Linda Larson

 Best View of Our World  Gardens, large & small, provide destinations all around the globe and exploring the world through gardens is a captivating way to travel.  For every garden there is the story of the gardener who planted the seeds & arranged the ground, there are the homes they built, revealing the social structure of the time and the power & struggle required to make a garden.  Weaving a story of personal travel to over 800 gardens in 31 countries this is a travel adventure that will inspire and give you tips to help you venture on to garden paths. Exploring the world one garden at a time is a captivating way to travel.  This program combines travel adventure and garden stories illustrated with nature’s beauty, curiosities, and wonders.

Potting up Plants

What does your garden have in common with Giverny, the Desert Botanical, Brooklyn Botanical and Alcazar Gardens of Seville Spain?  Flower pots!   Call them what you choose---flowerpots, plant pots, containers or tubs---pots brought our garden plants from all over the world to our own little spot of earth. The pots we find in our gardens today are the result of the evolution of available materials for making pots, plant science andstyle. “Potting up Plants” is an illustrated look back into the history of flower pots, the changing fashions and garden wisdom provided by these vessels.  Beautiful images from gardens of North America and Europe and Australia illustrate the ideas.

The Art of Gardening

Art masterpieces on the walls of great museums and masterpiece gardens throughout the world influence our own backyard gardens. Since Gertrude Jekyll declared that garden making is a fine art equal to painting, gardeners have eagerly used elements of color, line, form and composition. Our gardens become our living artistic creations.  Gardens, like art, affects us, move us, and most importantly touch our emotions. This is why humanity has turned to gardens for conversation, recreation, food and restoration of the spirit. Illustrated with original images from public and private gardens across the U.S, Canada, Australia, Europe, British Isles and Scandinavia. The ideas are sure to delight and inspire listeners to design their own masterpiece garden using five memorable guidelines.


Remarkable Trees

Join me on a journey of remarkable tree encounters in the U.S., Europe, Australia, Africa and Canada. Trees grow older, bigger and stronger than we humans. They feed us, shelter us, amaze us and annoy us.  Throughout human history we celebrate trees in story, song and verse. Trees are often the overlooked, silent backdrop, reaching into the sky with little attention from us, yet without trees there is no us!  An inspiring and life affirming story of the importance of nature in our lives.