Giesecke to deliver UD Botanic Gardens talk on 'Mythology of Plants'

1:43 p.m., March 23, 2015--The University of Delaware Botanic Gardens will host Annette Giesecke, professor and interim chair of UD’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, for an illustrated lecture on “The Mythology of Plants: Botanical Lore from Ancient Greece and Rome” from 7-8 p.m., Tuesday, March 24, in the Townsend Hall Commons on South Campus. 

The cost is $15 for UDBG Friends and $20 for nonmembers. 

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University of Delaware graduates planning to attend Alumni Weekend are encouraged to register for the annual Blue Hen 5K walk and run, which will be held Sunday morning, June 5.

June 6-9: Food and culture series

The 20th annual June Lecture Series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UD in Wilmington will be held June 6-9. Titled 'June a la Carte,' this year's program focuses on great political documents, feminism, world politics and a Newark cuisine sampler.

• June 6-9: Food and culture series
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• July 22: WWE Heatwave Tour
• Through Sept. 16: Women of color in academia

Giesecke’s 2014 book, The Mythology of Plants: Botanical Lore from Ancient Greece and Rome, will be available for sale and signing at the lecture. Call 302-831-2531 or email BotanicGardens@udel.edu to reserve a spot.

To enter the ancient Roman garden and experience its plantings is to immerse oneself in the world of myth and the divine, as all plants, both wild and cultivated, were believed to have an intimate connection to the realm of gods and heroes. 

In this hour, Giesecke will describe a selection of ancient Roman gardens, reconstruct their plantings and tell the tales of lust, blood, and vengeance behind common garden plants such as narcissus and hyacinth, pomegranate and apple, which still grace orchards and landscapes, and exotica such as frankincense and myrrh.

Giesecke holds degrees from Harvard University, where she received her doctorate, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Her research interests include gardens in the classical world, Greek and Roman art and architecture, and urbanism and ethics of land use in classical antiquity.

For her extensive research on the “meaning” of gardens, she served as the Archaeological Institute of America’s Jashemski Lecturer for 2013-14.

Her publications include The Epic City: Urbanism, Utopia, and the Garden in Ancient Greece and Rome and Earth Perfect? Nature, Utopia, and the Garden and The Good Gardener? Nature, Humanity and the Garden.

The UD Botanic Gardens are open year around to provide ideas and inspiration, or for a quiet stroll. UDBG contributes to an understanding of the relationships between plants and people through education, research, cooperative extension, and community support.

Photo by Evan Krape