Oct 14, 2015
Atlanta History Center
130 W. Paces Ferry Road NW
Atlanta, GA

“When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow but the gardeners themselves.”  – Ken Druse

To celebrate the Cherokee Garden Library’s 40th anniversary, the Garden Library hosts gardening superstar, Ken Druse.

Called “the guru of natural gardening” by The New York Times, Ken Druse is a celebrated lecturer, photographer, and author. He has a dynamic weekly radio show and podcast called “Ken Druse—The Real Dirt” (www.kendruse.typepad.com), and he writes frequently for the The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, House Beautiful, and many others publications.

Ken Druse is best known for his eighteen engaging gardening books. With the tremendous success of his books, including The Natural Garden, The Natural Shade Garden, The Natural Habitat Garden, The Collector’s Garden, Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation, The Passion for Gardening, and Planthropology, Ken Druse is America’s best-loved gardener. Making More Plants is a bestseller and winner of The American Horticultural Society’s 2001 “Best Book of the Year” and the Garden Writers Association of America’s 2001 “Award of the Year,” its highest honor. The American Horticultural Society listed The Natural Habitat Garden among the best books of all times. His groundbreaking book, The Natural Garden, initiated a design movement that continues to grow in popularity today. An organic gardener, writer, photographer, designer, and naturalist, Ken Druse’s passion is to inspire and empower others to make gardening part of a balanced life, and to enhance their community through taking care of their piece of the earth. In The Passion for Gardening, Druse writes: “Tending the soil with busy hands sets the mind free to dream and can soothe the spirit like no other pursuit.” His most recent work, The New Shade Garden: Creating a Lush Oasis in the Age of Climate Change, is receiving rave reviews.

Due to the exceptional artistic quality of his photography, the Archives of American Gardens at The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, acquired the Ken Druse Garden Photography Collection in fall 2013. This extensive photographic collection of garden and plant images includes several thousand transparencies and slides documenting over 300 gardens across the United States. Druse captured these stunning images to illustrate his books, newspaper, and magazine articles for publications, like The New York Times and House & Garden, and to post on his own blog.

Ken Druse’s 2012 hit is Natural Companions: The Garden Lover’s Guide to Plant Combinations. In Natural Companions, Druse presents recipes for perfect plant pairings using diverse species that look great together and bloom at the same time. Natural Companions features more than one hundred special botanical images of amazing depth and color. This is a book all garden lovers must have.

Communicating the pleasures and importance of the natural world is always Druse’s main emphasis. Through his books, lectures, and weekly radio show and podcasts, Druse calls attention to the world of plants that surround us, sustain us, and lift our spirits. In The Roots of My Obsession: Thirty Great Gardeners Reveal Why They Garden, he shares a sentiment of all true dirt gardeners: “The only way to avoid the pangs of withdrawal from an addiction like gardening is to garden more. This is one habit I have no intention of breaking.”

Time: 7 pm

Tickets: Individual tickets are $25 // Patron levels are $250 (2 tickets), $500 (2 tickets) and $1,000 (4 tickets).

Support: We would like to thank our generous lead sponsor, The Cherokee Garden Club Community Fund, as well as flower Magazine for providing additional support.