Tranquil Lake Nursery

Speaking & Teaching

At Tranquil Lake, we offer a wide range of educational and informational talks and events at the Nursery. In addition, landscape horticulturist and garden designer Warren Leach is also available to give lectures at your event. To invite Warren to your event and to discuss speaking fees send an e-mail to Tranquil Lake Nursery or contact Warren at 508-252-4002.

Read About Warren Leach's New Book from Timber Press

Plants for the Winter Garden

Upcoming Public Speaking Engagements

With Warren Leach

Monday, March 9, 2026 9:30 a.m.	Seaside Gardeners of Marshfield Boys and Girls Club Marshfield, MA
	Drought Tolerant Gardening and Landscaping
	Thoughtfully designing and planting our display gardens to thrive, even in a rainfall shortage, has been an essential gardening practice at Tranquil Lake Nursery with our sandy-loam soils and the recent erratic rainfall. Planting for drought tolerance is being recognized as a sustainable paradigm for all landscapes as unlimited water use becomes prohibited and costly. Explore verdant and water-wise gardens with Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach as he introduces a broad palette of hardy trees, shrubs and perennials. Warren will showcase several drought tolerant plant alternatives to turf grass showing before and after landscape designs. This colorful and fiery presentation of garden images will inspire your own sustainable garden. Whether you garden in sun or shade, you will take away valuable horticultural ideas for your own garden.

Saturday, March 14, 2026 9:30 a.m.	Kingston Garden Club Faunce School Kingston, MA
	Beyond Blooms: Creative Design with Color, Structure and Seasonal Senescence
	Warren Leach, talented garden designer and owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, will recommend a diverse selection of superlative plants with exceptional foliage characteristics in his talk “Beyond Blooms: Creative Design with Color, Structure and Seasonal Senescence”. Warren will highlight woody and herbaceous plants with good garden foliage color, architectural structure, multi-season interest and stunning shape and texture characteristics that can be used in a diversity of ways to compliment flowers, provide structure and offer seasonal succession in the mixed border. Warren will also suggest plant combinations that you can translate into your own garden, echoing leaf colors and texture to brighten the garden through the seasons.

Thursday, March 19, 2026 6:30 p.m.	Natick Garden Club Morse Institute Natick, MA
	Quenching Heat, Humidity & Drought Gardens that Dazzle - Withstanding the Dog Days & Onward
	The energy and exuberance of spring is both much anticipated and unstoppable. Buds expand and burst into colorful flowers and unfurling leaves. This spring garden spectacle of flowers and luxuriant foliage need not be fleeting. Though by August, the heat and humidity may take its toll on the gardener, a garden designed with a plant palette to withstand the dog-days and drought of summer also offers a stunning exuberance of flowers, maturing seed heads and colorful foliage. Warren Leach will explore planting design in gardens that continue to dazzle from late summer, fall and onward.

Monday, March 30, 2026 6:30 p.m.	Rehoboth Garden Club First Congregational Church Rehoboth, MA
	Drought Tolerant Gardening and Landscaping
	Thoughtfully designing and planting our display gardens to thrive, even in a rainfall shortage, has been an essential gardening practice at Tranquil Lake Nursery with our sandy-loam soils and the recent erratic rainfall. Planting for drought tolerance is being recognized as a sustainable paradigm for all landscapes as unlimited water use becomes prohibited and costly. Explore verdant and water-wise gardens with Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach as he introduces a broad palette of hardy trees, shrubs and perennials. Warren will showcase several drought tolerant plant alternatives to turf grass showing before and after landscape designs. This colorful and fiery presentation of garden images will inspire your own sustainable garden. Whether you garden in sun or shade, you will take away valuable horticultural ideas for your own garden.

Wednesday, April 1, 2026 1:00 p.m.	Greater New Bedford Garden Club Acushnet Council on Aging 122 Main Street, Acushnet, MA
	Celebrating the Winter Garden
	The winter garden is truly a low maintenance affair and a time to enjoy - no weeding, no watering and no dead-heading! The winter landscape may be quiescent but the garden need not be bleak. Plants with brightly colored berries, twigs, stems, foliage and even winter-blooming flowers shrug off the snow and cold. They bring cheer, even as the sun enters Capricorn. Landscape horticulturist Warren Leach, and author of the new book from Timber Press *Plants for the Winter Garden*, will showcase gardens he has designed that celebrate the winter season as well as planting design ideas for your own garden.

Monday, April 6, 2026 12:00 noon p.m.	Suffield Garden Club 2nd Baptist Church Fellowship Hall 100 North Main Street, Suffield, CT
	Quenching Heat, Humidity & Drought Gardens that Dazzle - Withstanding the Dog Days & Onward
	The energy and exuberance of spring is both much anticipated and unstoppable. Buds expand and burst into colorful flowers and unfurling leaves. This spring garden spectacle of flowers and luxuriant foliage need not be fleeting. Though by August, the heat and humidity may take its toll on the gardener, a garden designed with a plant palette to withstand the dog-days and drought of summer also offers a stunning exuberance of flowers, maturing seed heads and colorful foliage. Warren Leach will explore planting design in gardens that continue to dazzle from late summer, fall and onward.

Thursday, April 16, 2026 10:30 a.m.	Garden Club of Buzzards Bay
	Drought Tolerant Gardening and Landscaping
	Thoughtfully designing and planting our display gardens to thrive, even in a rainfall shortage, has been an essential gardening practice at Tranquil Lake Nursery with our sandy-loam soils and the recent erratic rainfall. Planting for drought tolerance is being recognized as a sustainable paradigm for all landscapes as unlimited water use becomes prohibited and costly. Explore verdant and water-wise gardens with Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach as he introduces a broad palette of hardy trees, shrubs and perennials. Warren will showcase several drought tolerant plant alternatives to turf grass showing before and after landscape designs. This colorful and fiery presentation of garden images will inspire your own sustainable garden. Whether you garden in sun or shade, you will take away valuable horticultural ideas for your own garden.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026 7:30 p.m.	Hopkinton Garden Club Hopkinton Center for the Arts 98 Hayden Road Hopkington, MA
	Quenching Heat, Humidity & Drought Gardens that Dazzle - Withstanding the Dog Days & Onward
	The energy and exuberance of spring is both much anticipated and unstoppable. Buds expand and burst into colorful flowers and unfurling leaves. This spring garden spectacle of flowers and luxuriant foliage need not be fleeting. Though by August, the heat and humidity may take its toll on the gardener, a garden designed with a plant palette to withstand the dog-days and drought of summer also offers a stunning exuberance of flowers, maturing seed heads and colorful foliage. Warren Leach will explore planting design in gardens that continue to dazzle from late summer, fall and onward.

Presentation Topics

Warren has offered a number of talks at local Garden Clubs and Horticultural Organizations as well as for School Gardening conferences. Here are just a few of the presentations that he has offered in the past few years. The fee for a garden lecture is generally $350 for garden clubs, plus travel; and $500 for professional organizations, plus travel.

Beyond Blooms:

Creative Design with Color, Structure and Seasonal Senescence

Warren Leach, talented garden designer and owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, will recommend a diverse selection of superlative plants with exceptional foliage characteristics in his talk “Beyond Blooms: Creative Design with Color, Structure and Seasonal Senescence”. Warren will highlight woody and herbaceous plants with good garden foliage color, architectural structure, multi-season interest and stunning shape and texture characteristics that can be used in a diversity of ways to compliment flowers, provide structure and offer seasonal succession in the mixed border. Warren will also suggest plant combinations that you can translate into your own garden, echoing leaf colors and texture to brighten the garden through the seasons.

Celebrating the Winter Garden

The winter garden is truly a low maintenance affair and a time to enjoy - no weeding, no watering and no dead-heading! The winter landscape may be quiescent but the garden need not be bleak. Plants with brightly colored berries, twigs, stems, foliage and even winter-blooming flowers shrug off the snow and cold. They bring cheer, even as the sun enters Capricorn. Landscape horticulturist Warren Leach, and author of the new book from Timber Press Plants for the Winter Garden, will showcase gardens he has designed that celebrate the winter season as well as planting design ideas for your own garden.

Classic Design for Contemporary Gardens

Our contemporary lives are full of expressions of classic design. These timeless principles of artistic composition may not always be plainly revealed but should be heeded. Landscape designer Warren Leach, owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, will explore some of these elements of Classic Design, from the Classic Chinese Scholar’s Gardens to 18th century American landscapes and 19th century paintings. He will show how to embrace these principles in your own gardens and landscape.

Cold-Hardy Containers: Rugged Shrubs in Permanent Pots Add Life to the Frozen Landscape

Cold-Hardy Containers: Rugged Shrubs in Permanent Pots Add Life to the Frozen Landscape. Everyone marvels at wild plants that defy severe conditions in shallow pockets of soil in high elevation rock outcroppings. Why not try this at home? Warren Leach did way back in 1982 and has been perfecting it ever since. His guidelines for winter hardy plants in weatherproof containers, custom potting mix, wise placement and care are ingredients will ensure home gardeners’ success. Warren is the author of Plants for the Winter Garden: Perennials, Grasses, Shrubs, and Trees to Add Interest in the Cold and Snow, (Timber Press, 2024), a landscape designer and owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, MA.

Designing, Constructing and Planting the Entry Garden

The garden space between the street, driveway, walkway and your home offers a powerful first impression to someone arriving to your door. Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach, owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, will take you on a visual tour of enticing entry gardens using before and after scenarios. He will focus on walkway design and construction techniques, solving problems of scale and grade as well as showcasing a rich planting palette that offers year-round beauty with an eye on low-maintenance. Your entry garden will be a pleasure for you to enjoy as well as a warm welcoming to guests.

Drought Tolerant Gardening and Landscaping

Thoughtfully designing and planting our display gardens to thrive, even in a rainfall shortage, has been an essential gardening practice at Tranquil Lake Nursery with our sandy-loam soils and the recent erratic rainfall. Planting for drought tolerance is being recognized as a sustainable paradigm for all landscapes as unlimited water use becomes prohibited and costly. Explore verdant and water-wise gardens with Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach as he introduces a broad palette of hardy trees, shrubs and perennials. Warren will showcase several drought tolerant plant alternatives to turf grass showing before and after landscape designs. This colorful and fiery presentation of garden images will inspire your own sustainable garden. Whether you garden in sun or shade, you will take away valuable horticultural ideas for your own garden.

Edible Landscaping for the Schoolyard

Meet a variety of trees, shrubs, ground covers and vines that are edible and also offer interesting ornamental qualities that are sure to add to your school landscape. In his presentation, Warren Leach, horticulturist, garden designer and co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth will show images and discuss a diverse variety of plants that are easy to grow, edible for humans and also offer attractive flowers, foliage, seed heads, barks and twigs during the school year.

Fluid Imagination - The Artful Design of Water in the Landscape

Water adds many enchanting qualities to the garden. Transparent as glass, yet reflective as a mirror, water can magnify a small space or add a visual focus to a large expanse. Depending upon how it is used, water may project many moods - still, gentle, playful, agitated, turbulent or cascading. Its voice ranges from silent pools to roaring cataracts. Warren Leach explores these magical characteristics as well as construction and installation of water features in a diversity of landscape settings and styles

The Late Season Garden

The late season garden is full of dynamic contrasts - melding colorful late blooms, maturing fruit, fiery foliage and the plumes of ornamental grasses. The inertia of the season is compelling and with a little preparation a gardener can sit back and leisurely enjoy the garden fireworks. Join Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach for an in-depth look at exciting plants to add to your late season garden display. Warren will offer design ideas using before and after images of gardens he has designed and planted. Fall is an ideal time for planting and adding glorious fall fireworks to your own garden. In Vita Sackville-West poetry we are reminded that the beauty of the garden does not end with the change of the seasons. "So Autumn's not the end, not the last rung of any ladder in the yearly climb, When that is deathly old which once was young, Since time's no ladder but a constant wheel."

Probing Phenology: Compensating for Climate Change in the Landscape

Understanding the role of phenology (the study of seasonal changes in plants and animals) in predicting climate change and guiding plant care will add another tool to your professional arsenal. The bloom sequence of flowering plants is subject to environmental triggers such as extremes in temperature, such as heat and cold, as well as soil moisture and drought. Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach will examine some characteristics of woody plants and herbaceous perennials that show resilience to erratic climate extremes. He will also illustrate planting techniques and floriferous landscapes that can withstand meteorological fluctuations successfully.

Plant Combinations for a Long Season of Bloom

You can enjoy colorful and fragrant flowers even in January, long before the vernal equinox and have blooms celebrate all of the other seasons; spring, summer and fall! This is not a fanciful ideal and you don’t need a heated greenhouse or conservatory. Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach will introduce plants and planting combination to extend your garden enjoyment.

Planning and Planting for Sustainable Landscapes

Join Warren Leach as he offers planning and planting suggestions to support the creation of gardens and landscapes that minimize the use of limited resources. His design tips and plant recommendations will help you conserve your own precious time and energy as well as our limited natural resources such as water, soil and fossil fuels. Meet a variety of drought tolerant plants, conservation gardening practices and design techniques that will easily translate to your own home.

Planting a Garden For Pollinators

Pollinators are everywhere and they play and extremely important role in our lives and habitats, from pollinating the foods that we eat to initiating the development of the seeds that ensure survival of native plants. Warren Leach, horticulturist and garden designer, will review pollinator needs and offer a selection of ornamental trees, shrubs, perennials and vines with flowering characteristics that will benefit pollinators and also complement the school calendar. These beauties will add ornamental beauty and interest to the schoolyard, while also offering opportunities for classroom study. He will also provide suggestions for care and culture.

Quenching Heat, Humidity & Drought

Gardens that Dazzle - Withstanding the Dog Days & Onward

The energy and exuberance of spring is both much anticipated and unstoppable. Buds expand and burst into colorful flowers and unfurling leaves. This spring garden spectacle of flowers and luxuriant foliage need not be fleeting. Though by August, the heat and humidity may take its toll on the gardener, a garden designed with a plant palette to withstand the dog-days and drought of summer also offers a stunning exuberance of flowers, maturing seed heads and colorful foliage. Warren Leach will explore planting design in gardens that continue to dazzle from late summer, fall and onward.

Turf Alternatives and Ground Covers

This talk was prepared for a professional turf and cemetery association conference, and is aimed at professionals in these fields. There are many hardy woody and herbaceous plants that offer excellent alternative choices to turf grass. Maintenance concerns, and managing a site with environmentally demanding conditions may be reasons to plant a diversity of ground covers. Landscape Horticulturist Warren Leach will present low-maintenance planting suggestions for both sun and shade. He will also show landscape planted to survive extreme drought conditions without any supplemental irrigation system.

Read More About Warren Leach, Landscape Horticulturist

Read More about Warren's New Book
	Plants for the Winter Garden Perennials, Grasses, Shrubs, and Trees to add Interest in the Cold and Snow by Warren Leach Timber Press Available November 5, 2024 ISBN 978-1-60469-926-5

Read Articles by Warren Leach

	Cold-Hard Containers Rugged shrubs in permanent pots add life to the frozen landscape by Warren Leach Horticulture Magazine November / December 2024 pp. 26 - 33 article excerpted from Plants for the Winter Garden

	Geometry Makes a Garden Better by Warren Leach Fine Gardening Magazine April 2023 pp. 46 - 55

For more information or to request a speaking engagement, send an e-mail with request details to Tranquil Lake Nursery