DECEMBER 16 Andy Brand will be our speaker in December.  Andy has been involved in agriculture his entire life.  During his childhood he worked in his family’s vegetable garden.  After graduating from UConn with a BS in Environmental Horticulture and an MS in Plant Science, Andy spent two years operating a plant tissue culture lab at the Plant Group in North Franklin.   For the past 18 years he has been employed at Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden where he is currently the nursery manager.   Andy is a past President of the Connecticut Nursery and Landscape Association and recently received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the UConn College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Alumni Association.  He has put his interest in native plants to use as a volunteer for the New England Plant Conservation Program where he helps monitor historical sites of endangered native plants. Besides his love for plants, Andy is an avid naturalist.  He is a cofounder and past President of the Connecticut Butterfly Association as well as a long-standing member of the New Haven Bird Club.  In Hamden, he works hard to protect the town’s open space and natural resources as a member of the Hamden Land Conservation Trust and the Inland Wetlands Commission.  Andy has spoken to many groups statewide on a range of topics including native plants, new and unusual ornamentals, butterfly gardening, butterflies of Connecticut and their life histories and how to attract more wildlife to your yard. Berried Treasure: Spectacular Fruit for Connecticut Landscapes A plant’s fruit display can be as impressive as its flowers or foliage and sometimes even more spectacular!  Andy will reveal the diversity of fruit available to CT gardeners from the glowing, violet, berry-like drupes of Callicarpa dichotoma to the vibrant red berries of Arisaema triphyllum.  A collection of both herbaceous and woody plants will be presented as we discover the beautiful treasure of fruit.