Welcome to the
Illustrated Lectures
of The Wild Gardener-

Peter Loewer has written over thirty books on gardening and natural history, including the award-winning "The Wild Gardener" and "Thoreau's Garden." He is also a well-known and honored botanical illustrator. Loewer lives in Asheville and gardens on the shores of Lake Kenilworth, working on an acre of land featuring natural trails and a formal perennial garden. Many of the rare and more unusual plants in his garden are grown from seed, usually supplied by membership in the American Rock Garden Society, the Royal Horticultural Society in London, and from trading with other gardeners.

Last year Timber Press re-released his classic book on night-blooming and night-fragrant plants, "The Evening Garden." His latest books are "Native Perennials for the Southeast," "North Carolina Gardens," and "Loves Me, Loves Me Not." He has a radio show on Public Radio in North Carolina called "The Wild Gardener" and he is the Contributing Editor to the magazine, "Carolina Gardener."

Peter Loewer/P.O. Box 5039/Biltmore Station/Asheville, NC 28813 [828-252-9143]

Illustrated Lectures--

Native Perennials for the Southeast: Here's a program based on one of the best books ever put together that deals with native plants, including great (and stunning) photo shots, valuable (and I guarantee interesting) information dealing with making a garden of native perennial plants, and the excitement needed to turn a garden corner and begin you new approach to getting the best that WNC soil and weather can support!

Loves Me, Loves Me Not: A talk based on my newest book, all about the secret language of flowers, first developed by women of a Turkish harem back in the 1600s. A jealous sultan forbade the ladies to learn anything about reading or writing so they resorted to a secret language of trading flowers. Each flower held a different meaning and cleverness won out in the end. Then in the mid-1800s, the more romantic Victorians pickup up the definitions and you can guess the rest. Illustrated with fifty slides of the author's orignal artwork for the book.

The Evening Garden: An evening with night-blooming and night-fragrant plants, based on the book, The Evening Garden (New York: Macmillan, 1993). Today most people have forgotten that the human eye has limited night vision or never realize there is no color under the light of the moon. These fascinating topics plus dozens of plants——ranging from the night-blooming cereus to the tropical water lilies——are featured. Illustrated with eighty color slides. The book was reprinted in Spring, 2002 by Timber Press.

Creating an Italian Garden: The author developed this lecture for the 2006 Southeastern Flower Show held in Atlanta this past February. Using slides taken at many classic gardens and images taken of gardens in pursuit of the Italian Style, Loewer shows the number of ideas available to gardeners for advancing the Italian idea squeezed between the marigolds and the zinnias. Illustrated with 80 images.

Native Perennials for the Southeast: Based on his latest book published by Coolsprings Press, Loewer illustrates the amazing number of perennial wildflowers, vines, bog and water plants, ferns, and a few trees, that are perfect for filling a backyard garden with flowers and foliage from the earliest days of spring to the far-flung days of fall, and all without the necessary upkeep needed for the promotion exotic perennials from the rest of the world. Illustrated with 80 images.

Murder from the Garden: The author reviews movies for National Public Radio in Asheville and over the years has gathered a great deal of information on the connection between movie monsters and flowers, plus all those plants used by mystery writers to dispatch their victims. This is a lighthearted look at this popular part of world culture. Illustrated with eighty slides.

The Gardens of Southern England: Based on a trip through English gardens in 1994, this lecture features, among others, visits to Sissinghurst, Stourhead, Great Dixter, Sheffield Park, St. Michael's Mount, Trewithen, and Castle Drogo. The author personally knows the gardeners at The Garden House (one of the most beautiful gardens in all of England), Hever Castle, and Forde Abbey and recounts personal remembrances. Illustrated with 150 color slides.

The Gardens of Northern Scotland: Based on a tour led the past summer (2001) of Scottish gardens ranging from the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens (staggering!) to Crathes Garden (sublime!) to Inverewe (unbelievable!), in order to find that English gardens leave much to be desired. Illustrated with 140 color slides.

The New Small Garden: All about creating new and unusual gardens on modest plots of land. This lecture is tailored for the gardener with a small amount of space or even limited to a wooden deck at a condominium. It is illustrated with pictures of real gardens, including many shots of the author's own garden rooms. Illustrated with eighty color slides. A great deal is based on the book The New Small Garden (Harrisburg: Stackpole Books, 1994). Illustrated with eighty color slides.

The Wild Gardener: For many years, the author has written and talked about the use of wild plants in the home garden plus a great deal of lore about their uses in medicine. Based on the book of the same name (The Wild Gardener, Stackpole, 1991), a number of rare, common, and unusual plants are covered. Illustrated with eighty color slides.

Art in the Garden: Using a talk originally prepared for the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the author covers the history of botanical art from its beginnings in Ancient Egypt right up to today's artists, ranging from Van Gogh's little-known flower paintings to the great botanical artists of the seventeenth century right up to the buttercups of Lucian Freud. Illustrated with 120 color slides.

Unusual Plants from Seed:There are dozens of organizations in the horticultural world that have seed exchanges. For example, the Hardy Plant Society, the Alpine Garden Society, and the American Rock Garden Society all distribute thousands of unusual plants every year using seed collected around the world. This lecture gets you started and gives you the sources. Illustrated by eighty color slides. Features material in the 1996 Macmillan book Seeds: A Definitive Guide to Growing, History, and Lore, to be republished by Timber Press in 2004.

Ornamental Grasses for the Southeast: For February 2004, Cool Springs Press is publishing my new book on grasses. In 1973, I wrote the first book in America on ornamental grasses. This lecture, let's the gardener know just how useful and beautiful these plants can be, especially in the Southeast and includes much information on growing grasses in Southern Florida. Illustrated with eighty color slides.

Jefferson’s Garden: Published in late February by Stackpole Books, “Jefferson’s Garden” deals with Jefferson as a landscape architect, an avid horticulturist, and a fevered gardener. This book is illustrated with line drawings of the various plants, shrubs, and trees, singled out as among his favorites and the story behind their arrival at Monticello. Illustrated with eighty slides.

Gardening in Containers: Lot’s of folks are moving to smaller houses and condominiums where gardening space is often at a premium. This lecture shows how anything from trees to flowers to veggies can be grown in containers on the patio, the prescribed deck, or even in a bright window. Illustrated with eighty slides.