The deadline for reservations is Tuesday, Sept. 6 by noon.

Have you ever had a hankering to be a part of history? How about taking part in a near-century-long tradition? On Thursday, September 8, you're cordially invited to do both.

Each year the Massachusetts Horticultural Society honors superior achievements in horticulture through its Honorary Medals Dinner. This year, ten people will be recognized, led by Lynden B. Miller who receives the George Robert White Medal of Honor for her work as a designer of urban parks. Ms. Miller will deliver the keynote speech as part of the evening's events.

Lynden Miller is a public garden designer in New York City and director of The Conservatory Garden in Central Park, which she rescued and restored beginning in 1982. Her work includes gardens for The Central Park Zoo, Bryant Park, The New York Botanical Garden, Madison Square Park, and Wagner Park in Battery Park City as well as many smaller projects in all five boroughs and beyond, including waterfront gardens in Red Hook, Brooklyn, improvements to Union Square Park and the 97th Street Park Avenue Mall, renovation of the "Gateway to Harlem" Broadway Mall at 135th Street, Loeb Plaza for Hunter College, and the 67th Street Armory.

Also being honored is Wesley R. Autio, professor of pomology in the Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Mr. Autio grew up in a rural/tourist part of western Maine and received his B.S. degree in Horticulture from Virginia Tech and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Pomology from UMass. In 1985, he joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts. He currently serves as the UMass Fruit Program Leader and Coordinator of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture’s Fruit & Vegetable Crops Program. He regularly interacts with tree-fruit farmers and the many individuals interested in tree fruit in the landscape. His research focuses on apple and peach rootstocks, controlling growth apple trees with mechanical and hormonal approaches, and chemical thinning of apples. He will receive the Jackson Dawson Award.

The recipient of the Thomas Roland Medal will be Richard Jaynes. Jaynes has always enjoyed growing plants. The acres of Christmas tree fields at his Broken Hill Nursery trace back to a couple hundred spruce seedlings he planted as part of a 4-H project in 1947. A graduate from Wesleyan University (BA) and Yale (Ph.D.), he worked at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for 25 years as a plant breeder and horticulturist with specialties in chestnut and mountain laurel. He has received numerous awards for his research and edited the reference book Nut Tree Culture in North America and authored Kalmia: Mountain Laurel and Related Species. He resigned from the Experiment Station in 1984 to start Broken Arrow Nursery.

Gold Medals will be given to volunteer Joyce Bakshi, who for the past two years has organized the Festival of Trees at Elm Bank. Also receiving gold medals will be Theodore Landsmark of Boston Architectural College for his work on behalf of the Landscape Institute; Organic Gardening Magazine for its promotion of ecologically sound practices in gardening and farming; writer Ellen Ecker Ogden for her articles, essays and talks on organic gardening; and Carrie Waterman for her outstanding volunteer work over several decades on behalf of amateur horticulture.

Schedule of Events

Tickets are $150 per person to this event. There are also opportunities to either co-host or host a table. You may order individual tickets here. To order by phone, please call 617-933-4995. You must be preregistered to attend the event.. The deadline for reservations is Tuesday, Sept. 6 by noon.