Wave Hill's
Spring Lecture Luncheon
with
Sir Peter Crane
President of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation
The Garden & the Library
The Botanical Legacy of Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
12:00PM Luncheon
2:00PM Lecture
Wave Hill
249th Street & Independence Avenue, Bronx, NY
Donate Now
Cannot Attend? Make a donation to support the John Nally Internship.
The John Nally Internship is a hands-on, paid apprenticeship that trains the next generation of gardeners. Working alongside the Director and Associate Director of Horticulture and the Wave Hill Gardeners, interns become skilled in sustainable approaches used to manage a public garden. Their rigorous duties are diverse: mulching the garden beds; digging and planting of shrubs, trees, annuals and perennials; and weeding beds and watering containers in the nursery and public display areas. The intern's curiosity and energy have become indispensable to Wave Hill's pursuit of garden excellence.
Your support allows this very important program to thrive.
EVENT CO-CHAIRS
Frances Beinecke & Janet Mavec
HOST COMMITTEE
Louis Bauer
Eleanor Briggs
Page Dickey
Patricia Jonas
Tom Krizmanic
Fred Landman
Susan Morgenthau
Stephen Orr
Frances Palmer
Katie Ridder
Sarina Vetterli
About Sir Peter Crane
Sir Peter Crane FRS is President of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia, an estate of Rachel Lambert Mellon that includes an exquisite garden as well as an exceptional library focused on plants, gardens, and landscape design. He was at the Field Museum in Chicago from 1982-1999, and Director of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1999-2006, before being appointed University Professor at The University of Chicago. In 2009 he was recruited as Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (now Yale School of the Environment). Peter Crane was knighted in the UK for services to horticulture and conservation in 2004. He is a member of several national science academies and the recipient of honorary degrees from universities in the UK and US, including an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University in the UK. He received the International Prize for Biology in 2014. Most recently, he received the 2024 National Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America for his substantial contributions to horticulture, botany, and biology.
About The Garden and the Library: The Botanical Legacy of Rachel Lambert Mellon
Rachel Lambert 'Bunny' Mellon is well known for the breadth of her creativity and exquisite taste, which in the horticultural sphere included designing the Rose Garden at the White House for President Kennedy. However, the sweep of Bunny Mellon's artistry sees its fullest expression in the estate, garden and home that she shared with her husband Paul near Upperville, in rural northern Virginia, a little over an hour west of Washington DC.
The lecture will focus on the remarkable walled garden that Mrs. Mellon created at her Virginia home and her exceptional library, which mainly includes works on the history of plant science, plant exploration, and the development of gardens and landscape design. The major decorative features of the garden include a spectacular crab apple arbor, the formal greenhouse with its unique trompe l'oeil interior and an exquisite Schlumberger finial. The library contains works documenting six centuries of human interest in the world of plants. Mrs. Mellon's legacy is stewarded today by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, which is dedicated to inspiring and facilitating scholarship and public dialogue on the uses, history and future of plants, including their importance for human well-being, and in the culture of gardens and landscapes.
Topiary Pop-Up Shop
with Ken Selody from Atlock Farm
11:30AM Presale for Luncheon Ticketholders
1:30PM-4:30PM General Sale*
Shop the best topiaries in an array of plant genera, shaped by master topiary artist, Ken Selody.
*Topiary Pop-Up sale is closed during Lecture
Board of Directors
Ezra Borut, Chair
Ray B. Oladapo-Johnson, President & Executive Director
D. Bryce O'Brien II, Treasurer
Lisa Cader, Secretary
Robbie Oxnard Bent
Andrew Berman
Anne G. Fredericks
Cynthia Hanawalt
John D. Hannick
Susan Hinkson-Carling
Jeanne Jang
Katie Michel
Priscilla A. Newman
Signe Nielsen
Grayson Rueckert
Pamela Fontaine Salvatore
Jennifer P. Speers
Janet Spitzer
Cecelia Traugh
Beatrice Welch
Maud C.W. MacLean
Audrey Zinman
Honorary
Edward A. Ames
David O. Beimâ€
Harvey Beker
Anne P. Cabot
Frances Beinecke Elston
Sarah G. Gundâ€
Barbara Paul Robinson
William Dodge Rueckert
Cathy Marks Weinroth
Friends of Horticulture
Janet Mavec, Chair
Lucy Berkoff
Tony Bielaczyc
Louis Bauer
Eleanor Briggs
Susan P. Burke
Lisa Cader
Page Dickey
Jane Garmey
Maggy Geiger
John Gwynne
John Holm
Lu Hamlin
Myra Hecht
Patricia Jonas
Tom Krizmanic
Fred Landman
Pepe Maynard
Susan Morgenthau
Ngoc Minh Ngo
Stephen Orr
Melissa Ozawa
Frances Palmer
Francis Schell
Lindsey Taylor
Sarina Vetterli
Beatrice Welch
Marco Polo Stufano, Director of Horticulture Emeritus
Cathy Deutsch, Director of Horticulture
Steven Conaway, Associate Director of Horticulture
Hillarie O'Toole, Horticulture Coordinator
Share With Others
