Fall 2017 THE NEWSLETTER FOR THE ATLANTA BOTANICAL GARDEN VOLUNTEERS

Congratulations to these

Volunteers Of the Month

May Louise Horney

June Janet Cantrelle

July James Bemberg

August Denise Siegel

Read more about them on page 2.

ATLANTA

BOTANICAL

GARDEN

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like...

Garden Lights, Holiday Nights Gets Underway November 11

Yes, it is almost that time of year again!

Garden Lights, Holiday Nights officially gets underway on November 11. Each year the Garden adds a new amazing element to

this much-anticipated annual event, now entering its seventh year. New features over the past years have included the Tunnel of Light, Decoration Station and Ice Goddess. For the 2017 Exhibition, the

magic will expand more into the woodlands with choreographed lights and music in the trees! Over 1,000 strings of synchronized lights will

trail from the treetops to below the Canopy Walk, offering distinct views from different areas.

Volunteers are invited to the see the show first at the

Volunteer and Staff Preview on Wednesday, November 8. More details will come via email, including ticket information.

Another Garden Tradition Returns

The Model Train Garden on Alston Overlook also opens on Saturday, November 11, choo-chooing through January 7. The Botanical Express Ride-on-Train will take laps around the Great Lawn on weekends 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. for $5 ($3 for members). Botanical St. Nick is accepting Christmas lists on Saturdays, November 25, December 2, 9 and 16, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Scarecrows and Fall Family Fun

The annual scarecrow celebration is now underway with over 100

unique scarecrows in the Southern Seasons and Children’s

Gardens through the month of October. Weekend family games

and crafts are every Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. until

4:00 p.m. The festival events include Goblins in the Garden

on Sunday, October 22 and Fest of Ale on Thursday nights culminating with the return of the

Great Pumpkin Carving Contest on October 26 at

7:00pm.

See more on page 6.

Meet the Volunteers of the Month

May: Louise Horney

Louise Horney joined the ranks of GEM volunteers in 2013 after retiring as a geriatrician at Wesley Woods. “Volunteering provided a structure to retirement, new

friends and the opportunity to learn more about garden-ing.” As GEMS do, she has pulled weeds in most areas of the Garden, currently as part of Jim Smith’s Wednesday team in the Skyline Garden. There’s something very sat-isfying about weeding and deadheading, she’ll tell you; it’s methodical, productive, gratifying, even calming. For her energy and can-do attitude (and willingness to climb into the dumpster if needed!), the Garden salutes Louise.

July: James Bemberg

James Bemberg has always loved botanical gardens, dating back to college years when he worked at the St. Louis Botanical Garden while a student at the University

of Missouri . So it is no surprise that after a career in pub-lic health administration brought him to Atlanta where he retired, James found his way to the ABG in 2013 and has

become a regular, reliable, entertaining docent for chil-dren’s and adult tours. A Centennial Club volunteer since

2014 with tours usually two days a week, James has a smile for every visitor. The Garden spotlights James for

his support, enthusiasm and that welcoming smile.

June: Janet Cantrelle

As retirement loomed, Janet Cantrelle knew she needed a plan of action. “I need to stay busy!” So, a year before retiring from Delta’s computer services department, this long-time Garden member took the Discovery training, only to be too intimidated by all there was to learn while

still working fulltime. Not deterred, Janet opted to sign on at that time as a GEM and for special projects like clean-ing Chihuly glass. Last year, after closing the door on her

career, Janet again took Discovery training and added that role to her many Garden volunteer duties. The Gar-

den thanks Janet for making it part of her retirement plan!

August: Denise Siegel Denise and her husband came to our city from NJ in

2012, at the urging of their Atlanta daughter who gave Denise not only a grandchild but also a Garden member-ship, hoping it would ease the transition. It certainly did! Soon Denise signed up for docent training and found it interesting and fun...and a wonderful way to meet new

friends and find a niche in their new city. Tours and other projects keep her at the Garden at least two days a week

these days, and her now 5-year-old granddaughter is convinced that this is her garden. Indeed! Thanks, Denise, for making the Garden your new backyard!

What’s Growing in Gainesville By Wanda Cannon, Gainesville Education and Volunteer Coordinator Our summer exhibit “Ribbit the Exhibit” was en-joyed by visitors of all ages. The creative displays of copper frogs provided an enticing stage for all to partici-pate in with fun scavenger hunts and “Discovery” frog games and carts. Opening day in April provided many fun opportunities for volunteers to participate in the ex-hibit that lasted through mid-July. Soon the season will bring its changes. Fall is here at the Gainesville Garden and it promises to lure visitors in with the changing autumn colors. Volunteer opportuni-ties will abound with our many events and festivals planned through the end of the year. The Gainesville Garden hosted the last concert September 30, featuring Taj Mahal and Keb Mo under the evening stars. October ushers in a full month filled with of seasonal events. The Garden will host its first fall plant sale open to members and then to the public starting Friday, October 6. This will coincide with the Garden’s Saturday, October 7 Fall Woodland Ramble Arts & Crafts Market. The Garden’s first Scarecrow in the Garden event will be a smaller version of the Atlanta Garden’s annual event and will display an array of fun, whimsical scare-crows scattered along the Garden’s pathway. This will take place through the month of October. A new event to the Gainesville Garden this year will be our first Goblins in the Garden, Sunday, October 22 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Children will have an opportuni-ty to wear their Halloween costumes and parade across a “costume runway.” Family activities planned that day will include a children’s magician performance, storytell-ing and special Halloween crafts. Our popular monthly Wine in the Woodlands will continue through October with light bites and entertain-ment. Adult fall classes began in September and wrap in early November. Check the website for our classes ranging from Beekeeping, a Tai Chi series and two painting classes using pastels and acrylics. December will host a winter children’s performance “Queen Snowflake”, Saturday, December 2 at 11 a.m. followed by our first “Breakfast with Santa” scheduled for Saturday, December 9 starting at 9:30 a.m. Thanks as always to our many wonderful Gaines-ville volunteers who share their time, talent and skills in the many opportunities that abound through the warmer months into the fall. The Garden is proud and apprecia-tive of all that you do! See you in the Garden soon!

Volunteers have been getting ready for the plant sale October 6 and 7. We will no longer be manning a booth at the Hall County Master Gardener Expo but are doing our own sale on the event lawn in con-junction with the Fall Ramble. We will have over 50 different plants, even more plants than we had at the Expo. They will be plants that can be seen on dis-play in the Garden. Many are favorites, and some are unusual and hard to find. We have been busy potting up and looking forward to hosting the sale on our own turf (literally!).

As always we have been weeding and cutting back. Maintenance has kept us pretty busy over the sum-mer. The Garden has really matured over the last two years. We have greeted lots and lots of first time visitors during the summer heat and we trust they will be back when it’s cooler! Wine in the Wood-lands has consistently been well attended, and visitors really enjoy it.

We survived Irma, lost some large trees, but nothing crucial. We started cleaning up a couple of days lat-er. It will be a long process cleaning up branches and leaves, but we are getting there. Right after Irma passed by, there were quite a few visitors, some with a bad case of “cabin fever”. I think that ailment af-fected volunteers as well.

This is a great place to volunteer. We are a dedicat-ed and fun-loving bunch and are always anxious to help our great staff. It is rewarding whether you are tending to people or plants. Come see us sometime this fall!

News from the Volunteers at

Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville

By Diane Korzeniewski

Docent

Doings

By Rick Fritz

2017 Docent Chair

One of the first topics I like to discuss when starting a tour is the beauty and efficiency of our Hardin Visitor Center. Proudly, we are taught to describe the environmental design of our building, with its three green roofs, low-energy light fixtures, regionally manufac-tured construction materials, and the rainwater capture system. These and other fea-tures, taken together, represent our Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified Gold building. Our building was certified under the LEED 2009 criteria. There are 100 possible base points distributed across six credit categories. There are four levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Gold certification re-quires from 60 to 79 points. The LEED 2009 performance credit system aims to allo-cate points “based on the potential environmental impacts and human benefits of each credit.” Decorating this environmental wonder is the sparkling Nepenthes Chandelier by artist Dale Chihuly.

Yes, the Hardin Visitor Center is a great place to launch a garden tour. The LEED cer-tification represents an important recognition of the relationship between the natural environment and the built environment. But what if a building was designed and con-structed to function as elegantly and efficiently as a flower? This building would be informed by its bioregion’s characteristics, generating all of its own energy with renew-able resources, capturing and treating all of its water, and operating efficiently with maximum beauty. Indeed, this is the Living Building Challenge from the International Living Future Institute. Think of the LEED certification process as providing a blueprint and incentives to reduce the negative impact of the built environment on the natural environment. However, the Living Building Challenge goes further to provide a blue-print and incentives for the built environment to have positive regenerative impacts on the natural environment.

Fortunately, we have a neighbor across town who is taking up the Living Building Chal-lenge: Georgia Tech. The Kendeda Fund has committed to invest $25 million over the next several years to privately fund 100 percent of the design and construction cost of the Living Building project on the Georgia Tech campus. The Kendeda Fund will add $5 million to support programming activities. The anticipated groundbreaking is the fall of 2017, with occupancy slated for 2018.

There are too many details to cover in this article, but one simple example of what is required for a fully certified Living Building should help you understand how a building can give back to the natural environment. One hundred and five percent of the build-ing’s energy needs must be supplied by on-site renewable energy on a net annual basis, without the use of combustion. There are other criteria in addition that cover location, water conservation, construction materials, and a few other categories. Adherence to the building standards is just a part of the challenge. The Living Build-ings are to serve as a catalyst to help reshape how we think about our built environ-ment. Thus, one of the primary objectives is to ensure that the Georgia Tech project is replicable, in terms of cost, materials, and technologies, so that others in the Southeast will be able to learn from this project and build their own Living Buildings. If you are curious and want more information, visit livingbuilding.gatech.edu.

Plan Ahead for 2018

Children’s Tour Docent Training

Wednesdays,

January 17 – February 28, 2018 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

If you enjoy teaching children but don’t want to grade papers, then

you should become a Garden Do-cent! This extensive seven week course will cover each of the chil-dren’s tours for grades K-12. No

previous gardening, horticulture or guide experience is needed. At-tendance is required at all seven classes, and you must commit to leading at least two tours a month during peak seasons. The docent group, in addition to leading tours,

enjoys monthly lunch meetings and field trips to other cultural in-

stitutions and public gardens.

Contact Volunteer Manager Josh Todd at 404-591-1548 or

jtodd@atlantabg.org for details.

Garden Lights, Holiday Nights

Volunteer Training

Thursday, November 2 6:30-8:30 p.m.

This training will cover all of the

information needed to spread holi-day cheer during the 7th annual Garden Lights, Holiday Nights as you help greet and direct visi-

tors, roast marshmallows and take pictures for guests. Seasoned vol-unteers who have participated in Garden Lights in past years are

not required to attend. New volun-teers are encouraged to attend.

Meet the Staff:

Emily Saccenti Exhibits Project Manager

By Josh Todd Emily Saccenti is the Garden’s new Exhibits Project Manager. As always tends to be the case at the Garden, she is starting her new position and thrown right into the fire in the midst of the Curious Garden, Scarecrows and Garden Lights!

Emily has lived all over the Southeast but comes to us most recently after a twelve year stay in Los Angeles. Moving to Peachtree City in April with her husband and two children, Emily began working at the Garden in August.

In Los Angeles, she worked on exhibitions at the L.A. County Museum of Art for nine years. There, she coor-dinated installation schedules, art shipping, loan contacts and traveling exhibitions, along with managing a staff of exhibition registrars for upwards of 30 exhibitions a year. “My favorite over the years,” Emily explains, “was probably In Wonderland – an exhibition of women surrealist artists. It included a lot of Frida Kahlo’s work.” Emily brings a wealth of knowledge and work experience to the Garden’s Exhibits Project Manager role.

Overseeing the Scarecrow in the Garden exhibit, Emily and exhibits technician Ariel received the 100+ works of fall fun in late September and worked with the horticulture staff to have them placed throughout the Southern Seasons and Children’s Gardens in early October. The Scarecrow exhibit opened on Wednesday, October 4, with the Scarecrow Competition Winners announced at the first Fest of Ale on Thursday, October 5.

Simultaneously, she will organize the take-down of Curious Garden at the end of the exhibit run in October. Primary responsibilities include scheduling vendors to remove different elements, making sure all of the nec-essary equipment is on hand, and deciding which exhibit features to save for future use, like the chandeliers in the Orchid Center.

As we all know, Garden Lights, Holiday Nights is a huge project, and we had installation start in August. Emily oversees the day to day schedule and manages the companies installing the show. “Garden Lights opens to the public on Saturday, November 11, but I’ll have it ready by November 8 for the Volunteer Pre-view,” she promises!

“I’ve already met quite a few volunteers helping with Garden Lights at the warehouse and receiving the scare-crows for fall. I can imagine having volunteers help with many exhibits-related projects over the course of the year and look forward to meeting everyone who has such a vested interested in the Garden.”

“There’s not much time for hobbies at the moment with the recent move, new job, and a husband and two young children at home,” Emily laughs. “But I do enjoy getting my kids outside to the playground and try to find time for brunch with friends when I can. I am taking recommendations for good weekend brunch restau-rants if anyone has them!”

Stop by to say hello and welcome Emily next time you’re at the Garden. You’ll find her among the Scarecrows and Lights for the next month. And pass along your favorite brunch places when you see her!

“I’m looking forward to meeting

many more volunteers as the year

goes on. Stop by and say hello!”

Scarecrows are in the garden!

Many thanks to the volunteers who helped Emily and Ariel with this annual fall event! Pictured below are just a sample of the 100-plus incredibly creative scarecrows that

now dot the Southern Seasons Garden and the Children’s Garden. Visit during the month of October and see if you can choose your favorite!

Photos by Josh Todd

The Atlanta Botanical Garden Flower Show

Debuting February 22-25, the Flower Show is bound to be a stunner, showcasing the best of floral design, horticulture and photography. The idea came from one of the Garden’s lifetime trustees, Mary Wayne Dixon; she has been involved here for decades and is credited with some of the best ideas, including the Gardens for Connoisseurs Tour. The Show is not a revival of the Southeastern Flower Show but rather a brand new show that will be presented by the Atlanta Botanical Garden and its dedi-cated volunteers. Our chair is Mary Katherine Greene, a dynamo of or-ganization and enthusiasm, and she has brought to the table a cadre of similar volunteers, all working to make this opening Flower Show one of the best ever. When asked “Why bring a flower show to the Garden?” I answer, “Why not?” We have the facilities, stability and team to succeed with an annual show and to show-case and celebrate the talent of Atlanta’s floral designers, photographers and horticultural whizzes. I’m so excited to see the entries that people from garden clubs and other parts of our community submit for this competitive show. And what a perfect time to have a show - we can blow your winter blues away with color, flowers and creativity. I also love that the show coincides with Orchid Daze; that just adds one more beautiful experience for the thousands of guests who will be here to see the Flower Show!

The Nourish & Flourish Campaign

I’m relieved to say that we only have $400,000 left to raise in this extraordinary $53M campaign. Once again, Atlanta’s generous philanthropic community supported the many won-derful and important projects in the campaign to help us achieve our goal of serving visitors and the community at the highest level. The last project opened in May of this year - the highly acclaimed Skyline Garden, and I know our volun-teers have all enjoyed the bedazzling Lou Glenn Children’s Garden and sublime Gardens of Storza. Though the fundraising is almost complete, the capital projects are still ongoing. We are currently in design mode with Smith Dalia, a local and talented architecture firm, working on the new Center for Southeastern Conservation. It will be a new wing on the Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Orchid Center providing much needed space for research and training. The new wing will provide new open studio space for our horticulture and conservation departments. Our dedicated staff have put up with close quarters for a long time, working in offices that fall short of what they deserve and need. I am excited that this project will provide them with new offices, better light, and the entire building realigns spaces for efficiency. Our Orchid Center staff, for instance, will have office

Notes From Mary Pat

Insights from Mary Pat Matheson

The Ann and Hays Mershon President & CEO

“Digging In” is published for the volunteers of the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Editor: Susan Wood Writers: Wanda Cannon, Rick Fritz, Diane Korzeniewski, Mary Pat Matheson, Josh Todd, Susan Wood

space adjacent to the Orchid Center and delivery area with a private hallway for transporting plants. That may not sound important, but for our staff it’s transformational as they will not have to move plants and avoid visi-tors in the same narrow corridor, as they do now. The building also has new lab space for the conservation team as well as interns and students working in our expanding training program. The tissue culture lab will be a bit larger and will, once again, provide an excellent interpretive opportunity to tell our visitors about the Gar-den’s important conservation work. In addition, we are finalizing designs for a new Children’s Garden in Gainesville and plan to break ground sometime next year. We all know how important a Children’s Garden is to our visitors and members, so it’s exciting to know we will be able to offer that enriching expe-rience to guests visiting our Gainesville Garden. The last project in this remarkable campaign will be an addition to Mershon Hall, providing easier access for school children’s tours, enhanced restrooms and a gracious entry for our children. I look back on what we’ve accomplished over the last three years and am in awe – from the new roof of the Conservatory to the new Skyline Garden, Garden-house expansion and Longleaf Restaurant, we have nourished existing facilities and added new flourishes to serve our guests. I can’t wait to see the rest completed! In clos-ing, something like this truly “takes a village” so I want to pay tribute to the staff members who have partici-pated in the planning, design, construction, campaign, and the openings that we’ve held over the last three years. They are the ones who made these incredible projects come to life. With them, we paired talented designers and contractors who understood the importance of quality work. I want to express my thanks to them all and remind them that “there is more ahead!” Special recognition goes to our COO, Art Fix, who has served as project manager for every element in the campaign, all while fulfilling his duties as Chief Operating Officer. Best regards, Mary Pat