Preserving Historic Gardens Focus of Restoring Southern Gard

Press Room

Preserving Historic Gardens Focus of Restoring Southern Gardens & Landscapes Conference Sept. 24-26

Friday, June 19, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lauren Werner
336.721.7329
lwerner@oldsalem.org
or Sarah Mansell
336.758.5524
manselss@reynoldahouse.org

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (June 10, 2009) – Planting and maintaining public and private historic gardens will be the focus of the 2009 Conference on Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes. The conference, celebrating its 30th anniversary, is titled "Returning to our Roots: Planting and Replanting the Historic Southern Garden" and will be held Sept. 24-26 at Old Salem Museums & Gardens in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The event is open to the public. Amateur gardeners and enthusiasts are invited to attend. Registration is $320, which includes all program sessions, conference materials, admission to museums, and some meals. For more information, visit www.oldsalem.org, call 336.758.5900 or e-mail portals@reynoldahouse.org.

The conference will begin with guided tours of the Old Salem Gardens followed by an opening reception and keynote address by Peter Hatch, director of gardens and grounds at Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Monticello. Conference speakers include William Woys Weaver, Scott Kunst, Bill Patterson, Margaret Page Bemiss, and Jim Rodgers.

Program sessions will include case studies of historic landscape and garden restorations, practical information on planning and maintaining the historic garden, and sources for heirloom and historic native plants such as roses, vegetables, bulbs and fruit trees. Participants will also have access to a resource center featuring catalogues of heirloom plants, an exhibit and listing of recommended publications, and the opportunity to interact with conference speakers, authors and horticulture experts.

Conference participants will tour Reynolda House Museum of American Art and the adjacent Reynolda Gardens of Wake Forest University, part of the original 1917 estate of Katharine Smith Reynolds and R.J. Reynolds, founder of RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company. At Reynolda House, participants will view "Heroes of Horticulture," an exhibition from George Eastman House that includes photographs of trees and plantings, some of which are more than 100 years old. The conference also features guided tours of Old Salem Museums & Gardens, the historic community founded by Moravians in 1766 and host to the conference.

Photographs depicting views of early Salem and North Carolina landscapes will be on view during the conference. In honor of the anniversary year, the popular conference plant sales will be expanded.

First convened at Old Salem in 1979, the conference is sponsored by Old Salem Museums & Gardens, Reynolda House Museum of American Art and the Southern Garden History Society. Members of sponsoring institutions receive discounts on registration.

About Old Salem Museum & Gardens
Old Salem Museums & Gardens is one of America's most comprehensive history attractions. Its three museums — the Historic Town of Salem, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) and The Toy Museum at Old Salem — engage visitors in an educational and memorable historical experience about those who lived and worked in the early South. The Web site address is www.oldsalem.org.

About Reynolda House Museum of American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art is one of the nation's premier American art museums, with masterpieces by Mary Cassatt, Frederic Church, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keefe and Gilbert Stuart among its permanent collection. Affiliated with Wake Forest University, Reynolda House features traveling and original exhibitions, concerts, lectures, classes, film screenings, and other events. The museum is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the historic 1917 estate of Katharine Smith Reynolds and her husband, Richard Joshua Reynolds, founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Reynolda House and adjacent Reynolda Gardens and Reynolda Village feature a spectacular public garden, dining, shopping and walking trails. For more information, please visit reynoldahouse.org or call 336.758.5150.

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