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Bill recently retired as President and Executive Director of Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Sonoma Valley. Internationally renowned for his work, Bill has been affiliated with Quarryhill Botanical Garden since its inception. He is one of a small and distinguished group of Americans who have been honored with the top three prestigious awards in the field of Horticulture — the Veitch Memorial Medal from England’s Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award from the American Horticultural Society (AHS), and the Arthur Hoyt Scott Medal from the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College. He is the recipient of the Garden Club of America’s (GCA) esteemed Eloise Payne Luquer Medal and, this year, was named an honorary member of the GCA, a coveted distinction that was acknowledged this August by the Sonoma County Supervisors with their Gold Resolution honor for Bill. Other awards include the California Horticulture Society annual award and the Award of Excellence from the National Garden Clubs.
The General Meeting begins at 11:45 a.m. and ends at 1:30 p.m.
Non-members pay $10 at each meeting. Go to the check-in table in the Telle Building across from the main building to pay the fee, then enjoy some snacks before the teaching sessions begin.
Photos from Quarryhill Botanical Garden
A resurgence of interest began again in the 1980s with several expeditions to remote regions of China. Along with horticulturists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Howick Arboretum, and others, Bill has botanized extensively in the wilds of Asia. For the past thirty-one years, he has ventured into the mountains of China, Japan, India, Nepal, Vietnam and Myanmar in search of plants.
February 13, 2020
PROGRAM
Speaker: William A. McNamera
Bringing Ornamentals from
the Mountains to Your Garden:
Plant Hunters, Botanists and
Botanical Gardens
Novel ornamentals from another country/region have always stirred excitement among gardeners. Historically, plant hunters from Europe began searching areas of China for new ornamentals for nurseries and wealthy patrons.
Growing up on a family farm in Southwest Iowa, Nancy could not help but be interested in plants and animals. She helped her grandmother and mother plant their vegetable and flower gardens and her father planting much larger crops. Nancy first experienced daffodils with historic varieties like “King Alfred” which were frequently found at the local Farm Supply store.
Nancy has a BS degree in Computer Information Systems and worked with a variety of computers and projects. She managed highly skilled computer engineers and scientists for both government and commercial projects. Her knowledge of technical issues and ability to coordinate many people was key to the development of a set of daffodil tools for use on the Internet. The most popular of these is DaffSeek.org which is a cultivar database with photos, pedigree trees, and information about more than 32,000 named daffodils.
For this effort, Nancy and her husband Ben, have been honored by being recipients of the Royal Horticultural Society Peter Barr Cup “for doing something good for daffodils”; honorary Vice Presidents of Great Britain’s Daffodil Society; life memberships to the National Daffodil Society of New Zealand, as well as the Gold and Silver medals from the American Daffodil Society.
We enjoy the many friends we have made around the world. One special memory is the “Daffodil Species Safari” where we traveled throughout Spain and part of France with special friends, who are species experts, to document and photograph species varieties.
Today, Nancy is President of the American Daffodil Society and also serves on the Northern California Daffodil Society Board of Directors. She grows her daffodils in the East Bay on a steep yard in Martinez. Many of her daffodils are grown in pots, especially her collection of miniature daffodils.
February 13, 2020
LEARN and GROW
10:15am–11:15am
Speaker:
Nancy Tacket
NorCal
Daffodil
Society
Next General Meeting:
February 13th