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As a horticulturist, garden designer, and philanthropist, her passions and vision for the future left an enduring influence through the formation of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. In celebration of her birthday, a newly discovered fossilized plant species has been named in Bunny’s honor. Our President Sir Peter Crane outlines this new discovery and another pioneering woman who helped to bring this fossil flower to light.
Read MoreTo wrap up her internship, we asked Communications Intern Salem Twiggs to write a blog on a topic that caught her interest, read our latest blog to hear her thoughts and reflections on a summer at Oak Spring.
Read MoreMary Vaux Walcott was a botanist, glaciologist, and outdoorswoman who created close to 1,000 botanical sketches and illustrations in her lifetime. The Smithsonian published nearly 400 of her illustrations, all of which were done in the rugged landscape of the Canadian Alps.
Read MoreBunny Mellon once said “every rock has its purpose” and “every plant has its purpose.” Inspired by French styled parterres, the terraced gardens of Oak Spring are the perfect marriage of the two sentiments. The rock in this case is local fieldstone which was hand laid by Oak Spring’s stonemasons, and the plants are a smattering of herbs and other perennials which were first sprinkled out as seeds by Bunny during the garden's construction. Today, the cracks of the fieldstone spill out with plants that thrive under the beating summer sun. Learn more about the history of the terrace garden and some of the plants that thrive there in this blog.
Read MoreWhen someone says the word pollinator, what first comes to mind? You may think of a European honeybee, butterfly or hummingbird. To kick off National Pollinator Week, learn about a few of the unsung pollinators of the world and hear from our Ecologist and Collections Specialist, Dr. Rea Manderino on their importance.
Read MoreMeet our Education and Outreach Coordinator, Ginger Anderson! Ginger comes to us with 20 years of farming experience and 15 years of teaching experience in agriculture and horticulture education. As a continuation of Oak Spring’s mission to share the resources of Bunny Mellon with the public, Ginger works with teachers and youth organization leaders throughout the region to coordinate meaningful hands-on learning experiences at the Biocultural Conservation Farm or in schools or community centers. You can find out more about Ginger by reading our latest ‘Meet the Staff’ Q&A!
Read MoreSeaweed, kelp, macroalgae, whatever you choose to call it, can sometimes seem a little boring, but not to Isabella Aiona Abbott. A fascination with these plantlike organisms began in her youth and steadily grew into Isabella becoming the foremost expert in Pacific marine algae. As we recognize Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, learn about the life and contributions of the First Lady of Limu.
Read MoreLast month two of our Garden Team members entered the local Upperville Daffodil Show. It was a winding process to get there but each came away with multiple ribbons! In our newest blog post, read about the steps they took in preparation for the showing, the long history of daffodils in the US and get a few tips about how to put your best foot (or flower) forward.
Read MoreSpring is the time when we take to the outdoors for some warm weather activities— for the Mellon’s one of those activities included croquet. In this guest blog post, written by our newest Horticultural Apprentice Bennett Meeks, learn all about the steps necessary to create your own croquet lawn and some general tips for heathy lawn care.
Read MoreThrough gardens we can observe the cycles of nature, produce food and medicines that sustain us, commune with wildlife, and so much more. At various times throughout history, people have had different ideas of what their garden should be made up of or what it should be utilized for. In our latest blog post, read about a few of the varying approaches to gardens through some of the oldest botanic gardens in the world and see some of the related objects from the Oak Spring Garden Library collections.
Read MoreAs we eagerly await 15+ alumni to join us this year, we wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the work that has been done by past residents.
The gardens we know today are inspiring– the designers who created them took many approaches, influenced by their upbringing, travels, or their inner circles. Many of our modern notable gardens have inspirational roots in gardens from the, some of which were historically designed by women. While many did not receive formal training, it didn’t stop them from convening in their own ways to radically change the way we view gardens today. It’s no easy task to pair this list down to just four, but to usher in National Garden Month, learn about the lives and legacies of several plantswomen.
Read MoreHappy first day of Spring! As winter’s grip fades, we turn to the forest floor to marvel at the spring ephemerals that are beginning to emerge. These native plants pack a lot of beauty into a small timeframe and have historically been used in traditional medicine. Celebrate the vernal equinox and read about four short-lived wonders.
Read MoreThe world of plants is a vast one. There are an array of no-so-linear characters, some might be obvious, some subtle. Learn about the bendy, curvy, snaking and twisting nature of plants in our latest blog.
Our landscapes and gardens are integral to humans, offering up an immediate opportunity for us to connect with nature. Increasingly, we are incorporating more native, local flora in our designs and plantings at OSGF, which creates better habitats for insects, wildlife and more. Read to learn more about the process of creating the Rokeby Wildlife Garden (which will be the first of many) and a few of the species that were planted.
Read MoreIt’s hard to believe but our Horticulture Apprentice, Thomas Bardoff has been with us for a full year! At the beginning of Thomas’s time, he shared his insights on our blog into the process of pruning one of the most recognizable pieces of Mrs. Mellon’s garden, the stepover cordons. Cordons, espaliers, and the ‘Mary Potter’ crabapple arbor were the embodiment of Bunny Mellon’s strong fascination with pruning techniques. Our Garden Team works diligently year-round to maintain these fixtures and in our newest blog post, Thomas shares his thoughts on a year at Oak Spring.
Read MoreWine and the grapes grown to produce it is a balanced process. As climate change continues to impact the planet, the work being done to conserve our native grapes are vital for the continued success of vineyards. In our latest blogpost, read about the history of wine grapes and how partners like the U.S. Botanical Garden are conserving them.
Read MoreIn life we are always encouraged to never judge a book by its cover, but in this instance, the book cover is all we’ll be talking about.
Read MoreJanuary 22nd is the date of the Lunar New Year for 2023. Read on to learn more about the plants of the Lunar New Year and how they play an integral role in the celebrations.
Read MoreOak Spring Garden Foundation is pleased to announce our 2023 Fellows. These fellowships are designed to support early-career practitioners, working on new projects that focus on plants, gardens, and landscapes, and the arts and culture of them.
Since 2018, we have offered our annual Stacy Lloyd III Fellowship for Bibliographic Study and our Eliza Moore Fellowship for Artistic Excellence, named in honor of OSGF founder Bunny Mellon’s children, to outstanding scholars and artists. Our Fellowship in Plant Science Research and our Fellowship in Plant Conservation Biology and have been awarded annually since 2021.
Applications for 2024 Fellowships opens February 14th, 2023.
See below to learn about each Fellow.
Phillippa Pitts is a Horowitz Foundation Fellow for American Art at Boston University. Her research questions social, political, and racial borders within American art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, highlighting the aspirations and anxieties around expansion, immigration, xenophobia, and Indigeneity that underpin such constructions.
Nazafarin Lotfi is currently a Matakyev Research Fellow at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at Arizona State University. Through her multidisciplinary approach, she explores humanness in relation to nonhuman bodies and places that are defined by practices of map-making and gardening. To learn more about her work, visit her website.
Dr. Ingmar Staude is Senior Scientist of the group "Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity" at Leipzig University. Ingmar’s research focus is centered around understanding nature’s strategy to cope with anthropogenic global change using theoretical, inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches.
Anna Wyngaarden is a masters candidate at the University of Georgia. Her research focus is centered around rare plants and more specifically, rock outcrop communities in the Southeastern U.S.
