A shady garden in a sunny climate can be a welcome respite, and offers the opportunity to grow some fascinating plants, even succulents. And there are a host of great tree choices for Northern California to create that shade. But shade in the garden can also offer some challenges, such as dry soil from tree-root competition. Whether you want to add shade to your landscape but don’t know the best approach, or you have shade and need suggestions on how to make it more beautiful, this seminar will answer your questions, from design ideas to plant choices to practical advice.

Speakers include Eric and Silvina Blasen, principals with the award-winning firm of Blasen Landscape Architecture; Matt Ritter, botany professor at Cal Poly and author of A Californian's Guide to the Trees Among Us; garden writer Marty Wingate; Brian Kemble, succulent expert and curator at the Ruth Bancroft Garden; and Robert Trachtenberg, owner of the Berkeley-based landscape design-build firm Garden Architecture. Read more about the speakers.

The seminar will be followed by tours of private gardens that show shade at its best, and a reception and plant sale at the Ruth Bancroft Garden. Join us for an enjoyable, informative day of lectures, book sales and signings, garden tours, and the chance to take home choice succulents to add to your home landscape.

 

Co-sponsors
A Ruth Bancroft Horticultural Seminar presented by the Garden Conservancy and the Ruth Bancroft Garden, and co-sponsored by the Gardens at Heather Farm, the Pacific Horticulture Society, and Timber Press.

Date and time
Friday, July 12, 2013

9 a.m.                      Check-in and registration
9:15 - 2:30 p.m.       Lectures, lunch, and book sales
3 p.m.                      Tours of private gardens
5 p.m.                      Reception and plant sale at Ruth Bancroft Garden

Location
The Gardens at Heather Farm
1540 Marchbanks Drive
Walnut Creek, CA 94598

Click here for a map and directions to the Gardens at Heather Farm

Registration
**Early registration, until June 28, 2013**
$65 Members of the Garden Conservancy, the Ruth Bancroft Garden, the Gardens at Heather Farm, and the Pacific Horticulture Society
$80 General admission

After June 28, 2013:
$85 Members of the Garden Conservancy, the Ruth Bancroft Garden, the Gardens at Heather Farm, and the Pacific Horticulture Society
$100 General admission

Register online or call the Garden Conservancy in San Francisco at 415.441.4300.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Eric Blasen, ASLA, studied art history at the University of London, England, received his Bachelor of Science in geography from Oregon State University and his Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He first explored practical design by making furniture and won his first design award for it.Eric and his wife, Silvina Blasen, co-founded Blasen Landscape Architecture, a design studio, in San Anselmo, California. The design team has created landscapes for places of worship, schools, corporate offices, and wineries, but its main focus is large residential gardens, for which it has garnered top American landscape architecture awards. Eric Blasen has taught in the Architecture Department at California College of Art, San Francisco, California, and served on many academic juries. Silvina is the firm’s plant expert and green practices advocate. The work of Eric and Silvina has appeared in numerous publications, including the recent book, Living Land: The Gardens of Blasen Landscape Architecture (ORO editions, 2013). To learn more about Eric and Silvina’s work, visit blasengardens.com.

Matt Ritter studies both cultivated trees and trees that escape cultivation, and has authored a natural history guide to California's commonly planted trees, A Californian's Guide to the Trees Among Us (Heyday, 2011). He has a bachelor's degree in microbiology and a Ph.D. in plant developmental biology from UC San Diego. He is currently a botany professor in the Biological Sciences Department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and director of the plant conservatory there. He is the chair of the City of San Luis Obispo Tree Committee and has authored numerous scientific papers about plants and contributed to botanical references including the recently published second edition of The Jepson Manual and the Flora of North America Project. He holds a Kenan Fellowship at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, is the Ray Collett Visiting Scholar at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, and teaches for the Organization of Tropical Studies in Costa Rica.

Brian Kemble has been a curator at the Ruth Bancroft Garden for almost twenty years, overseeing the entire collection of over 2,000 species on three acres. He is also in charge of hybridizing efforts at the garden. Though Brian grew up in Massachusetts and Hawaii, and majored in philosophy at Antioch College in Ohio, he became enthralled with succulents after he moved to California and visited the noted succulent garden at UC Berkeley, and Ruth Bancroft’s then-private garden in the late 1970s, starting there as a part-time gardener in 1980. One of his passions is seeing succulent species in their native habitats and to that end Brian has made many trips, including to Mexico and South Africa. He has given lectures across the U.S. and contributed articles and photos to a number of publications such as the Cactus and Succulent Journal.

Robert Trachtenberg is owner of Garden Architecture, an award-winning landscape design-build firm based in Berkeley. His projects have appeared in numerous publications, including Better Homes and Gardens, Sunset, and Western Interiors and Design.

Marty Wingate is a Seattle-based garden writer and lecturer. She is the author of several books, including Landscaping for Privacy: Innovative Ways to Turn Your Outdoor Space into a Peaceful Retreat and Big Ideas for Northwest Small Gardens. She has contributed to numerous publications such as Landscape Architecture magazine, American Gardener, Country Gardens, and Gardening How-to, and is a weekly guest on Seattle NPR radio’s “Greendays” segment. Marty leads garden tours to England, Scotland, Ireland, and locations throughout North America, and is also a travel writer. She has a master’s degree in urban horticulture from the University of Washington and is involved in a variety of organizations, including the Garden Writers Association, Royal Horticultural Society, and Northwest Horticultural Society.