This year, the series highlights the horticultural ideals of irrepressible garden-makers who not only cultivate an ambitious variety of plants but arrange them into artful compositions that defy boundaries and exceed expectations. Each presentation challenges conventional practice to bold and memorable result.

The ticket price for each virtual lecture is $20. The ticket price for the third and final lecture, at Wave Hill, is $30, including admission to the grounds.

See below for links to each of the 2023 lectures and register soon!

3 Shade garden 059 1

Far Reaches—Exploration and Conservation Inform Garden Design

Sue Milliken and Kelly Dodson, owners of rare-plant nursery Far Reaches Farm and founders of the Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy, collect and cultivate thousands of rare, exotic, native and cultivated ornamentals, many of which are imperiled in their provenance. Using the lens of their many, inspiring global expeditions, this talk explores their personal style as plant obsessive-compulsive collectors, where pride of place in planting is as much the backstory as the beauty. They will highlight the bones of two new gardens under construction, a crevice garden and a contemporary take on a lath-house shade garden.

Learn More
Perspective resized

Timelines—Glen Villa’s Quest to Make History Visible through Design

Patterson Webster began gardening on her 750-acre landscape as many do, by borrowing from conventional approaches and traditional principles. Once embarked, however, her inquisitive mind and love of exploration inspired her to examine the history and composition of her land. With a fresh perspective, Webster brings the garden to life with a language and voice distinctly its own. Her new book, Autobiography of a Garden, identifies events and risks taken that mark her place within the garden’s complex timeline.

Learn More
Thumbnail image6

The Curious Plantsman—Challenging Convention: Plant Trials by Design

Matt Mattus is a creative who cannot stop growing. With an inherent curiosity that challenges conventional wisdom and seeks out the obscure, Matt experiments with classic and current horticultural methods to find which has merit and which misleads. His research has also identified “secret recipes” that could improve the results of what you’re growing in your own garden. Matt will discuss seed-sown annuals, delphiniums from cuttings, demystifying South African bulbs and cyclamen, and more.

Learn More

2022

  • January 19: Ching-Fang ChenNew Aesthetics for Public Spaces
  • February 16: James GoldenThe View From Federal Twist: A New Way of Thinking About Gardens, Nature and Ourselves
  • March 30: Liman ChengLittle Island—A Garden Rises

2021

  • February 17: Matthew ReeseMalverleys, Making and Maintaining an English Flower Garden
  • March 24: Eric HsuUprooted: The Untold Story of Japanese American Influence on American Gardens
  • April 14: Fergus GarrettWild at Dixter

2020

  • January 22: Barbara Paul RobinsonHeroes of Horticulture
  • February 19: Ngoc Minh NgoTo Look at Things in Bloom, Photographing Gardens
  • March 25: Uziel CrescenziChance Encounters of a Young Gardener *

2019

  • January 23: Colin CabotGrowing Up Under the Influence
  • February 20: Lisa RoperThe Design Evolution of the Gravel Garden
  • March 20: Coralie ThomasThe Evolution of a Young Gardener

2018

  • January 17: Deborah Needleman in conversation with Sarah Ryhanen and Jenny ElliottThe Farm to Garden Movement: Influencing American Gardens from the Ground Up
  • February 21: Sarah RavenThe Cutting Garden
  • March 21: Timothy Young—Paper Trails: Writers and Gardens in the Archives

2017

  • January 18: Bill Noble—The Gardens of Cornish Colony, Where Classic Gardens Took Root in America
  • February 15: David Fried—Fruits You Only Dreamed You Could Grow
  • March 15 : Jack Staub—Hortulus Farm: An American Story

2016

  • January 20: Quill Teal-SullivanFinding My Way: Working Helena’s Gardens at Meadowburn Farm
  • February 17: Marta McDowellThe Pen and the Trowell: Authors, Their Gardens and Mine
  • March 18: Katherine TraceySucculent Love

2015

  • January 21: Marco Polo StufanoLooking Back: Wave Hill at 50
  • February 18: Ulrich LorimerLocally Sourced – Marrying Field Botany and Horticulture
  • March 18: Ed BowenWhere Have All the Flowers Gone?

2014

  • January 22: Louis BauerGreenwood Gardens: Transforming a Country House into a Public Place for Horticulture
  • February 19: Margery L. DaughtreyDreadful Diseases Dangling Over Old Faithful Ornamentals
  • March 19: William CullinaWhat Do You Mean I’m Not a Perennial!?! Native Shrubs and Small Trees for Perennial Companionship

2013

  • January 23: Stephen F. Byrns & Timothy TilghmanUntermyer, America’s Greatest Forgotten Garden
  • February 27: Annie NovakThe Future of Farming
  • March 21: Jason EslamiehBoswellias of the World

2012

  • January 18: Larry J. WenteCountry Life: Integrating Architecture and Landscape Design
  • February 22: Barbara Paul RobinsonRosemary Verey: Queen of Horticulture
  • March 21: Thomas L. WoltzRestoration Ecology in Private Estate Gardens

2011

  • January 19: John A. Gwynne & Mikel FolcarelliThe Rakes’ Progress: The Evolution of a Garden
  • February 23: Frances PalmerThrowing Pots and Raising Dahlias: My Life in a Connecticut Garden
  • March 16: Margaret RoachAt Home in My 365-Day Garden

2010

  • January 20: Patrick CullinaElevated Pulse: Examining the High Line’s Dynamic and Emerging Landscape
  • February 24: Stephen OrrSmart Gardens: Getting More with Less
  • March 17: Dominique BrowningSlow Love: Making a New Garden – and a New Life

2009

  • January 21: Mick HalesCatch the Eye
  • February 25: William Bryant LoganOak: The Frame of Civilization
  • March 18: Tom PritchardMadderlake: Escaping Flowerland – Landscape Design beyond the Garden

2008

  • January 30: Patricia JonasConstant Gardens: 500 Years of Plants in Art
  • February 27: Alexander RefordJardins de Metis: Making an Historic Garden Hip
  • March 19: Pepe MaynardPortrait of a Garden

2007

  • January 24: James DavidBeyond Thorns and Rattlesnakes: Gardening in Texas
  • February 28: Kenneth I. HelphandDefiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime
  • March 22: Nancy Goslee PowerDesigning Gardens in California

2006

  • January 25: John DanzerConfessions of The Exterior Decorator™
  • February 22: Topher DelaneyDigging In: The Garden as a Personal Metaphor
  • March 26: Bunny WilliamsAn Affair with A Garden

2005

  • January 26: Edwina von GalA Plant Lover’s Adventures in Discipline
  • February 23: Pearl FryarTopiary as Art
  • March 26: Eliot ColemanFresh Food from the Garden

2004

  • January 28: Deborah NevinsThe Grammar of Landscape
  • February 25: Jenks FarmerCountry Gardens in South Carolina
  • March 24: Tom ArmstrongInterpreting a Garden Through Art

2003

  • January 29: Ken DruseTrowels and Tribulations of an Island Garden
  • February 26: Margaret RoachA Homemade Garden
  • March 26: C. Colston BurrellNature Meets Zone Denial

2002

  • January 24: Robin ZitterStewardship of the Land
  • February 21: Lillabeth WiesConserving a Public Trust
  • March 14: Maurice Horn

2001

January 25: Daniel Hinkley of Heronswood, Kingston, WA
• February 22: Robert Dash of Madoo, Sagaponack, NY
March 22: Frank Cabot of Les Quatre Vents, La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada April 19: Marco Polo Stufano of Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
• May 16: Christopher Lloyd and Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter, East Sussex, England

2000

• January 27: Charles Price and Glenn WitheyTaming the Collector Within
• February 24: Jim Adams Gardening in the Fast Lane...with a Few Detours
• March 23: Lauren Springer Creating a Resonant Garden - Blending Both the Natural and the Personal Landscape

1999

• January 28: Claire SawyersThe Trials and Tribulations of a Suburban Gardener
• February 25: J-P Malocsay Catching the Dream and Taking It Home: Learning from Gardens Greater Than Your Own

1998

• January 29: John Gwynne Designing for Collections
February 26: Kris and Dan BenarcikContainers: Adding Character to a City Street
• March 26: Thomas CooperThe Garden at 2 Brigham Street

1997

January 30: Kathryn PufahlUnusual Annuals and Non-Hardy Plants for City and Country Gardens
February 27: Hitch Lyman French Lilacs, Wild Peonies, Snowdrops, and the Lesser Celandine - The Toys I'm Collecting
March 27: Jeff MendozaThe Problems and Pleasures of Gardening: Urban Rooftops to Country Gardens

1996

• January 25: Daniel Hinkley The Making and Re-Making of Heronswood February 29: Dr. Nicklas NickouAvailable but Unused
• March 21: Joanna McQuail Reed55 Years in a Garden

1995

• January 26: Penelope MaynardFrom the Mountains of Kenya to the Gardens of New York
February 23: Donna Huse and Jim SearsPortuguese Gardens at Home in New England
March 23: Jamaica KincaidFrom the Island of Antigua to a Garden in Vermont

1994

• January 27: Kim MulcahyThe Search for Signs of Provocative Plants in the Universe
• February 24: Robert DashThe Making of Madoo
• March 31: Bill and Erika Shank It Doesn't Just Happen—A Garden Twelve Years in the Making

1993

January 28: Patti Hagan, Anne Raver, Margaret RoachSeedbeds of Garden Writing
February 25: Lalitte and Howell Scott and Suzanne Frutig BalesAlpines: Magnificent Terrace Miniatures/As the Garden Grows, So Does the Gardener
• March 25: Geoffrey Charlesworth and Norman SingerGardening without Help

1992

• January 28: Jean Paul CarlhianThe Genesis of the Design of the Enid Haupt Garden
• February 25: Dr. Steven SpongbergE. H. Wilson: A Life of Plant Exploration
March 24: David MurbachThe Art of Making Drama in Small Spaces

1991

• January 16: Marco Polo StufanoCeramics in the American Garden
• February 6: Dr. J.C. RaulstonNew Plants for Our Gardens
• March 6: Roger KlineVegetables: from Heirloom to Avant-Garde—for City Terrace and Country Garden

1990

• February 27: Francis H. CabotA Plantsman's Canadian Garden
• March 27: Helen DillonA Dublin City Garden
• April 17: Barron H. BohnetWhitemarsh Hall

1989

January 31: Peter Del TrediciThe Art and Science of Pruning
February 28: Marco P. StufanoPlants and Places of Interest, Random Ramblings of a Gardener
March 28: Dr. Arthur TuckerIn Search of Antique Plants
October 12: Dr. Charles NelsonA Heritage of Beauty: Irish Gardens and their Plants

1987

January 22: Allen PatersonPictures in the Garden: The Art of Plant Association
February 5: Paula DeitzThe Abby AIdrich Rockefeller Garden
April 2: Rick Darke Ornamental Grasses Rediscovered: Superb Late-Season Perennials for Today's Gardens

1986

February 27: Oriel Eaton KrizPlants Portrayed: The Art, Science, and Techniques of Botanical Illustration
March 20: Barry R. Yinger Korean Plants for American Gardens
April 10: Marco Polo StufanoGarden Design: A Plantsman's Approach

1984

John SalesGarden Advised, The National Trust (England)

1981

• September 16: Rosemary VereyGreat English Woman Gardeners Since 1700

1979

Marco Polo StufanoThe Gardens of Wave Hill through the Seasons

* Canceled due to Covid-19