An Engineer’s Approach to Houseplant Care
Darryl Cheng’s approach breaks down the barriers to true, long-lasting enjoyment of houseplants – when you understand how plants work, you can gain a deeper appreciation for their character and more acceptance of how they’ll grow.
Bringing in Your Tropical Plants for the Winter
Learn how to keep your tropical treasures for more than a summer.
Brooklyn Bridge Park Lessons (so far) in Constructed Ecology
This talk will detail many of the strategies employed to design an ecological park, as well as the management techniques used to cultivate biodiverse parkland. If we can do it, so can you.
Carbon in the Capital Region
Learn more how the pandemic offered a rare opportunity for Rosenfield to observe how the environment reacts to drops in human activity.
Caring for Orchids at Home
Learn about the common challenges and best practices for watering, choice of nutrients, repotting methods, light requirements, air circulation, and the optimal supplies required for home orchid cultivation
Celebrating Two Centuries of Beatrix Farrand
Join Jonathan Kavalier, Director of Dumbarton Oaks’ gardens and grounds, as he shares insights into Farrand and the design of the gardens and explores the challenges and opportunities inherent in stewarding an iconic historic garden into its next century
Choosing Plants with Design In Mind
Janet Draper, Horticulturist in the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden, highlights her favorite plants for creating a garden with year-round interest.
Creating Beautiful Landscapes for Pollinator and Wildlife Habitats: Smithsonian Gardens to Your Front Yard
Wildlife habitat is of particular focus at the National Museum of Natural History, where you will find the Pollinator Garden and Urban Bird Habitat. James will teach about native plants you can use in your own garden to support a healthy ecosystem for wildlife.
Designing Gardens – Foliage First
Learn about basic design principles and learn how to put foliage first!
Designing with Hydrangeas and Their Relatives
Join Andrew Bunting as he explores the breadth of hydrangeas and their relatives and how they can be successfully used in the garden
Discovering the Wonder of Soil Through Science and Art
Together, we will explore how each soil is unique, and I will describe how soil scientists study how soils form, function, and change over time.
Draper’s Dozen: Top Perennial Performers in Smithsonian Gardens
Janet Draper, Smithsonian Gardens Horticulturist, will share her top dozen (or so) perennials she relies on to create a garden with year-round interest,
Earth Friendly Rose Gardens
With thoughtful plant selection, garden design and cultural practices, your rose garden can be beautiful and earth friendly.
Garden Room Ideas and Inspirations
In this one hour illustrated talk, garden designer and writer Gordon Hayward shares his ideas about garden rooms.
Gardening for Hummingbirds
Horticulturist Sarah Dickert will discuss some of the key plants and garden features to attract these fun little birds.
Gardening with Children
Introducing children to gardening is a great way to increase their awareness of where food comes from and the importance of the environment in everyday life.
Gardens as Sources of Resilience
Watch this webinar to learn more about exploring personal relationships with plants and celebrating garden communities during challenging times.
Getting the Most out of Your Late-season Display
Plant suggestions, design tips, and techniques for how to make your late season garden excel.
Getting the Most Out of Your Small Space/Urban Garden
Using examples from D.C.-area gardens, Kathy Jentz, editor and publisher of Washington Gardener magazine, will illustrate basic design principles for maximizing garden space.
Great Magnolias for the Mid-Atlantic
Join Andrew Bunting for an overview of great magnolias for the Mid-Atlantic region.
Growing Native Edibles
Dr. Navarrete-Tindall will discuss how to identify, grow and harvest native fruits, perennial greens, and tubers.
Helping Communities Gain Access to Green Spaces
Find out how local public agencies making gardens and green spaces more accessible and equitable to local communities.
Immigrant Gardens and Their Impact on The American Terrain
Wambui Ippolito takes us through various immigrant garden landscapes and histories with the hopes of having a new understanding and approach to immigrant land management.
Learning in Nature: The Importance of Field Botany
Learn how plants adapt to harsh conditions and naturally cope with stress in the wild and leave with a better appreciation for their role in the landscape .
Let’s Talk Spiders: From Fear to Fascination
Join spider scientist Dr. Sebastian Echeverri as he introduces you to the incredible superpowers, dramatic lives–and even unexpected beauty–of the many amazing spiders in our gardens and across the world.
Made in the Shade: Creating Dynamic Shade Gardens
Learn to love the shade you’ve got. Sylvia Schmeichel, Smithsonian Gardens Horticulturist, will share tips and tricks for creating layered and dynamic plant combinations that result in an inviting space.
Make an Exuberant Container
Learn how to use color, texture and height to your seasonal container.
Making Homes for Native Bees – A Chat with Dr. Holly Walker
Who are our native bees and how do they interact and compare with the non-native honeybee.
Monarch Waystations for Any Size Garden
Find out how to create a Monarch Waystation in your garden!
Native Spring Ephemerals
Join Amy Mawby for an ecological exploration of the season with a focus on its harbingers, our native spring ephemerals.
Our Mysterious Orchids: Hidden Connections Below-and Above-Ground
In this lecture, ecologist Melissa McCormick will talk about how current research is working to identify critical points in orchid life cycles to help safeguard orchid populations
Planting Fall Vegetables
Learn more about vegetable planting schedules, cultivar selection, maintenance tips, and suggestions on how to make your vegetable garden productive and beautiful.
Pruning with a Purpose: A Gardener’s Guide to Thinking Like an Arborist
Learn how to add another dimension to your tree and shrub pruning skillset.
Saving Seeds: Saving Memories, Diversity or Funds?
Cindy Brown, Smithsonian Gardens’ Education and Collections Manager, will discuss the tedious, sometimes stinky, always mysterious, often frustrating art of seed saving.
Selecting and Planting Fall Bulbs
Learn tips and tricks about planting fall bulbs such as daffodils, tulips and hyacinths.
Simple Summer Herbs
Discover how to grow 10 herbs to flavor your summer.
Small Space: Big Impact
Are you inspired by the big showcase gardens, but don’t think you have space at home to make a showy impact? Learn more about how to create a small garden with big impact.
Soil Management Plan for the Future
The planting soils surrounding the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C uniquely reflect the planting soil trends at the time of each museum’s completion (or most recent renovation) over 175 years.
The Groundbreaking Garden Club Activists of Virginia
Hear the stories of garden club members who used the power of garden clubs to take on the highway department, environmental destruction, and even segregation.
The Secret to Tree & Shrub Health
Examine the epidemic of tree and shrub health problems caused by our most basic garden maintenance practices.
Top 20 Native Shrubs for Sun and Shade
Learn more about native shrubs to substitute for your non-native plants.
Top Twenty Perennials for Healthy Habitats
Suggestions on perennials that make excellent additions to gardens AND help support the habitat ecosystem.
Trees and Birds – Rooted Together
Georgia Audubon’s Habitat Conservation Program Manager, Gabe Andrle, will discuss the symbiotic relationship between birds and trees and how planting native trees can help attract a diverse range of birds to your yard.
Understanding Plant Stress Signals: Abiotic Factors
Learn about the basic visual signals that plants show when they are under stress
Winter Interest in the Garden
Learn how to design and recognize the beauty in a winter garden.