In this beautifully illustrated talk, Andrea Wulf tells the story of a small group of 18th-century naturalists that made England a nation of gardeners. It's the story of a garden revolution that began in America when the farmer John Bartram sent hundreds of boxes filled with seeds that would transform the English landscape forever. There is also Peter Collinson, a Quaker merchant; Philip Miller, author of the Gardeners Dictionary; the cantankerous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus; and Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, who joined Captain Cook's Endeavour on the greatest voyage of discovery in modern times.

Together they introduced the lustrous evergreens, fiery autumn foliage, and colorful shrubs that shaped the Georgian landscape; they brought science and rational thought to horticulture; and they risked their lives to find new exotic blooms and towering trees. Friends, rivals, and enemies, their correspondence, collaborations, and squabbles make for a riveting human drama set against the backdrop of the emerging British Empire and America's magnificent forests. As botany and horticulture became a science, the garden became the Eden for everyman.

Trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art in London and now a full-time writer, Wulf is the author of two books and has written for the Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Garden, and the Architects' Journal. She regularly writes reviews for The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, and the Mail on Sunday and also works as a creative writer for a new botanic garden in Singapore. www.andreawulf.com/

Listen to Andrea Wulf's interview on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show.

Fee: $15 members, $18 general public

410.634.2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org.