Internationally-known gardening author, Amy Stewart is making her only Gold Country speaking appearance and book-signing on Saturday, June 20 at 2:00PM at the Sutter Creek United Methodist Church Social Hall, sponsored by the Amador County Master Gardeners. Fans from surrounding counties have eagerly awaited this opportunity to hear this award-winning author and entertaining speaker, lauded as a “passionate and inquisitive writer” by the Boston Globe.
Her essays and commentaries have appeared in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Garden Design, Organic Gardening, and elsewhere. She has been featured on NPR, Good Morning America and CBS Sunday Morning and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) granted her a Creative Writing Fellowship for 2006. Her four books have won rave reviews from the New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and Entertainment Weekly. Her earlier books have been translated into several languages, and in addition to her many articles for national magazines, she was recently featured in Sunset Magazine.
Ms. Stewart’s newly published book, “Wicked Plants: the Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities” explores the darker side of the plant kingdom, taking the reader into an area of horticulture not commonly written about for the everyday gardener. Not all of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations are what they appear to be. Some can be illegal, dangerous and even deadly to naïve gardeners! The over two hundred entertaining and thoroughly researched entries in “Wicked Plants” range from common but deadly plants that many homes have in their landscape, to those that if known to local law enforcement agencies would require a visit.
Her audiovisual presentation in Sutter Creek will feature highlights of her book, exquisitely illustrated with botanical etchings and drawings. Among them may be “a tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war.” She will discuss “plants that are badly behaved – they explode, they burst into flames, they smell terrible or destroy other plants in particularly diabolical ways.”
All of Ms. Stewart’s books will be available at the presentation (cash or check). She will sign copies of her current and earlier books, “From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden,” “The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms,” “Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers.”
Master Gardener groups and garden clubs from Amador and surrounding counties have already expressed a great deal of interest. As seating is limited, those interested in attending are asked to reserve a seat by calling the Amador Master Gardeners office: 209-223-6838.
