Garden Conservancy and Ruth Bancroft Garden Present Seminar: “Gift of Persia: Exotic Gardens for California”

A horticultural and design history seminar on the Moorish, Mughal, and Mediterranean influence on California gardens.

Many cultures have borrowed garden design ideas from Persia and, over the centuries, have shared an amazingly broad palette of plants for drier climates. This full-day seminar in the 2011 Ruth Bancroft Horticultural Series is presented by the Garden Conservancy and the Ruth Bancroft Garden, and brings together a design writer, an historian, two landscape architects, an interior/garden designer, and several horticulturists. A reception with wine and plants at the Ruth Bancroft Garden will follow the talks. Gift of Persia: Exotic Gardens for California is presented by the Garden Conservancy and Ruth Bancroft Garden and cosponsored by Pacific Horticulture magazine and the Gardens at Heather Farm, with additional support from Monrovia Growers.

Registration:  $85 - $105 includes lunch and refreshments. Student rates available.  Register online www.gardenconservancy.org or call the Garden Conservancy in San Francisco at 415.441.4300

Presentations Include:

Inspiration for Private Paradises

Zahid Sardar, design writer and author of New Garden Design, San Francisco

Persian Gardens on the Move! History of the movement of the Persian Garden to other cultures

Patrick N. Hunt, Ph.D., archaeologist/art historian, Stanford University

The Rain in Spain…Moorish Lessons in Planting Design and Water Use

Christy Edstrom O’Hara, landscape architect, San Luis Obispo

Romance Plants for Northern California Lavish plants and design borrowed from

East and West of the Mediterranean

Davis Dalbok, Garden Designer, San Francisco, CA

California’s Getty Villa Roman architecture with an Italian sensitivity of planting

Michael DeHart, horticulturist, Getty Villa, Malibu

A Contemporary Classical Garden

Translation of classical style garden in a contemporary garden design in Hillsborough

Todd R. Cole, landscape architect, San Francisco

More Plants and Reception at The Ruth Bancroft Garden

Following the talks at The Gardens of Heather Farm, the seminar moves to The Ruth Bancroft Garden for a reception and plant discussion with Brian Kemble, RBG Curator, and Ed Lavio, fruit tree specialist from Devil Mountain Nursery.