Articles of note in the Sterling Morton Library : February's offerings

These are some recent articles that can be found within the journal collection of the Sterling Morton Library. Please visit the Library to discover the incredible botanical and horticultural resources that await you! If you are unable to visit the Library and interested in reviewing one of these articles, I would be delighted to help you at rhassert@mortonarb.org.

Boulter, Michael. Darwin’s outdoor laboratory. Gardens Illustrated, no. 146, p. 56-59.
"To mark the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth, Michael Boulter visits the Kent garden where the great naturalist developed his epoch-making theory of evolution."

Andrews, Jenny. A change in the weather : global warming has become a hot-button issue worldwide, but what does it mean in our own backyards? Garden Design, no. 157, p. 74-81.

Davis, Julie Bawden. Violet reaction : native violets have a classic place in the American landscape. Wildflower, v. 25, no. 3, p. 12-19.

Miller-Rushing, Abraham J. and Richard B. Primack. The impact of climate change on the flora of Thoreau’s Concord. Arnoldia, v. 66, no. 3, p. 2-9.

Reas, Lisa. Rain gardens : filter rain water and beautify your yard! Garden Gate, issue 86, p. 6-9.

Tanentzap, A. J. and Bazely, D. R. 2008. Propagule pressure and resource availability determine plant community invasibility in a temperate forest understorey. Oikos, v. 118, no. 2, p. 300-308.

Verhoeven, Koen J.F., Arjen Biere, Jeffrey A. Harvey and Wim H. van der Putten. Plant invaders and their novel natural enemies: who is naive? Ecology Letters, v. 12, no. 2, p. 107-117.

The Grand Adventure of Reading

Participants in Leafing Through the Pages, the book discussion group of the Sterling Morton Library, have recently read and discussed two noteworthy works. In January, we read Kenneth Helphand’s Defiant Gardens : making gardens in wartime and this month we explored Michael Frome’s Strangers in High Places : the story of the Great Smoky Mountains. As you can imagine these were two very different stories and discussions. As disparate as they might seem they also shared some commonalities. Each work focused on individuals with passion and vision who create/preserve precious green spaces.

At the gatherings, additional resources were presented from the collections of the Sterling Morton Library including books and artwork. Additional resources relating to these books can be found at:

Defiant Gardens – the online extension

NPR interview with Helphand

2007 EDRA/Places Award

Michael Frome - text of his 1984 Horace M. Albright Lecture on Conservation presented at Berkeley
Great Smoky Mountains

Interested in joining in an upcoming discussion? Here’s the program for the remainder of 2009:
March 12, 2009 - Dillard, Annie. Teaching a stone to talk : expeditions and encounters, 1982.
April 9, 2009 - Friedman, Thomas. Hot, flat and crowded : why we need a green revolution--and how it can renew America, 2008.
May 14, 2009 - Smith, Carl. The plan of Chicago : Daniel Burnham and the remaking of the American city, 2006.
June 11, 2009 - Ballowe, James. A man of salt and trees : the life of Joy Morton, 2009.
July 9, 2009 - Maloney, Cathy Jean. Chicago gardens : the early history, 2008.
August 13, 2009 - Johnson, Wendy. Gardening at the dragon’s gate : at work in the wild and cultivated world, 2008.
September 10, 2009 - Campanella, Thomas J. Republic of shade : New England and the American elm, 2003.
October 8, 2009 - Koeppel, Dan. Banana : the fate of the fruit that changed the world, 2008.
November 12, 2009 - Kull, Robert. Solitude : seeking wisdom in extremes : a year alone in the Patagonia wilderness, 2008.

December 10, 2009 - Zwinger, Ann. Wind in the rock, 1978.

Hope you will join us for at some future gathering!