Friends of the Regional Park Botanic Garden, Tilden Park, Berkeley

Classes, Field Trips & Workshops | Wayne Roderick Lectures | Special Events | Tours | Calendar

Our schedule of fun and informative classes, field trips, and workshops offers something for every native plant lover. Choose from our changing selection of classes on botany and natural history, field trips to wild California, and hands-on workshops on gardening, art, and photography.

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WINTER AND SPRING CLASSES 2010

To enroll, print out the Class Registration Form and send it with your check to:

John Rusk, 1354-B Lincoln St., Berkeley, CA 94702.

For additional information call John Rusk at 510-528-0526 or email at john@rusk.com.
(Advance registration is required for all classes. Drops in are not permitted.)

Growing a Garden for Birds and Pollinators
Saturday, February 27, 1:30-4:30 pm

Tending the Native Plant Garden: A Workshop at the Fleming Garden
Sunday, March 14, 10 am -12:30 pm

Learning All About Our Native Lilies
Sundays, March 21 and 28, 10 am-2:30 pm

Spring Native Plant Workshop in a Private Garden
Saturday, April 10, 2010, 9:30 am-12 pm

Botanizing California: Mines Road
Sunday, April 25, 10 am-3 pm

The Spring Color Palette
Saturday, May 1, 10 am-4 pm

Watercolors in the Field
Sunday, May 2, 10 am-4 pm

Botanizing California: Mount Vision at Point Reyes National Seashore
Sunday, May 16, 10 am-3:30 pm

Winged Visitors in Your Garden Sanctuary
Saturday, June 5, 9:30 am-12:30 pm

Introduction to Botanical Drawing for Kids
Saturday, June 19, 10 am-12 pm

GROWING A GARDEN FOR BIRDS AND POLLINATORS
with Nancy Bauer and Charlotte Torgovitsky
Saturday, February 27, 1:30-4:30 pm
At the Botanic Garden
$30 members/$35 nonmembers

Turn your garden into a fascinating sanctuary for birds, butterflies, bees, and other beneficial insects. We'll start indoors with images of beautiful habitat gardens and great plants for each season, as well as local birds and pollinators. Before we take a walk in the Botanic Garden, we'll look at several top habitat plants up close and discuss their care and culture in the garden setting. You'll also take home a plant to help get you started.

TENDING THE NATIVE PLANT GARDEN: A WORKSHOP AT THE FLEMING GARDEN
with Luke Hass
Sunday, March 14, 10 am -12:30 pm
At the Fleming garden in Berkeley (driving directions will be provided upon registration)
$30 members/$35 nonmembers

Started in the 1950s, Scott and Jenny Fleming's garden is one of the oldest and most beautiful native plant gardens in the state. Instructor Luke Hass has maintained the garden since 2002. This will be a great opportunity to learn how this landmark garden is cared for and get the inspiration and guidance to beautify your own garden.

LEARNING ALL ABOUT OUR NATIVE LILIES
with Glenn Keator
Sundays, March 21 and 28, 10 am-2:30 pm (sign up for one or both classes)
At the Botanic Garden (March 21) and in the field (March 28); driving directions will be provided upon registration
For each of the two classes: $35 members/$45 nonmembers

Not only are the lilies and their relatives among our most beautiful native wildflowers, but they are a fascinating group adapted to almost all habitats in the state. Curiously, new studies indicate this far-flung empire of plants needs reclassification. Evidence suggests the family is really a varied group of several different distantly related assemblages. In this class, we'll talk about the current status of lily classification, what makes sense for identification in the field, and changes that may make field work difficult. We'll also look at the wide range of genera and species in the family from the northwestern corner of the state to the southern deserts.

In the first session, we'll view images and walk through the Botanic Garden to find as many lilies and lily relatives as possible. The second session will be a local field trip to see several species in their native habitats.

SPRING NATIVE PLANT WORKSHOP IN A PRIVATE GARDEN
with Katherine Greenberg
Saturday, April 10, 2010, 9:30 am-12 pm
At the Greenberg garden in Lafayette (driving directions will be provided upon registration)
$30 members/$35 nonmembers

Join garden designer Katherine Greenberg for a spring native plant workshop in her garden. Started in 1980 on a 1.3-acre site in Lafayette, this waterwise garden reflects the character and diversity of the natural landscape and provides habitat for wildlife. Through an informal presentation, discussion, and walk through the garden, you will learn about plants for seasonal interest in spring/summer, attracting wildlife, and design. Participants will receive a packet of handouts with ideas for planting, reading, and resources, and light refreshments will be served. Sign up for this special workshop and get ideas for planting in advance of the spring plant sale!

BOTANIZING CALIFORNIA: MINES ROAD
with Glenn Keator
Sunday, April 25, 10 am-3 pm
In the field (driving directions will be provided upon registration) $35 members/$45 nonmembers

The beautiful but underappreciated Mines Road area spans the 50 miles between Livermore and the back side of Mt. Hamilton in the inner Coast Ranges. The country here is mostly wild and seems remote from Bay Area sprawl. Plant habitats include oak woodland, pine/oak forests, chaparral, riparian, seeps, and colorful grasslands. In a good spring, the variety of wildflowers is astonishing and ranges from brodiaeas, calochortuses, and larkspurs to wallflowers, blazing stars, flowering currants, and much more.

THE SPRING COLOR PALETTE
with Andie Thrams
Saturday, May 1, 10 am-4 pm
At the Botanic Garden
$75 members/$85 nonmembers

Mixing colors is one of the joys of making art, yet it can be frustrating without a clear understanding of the language of color. For an entire day, we will study color both systematically and intuitively, creating a beautiful color wheel and a series of spring color studies. Our projects will give you the tools to accurately mix the colors you seek, deepen your awareness of how colors interact and create mood, help you observe what colors you are drawn to, and learn ways to make use of this powerful knowledge in your future projects. No experience necessary.

WATERCOLORS IN THE FIELD
with Andie Thrams
Sunday, May 2, 10 am-4 pm
At the Botanic Garden
$75 members/$85 nonmembers

Spring flora will be our inspiration for a lively sampling of painting approaches that dance between controlled and wilder techniques for working outdoors. Our projects include experimenting with different brushes to find your own best marks; watercolor techniques such as wet into wet, dry brush, and glazing; painting one-stroke leaves and petals; rendering broad energetic gestures; zooming in to portray botanical detail; working in layers to build complexity; painting with sticks; ways to be comfortable at work outdoors; and more. An understanding of color mixing, such as the techniques taught in the May 1 class, is recommended.

BOTANIZING CALIFORNIA: MOUNT VISION AT POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE
with Glenn Keator
Sunday, May 16, 10 am-3:30 pm
In the field (driving directions will be provided upon registration)
$35 members/$45 nonmembers

One of the high points on rugged Inverness Ridge, Mount Vision is aptly named for its stunning views of the Point Reyes Peninsula. Its luxuriant vegetation includes a dense Bishop pine understory (both new forests and old) as well as coastal scrub, coastal prairie, and streamside vegetation, all with their own special floras. Because of summer fog drip, plants often associated with lush redwood forests occur here, including huckleberries, trilliums, violets, salal, Douglas iris, and California wax-myrtle. Our semi-strenuous loop hike of 5 to 6 miles will take us down into Muddy Hollow near Limantour Beach and back up again to Inverness Ridge

WINGED VISITORS IN YOUR GARDEN SANCTUARY
with Charlotte Torgovitsky
Saturday, June 5, 9:30 am-12:30 pm
At the Botanic Garden
$30 members/$35 nonmembers

Now that you're gardening organically and planting California natives for their habitat value, you have probably noticed increased activity in your garden sanctuary. Perhaps you would like to know more about all those creatures in your garden. We'll take a slide show tour through a year of birds and butterflies, learning unique and identifying features of the species most likely to be seen in gardens. You'll learn interesting facts about each species, its life cycle, and the important associations these creatures have developed with certain plants. Each student will take home a milkweed plant to provide food for monarch caterpillars.

INTRODUCTION TO BOTANICAL DRAWING FOR KIDS
with Gretchen McCondochie
Saturday, June 19, 10 am-12 pm
At the Botanic Garden
$10 for children of members/$15 nonmembers

Come have fun finding art in the garden! In this 2-hour workshop for children ages 8-12, we will look at shapes, colors, and textures in the garden and then learn how to make drawings of what we see. This is the first step toward creating botanical illustrations. No experience is needed; drawing materials and sketch pads will be provided. This is the first in a series of classes for kids at the garden.

INSTRUCTORS

NANCY BAUER has been a wildlife habitat gardener and educator since 1998. She is the author of The Habitat Garden Book: Wildlife Landscaping for the San Francisco Bay Area.

KATHERINE GREENBERG is a garden designer with a special interest in California native plants and waterwise gardening. She was the founding president of the Friends of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden and served as president of two other garden-focused organizations.

LUKE HASS is a landscaper and gardener working in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a long-time volunteer at the Botanic Garden and a Friends board member.

GLENN KEATOR is a popular free-lance instructor of botany in the Bay Area. He currently teaches, leads field trips, and provides docent instruction in botany for the Regional Parks Botanic Garden. He is the author of a number of books on native plants.

GRETCHEN McCONDOCHIE is a talented artist and medical illustrator and has worked with adolescents using art therapy. Gretchen shares her love of art and creativity through teaching, and teaches art to both adults and children.

ANDIE THRAMS is a visual artist with a lifelong devotion to creative work focusing on wild plants and places. She is the recipient of numerous awards; her work is widely exhibited and published and is held in collections including Yale University and the University of Washington.

CHARLOTTE TORGOVITSKY is a naturalist, longtime organic gardener, and garden writer. As Garden Education Manager at the Marin Art and Garden Center from 2001 to 2009, she created numerous California native gardens, a native plant nursery, and composting facilities.

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