Wambui Ippolito + Jennifer Jewell: The Earth In Her Hands, 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants

Barrett Bookstore and Darien Library are thrilled to welcome Wambui Ippolito and Jennifer Jewell for a virtual event. Jennifer will discuss her beautiful book, The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants and engage in conversation with Wambui about the people, places, plants that grew her into the designer, scholar, and activist she is in the plant world.

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About Jennifer Jewell

Jennifer Jewell is the host of the national award-winning weekly public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden. She is the author of The Earth in Her Hands, 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants (Timber Press in 2020), and Under Western Skies, Visionary Gardens from the Rockies to the Pacific Coast (Timber Press, May 2021). Her greatest passion is elevating the way we think and talk about gardening, the empowerment of gardeners, and the possibility inherent in the intersection between places, cultures and gardens that bring them together beautifully.

Photo by E. Andrete

About Wambui Ippolito

Wambui Ippolito is a horticulturist, landscape designer and a graduate of the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture. She designs and creates gardens and mini landscapes in New York and will be doing her first show garden at the PHS Philadelphia Flower Show in 2021. She develops programming for museums, public gardens, and parks exploring the broader context of horticulture, focusing on the intersections between migration, design, history, culture and science. She lectures both in the USA and internationally. In her former career, Wambui worked as a Development & Democracy Consultant at international organizations both in the USA and around the world. Wambui is also the founder of the BIPOC Hort Group, a multicultural professional organization with membership from the USA, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

About The Earth In Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants

In this beautiful and empowering book, Jennifer Jewell—host of public radio’s award-winning program and podcast Cultivating Place—introduces 75 inspiring women. Working in wide-reaching fields that include botany, floral design, landscape architecture, farming, herbalism, and food justice, these influencers are creating change from the ground up.

Profiled women include flower farmer Erin Benzakein; codirector of Soul Fire Farm Leah Penniman; plantswoman Flora Grubb; edible and cultural landscape designer Leslie Bennett; Caribbean-American writer and gardener Jamaica Kincaid; soil scientist Elaine Ingham; landscape designer Ariella Chezar; floral designer Amy Merrick, and many more. Rich with personal stories and insights, Jewell’s portraits reveal a devotion that transcends age, locale, and background, reminding us of the profound role of green growing things in our world—and our lives.

“A must-have this spring season… plantswomen, unite!” —Martha Stewart Living

“An illuminating and inspiring book of personal and professional journeys with plants is a must-read for anyone interested in the human impulse to garden.” —Gardens Illustrated

“The varied perspectives presented throughout amount to an interesting conversation about plants, gardens, and the myriad roles anyone might play amid them.” —Horticulture

“A plantsperson with a deep abiding love for gardens and plants and for those who tend their plots thoughtfully and with respect for natural systems. Jewell pours this passion into her new book.” —The Seattle Times

“A moving testament to the myriad of ways in which we are all dependent upon the generosity of planet Earth.” —The Irish Times

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