Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Robert Mallet Caps Off the Winter Lecture Series with “Gardens of Meaning”

Posted in Adult Education on March 5 2015, by Lynden B. Miller

Lynden B. Miller is a public garden designer who rescued and restored the Conservatory Garden in Central Park and went on create many other public gardens in New York including our Perennial Garden and Ladies’ Border at NYBG.


Robert Mikayke Robert Mallet
Robert Mallet © Robert Mikayke

The 2015 Winter Lecture Series concludes this month with Robert Mallet, director of the world’s largest hydrangea collection, presenting Gardens of Meaning. We asked renowned garden designer and historian Lynden B. Miller to tell us just how important the French plantsman’s work is for garden designers. Here’s what she told Plant Talk.

It is very exciting to have Robert Mallet coming to speak to us at NYBG on March 19. He is a great plantsman and designer. One of the first French horticulturists to promote the use of ornamental shrubs and perennials beginning in the 1980’s, he was also one of the founders of Courson, the great and very popular French biennial horticultural event (the French equivalent of the Chelsea Flower Show). His family’s house and garden in Normandy, Les Bois des Moutiers, is spectacular and—with an amazing collection of great plants—not to be missed on any garden trip to France.

His trip is very special to me as he is one of my dearest friends and we share a passion for Hydrangeas. I know he will tell you about Shamrock, his fascinating and beautiful collection of that genus. Do come to hear him.

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