Usha Lee McFarling

Usha Lee McFarling is the senior writer and editor in the Office of Communications and Marketing at The Huntington.

Verso

Posted on Dec. 9, 2020
Kelly Fernandez, head gardener of the Herb Garden and the Shakespeare Garden, harvests bundles of flax from The Huntington’s Herb Garden. Photo courtesy of Kelly Fernandez. When Kelly Fernandez,…
Posted on Oct. 28, 2020
A penjing in the Verdant Microcosm, a new complex built to display a collection of the miniaturized plant landscapes in The Huntington’s Chinese Garden. Photo by Jamie Pham. The venerable art of…
Posted on Jul. 29, 2020
Lead project gardener Gary Roberson works in The Huntington’s new hillside cycad garden, a dramatic showcase for thousands of plants donated by the late Loran and Eva Whitelock. Photo by Scott…
Posted on Jul. 1, 2020
Carter Housh, Preserve Co-Operation, 1917 (left) and Emil Grebs, Hunger Breeds Madness, 1918. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Posters encouraging the growing and…
Posted on Feb. 19, 2020
Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence (right) welcomed Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden to The Huntington for the inaugural "Why It Matters" event on Feb. 6. Photo by Sarah M. Golonka. In The…
Posted on Feb. 5, 2020
Thatcher William Cahill carefully places reeds on the roof of the Pavilion for Washing Away Thoughts (Di Lü Ting 滌慮亭). in The Huntington's Chinese Garden, Liu Fang Yuan流芳園. Photo by Andrew Mitchell…
Posted on Dec. 4, 2019
Ramiro Ramirez Pinedo, who has worked at The Huntington for 50 years, stands in his favorite place on the grounds, the Japanese Garden. Photo by Jamie Pham. While The Huntington is celebrating its…
Posted on Oct. 9, 2019
Dana Austria, a botanical intern and a junior at the University of Southern California, takes a sample of Cleyera japonica, a flowering evergreen shrub that grows in The Huntington’s Japanese…
Posted on Aug. 7, 2019
Huntington Cryopreservation Research Botanist Raquel Folgado supervises as trainees Lourdes Delgado and Felipe de Jesús Romo Paz prepare plant tissue for cryopreservation. Photo by Deborah Miller.…
Posted on Jul. 17, 2019
One early morning, while The Huntington was closed to visitors, beekeeper Kevin Heydman extracted a hive of bees from a cycad near the Huntington Art Gallery. Photo by Andrew Mitchell. Bees are no…
Posted on Jun. 12, 2019
Volunteers in The Huntington’s orange orchard use pole pickers to reach fruit growing in the treetops. Photo by Deborah Miller. Have you ever wondered what happens to the ripe, luscious oranges you…
Posted on May. 1, 2019
Kelly Fernandez, head gardener of the Herb and Shakespeare gardens, and Joel Klein, Molina Curator for the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, make iron gall ink, using a recipe from the 1600s…
Posted on Apr. 10, 2019
‘Huntington’s 100th’, the newly hybridized rose chosen to help celebrate The Huntington’s centennial year, is a large-flowered, multi-colored rose with an intense fragrance. Photo by Gene Sasse.…
Posted on Feb. 13, 2019
This Biedermeier friendship card made in Germany or Austria in 1847 is notable for its ornate, jewel-like beauty. The Nancy and Henry Rosin Collection of Valentine, Friendship, and Devotional…
Posted on Dec. 13, 2018
John Villarreal, the chief technical gardener of the Rose Garden, and fellow rose gardener Noel Aviña remove a myrtle hedge from the arbor path. Photo by Deborah Miller. For years, the boxy myrtle…

Frontiers

Posted on Dec. 22, 2020

The Huntington's botanical gardens have long been shaped by the vision of Jim Folsom.When young botany student Jim Folsom traveled from Austin, Texas, to The Huntington to interview for an assistant curator job in late August of 1984, he was completely turned off by the heavy traffic and acrid smog that hung over the Los Angeles basin.

Posted on Jul. 20, 2020

Curator Olga Tsapina discusses the account book of an Underground Railroad operatorThe Huntington is home to extensive collections documenting the history of slavery and abolition in the United States and the Atlantic World.

Posted on Oct. 17, 2019

Author Lynell George reflects on assembling the Huntington timelineAs part of the preparation for The Huntington’s Centennial year, Los Angeles–based journalist and essayist Lynell George spent months delving into the history of the institution

Posted on Oct. 12, 2019

Beekeeper Kevin Heydman's relocation process is one for the booksBees are no strangers to The Huntington. There are numerous hives in trees on the property that cause few problems

Posted on Jun. 15, 2019

A Huntington researcher's surprising findings about the evolution of Dioon cycadsThe cycad is often regarded as a living fossil—a favorite food of dinosaurs that hasn’t changed much in hundreds of millions of years...

Posted on Apr. 1, 2018

A paintings conservator and an ear surgeon talk shopThomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy (ca. 1770) may well be an icon of Western art and one of the most beloved attractions at The Huntington, but now that it is nearly 250 years old, this epic portrait is in need of some tender loving care.

Posted on Oct. 1, 2017

The Huntington's experimental demonstration garden educates and enchantsIf ever there were a secret garden, it's the Ranch Garden at The Huntington...

Posted on Apr. 1, 2017

Survivors from the dinosaur age, cycads continue to captivate collectors and researchersCycads are squat, woody, and branchless. They have no flowers, just spiky leaves that shred clothes and tear skin. They grow slowly, poison livestock and sometimes people.

Posted on Nov. 15, 2016

The Longo Collection traces seismic shifts in obstetrics and gynecology over six centuriesThe images are haunting glimpses into the most primal and private of human moments—the experience of birth

Posted on May. 12, 2016

The Huntington's cryopreservation program strives to conserve endangered plantsThe caretakers of the tender succulents in the Desert Garden may cringe at news of a prolonged cold snap, but Raquel Folgado