Bulletin of Remarkable Trees Vol. 2 No. 10
The Williamsburg Garden Symposium
Among his travel papers, my grandfather kept a few brochures from the times he attended the Williamsburg Garden Symposium at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.
From the fifth annual event held in 1951, the above brochure bills the event as “a practical insight into gardening, past, present, and future.”
This symposium seemed to have a clear focus: using the examples and knowledge from the gardens of the past to improve and drive tomorrow's gardening and horticulture trends. My grandfather was listed under the heading of “nationally recognized authorities” participating in the event.
Based on the accompanying program from the event itself, my grandpa participated in panels dedicated to “Garden Design Trends” and “Plant Materials,” a “Small Garden Clinic,” and also gave an individual lecture titled “Evergreen and Deciduous Plants.”
The Eighth Annual Williamsburg Garden Symposium, in 1954, saw my grandfather again give a lecture, this time on “Woody Plant Aristocrats.” I haven’t found transcripts or tapes of this, or almost any, lectures that he gave over his career, but I’d imagine this talk was a discussion of the plants and trees that my grandfather felt lend a noble grace to the landscapes of which they are a part.
Looking through the rest of the program, it appears that some of my grandpa’s horticultural colleagues and friends also spoke at the event, including Donald Wyman of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, speaking on low maintenance trees and shrubs, and George S Avery, Director of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, who led a session for garden club members entitled “What Does America Expect From Its Garden Clubs?”
I apologize for the dearth of posts in the past few weeks. Our household is in the process of moving, which has been quite hectic!
Watch for an issue of Through the Seasons at the Arboretum: Then and Now for June coming soon - my grandpa wrote glowingly about the Arboretum’s roses during this month, which at one time had a direct connection to Colonial Williamsburg!
“Inspired by the plan of the Holly Garden adjoining the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia, the Arboretum Rose Garden located at the intersection of the cross axes in the center level of the hedge planting provides an appropriate setting for the two hundred and eighty-four old Damask, Cabbage, Moss and French roses growing within its hedge bordered beds.” - Through the Seasons at the Morton Arboretum pamphlet from the 1942 Chicago Flower and Garden Show
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