Southern roots of nation's scenery

The conference "Restoring Southern Landscapes and Gardens" will return to Winston-Salem for the 18th time, Sept. 22-24.

The theme will be "A New World: Naturalists and Artists in the American South." The conference will examine the South's deep history of botanical and natural-history exploration in the development of parks, gardens and landscapes and the influence that these explorers spread far and wide.

These naturalist-explorers ranged far into the world's wilderness areas and deep into the woods of our own community. Presenters will explore their impact on our landscapes and our national psyche.

Andrea Wulf, an English-design historian and renowned author of "The Brother Gardeners" and most recently "Founding Gardeners," an exploration of how the Founding Fathers and their attitudes toward nature, agriculture and gardens shaped the nation, will make the keynote presentation.

Wulf has lectured to audiences at the Royal Geographic Society and Royal Society in London, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, among many others. Her keynote is titled "Revolutionary Gardeners: The Founding Fathers and the Creation of an American Eden."

Presenters will look at well-known figures, such as John and William Bartram and Mark Catesby. But they also will explore the botanists and naturalists who ranged through the Wachovia tract in the earliest days of Salem.

Figures such as Philip Christian Gottlieb Reuter, surveyor of the Wachovia tract, and Ludwig David von Scheweinitz, a Salem resident considered to be the father of the study of fungi, are among the local naturalists who figured prominently in the sciences of the time.

Sally Gant, director of education for the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Old Salem, along with Phil Archer, director of adult programs at Reynolda House Museum of American Art, and Davyd Foard Hood, historian and independent scholar, served as co-chairmen of the planning committee.

Gant said she is excited to have many new attendees register from throughout the country. They are expecting about 90 people to attend. She said interest from representatives of the Bartram Trail Society, the Andre Michaux Society and the Southern Garden History Society has proved that this year's topic is popular.

Andre Michaux and John and William Bartram's explorations will be discussed Saturday along with the contributions of John Custis and Peter Collinson.

Michaux came to this country from France in 1785. He was the king's botanist. He was sent to search for forest trees that might restore the forests of France. He explored eastern North America, England, Spain, the Middle East and Madagascar. Michaux's travels and gardens will be the topic of a session led by Charlie Williams, chairman of the André Michaux International Society.

Williams, who has been chairman of two conferences on Michaux, led a group to France for an event honoring Michaux. He has spoken numerous times on the topic and often performs in the first person in 18th-century costume.

John Bartram and his son William were explorers, naturalists, and gardener/nurserymen in the Colonial period. John Bartram is credited with introducing as much as a quarter of the American plants introduced to Europe during that time. William Bartram journeyed through the wildernesses in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia from 1773 to 1777. The book about his experiences, "The Travels of William Bartram," is still read today.

The Bartrams will be the topic of Joel T. Fry's presentation. Fry is the curator of the Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia, America's oldest botanic garden.

Peter Hatch has been director of gardens and grounds at Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, since 1977. He will discuss the "Brothers of the Spade: John Custis and Peter Collinson."

Custis, from Williamsburg, Va., and Collinson, of London, were engaged in a trans-Atlantic correspondence and plant exchange that became an important historical reference in the restoration of early Colonial gardens.

Robert McCartney, of the Woodlands Nursery in Aiken, S.C., will put plant exploration and introduction into a modern context with his lunch workshop, "The Twenty First Century Naturalist: Recording Plants and the Landscape."

McCartney worked for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for nearly 15 years and collected and propagated native Southeastern plants for the gardens. He has become co-owner of Woodlands Inc., an internationally recognized source of rare Southeastern native plants.

In addition to many other renowned speakers, the conference will offer two exhibits:

"Southern Naturalists, Audubon in Context" will be on view at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. The exhibit consists of a series of explanatory panels on loan from the University of South Carolina Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. The exhibit introduces a variety of important 18th- and 19th-century pioneering naturalists of the South and their contributions.

"Wonder and Enlightenment" is an exhibit at Reynolda House. Curated by Archer, the exhibit chronicles the evolution of art from the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s, from the scientifically accurate depictions of John James Audubon through symbolic and romantic renditions of the American landscape. The exhibit features three outstanding works by Audubon as well as a volume of Mark Catesby's, "The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands from 1771." It is on loan from MESDA.

The volume is open to the illustration of the Carolina Parakeet, the only parrot species native to the Eastern U.S. It became extinct in the early 20th century. One of the Audubon illustrations also shows two species now thought to be extinct in the wild: Bachman's warbler and Franklinia, a camellia relative.

"Wonder and Enlightenment" will be on view until Feb. 20. General admission to Reynolda House is $10.

The conference also will offer participants a rare opportunity to see the Moravian Archives and to visit the Salem College Herbarium. Tours of Old Salem's tree collection and of the seed-saving and greenhouse operations will be offered along with book and plant sales.

The conference is $350. Single-session selections are available for $100. Contact the conference registrar at (336) 758 5650 or email portals@reynoldahouse.org, or go to www.oldsalem.org/2011-landscape-conference.html to download the conference registration form.