In 2018 we celebrate women in horticulture. We encourage everyone to explore the science of plants—the reason that gardens and natural lands invite, delight, nourish, and comfort us all—and the women that push our knowledge of the richness of plant life to new limits.

We are thrilled to announce national bestseller Lab Girl by Hope Jahren as our Community Read book!

This fascinating, well-written memoir will engage and invite you along on Hope’s journey to become (and prosper as) a scientist. Her personal frankness in meeting challenges is inspirational, and she delivers the message with her own spirited voice and personality. Lab Girl is sure to spark thoughtful conversations throughout the community.

A geobiologist, Hope has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist. Warm, luminous, compulsively readable, Lab Girl vividly demonstrates the mountains that we can move when love and work come together. Join Longwood Gardens and our community partners for the fifth year of our Community Read—a program designed to encourage reading for pleasure and to start a conversation. Read with us and engage in an event to learn more!

We’ve also chosen Women in Science as the Community Read book for middle grade readers. Written and illustrated by Rachel Ignotofsky, this charmingly illustrated and educational book highlights the contributions of fifty notable women to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from the ancient to the modern world.

Our youngest readers will love The Tree Lady, written by H. Joseph Hopkins and illustrated by Jill McElmurry. This is the story of horticulturist Katherine Olivia Sessions, who brought trees to San Diego and created what eventually became Balboa Park.

Join Longwood Gardens and our community partners for the fifth year of our Community Read—a program designed to encourage reading for pleasure and to start a conversation. Read with us and engage in an event to learn more!

Follow us @LongwoodGardens and share your ideas using the hashtag #CommunityRead.