Another great season of wine tastings and unique conversations is scheduled this summer as the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden kicks off its fifth annual Wine and Cheese Botanic Lecture Series.
Buy a Series Passport and save, or choose individual favorites. Each talk begins with a wine tasting and conversation with a local vintner in the garden’s courtyard with appetizers selected and prepared by sponsor Whole Foods Market. The event continues in the garden’s library where guests gather to hear interesting experts discuss current environmental and scientific issues relevant to our region.
The Wine and Cheese Botanic Lecture Series takes place one Saturday a month, May through September, from 4 to 6 p.m. Steve Windhager, Ph.D., the garden’s executive director, is one of the series’ biggest fans.
“Santa Barbara has a wealth of experts in every field imaginable,” Windhager said. “What makes this series special is our beautiful setting and the mixture of conversations we have about viticulture, botany, and our regional ecology. I learn something new, and taste something new, at every event!”
Buy a passport to all five lectures for the discounted price of $140 and it becomes a passport to the garden all year long, as an individual membership is included with the purchase. Current members pay just $100 for the series passport. Individual lecture tickets can be purchased for $25 for garden members and $35 for nonmembers. Tickets may be purchased online by clicking here or by calling 805.682.4726 x102.
This year’s speakers and wine sponsors are:
May 23: Surprising Facts of Flower Pollination: Unexpected Outcomes and Mechanisms
Speaker: Sherwin Carlquist, Ph.D., Research Botanist, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Winery: Grassini Wines
We enjoy flower colors and sizes, but these patterns are just signals of how particular flowers are adapted for pollination by bees, beetles, flies, birds, butterflies, moths, and wind. We’ll cover peculiar examples such as desert annuals, yucca flowers, and much more, with some amazing photos!
June 20: Botany in the Golden State: The Origin of California’s Floristic Diversity
Speaker: Matt Guilliams, Ken and Shirley Tucker Systematist, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Winery: Andrew Murray Vineyards
The California Floristic Province is world-renowned as a biodiversity hotspot, but how did the state become so diverse? Develop an appreciation for the diversity of California native plants and consider the current explanations for this incredible natural diversity, which allows us to ponder geology, climate, fossils, and even DNA!
July 18: Secrets to Landscaping with California Native Plants
Speaker: Susan Van Atta, Landscape Architect
Wine: Brave & Maiden
In the face of our continuing drought it is still possible to create beautiful, low water use, landscapes if you know the secrets to designing with native plants. Van Atta, author and landscape architect for projects such as the award winning Santa Barbara Bowl, shares her approach to sustainable design, and how to select the right plants for the right spot, for a spectacular effect.
Aug. 22: Dudleya’s Kissing Cousins: Adventures in Baja, California
Speaker: Tom Mulroy, Ph.D.
Wine: Kenneth Volk Vineyards
How do Dudleyas, notorious for their ability to be hybridized in any combination, maintain their distinctness where the ranges of species or subspecies overlap geographically? Tom provides a detailed example in Dudleya brittonii. Discover what ecological functions the waxes might play that give the rosettes of some species their spectacular silvery white appearance.
Sept. 19: True Tales from the Urban Fringe: How People Interact with Parks
Speaker: Christy Brigham, Ph.D., Chief of Planning, Science and Resource Management, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
Wine: Cass Winery
An evening of science storytelling in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area including true tales of why the wrentit won’t cross the road; how our coyotes prefer fruit to cats and dogs; how our endangered microflora is impacted by invasive weeds. Wrap up with ten simple things you can do in your yard to preserve our biodiversity hotspot.
— Rebecca Mordini is the communications coordinator for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.