The Pruning Lab with Maryann Lewis
March 14 | 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Registration $100 | Scholarships are available for this workshop
Locations: Private Residence & The Hoffman Wonder Garden
On Saturday, March 14th, from 9-4pm, the Hoffman Center for the Arts invites you to The Pruning Lab, an outdoor, hands-on immersion into the art of pruning with master aesthetic pruner Maryann Lewis. Class size is limited; the only prerequisite is a love of plants!
Over the course of the day, you’ll learn to evaluate and prune a variety of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs including shore pines, rhododendrons, Japanese maples and hydrangeas. You’ll also pick up strategies for pruning the gnarlier residents in your garden you’ve been staring at for years but don’t quite know how to tackle.
Maryann Lewis works from the premise that hidden inside that tangle of limbs and leaves out your window are sculptures waiting to be revealed. The trick is to slow down enough to see the form hidden within, then use basic tools and techniques to reveal what’s already there.
The Pruning Lab is divided into morning and afternoon sessions. It begins in a lush, private Nehalem garden with a wide variety of overgrown small
conifers and trees. After choosing a few of them to work on, Maryann will take students through her thinking process as she considers each plant’s
strength and discusses her strategy.
Then the magic happens, as Maryann chooses her tools and begins to prune, maintaining a Q&A with students as she works—describing, for instance, why one cut might make sense in the short term but unbalance a tree over time, or how limbing up a perfectly okay tree reveals its amazing hidden bark.
We’ll break for a hot lunch: soup and bread (vegan) courtesy of our Nehalem host. You’re also welcome to BYO.
The afternoon session takes place in the Hoffman Wonder Garden.
Attendees will break into groups and, under supervision, prune the garden’s overgrown conifers. Teams will have ample time to run ideas by Maryann, review their work when done, and learn firsthand the artistry within reach when grounded in the love of plants.
The day-long class fee is $100. Register for the March 14th event at https://hoffmanarts.org/events/pruning-lab/?
About Maryann Lewis
Maryann Lewis is a master of Aesthetic Pruning, an approach that combines horticultural science with principals of art and design. Formerly a California architect, she began her own aesthetic pruning business in 2005 and later co-founded the Aesthetic Pruners Association. She now lives in Portland, OR. Her website is https://www.maryannlewis.com/