Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Honorary Medals Dinner on September 8
On Thursday, September 8, ten people will be recognized, led by Lynden B. Miller, by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at its Honorary Medals Dinner. Lynden B. Miller will receive the George Robert White Medal of Honor for her work as a designer of urban parks and will deliver the keynote speech as part of the evening’s events. She is a public garden designer in New York City and director of The Conservatory Garden in Central Park, which she helped rescue and restore beginning in 1982. Her work includes gardens for The Central Park Zoo, Bryant Park, The New York Botanical Garden, Madison Square Park, and Wagner Park in Battery Park City as well as many smaller projects in all five boroughs and beyond, including waterfront gardens in Red Hook, Brooklyn, improvements to Union Square Park and the 97th Street Park Avenue Mall, renovation of the “Gateway to Harlem” Broadway Mall at 135th Street, Hunter College, and the 67th Street Armory.
Also being honored is Wesley R. Autio, professor of pomology in the Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He will receive the Jackson Dawson Award for his body of work in the horticultural sciences. The recipient of the Thomas Roland Medal will be Richard Jaynes, who will be honored for his work in expanding the use of rare and unusual plants for the home garden. A graduate from Wesleyan University (BA) and Yale (Ph.D.), he worked at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for 25 years as a plant breeder and horticulturist with specialties in chestnut and mountain laurel resigning in 1984 to start Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden, Connecticut. Today, Broken Arrow is recognized as one of the premier growers of uncommon plants.
Two Mass Hort volunteers will be recognized for their outstanding contributions. Gold Medals will be given to Carrie Waterman for her work over several decades on behalf of amateur horticulture both at the New England Spring Flower Show and elsewhere; as will volunteer Joyce Bakshi, who for the past two years has organized the Festival of Trees at Elm Bank. Also receiving gold medals will be Theodore Landsmark of Boston Architectural College for his work on behalf of the Landscape Institute; Organic Gardening Magazine for its promotion of ecologically sound practices in gardening and farming; and writer Ellen Ecker Ogden for her articles, essays and talks on organic gardening.
Proceeds from the dinner are used to maintain Elm Bank’s gardens. Tickets are available through the Mass Hort website, www.MassHort.org, or by calling 617-933-4961. For additional information contact: Neal Sanders at 508-359-9453
Carol Stocker has been writing about gardening for the Boston Globe for 30 years. She has won the top newspaper writing award of the Garden Writer's Association of American three times. Her newest book is "The Boston Globe Illustrated New England Gardening Almanac."
