FRANKLIN
The Franklin Garden Club will be hosting a public event featuring a free lecture from William D. Rieley, PLA, of Riley & Associates and the Garden Club of Virginia. The lecture will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the Regional Workforce Development Center at Paul D. Camp Community College.

“He is the chief landscape architect at the Garden Club of Virginia,” president of Franklin Garden Club Peg Lockwood said. “I’ve heard this gentleman speak on a number of occasions. He always delivers a fascinating and informative lecture on the restoration. I expect this will be no different.”

Rieley has held his position in position in the garden club since 1998. With his job he works the Restoration Committee to prepare plans for new projects that garden club tackles. He also advises on projects that were completed by the club which may need adjustments or upgrades.

Riley will be giving a lecture on “Our Virginia Heritage: Nature and Geometry in the Jefferson Landscape.”

According to the Garden Club of Virginia’s website, “The ground-breaking restoration of Jefferson’s landscape at Poplar Forest by the Garden Club of Virginia has incorporated the meticulous archaeological work by Poplar Forest’s Jack Gary and his staff; but it has also tied this work to the documentary record of Thomas Jefferson’s landscape designs at both Poplar Forest and Monticello and to the garden traditions of the 18th- and early 19th-centuries in England and America. This restoration will broaden our understanding of Jefferson’s approach to the landscape and illustrate the motifs that had disappeared from the American landscape until this restoration.”

Lockwood said that the presentation will have a PowerPoint, and that Rieley is always funny and interesting to listen to.

“We have people coming from Suffolk, and have also invited other clubs in the area,” she added. “We are hoping to get participation from the public. It will be entertaining and well worth attending.”