Atlanta | Gainesville | January – April 2016

Escape to Orchid Daze

Atlanta Blooms heats up!

in the GardenChihuly

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| Official News Publication for Members of the Atlanta Botanical Garden | Atlanta | Gainesville

Vice President, Marketing: Sabina Carr | Editor: Danny Flanders | Designer: Teri Nye | Membership Manager: Claudia McDavid

President’s Message

Thinking about Chihuly in the Garden makes me both nostalgic about the past and excited by the prospect of another major exhi-bition of Dale Chihuly’s magnificent sculptural installations. It will

have been 12 years since we first introduced Chihuly’s work to the Atlanta community, and the Garden as well as the city have changed remarkably in that time. Parking, guest experience, dining, and Garden displays have all been transformed in the last decade. When we opened the 2004 exhibition, the front door was through Gardenhouse, which has since served as our dining room and next as the Chihuly gift shop.

The 2004 exhibition was what I fondly call our “coming out party,” as it introduced the Garden to the greater metropolitan area in a huge way, tripling visitation and doubling membership. I loved seeing guests from throughout Georgia that year and was delighted to learn that more than 30 percent of our visitors were tourists.

Chihuly truly set the stage for the Garden’s dynamic growth and success. The exhibition demonstrated that this beautiful garden was the perfect canvas for inter-nationally acclaimed sculpture exhibitions, music, and more. We also discovered the nighttime experience during the 2004 exhibition, lighting the sculptures and inviting visitors to enjoy Chihuly Nights.

I loved seeing our beautiful gardens filled with people, and from them we learned how to handle crowds and provide an excellent guest experience. I have never tired of the question that our visitors ask all the time, “When will you bring Chihuly back?” There is no other artistic expression that touches visitors like Dale Chihuly’s art. The beauty is dazzling, forms compelling, and integration with plants beyond imagination.

As we prepare to open our second and largest Chihuly exhibition in April, I am filled with anticipation, excitement and emotion. The first exhibition had a lasting impact that positioned the Garden for future successes, from the New Seasons capital campaign to the Henry Moore, Niki de Saint Phalle and Bruce Munro exhibitions that followed.

Our little Garden has grown into a major cultural destination, and we have become more creative and dynamic than ever before. I can only imagine what the 2016 exhibition will do!

Mary Pat Matheson,

The Anna and Hays Mershon President & CEO

Dale Chihuly, Sunset Boat, 2006Dale Chihuly, Red Spears (detail), 1999

Dale Chihuly, Neodymium Reeds (detail), 2010

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Chihuly Nights

The sculptures take on a whole different dimension at night when they are dramatically lit. Explore the exhibition during Chihuly Nights Wednesdays through Sundays from 6 – 11 p.m. while enjoying cash bars and dinner at the new Linton’s in the Garden.

Internationally acclaimed artist Dale Chihuly returns to the Garden April 30 – October 30 with an encore exhibition of his spectacular works of art, present-ed in a setting that has doubled in size since his blockbuster 2004 show.

Chihuly in the Garden will include 21 installations all set amongst the Garden’s natural beauty. The kaleido-scopic colors of the art for which the artist has become so famous may also be experienced in a different light – at night when the Garden offers extended hours. Some of the sculptures are being created specifically for the Midtown garden, which in 2016 celebrates its 40th anniversary.

“Atlantans have been begging for 12 years for a revival of this showing of Dale’s exquisite work, and we are ecstatic to finally welcome Chihuly back,” Garden President & CEO Mary Pat Matheson said. “What better way to celebrate our 40th anniversary than

to showcase this phenomenal art, which years ago really put us on the map as a cultural attraction.”

The 2004 Chihuly in the Garden marked one of the Garden’s earliest exhibitions of fine art in what has since become a much-anticipated summer-time tradition. The blockbuster event drew a then-record 375,000 visitors, doubling Garden attendance that year to 425,000 and propelling Garden memberships to what was then an all-time high.

Since then, the Garden has doubled in size with a 2010 expansion into Storza Woods, where new gardens added last spring provide even more beautiful settings for weaving together art and nature.

The new exhibition will be presented throughout the Garden, including the Fuqua Conservatory and Orchid Center. The vibrantly colored artwork can be explored in a variety of botanical

displays, including floating in pools, suspended in air, and interspersed with plantings. Look for a vibrant giant chartreuse Hornet Chandelier suspend-ed from the Canopy Walk, hovering over bright purple Reeds rising from the forest floor. Nearby, a 30-foot-tall Saffron Tower will stand sentinel at one end of the Water Mirror pool.

An American sculptor, Chihuly has mastered the alluring, translucent and transparent qualities of ice, water, glass and neon to create works of art that transform the viewer experience. He is globally renowned for his ambitious site-specific architectural installations in public spaces and in exhibitions presented in more than 250 museums and gardens worldwide.

Chihuly in the Garden is presented with generous support of The Home Depot Foundation.

Chihuly returns with magnificent works of art

encore!

Dale Chihuly, Blue Marlins, 2008 and Turquoise Reeds, 2012

Dale Chihuly, Sol del Citron, 2014

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The Garden recently launched the Center for Southeastern Conservation, a program aimed at coordinating and collaborating with partner institutions to expand and improve their work with imperiled species and habitats.

Embracing the Garden’s mission and drawing upon its vast collections and expert staff, the center will be a hub of the Southeast’s large and growing conservation community. As a conduit for collaboration, the program focuses on conservation efforts in Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, protecting the natural heritage of one of North America’s most biodiverse regions.

The Southeast is home to many diverse and complex ecosystems, and the Garden contributes to the protec-tion of many of them. The Apalachicola

area is one of the oldest and most biodiverse locations in North America and includes plants such as Torreya taxifolia, one of the rarest conifers in the world. The wetlands of the longleaf pine ecosystem are some of the most diverse habitats in North America, where many species of pitcher plants and orchids are found. Florida is home to more orchid species than anywhere in North America, and the orchid habitats of south Florida, such as the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, have a high diversity of tropical orchids. Refugial plant communities, isolated habitats where species established themselves during the Pleistocene glaciers (ending approximately 10,000 years ago), dot the southern Appalachian Mountains. The refugia’s incredibly diverse plant communities are vibrant but fragile in

the face of encroaching development. The center’s launch is the first step in

a multi-year expansion of the Garden’s conservation research and education efforts. This year, the Garden will host the Southeastern Partners in Plant Conservation meeting and introduce the center’s Orchid Conservation Institute, a venue for training both professionals and students. In its current capital campaign, the Garden is raising funds to expand its laboratories and facilities for research, training, and propagating rare plants, scheduled to open in 2017.

Julia da Silva,

Interpretation Coordinator

Jenny Cruse-Sanders,

Vice-President, Science & Conservation

Teaching young people about the natural world is critical to the Garden’s mission. Schools often visit the Garden for an immersive educational experience, but sometimes they don’t have the resources to travel to the Garden. In that case, the Garden goes to them.

Through its Outreach Program, the Garden offers students in metro Atlanta public schools with limited resources the opportunity to experience the Garden in their very own classrooms. One of the best parts about the program is that teachers may register for presentations at no cost.

With a variety of science and nutrition presentations for teachers to choose from, Deborah Oliver, a second-grade teacher at Adamsville Elementary School, best described the offerings as “enhancing student learning by providing them an opportunity to make a real-life connection with their learning.”

By engaging students in hands-on activities, presentations offer a unique experience geared toward each grade level. Using carnivorous plants from the Garden’s greenhouse, third-grade students hone their observation skills to develop hypotheses and dissect plants. Fourth- and fifth-graders get up close to live amphibians from the conservation collection to discuss concepts like habitats, adaptations, or classification. With leaves clipped from the Garden’s trees, seventh-graders identify Georgia’s native species using a dichotomous key. During Classroom Taste Tests, kindergarten through fifth-graders are introduced to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Since its 2014 launch, the Outreach Program has served more than 5,700 students at 28 metro-Atlanta schools, becoming a critical resource for teachers and schools in underserved communities.

Center for Southeastern Conservation

New program coordinates regional efforts

Taking the Garden to Atlanta classrooms

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Be our

Celebrate Valentine’s Day by enjoying cocktails, dancing and desserts in the most romantic setting in town—the Garden!

Valentines in the Garden, set for 7 – 11 p.m. on Saturday, February 13, features decadent chocolates and other scrump-tious sweets while guests sip cocktails from cash bars, dance to live entertainment, and explore Orchid Daze by night. The annual exhibition, from February 13 – April 10, highlights thousands of blooms in the Garden’s nationally renowned collection of species orchids.

For ticket information, visit www.atlantabg.org.

Valentine!

Explore the world of America’s favorite plant

Orchid DazeThis year’s Orchid Daze emphasizes the contrasts between vibrantly colored or-chids and naturalistic wooden elements, highlighting the many ways these plants often grow on trunks, branches and stems of other plants.

“We strive every year to showcase the beauty of orchids in unexpected ways,” said Becky Brinkman, Fuqua Orchid Center Manager. ”We want to stage orchids to encourage new perspectives on and appreciation for the plants.”

A wintertime favorite, the annual exhibition, set for February 13 – April 10, features thousands of orchids throughout the center, home to the largest collection species orchids in the United States. Exhibition displays highlight epiphytic orchids, or ones that grow not in soil but on wood, including others plants, in a generally harmless, non-parasitic way.

Skeletal trees form a minimalist grove in the Conservatory Lobby. Bare trunks rise 12 to 18 feet toward the ceiling, while arching branches overhead form an arcade. The glossy green foliage of Moth Orchids (Phalaenopsis) clings to the branches in aerial clusters. Exuberant

arching sprays dangle like jeweled ornaments in a gradation of color from purple through dark pink to blush pink to white. A large tree trunk lying across the path displays flowers of similar color but presented at and below eye level. A cut in the fallen tree invites visitors to pass through the space.

In the Orchid Atrium, orchids hover from above, while visitors become trapped in the frozen orbits of hollow grapevine spheres dripping with the flowers of Cattleyas, their hybrids, and Miltoniopsis. The design weaves warm and cool colors throughout the space in sparkling shades of red, orange, salmon, pink, and purple. The spheres range in diameter from about two to five feet and hang from the glass ceiling at varying heights.

Finally, in the Orchid Display Hall, twisting visual motion drives the aesthetics. A custom-fabricated grapevine “tornado” activates the

space as it rises from ground level to overhead. Flowers festoon the intricately woven vine structure, their vitality contrasting with the dry branches.

Tres Fromme

Landscape Design & Planning Manager

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New gardens, restaurant bloomConstruction update

Spring and summer will bring more than just colorful blooms to the Garden. Look for the openings of the first phase of the renovated Children’s Garden and a new full-service restaurant as well as for ground to be broken on all-new gardens overlooking Piedmont Park in late summer:

CHILDREN’S GARDENThis family favorite will reopen in two phases. The first half will open in early summer in time for visitors to cool down in The Splash, a greatly enhanced water play area. Other features include the Edible Adventure, including a build-a-fort area and water painting wall; the Crossing (two play bridges built over a planted swale), and spacious restrooms. The second half, scheduled for completion in late summer, will include an enhanced Amphitheater, Tree Fort complex with bridges, climbing features, and elevated platforms, and a renovated carnivorous plant bog.

LINTON’S IN THE GARDENAdjacent to Gardenhouse, which is being renovated and expanded, con-struction has begun on a spacious new full-service restaurant that will add an elegant architectural statement to the heart of the Garden. The contemporary building will feature breathtaking garden views, an airy dining room/event hall, indoor/outdoor seating, and fireplaces. The roof terrace, with its panoramic skyline views, will become one of the Garden’s choicest spaces for gatherings. Focusing on fresh, seasonal farm-to-table cuisine, Linton’s in the Garden is scheduled to open in late spring.

GARDENS IN STORZA WOODSA second phase of planting in the new gardens, which opened last May, includes augmenting the Azalea Walk color schemes, planting around the base of the Water Stairs, and adding perennials, shrubs, and trees along the Woodland Promenade. The goal is to

create mixed borders bursting with hot colors that will enliven the shade garden throughout the year.

SKYLINE GARDENSThe area between the Conservatory and Piedmont Park, with its exceptional views of the downtown skyline, will become a spectacular destination venue. A Flower Walk will lead visitors from the Great Lawn to the new Robinson Gazebo, an elegantly Modernist open-air pavilion destined to become the Garden’s “front porch.” Along The Walk, flower beds will burst with unforgettable seasonal displays. Other new displays will include the contempo-rary-style Cactus and Succulent Terraces showcasing the sculptural forms of har-dy plants like Agave and Yucca, while the Aquatic Plant Pond will become the Lotus Pool featuring colorful hardy water plants. Construction begins late summer.

Tres Fromme

Landscape Design & Planning Manager

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The tulips are coming! Ushering in the Garden’s ruby 40th anniversary and color-filled Chihuly glass exhibition, this year’s bulb display is fiery with thousands of blooms in red, orange and other hot colors.

National Velvet, Teletubby, and Jap Groot will be enticing favorites for the Visitor Center. The Levy Parterre will sizzle in a tidal wave of color: Tequila Sunrise mix starts off cool but builds in heat as the blooms progress. The Edible Garden will be blanketed in Perestroyka, a color-changing beauty in pink, peach and salmon, and orange Daydream. Then there’s a cool down with pink Menton and cream Maureen around the Great Lawn.

Also keep an eye out for hyacinths, everyone’s favorite, to perfume the air at the Conservatory pond. In addition, some

trial tulips that the Garden’s never planted before—Mascotte, Orange Balloon, and Blushing Lady—will try to make the cut.

After months of gloomy days and cold temperatures, one thing that Garden visitors look forward to in late February are Trout Lilies – flowers that fall into a special category of plants known as spring ephemerals. These harbingers of spring truly brighten the otherwise bleak landscape and are welcomed reminders of one of the most beautiful times in the garden.

Found mostly in deciduous forests, Trout Lilies emerge early in the spring, allowing them to take advantage of the plentiful sunshine before the trees leaf out. From February to April, these plants send up leaves, flower and set fruit while the sun shines through the bare branches above. Trout Lilies (Erythronium umbilicatum) are among the first ephemerals to appear, emerging

as soil temperatures rise. Their nodding, solitary yellow flower with recurved petals rises above a pair of elongated mottled leaves resembling a brook trout -- hence the common name. Though some spring-flowering plants have difficulty with pollination, Trout Lilies have a high success rate because their large amounts of nectar and pollen attract a variety of bees. Only two or three bee visits per flower are needed

to ensure a successful fruit set. The Southern Seasons Garden is

perfect place to enjoy another favorite ephemeral, Trillium cuneatum. The largest of the eastern fixed-flowered tril-liums, its leaves are mottled and make quite a showy carpet in ideal sites. As one of the earliest trilliums to flower in spring, its flower persists for a relatively long time. Most have purple flowers, but there are green and yellow ones also. Trilliums often reproduce from small rhizome offshoots that remain attached to the parent rhizome for several years before decay, making them ideal for transplanting.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) manufactures its entire year’s food supply, produces flowers and mature seeds all within a few short weeks. Flowers open from mid-morning until late afternoon on warm days, producing a spectacular display when massed together.

Moe Hemmings

Senior Horticulturist

Look for these harbingers of spring

Atlanta Blooms

Ephemerals:

PHOTO: JASON HOLLINGER

Trout Lily

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While many plants go dormant in winter, flowering shrubs offer oppor-tunities to brighten the landscape in substantial ways.

Paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha) adds unique interest to any planting. This shrub has a rounded form with elegant contortions offset by fragrant creamy-gold blooms packed tightly together and soft dull-green foliage the rest of the year.

Unveiling its flowers a little later in the season, the Vernal Witch Hazel

(Hamamelis vernalis) heralds spring’s approach with ribbon-like petals that range from scarlet to gold. Witch Hazel’s rounded leaves also provide autumn color that is sure to impress.

Dark waxy evergreen leaves erupt as bright red interest in the Mountain Fire Japanese Pieris (Pieris japonica ‘Mountain Fire’). With pendulous clusters of white blooms hanging elegantly in late winter, the Pieris is an attractive year-round option.

Conversely, Wintersweet

(Chimonanthus praecox) is unremarkable until winter when it blooms heavily with creamy yellow flowers and a carmine center. A sizable, fragrant shrub, Wintersweet can reach 10 to 15 feet in height.

A blushing showstopper, Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) offers a late peek of winter blooms. Growing to a sizable 6 to 10 feet, Quince features dark, rosy blooms. Warning: Pruning this dense shrub can be a thorny task.

Finally, Variegated Winter Daphne (Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’) should not be sidelined. Staying a compact 3 to 4 feet, this shrub offers a sweet fragrance in addition to white flowers accented by rich pink exteriors. The glossy light-edged foliage offers year-round interest in part shade.

Jonathan Ray

Assistant Horticulturist

Winter is the perfect season to prune deciduous shrubs and trees because the branch structure is more visible without the leaves in the way. Pruning is important because it invigorates many trees and shrubs by leaving them with extra root and energy reserves. When pruning, keep several key ideas in mind:• Have a clear purpose. Most decidu-

ous plant pruning should highlight the plant’s natural features.

• Remove all dead or diseased wood and all suckers and water sprouts. Suckers and water sprouts will never develop into natural looking limbs and should be eliminated.

• Remove crossing or rubbing branches. Start with the largest branches and move progressively to the smallest.

• Thin the canopy of the plant by starting at the center and moving to the exterior. Thin out the branches that make up the dense mass of a tree or shrub. The purpose of canopy thinning is to increase air circula-tion through the branches and to accentuate the structure of the plant. Don’t remove more than one quarter of the plant in one season.

• Prune back to a bud or a branch and don’t leave a stub. Keep in mind that

a new branch will grow from that bud. Generally, most buds should face outward so the branch will grow toward the exterior of the plant.

• Work slowly and take time to step back and look at the work. Keep the plant looking balanced and symmet-rical. It’s always better to take off too little rather than too much.

• Remember safety and wear eye pro-tection and gloves to protect hands.

Michael Sheek

Senior Horticulturist

Winter-blooming shrubs take center stage

How to prune deciduous trees, shrubs in winter

Flowering Quince

Wintersweet

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Orchid DazeFebruary 13 – April 10Escape the winter doldrums by explor-ing the beautiful and fragrant blooms of thousands of orchids on display throughout the Fuqua Orchid Center during Orchid Daze.

Orchid Market WeekendsFeb. 20 – 21, March 19 – 20, April 9 – 10Select from a wide variety of orchids and potting supplies for sale and shop for artworks and crafts by local artists.

Orchid Care ClinicsFeb. 20, March 19, April 9Bring in up to two orchids for expert advice; $5 repotting, materials available.

Valentines in the GardenSaturday, Feb. 13, 7 – 11 p.m.Treat your sweetheart to a romantic evening at the Garden, where fragrant orchids, live entertainment, dancing, cocktails and desserts set the mood. For tickets and details, visit atlantabg.org.

Camellia ShowFebruary 20 – 21Presented by the North Georgia Camellia Society, the show features regional growers displaying their finest specimens in a juried competition.

The Inspired GardenerSaturday, February 278 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.Shake off the winter blues and get in gear for springtime with this full-day symposium and silent auction featuring five inspiring speakers. Registration deadline for the event, presented by the Garden and the Georgia Perennial Plant Association, is February 22. For details, visit atlantabg.org.

Vanilla SundaySunday, Feb. 28, 1 – 4 p.m.Enjoy the annual afternoon celebration of the vanilla orchid. The lovely taste can be sampled with a real vanilla ice cream sundae. Learn more about the process of turning vanilla beans into a key flavoring extract during garden chef demos and at discovery stations.

Atlanta Blooms!March – AprilExplore hundreds of thousands of spring bulbs on display throughout the Garden, including tulips, daffodils, crocuses and hyacinths, emphasizing hot colors.

Orchid Show and SaleMarch 11 – 13The Atlanta Orchid Society presents hundreds of orchids that will also be for sale.

Bonsai Society ShowMarch 19 – 20See gorgeous trees, watch a pruning demonstration, enjoy a live auction, and talk with the pros.

Spring Break Family Fun April 4 – 8, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.Need an exciting family activity during Spring Break? Visit the Garden and enjoy the wonders of springtime with fun and seasonal family activities.

Herb SaleApril 16, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.Browse hundreds of varieties of herbs for sale by the Chattahoochee Unit of the Herb Society of America.

Earth DayApril 22, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.Celebrate nature! From ladybug releases to nature crafts, there’s fun for everyone. Families may also participate in Story Book Time at 10:30 a.m.

Chihuly in the GardenApril 30 – October 30Explore a breathtaking exhibition of renowned artist Dale Chihuly’s magnif-icent sculptures presented throughout the Garden. During the evening, experience the art under dramatic light during Chihuly Nights.

atlanta happenings

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A Note from the Director The quiet winter months are a time of reflection in the Gainesville garden. We remember 1,800 concertgoers dancing to the Temptations in the Ivester Amphitheater, the masses of butterflies flitting throughout the garden all sum-mer (so many that some visitors asked if we bought them and released them!), and the thousands of members and new visitors that we welcomed to the Nature Connects: Art with LEGO Bricks exhibit.

As we begin a new year, excitement abounds when we consider new events, classes, and activities. We also take time to evaluate the past year in the garden – where we need to add plants or make refinements. Since the garden opened in May, Landscape Design & Planning Manager Tres Fromme, Horticulture Manager Ethan Guthrie and I have made lists of new plants to add to the gardens and trails.

So keep your eyes open for the new additions – from the beautiful stripe-barked maple that we added near the swing to the blossoms of new magnolias along the trails.

See you in the garden soon!

Mildred Fockele

Vice President, Horticulture; Gainesville Director

The Gainesville garden is excited to host the work of internationally acclaimed sculptor Patrick Dougherty, and this spring visitors may watch as his installation of twigs and branches is actually being made.

The North Carolina artist is best known for his monumental sculptures made from gathered wood, branches, saplings, and twigs that are woven together. Because of the organic nature of the materi-als, his sculptures break down over time. Dougherty has made more than 250 sculptures over his 25-year career, and his work has been seen throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

The fascinating part of the project is that visitors may observe the sculpture as it is being created on the Event Lawn by Dougherty, staff, and volunteers March 21 through April 8. As they work, Dougherty carefully fits the sculpture to the site, creating beautiful art out of what looks like a giant pile of sticks.

Originally an administrator in hospital and health administration, Dougherty returned to the University of North Carolina to study art history and sculpture. “When I was looking for a way of working as a sculptor, I began looking around at the world and trying to find materials that were free, available, plentiful,” he told CBS News. “So I made some tests with saplings and decided that I could make these big forms.” Working with sticks, Dougherty says, is “something that stirs the sense of simple shelter. It stirs feelings about childhood. It stirs the walks in the woods, where you had your first kiss. There’s just lots of associations connected with sticks. And I try to play with those and build up kind of a depth of feeling so that when you walk into something or you walk up to it, you’re transported for a minute. You want to go over and look at it. You forgive the real world around it. And you’re captivated by a certain kind of illusion that I’m casting.”

Mildred Fockele, Vice President, Horticulture; Gainesville Director

Watch Patrick Dougherty create art

Birthday Palace, Created for the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kauai, HI

PHOTO: DANIEL FINCHUM

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Celebrate in the Garden!

The new garden offers an array of options, both indoors and out, for private rental spaces. Say “I do” under a cathedral of trees or host a party inside the Ivester Visitor Center with its terrace overlooking a pond. For information, contact events@atlantabg.org.

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Nature Connects:Art with LEGO BricksThrough Jan. 3Final days!

Patrick DoughertyOpening March 21Watch as the North Carolina artist creates sculpture from wood, branches and twigs through April 8.

Children’s Story Time Wednesdays, 10 a.m.Young children may enjoy weekly stories centered around nature and the gardens.

Budding ArtistsSecond Wednesdays, 11 a.m. – NoonChildren ages 4 - 6 may use their creativity to make seasonally-inspired works of art. Something new each time!

Discovery StationsSaturdays – Sundays, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.A variety of informal educational stations showcase different topics on the garden’s natural environment. New opportunities to learn and explore!

Terrific TrainsJanuary – April, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.All aboard for fun around the Model Train Garden! Children may play and share with boxes of toy trains.

atlantabg.org

gainesville happenings

Witch hazels are fascinating plants with an odd name. As members of the Hamamelidaceae family, witch hazels (Hamamelis) give the landscape a bright pop at an often bleak time of year.

One of the native witch hazels (H. virginiana), starts to bloom as the leaves on other plants are falling and continues into winter. Nice selections include ‘Little Suzie’ and ‘Mohonk Red’. ‘Little Suzie’ is a dwarf cultivar growing to 4 to 5 feet tall with bright yellow blooms. ‘Mohonk Red’ has deep red blooms, atypical of the species, and grows to about 10 feet tall.

Along with their blooms, many witch hazels offer great fall color ranging from bright yellows to brilliant oranges and reds. Selections with good fall color include H. x intermedia ‘Aurora’ and H. x intermedia ‘Autumn Embers’.

Though fall is a great season for witch hazels, their best display occurs in February and March. On warm winter days witch hazel’s flower buds begin to swell and pop open. It is then that the yellows, reds, and oranges of their flowers are most welcome. Their bright colors and pleasing fragrance signal that spring is just around the corner.

At the Gainesville garden more than 60 different witch hazels are on display. A fa-vorite for late winter bloom is ‘Rochester’, which has orange-red blooms and very strong fragrance. Others include H. x intermedia ‘Pallida’ and ‘Sunburst’, which both have bright yellow blooms. One last witch hazel to be on the lookout for is H. x intermedia ‘Jelena’ which is a very heavy bloomer with coppery-orange blooms and nice fragrance.

Ethan Guthrie, Horticulture Manager

‘Little Suzie’

‘Pallida’

‘Jelena’

witch hazelsShrubs that brighten the winter gardenn

PHOTO: JONATHAN MATHIS

‘Diane’

PHOTO: LARRY GRIFFETH

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Orchid Daze SoiréeFebruary 12, 6:30 – 9 p.m.Members of the Director’s Club and Orchid, Magnolia, and Arbor Circles are invited to a special preview of Orchid Daze with an elegant cocktail reception and live music.

Member Spring EveningsFamily and Family Plus: March 4, 6 – 9 p.m. Individual, Dual, Contributing and above: March 16, 6 – 9 p.m.,Participate in myriad activities among thousands of blooms! Enjoy live music, shop the marketplace, and meet Garden staff. Kids activities are featured on March 4. Delicious food and drink will be available for purchase.

Dinner in the GardenAtlanta: March 22, 6 – 8:30 p.m.Gainesville: April 6, 6 – 8:30 p.m.Contributing or above members are invited to enjoy a quarterly behind-the-scenes presentation by the horticulture staff and a complimentary meal. To upgrade to the Contributing level, call 404-591-1538.

Chihuly PreviewsApril 26, 6 – 10 p.m.Contributing and above

April 27, 6 – 10 p.m.Cercle de Fleurs(Circle Members)

April 28 and 29, 6 – 10 p.m.Individual, Dual, Family and Family Plus (Member Discount tickets apply)

Members are invited to exclusive previews of Chihuly Nights, featuring live music, imaginative entertainment, interactive activities, and discovery sta-tions—fun for the entire family! Spend a spectacular evening viewing exquisite, dramatically lit glass installations. (Guest passes are not valid for these events). For details, visit atlantabg.org.

Member NumberNew durable membership cards are now available at Admissions as part of the new ticketing system. For online discounts, enter the Member Number on the card in the Member Validation box. A log-in and password are no longer necessary.

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onground

Docent Tour TrainingWednesdays, March 9 – 30, April 13, and April 20, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.Learn to lead informative and exciting tours for adult and senior groups. No previous gardening, horticulture or guide experience is needed. Attendance is required at six classes, and volunteers must commit to leading at least two tours a month during peak seasons.

Discovery VolunteersWednesday, April 20, 6 – 8:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 23; OR Saturday, May 21, 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Discovery volunteers engage visi-tors about the Garden’s collections and conservation work, with an additional focus on the Chihuly in the Garden exhibition. Shifts are available Thursday – Sunday in the morning and afternoon, and evenings during Chihuly Nights. Attendance at one training session required.

Kitchen Assistant VolunteersSaturday, April 16, 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.Volunteers assist chefs in the Outdoor Kitchen with tasks such as setting up the kitchen, chopping fresh vegetables, and passing out samples for tasting. Opportunities are available on weekday evenings and weekend afternoons for cooking demonstrations, chef series, classes, events and festivals.

For more details, visit atlantabg.org/get-involved/volunteer or call 404-591-1548.

Clippings is now available online at issuu.com/atlantabotanicalgarden

Atlanta Botanical Garden1345 Piedmont Avenue, NEAtlanta, GA 30309

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Atlanta, GA

membersonlyQUESTIONS? Email membership@atlantabg.org or call 404-591-1539 for assistance.

IS JANUARY TOO EARLY TO PLANT ROSES? Bare-root roses can be planted in January if the ground isn’t frozen. Before planting, trim long stems back to a healthy bud. Container-grown roses can

be planted from January through April. Roses need to be well mulched. Prevent disease by keeping mulch away from the crown or lower stems of the plant.

planthotline 404-888-GROWplanthotline@atlantabg.org