Adkins Arboretum has announced a series of botanical art programs taught by artists Lee D’Zmura, Anna Harding and Kelly Sverduk. Through drawing and painting, the series engages both beginning and experienced artists in capturing the details of the natural world. Programs include:

Botanical Art Open Studio
Second Friday of the month, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
A class for people who have previously studied and created botanical art at any level, the Open Studio with Anna Harding provides an opportunity to work in the presence of others who are working on a piece or are ready to begin a new project. Critique and guidance are offered, and a new topic or technique will be presented during each session.

Botanical Drawing I
Fri., Feb. 18 and 25, March 4, 18 and 25, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
Led by Lee D’Zmura, this introduction to botanical drawing focuses on developing the skills and techniques needed to capture the essence of flowers, fruits, pods and leaves. Each student will produce a detailed botanical study in pencil.

Illustrated Phenology Wheel
Fri., April 1 and 15, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

A circular calendar used for recording observations of the natural world, a phenology wheel can focus on a particular area or chart the growth and habits of plants and animals throughout the year. Participants will complete a sample wheel with instructor Kelly Sverduk and then set up a fresh one to complete in the months ahead.

A graphite and watercolor study of a native pawpaw flower by botanical artist Kelly Sverduk.

Introduction to Watercolor
Fri., April 22 and 29, May 20 and 27, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

Water is a versatile and expressive medium but can be intimidating at first. This class with Kelly Sverduk will focus on proper technique: brush handling, control of water, mixing colors using a limited palette and achieving gradients and textures with washes and layering.

Botanical Drawing II
Fri., Sept 30, Oct. 7, 21 and 28, Nov. 4, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
In drawing, light and shade communicate the three-dimensionality of a plant, with highlights and shadows introducing depth and form. This series taught by Lee D’Zmura emphasizes the principles of light and shadow and techniques for adding tonal shading to graphite drawing. Prerequisite: Botanical Drawing I.

Watercolor Wreath
Fri., Nov. 18, 10 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

Paint a decorative watercolor wreath featuring some of the Arboretum’s evergreens. This workshop with Kelly Sverduk will cover some watercolor basics, so it is suitable both for students who may be new to watercolor and those with more experience.

Program fees vary. Enrollment is limited, and advance registration is required. Materials lists will be made available for all participants in advance of the class. Register at adkinsarboretum.org or by calling 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

D’Zmura is an award-winning botanical artist whose experience as a landscape architect enriches her watercolors. An artist with work in collections throughout the country, she earned her certificate in botanical art from the Brookside Gardens School of Botanical Art and Illustration. She maintains a studio in St. Michaels, Md., where she draws inspiration from her neighbors’ gardens and from the native wildflowers of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Harding has studied botanical art with teachers around the country and works on paper and drafting film with colored pencils and graphite. She maintains a studio at her kitchen table.

Sverduk specializes in watercolor and is passionate about making and teaching art. With a background in both art and natural sciences, she finds the field of botanical illustration to perfectly mesh her interests. Sverduk holds a B.A. in studio art from Messiah College and a certificate in botanical art from the Brookside Gardens School of Botanical Art and Illustration. She lives with her family in Greenwood, Del.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Blue mistflower (Eupatorium coelestinum). Photo by Kellen McCluskey.

Prepare for fall in the garden! Adkins Arboretum, offering the Chesapeake gardener the best selection of landscape-ready native plants for more than two decades, announces its Fall Native Plant Sale. All proceeds benefit the Arboretum’s rich catalog of education programs that teach about the Delmarva’s native plants and their connection to a healthy Chesapeake Bay.

To ensure the best-quality plants, sales will be conducted entirely online. Orders will be accepted through Tues., Aug. 17 at adkinsarboretum.org and will be fulfilled via timed, scheduled pickup in mid-September. There will be no in-person shopping at the Arboretum.

Fall is the best season for planting, and the Arboretum offers the Chesapeake region’s largest selection of ornamental native trees, shrubs, perennials, ferns and grasses for the fall landscape. Many native plants produce seeds, flowers and fruit in fall that attract migratory birds and butterflies. Brilliant orange butterfly weed and stunning red cardinal flower attract pollinators to the garden, while native asters add subtle shades of purple and blue. Redbud and dogwood dot the early-spring landscape with color, and shrubs such as chokeberry and beautyberry provide food and habitat for wildlife.

As always, Arboretum members receive a generous discount on plants that varies according to membership level. To join, renew your membership or give an Arboretum membership as a gift, visit adkinsarboretum.org or contact Kellen McCluskey at [email protected].

For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org, send email to [email protected] or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org.

Prepare for spring in the garden! Adkins Arboretum, offering the Chesapeake gardener the best selection of landscape-ready native plants for more than two decades, announces its Spring Native Plant Sale. All proceeds benefit the Arboretum’s rich variety of education programs, scheduled to resume later this year, that teach about the Delmarva’s native plants and their connection to a healthy Chesapeake Bay.

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). Photo by Kellen McCluskey.

Due to ongoing recommendations regarding COVID-19, the spring sale will be conducted entirely online. Orders will be accepted through Thurs., April 8 at adkinsarboretum.org and will be fulfilled via timed pickup. There will be no in-person shopping at the Arboretum.

Plants for sale include a large variety of native perennials, ferns, vines, grasses and flowering trees and shrubs for spring planting. Native flowers and trees provide food and habitat for wildlife and make colorful additions to home landscapes, whether in a perennial border, a woodland garden or a restoration project. Native honeysuckle entices hummingbirds, while tall spikes of purplish flowers grace blue wild indigo. Milkweed provides critical energy for monarch butterflies on their winter migration to Mexico, and native azaleas present a veritable rainbow of colorful blooms.

As always, Arboretum members receive a generous discount on plants that varies according to membership level. To join, renew your membership or give an Arboretum membership as a gift, visit adkinsarboretum.org or contact Kellen McCluskey at [email protected].

For more information on plants, purchasing or pickup procedures, visit adkinsarboretum.org, send email to [email protected] or leave a message at 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org.

2020 Yarnstorming. Credit: Kellen McCluskey.

Yarnstorming is back! For the second year running, Adkins Arboretum is partnering with local yarn artists and the Fiber Arts Center of the Eastern Shore (FACES) to create a whimsical and exciting visual experience in the trees around the Arboretum Visitor’s Center.

Also known as yarn bombing, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting and graffiti knitting, yarnstorming is an art form that employs knitted or crocheted yarn in place of paint or chalk. Fiber artists, both veterans and those new to yarn art, will adorn native trees with everything from pompoms to needle felted animals to branch and trunk wraps and hammocks for woodland creatures.

Yarnstorming creations will be on display March 6 through April 3 at the Arboretum, located near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. The public is invited to view the exhibit daily from dawn to dusk. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Located in Denton, the Fiber Arts Center of the Eastern Shore is a destination for the area’s many quilt and fiber art enthusiasts, visitors, and residents to view historic and recent works by quilters and fiber artists from Maryland’s Eastern Shore and Delmarva Peninsula. For more information, visit fiberartscenter.com or call 410-479-0009.

Adkins Arboretum has been awarded a Maryland Humanities grant to develop an Indigenous Peoples Perspective program in partnership with Washington College’s Eastern Shore Food Lab (ESFL). The program will employ digital resources in the forms of web profiles, videos and self-guided activities to explore the importance of 21 native plants to the food, craftwork and medicinal traditions of indigenous peoples of the Chesapeake region.

Milkweed (Photo credit: Kellen McCluskey/Adkins Arboretum)

A native garden and plant preserve located in Caroline County, Adkins Arboretum is the only public garden that focuses solely on plants native to the mid-Atlantic coastal plain. Its 400 acres of diverse habitat support more than 600 species of native shrubs, trees, wildflowers, grasses, ferns and vines.

The ESFL at Washington College optimizes personal and community health by drawing upon the dietary past that built us as a species. The Food Lab works to strengthen the ties between environment, society, family and ourselves while addressing issues of sustainability, food access, and dietary and social health. The Arboretum and ESFL have partnered previously to offer foraging walks.

The project seeks to encourage a paradigm shift from land as capital to land as sacred teacher, healer and sustainer. The Arboretum is located in the traditional homeland of the Choptank People, Algonquin-speaking Woodland Indians who lived along the lower Choptank River basin. Before European settlers arrived in the early 1600s, there were approximately 20,000 Choptank living on the Eastern Shore. Less than 150 years later, these native people were driven to near-extinction by illness, fighting and forced migration.

According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, “Tens of thousands of people who identify as American Indian live in the Chesapeake region today. Some belong to state- or federally recognized tribes, others belong to groups with a shared heritage and many others celebrate their ancestry through their immediate family.”

Native American expert Daniel “Firehawk” Abbott will serve as a consultant on the project. A member of the Eastern Shore’s Nanticoke People, Abbott is the principal Native American prehistoric/historic interpreter at Historic Jamestowne Island. While serving on the Board of Directors of the Nanticoke Historic Preservation Alliance, he designed and guided the construction of the Chicone Village at Handsell in Dorchester County. He has partnered with the Arboretum at festivals and on foraging walks.

Through the Indigenous Peoples Perspective project, Adkins Arboretum and ESFL will strive to honor the wisdom of native peoples and their unique relationship with nature by sharing their ecological perspectives, history and traditions. Ultimately, the project seeks to inspire a collective responsibility to shape our future by caring for the land that supports us.

This project was made possible by a grant from Maryland Humanities, with funding received from the Maryland Historical Trust in the Maryland Department of Planning. Maryland Humanities’ Grant Programs is also supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and private funders. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Maryland Humanities, Maryland Historical Trust, Maryland Department of Planning or National Endowment for the Humanities.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.