Lectures

In 2007, CeCe Haydock was accepted as a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome (AAR). During her stay, she visited ancient and Renaissance villas in and around Rome, met staff horticulturalists, villa and Vatican curators and expert guides who gave her private tours of hard-to-visit gardens. In addition, she consulted with Italian architectural and garden scholars and completed research in the AAR photographic archives and in the newly renovated library.

Upon her return to the US, Mrs. Haydock began lecturing and writing on topics relating to her research at Old Westbury Gardens (Long Island), Ladew Topiary Gardens (Maryland), Temple University Ambler Arboretum (Pennsylvania), Princeton University,  and the Edith Wharton Society. She has also presented to local Garden Clubs of America and National Garden Clubs on landscape architectural history and practical design solutions.

In 2010, CeCe visited 25 gardens in Paris and spoke on "The Gardens of Paris" at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, as a warm-up for the 2011 Philadelphia Flower Show.

Her lecture topics and sample synopses include:

Edith Wharton and the Villas of Rome

Edith Wharton’s prolific career as a fiction writer is well-known. But her unusual ability both to write and to observe puts her at the forefront of Italian garden critics as well; her book Italian Villas and their Gardens remains today a scholarly resource on the subject.

Using a PowerPoint presentation,  eight Roman villas described by Wharton in her influential book will be analyzed, as well as the influence of the villas on Wharton's own houses and her novels.

 Upcoming lectures: Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 2.30 PM. The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL http://www.fourarts.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.one&content_id=1090&x=9980225

Tuesday, August 14, 2012.  Dublin Garden Club, Dublin, NH

Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 11 AM.  Cape Anne Garden Club, Gloucester, MA

the gardens of paris

Paris gardens originally mimicked styles found in Italy and England.  Then over the past two hundred years, designers created a uniquely Parisian look to the gardens, as they became a cultural way of life.  Today there are more than 400 private and public gardens inside the city.

The presentation will include the best-known parks such as Luxembourg, Tuileries and Bagatelle, smaller gardens such as Monceau, Rodin, and Carnavalet, and also a few surprises such as Promenade du Plantee, Hotel du Sully and Mosque du Paris.

Upcoming lectures:  Wednesday, February 29, 2012.  Princeton Club of New York, New York, NY

Monday, March 5, 2012. Three Harbors Garden Club, Cold Spring Harbor, NY

gatsby and beyond: the fabled gardens of long island's gold coast

Originally comprising vast areas of the North Shores of Long Island, the Gold Coast was a favorite retreat of the rich and famous.  Beginning around the turn of the century and through the 1920's, the North Shore was the place to be for some of the most notable Americans.  Along with grand houses, they built elaborate gardens, hiring such notable architects and landscape architects as Delano and Aldrich, Carriere and Hastings, the Olmstead Brothers, Beatrix Farrand, and Ellen Biddle Shipman.  Discover the gardens, as they were origininally built, and learn about their history, landscape design, and present condition.

 Upcoming class:  Saturday, February 25, 2012 from 10 AM - 1 PM.  New York Botanical Garden, Midtown Center, 20 West 44th Street, New York, NY  www.nybg.org/AdultEd