The Botanic Garden of Smith College, Events

2009

Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted
Admission fee for Chrysanthemum Show & Lectures

Bamboo and Blossoms: The Fall Chrysanthemum Show

Bamboo sculptures by Nancy Moore Bess and Harry Bower

November 7 - November 22, 2009
10:00 am - 4:00 pm daily, $2.00 admission
Free to members, those with a Smith College ID, and children under 12
Members only hours 9:00 - 10:00 am (please bring your membership card)
Group discounts when scheduled at least two weeks in advance

Friday November 6, 7:00 pm
Growing and Preparing Bamboo for Basketry
Campus Center Carroll Room
$5.00, includes reception and entry into Chrysanthemum Show,
Free to Friends and Smith ID holders.
Slide/lecture by Nancy Moore Bess, internationally known
textile and bamboo craftsperson, basket maker, and author of Bamboo in Japan. Together with Henry Bower, she has created site-specific bamboo sculptures that are a part of this year’s Fall Chrysanthemum Show.

Download full schedule (pdf)

Followed by a reception at Lyman with the Chrysanthemum Show illuminated.

Sunday November 8, noon - 1:00 pm, Music by Harpist Sue Gerstle
Church Exhibition Gallery, Lyman Plant House

Friday November 13, 7:00 pm,
Garden Notes from China
Stoddard Hall Auditorium
$5.00, includes reception and entry into Mum Show afterwards,
Free to Friends and Smith ID holders.
China is the home of the richest flora in the temperate world and its people have had a rich tradition of cultivating the land and making fine gardens. Since the re-opening of China in the late 1970s, Paul Meyer has visited China nine times. He has led tours to the grand imperial gardens of Beijing and intimate scholars gardens of Suchou, and participated in collaborative plant exploration trips to the most remote parts of northern China. In this illustrated lecture Paul will discuss the garden design traditions of China and how these concepts might be adapted to our gardens. Also, he will discuss the Chinese flora, and its utilization in both Chinese and American Gardens.

Followed by a reception with the Chrysanthemum Show illuminated

Saturday November 14, 2:00 pm
Chrysanthemum Poetry Reading in Exhibition Gallery, Lyman Plant House
Selected poems read by students in East Asian Languages and Literature 231:
The Culture of the Lyric in Traditional China: Plants and Poetry
Chrysanthemum tea will be served

Wednesday November 18, 7:30 pm
Exploring Yunnan Province in China with the New England Wild Flower Society
Campus Center room 205
Janet Bissell, a volunteer at Smith's Botanic Garden takes us on a photographic journey through southwestern China, from towering mountains to tropical rainforests, to two botanical gardens, and through the forests and natural vegetation of this most bio-diverse region of China. Along the way you'll see stunning photographs and learn about the landscape and culture of this area.

Followed by a reception at the Lyman Plant House with the Chrysanthemum Show illuminated,
$2.00 admission to the Show, free to members

Friday November 20, 4:30 pm
What’s Mud Got to Do with It:
Botany, Cultural History, and the Ideology of a Flower
Seelye Hall Room 106
Lecture by Xiaofei Tian, Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard.
Cultivated in Asia for thousands of years, the lotus – Nelumbo nucifera – has a much shorter, albeit rich and complicated, cultural and textual history in China. It is not only celebrated in Chinese writings from antiquity, but is also an important symbol in Buddhism, imported into China in the first century AD. Gradually, the lotus becomes a contested site where diverse and often conflicting meanings converge: spirituality and purity, high-mindedness and detachment, sensuality and erotic love, and food and medicine. The multiple facets of the lotus provide a perspective on Chinese culture even as they effectively call into question the existence of a monolithic “Chinese tradition.”
Followed by a reception at the Lyman Plant House
Fall Chrysanthemum Show open 5:30 – 8:00 pm, Free admission

Download Poster (pdf)

Exhibition: A Plantsman in Asia

October 17 - December 15, 2009
Church Exhibition Gallery, Lyman Plant House

Compelling color photographs by Paul W. Meyer tell vivid stories about the importance of plants in the lives of Asian peoples. The photos were taken over a period of 20 years of plant exploration in the Far East. Paul Meyer, a leader in the field of plant exploration and evaluation, will be speaking on November 13 (see below).

Download poster (pdf)

Dates of Future Bulb and Chrysanthemum Shows