This Facebook video created by Lisa Jones of Jefferson County – Alabama Extension – shares details surrounding the beginning and evolution of Grandmother’s Garden at Birmingham Historical Society’s headquarters at Sloss Quarters. Narrated in part by BHS Director, Marjorie White, the video also pays tribute to retiring longtime Urban Regional Jefferson County extension agent, Sallie Lee, as well as master gardener volunteers who have helped plant and maintain the garden since its beginnings fifteen years ago.
Pretty Posies publication principals: artists/illustrators, author and editor, left to right: Gardener, Editor, & BHS Director, Marjorie White; Illustrators, Ellen Erdreich, Sumter Coleman; Herbalist and author, Antonia Viteri; Illustrators, Gail Cosby, Louise McPhillips, and Jane Reed Ross….and Mary Virginia Rushing and her sister sampling the lavender.
Barbara Shores is presiding over the Lemon Balm and Lavender Punch that was a big hit….
Watercolors and books are for sale at the Botanical Gardens Library, $20 and $300 respectively. Thirty-four watercolors are in the exhibit.
Gardeners (with floral hats) Eunice Gray and Marjorie White. Pretty Posies publication principals include artists/illustrators, author & editor, left to right: Marjorie White, Ellen Erdreich, Sumter Coleman, Antonia Viteri, Gail Cosby, Louise McPhillips, and Jane Reed Ross.
Eunie Gray and Marjorie White previewing the exhibit
Eunie Gray and Marjorie White previewing the exhibit
The herbalist/author Antonia Viteri and her sister Esperanza
Herbed biscuits using herbs from Grandmother’s Garden
Barbara Shores serving Lemon Balm and Lavender Punch
Mary Virginia Rushing and her sister sampling the lavender with Jane Reed Ross’s watercolors of the Passion Flower vine/May Pop (that they also enjoyed eating in the garden).
Sunday, October 13, 3–5 p.m.—Garden Party, Publication Celebration, and Exhibit of watercolors from Pretty Posies, Healing Powers–An Herbal Primer by featured artists Sumter Coleman, Gail Cosby, Ellen Erdreich, Louise McPhillips, and Jane Reed Ross, all Birmingham residents. Grandmother’s Garden at Sloss Quarters, 10 North 32nd Street.
October 15–November 30—Watercolors from Pretty Posies, Healing Powers–An Herbal Primer. Birmingham Botanical Gardens Library Gallery. Here’s a preview!
Thirty-four watercolors are included in the exhibit at Botanical Gardens Library and are available for sale at $300/each. Books are available for $20/each. Proceeds benefit the Botanical Gardens and the Birmingham Historical Society.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maria Antonia Viteri, a native of Mobile, has studied Western and Southern Appalachian herbal traditions in Alabama and California. Viteri, a Master Gardener, is also licensed in Architecture and Landscape Design. She currently resides in Sterrett, Alabama.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATORS
Birmingham Historical Society “Artists in the Garden,” all avid gardeners themselves, have been painting en plein air in Grandmother’s Garden for many years. For this volume, they sketched our herbs from specimens and photographs, coordinating their work at lunchtime gatherings at Gail Cosby’s home.
Sumter Coleman is a psychiatrist now retired to her mountain top residence where she writes and paints.
Writer, editor, publicist Gail Cosby now employs her talent as a watercolorist.
Artist and art historian Ellen Erdreich first sketched herbs as a teenager.
Louise McPhillips, an architect by profession, currently specializes in making portraits of her family.
Landscape architect Jane Reed Ross has left her mark on many Birmingham area park and greenway projects.
Birmingham Historical Society 