Somerville Garden Club

Celebrating Fragrance in the Garden is a presentation about designing a garden to celebrate emotional connections and memories in a space through our sense of smell. Scent can take a garden from simply being beautiful to becoming magical and memorable. Horticulturist Brandon George will highlight unique plants that allow for any garden to incorporate fragrance.

Brandon George is a horticulturist, garden designer, and world traveler. He has trained in horticulture in the U.K., U.S.A, and Israel, and is currently a masters student studying Public Horticulture Leadership at Cornell University.  Brandon is the owner of Wyeth and Willow, a garden design and consultation company in the Greater Providence, RI area. He also hosts a podcast called Horticulture Rising, interviewing horticulturists dedicated to the future of the industry.  Brandon is also a published poet; Papilion is his first publishing of poetry to date.  In his garden design work he seeks to create fragrant gardens, perennial meadows, mixed-woody/herbaceous beds, native gardens, perennial matrix plantings with a focus on ecological and sustainable design.

Known by many as a simple ground cover for dry woodland shade, Epimediums are finally getting the appreciation that they deserve. This “perfect shade perennial” possesses a delicate beauty that belies its surprisingly tough, long-lasting nature. Guest speaker Karen Perkins will illustrate the many and varied types now commercially available, including some of the exciting new evergreen species from China. Characteristics, growth habit, growing and propagation, pests and diseases, and combining Epimediums with other shade perennials in the garden will also be addressed. We will also get a glimpse into the collecting trips to China made by Epimedium expert, Darrell Probst.

Karen Perkins graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture and from the University of Delaware with a Master of Science in Public Garden Management. She has worked/interned at several botanic gardens including: the Cornell Plantations, Longwood Gardens, The Arboretum at Flagstaff, Royal Botanic Gardens- Kew, England and Royal Botanic Gardens– Edinburgh, Scotland. She served in the Education Department of the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA for 17 years. Karen is currently the owner of Garden Vision Epimediums, a Massachusetts based mail order nursery, started by Darrell Probst, and offering over 170 species and varieties of Epimediums along with other choice companion shade perennials.

If you are interested in attending our meeting, but have not received the link via email, or are not a SGC member, you can email info@somervillegardenclub.org for the link.