“Grow” your gardening know-how. Our free online gardening program, Let’s Talk Gardens, covers a wide range of topics presented by our own professional staff, as well as guest speakers. No matter your level of gardening knowledge, there’s always something new to learn!

Smithsonian Gardens is also proud to partner with the National Museum of African American History and Culture to bring you Let’s Talk African American Gardens!

This series is based on chapters of H. Hamilton Williams’ 1943 publication of Handbook of the Negro Garden Club of Virginia. It explores the rich history of African American foodways and horticulture practices and celebrate the ways that black people are using these traditions to face today’s world.

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You can also catch up on past webinars by visiting our Let’s Talk Gardens Video Library.

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All programs include auto-generated captions. ASL interpretation is available for webinar programs with a two-week advanced notice. To request this service, please email gardens@si.edu.

Upcoming Programs

Title slide image for a webinar.  Displays  image of a painting along with names and portraits for the speakers.

October 24, 2024, 12-1 PM EDT

Shifting Boundaries: Approaches to American Landscapes

Register Here!

Speakers: Lauren Brandes, Smithsonian Gardens, Melinda Whicher, Smithsonian Gardens, Diana Greenwold, National Museum of Asian Art

American landscape paintings from the late 19th and early 20th century can be a catalyst to discuss 21st century concerns such as climate change, the erasure of indigenous histories, and the impacts of land and water use. Join Smithsonian Gardens’ Lauren Brandes and Melinda Whicher in conversation with the National Museum of Asian Art’s (NMAA) Diana Greenwold as they discuss their recent collaboration on the new exhibition Shifting Boundaries: Approaches to American Landscapes now on view at the National Museum of Asian Art. This project is the first of its kind at NMAA, a fully collaborative endeavor that brought together experts in landscape and environment to answer the question, how do we find contemporary resonance in historic American landscape painting?

Image Credit: Blossom Time (detail), Willard Metcalf (1858–1925), United States, 1910, oil on canvas, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art Collection, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1915.27a-b