Program Schedule
Meetings are typically held the first Monday of the month. In the event of a public holiday the meetings are moved to the next Monday. Meetings are held at The Woodland, 60 Woodland Ave, Maplewood, NJ, at 7:30 p.m. All meetings are free and open to the public.
September 2024
Monday, September 9, at 7:30 PM
Subject: Better Together – Plant Combinations that WOW!
Speaker: Caitlin Boyle
You match your clothes and you pair your food with wine because they are better together. Learn how to pair plants for maximum impact using colors, textures and shapes as building blocks.
Biography
Caitilin (Dirt Diva Designs) grew up in Sagaponack, NY, part of the then-remote now-famed Hamptons. The memory of that beauty drove her to build views wherever she lived. First Baltimore, then Philadelphia and now Chatham, NJ. In her high-stress careers as a journalist and a marketer, she found great repose in her backyard, whether looking at some beautiful flower or delighting in the twilight from a favorite chair at the end of a challenging day. She designed her own spaces to create joy, literally from the ground up and wanted to do the same for others. Caitlin trained at the New York Botanical Garden in Landscape Design and opened Dirt Diva Designs, a full-service landscape design firm, in Chatham, NJ. Before starting Dirt Diva, Caitlin was a decorated journalist and marketer, nominated twice for Pulitzer Prizes. Recently The New York Times published a piece she wrote for her blog, The Dirt. She hosts webinars on landscape design and contributes to local magazines.
October 2024
Monday, October 7, at 7:30 PM
Subject: Great Gardens of the Garden State
Speaker: Michael Gross
Join us on a virtual tour of the almost 30 New Jersey public gardens that are members of the Garden State Gardens Consortium. You will learn the history and unique characteristics of each garden. Discover more about your favorites and those you have yet to visit!
Biography
Michael has a bachelor’s degree in biology and accounting from Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Marine Studies from the University of Delaware. He has been Director of the Sister Mary Grace Burns Arboretum of Georgian Court University 22 since 2001 and worked at Georgian Court as a biology professor since 1992.
November 2024
Monday, November 4, at 7:30 PM
Subject: Gardening Can Be Murder – How Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers
Speaker: Marta McDowell
From the cozy to the hardboiled, the literary to the pulp, and the classic to the contemporary, Gardening Can Be Murder explores the 23 mystery genre’s many surprising horticultural connections. Meet plant obsessed detectives, groundskeeper suspects, toxic teas and tools, and gardens both real and imagined that have been the settings for fiction’s ghastliest misdeeds.
Biography
Marta teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and is a popular lecturer and writer. Her latest book is Gardening Can Be Murder, about the horticultural connections to crime fiction. Timber Press also published Unearthing The Secret Garden, Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, New York Times bestselling All the Presidents’ Gardens, and Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, now in its ninth printing. She was the 2019 recipient of the Garden Club of America’s Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for outstanding literary achievement.
December 2024
Monday, December 2, at 7:30 PM
Subject: Demonstration of the Art and History of Ikenobo Ikebana
Speaker: Professor Robert Pagan
Professor Roberto Pagan will demonstrate the Shokaand Freestyle methods of Ikenobo Ikebana through instruction and hands-on exhibition of various arrangements. He will also provide a history of the origins of Ikenobo Ikebana. Professor Pagan would like to showcase the beauty and joy of Ikenobo Ikebana through his passion for this century old art form as you immerse yourself in the journey and interpretation the story of flowers can facilitate through arrangement.
Biography
Art has been a life-long passion for Roberto. He graduated from Montclair State University where he received a B.A. degree in Art with a Teacher Certification for K-12 and he began his career as an Art teacher. Before he became enamored with Ikenobo Ikebana, he was a serious painter and had several exhibitions in the metropolitan area. Combining his life long devotion to, and study of, the arts, Roberto had an easy time applying artistic concepts to flower design and to his devotion to Ikenobo Ikebana, which began shortly after he discovered it in an adult class in the 1980’s. He has studied on a regular basis with Nobuko Novak, who was trained in Japan, as well as twice yearly visiting professors from Japan for the last 30 years. He has also studied under numerous Ikenobo professors at workshops in New York City, California, Las Vegas and Canada. Roberto holds the KATOKU Certificate, which is one of the highest Ikenobo diplomas and is now actively teaching Ikenobo Ikebana. He has exhibited and demonstrated numerous times at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Branch Brook Park and at Ikenobo Ikebana NJ Society events. He also continues as an eager participant in Art in Bloom at the Montclair Art Museum
January 2025
Monday, January 6, at 7:30 PM
Subject: Growing Citrus Trees – Essential Knowledge for Producing Your Own Citrus Fruit
Speaker: Barbara Melera
Of the many plants that you can grow, that last for years and years, that produce delicious fruit and heavenly fragrances and are beautiful to look at, citrus trees top the list. YES, they can be grown inside for you city dwellers. YES, they do set fruit inside. YES, the fruit does mature and ripen inside. In Hardiness Zones 3-7, Citrus perform best when placed outside in full sun for the summer months, but they can be grown indoors all year round. If you have never grown a citrus tree, you should try. This lecture will teach you all you need to know about growing citrus in the Northeast and is dedicated to inspiring in you an appreciation and enthusiasm for growing these magnificent plants.
Biography
Barbara is president of Harvesting History Heirlooms LLC, a horticultural company founded in 2016. For 13 years, she was president and CEO of The D. Landreth Seed Company, the oldest seedhouse in America established in 1784, and the fourth oldest US corporation. Prior to purchasing Landreth, Barbara was the Managing Partner of Tritech Partners, LLP, a seed stage venture capital partnership which invested in early stage technology enterprises in the Mid-Atlantic region.
February 2025
Monday, February 3, at 7:30 PM
Subject: Pruning for Gardeners
Speaker: Nisha Khanna
This talk will focus on basic pruning techniques for common types of plants found in New Jersey home gardens. Pruning for health and aesthetics will be discussed. While all types of plants like herbaceous perennials and annuals will be touched upon, the focus is woody plants (trees, shrubs and vines) and questions on pruning hydrangeas and clematis will also be answered. Many woody plants should be pruned in late winter – so get those loppers out and sharpen them because you’ll want to run out to your garden to practice what you learn here.
Biography
Nisha (Growing Gardens) is a certified landscape designer and consultant, as well as an estate manager working primarily in New Jersey. She has been managing a 30-acre private estate with extensive vegetable gardens, orchards and ornamental beds for 10 years. She gardens and consults exclusively in organic methods, and specializes in sustainable gardening, including native plants, water conservation and wildlife gardens. Her home garden is a National Wildlife Federation certified wildlife habitat.
March 2025
Monday, March 3, at 7:30 PM
Subject: Plant Forward Cooking – Nourish Yourself with the Goodness of Plants
Speaker: Vanessa Young
Plant forward dishes are vibrant and delicious, and they can nourish us in many ways. With this versatile and sustainable approach to food, you don’t necessarily have to exclude meat, but rather allow plants to take center stage. In this talk you will learn to incorporate more vegetables, beans, fruits, whole grains, and 29 other plants into your meals through satisfying recipes, methods of preparation, and practical lifestyle strategies.
Biography
Vanessa (Thirsty Radish) is a cooking instructor, writer, and educator known for her artful approach to food and wellness topics and her focus on seasonal meals. With her artistic sensibility and kitchen wisdom, she helps home chefs become more versatile in their approach to food, reigniting their passion for cooking through private and community classes. As the founder of Thirsty Radish, she shares recipes and inspires a creative approach to life in and out of the kitchen.
April 2025
Monday, April 7, at 7:30 PM
Subject: Small Space Gardening (Terraces, Patios and Decks)
Speaker: Anthony Bracco
The thrust of this Small Space Garden talk is to raise awareness as to where our food comes from, share growing methods, and demonstrate how backyard growing methods can be adapted to a small garden space. Get inspired to build and prepare an enjoyable, fully functional garden in your own small space.
Biography
Anthony (Bracco Farms) and his family live in Cedar Grove, NJ. Twelve years ago he and his wife bought a 25-acre farm in the Black Dirt region of Pine Island, NY. Anthony had intended to be a hobby farmer on just an acre growing his family the cleanest produce possible using Non-GMO seeds, hand cultivation of weeds, old fashioned farm equipment, picking only when ready, and without chemicals, fertilizers, irrigation, pesticides, or herbicides, and allowing the soil to naturally regenerate each season. These sustainable farming techniques produced a shocking abundance of produce. After just one season, Bracco Farms was born out of the demanding momentum of the growing food movement.
May 2025
Monday, May 5, at 7:30 PM
Subject: 88th Annual Plant Sale
Speakers: Plant Sale Committee Members
Get some behind-the-scenes glimpses of New Jersey’s “Big Momma of Plant Sales” and learn what makes the sale so popular and so much fun. We’ll also preview some of the many (many!) perennials, annuals, herbs and other special and unique plants that draw shoppers from all over the region and beyond.