Ladew Topiary Gardens

School for the Arts The Baltimore School for the Arts celebrates the holidays by expanding its annual holiday performance. In addition to orchestral pieces from Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" and Corelli's "Christmas Concerto," next week's performance also includes dance numbers from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Ballet." Instruments and costumes used in the performance will also be on display for audience members to examine. There will also be a visit from the big guy in the red suit. The Baltimore School for the Arts' holiday performance plays at 7 p.m. Wednesday-Dec.

WEDNESDAY TREE-CARE WORKSHOP Learn about tree care with arborist Walt Kipp, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. Wednesday at Adkins Arboretum, 12610 Eveland Road, Ridgely. Participants will learn to identify weather damage, disease and insect infestation in trees, as well as learn how to work around root systems and when it's best to prune. $10-$12. 410-634-2847 or adkinsarboretum.org. VIRTUAL TOUR OF LADEW Ladew Topiary Gardens' 30-year senior docent Martha Nichols will take visitors on a "Virtual Tour of the Ladew Home and Gardens" at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Weinberg House, 16 Old Court Road, Pikesville.

ROLAND PARKING: As part of Roland Park's Centennial Celebration, there will be a reunion tonight beginning at 6 on the grounds of St. Mary's Seminary for "anybody and everybody who lives in, used to live in, went to school in, plays in or jogs in Roland Park!" Dubbed "A Taste of Roland Park," neighborhood restaurants will provide the eats and drinks with entertainment provided by -- get this -- those marvelous butchers from Eddie's Supermarket who'll be lipsynching a routine.Party organizer Betty Davis explained the choice for such, ah, "prime" entertainment.

Ladew Topiary Gardens, often lauded as one of the finest examples of topiary in the United States, is celebrating its 23rd year as an extraordinary public attraction in Harford County.Much of the 22 acres of quiet gardens and sculpted hedges appears unchanged from the days since country gentleman Harvey Ladew single-handedly crafted the yews and hemlocks into a potpourri of remarkable shapes and figures in the 1930s. His former manor house now includes a gift shop, but is still chockablock with the mementos and eclectic collections of hunting art and English countryside furnishings.

Ladew Topiary Gardens is under siege from a tiny attacker that is smaller than a pinhead but as deadly as a giant dragon to the acres of artfully sculpted hemlock in this Monkton showplace.The hemlock woolly adelgid, an invader from Japan that showed up four years ago in small white balls wrapped around needles and branches of the trees, sucks the sap from the hemlocks and injects a deadly spittle.With the extreme age of the hemlocks and their stressed condition from repeated pruning to create the fantastic topiary, the trees may not long survive the pest's spreading assault.

Social CalendarAug. 6: Grant-A-Wish Casino Night at Edgar's Billiard Club, 1 E. Pratt St., Suite 14. Fund-raiser for the Grant-A-Wish Foundation. Includes a pool shootout pitting WJZ-TV's Marty Bass against Lisa Willis, formerly of WBFF-TV. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets $50. Buffet and two drinks included. 410-752-8080.Aug. 9: Summer concert at Ladew Topiary Gardens, 3535 Jarrettsville Pike, Monkton. Hard Travelers play. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Picnics welcome, but not pets, alcohol or athletic equipment.

As 31-year-old Jay Marshall took his fiancee, Kim Zaicko, to her first My Lady's Manor steeplechase races yesterday, he remembered not only his three decades of watching the horses but also his high school years working at the Ladew Topiary Gardens."

Chain saws roar as Lena Caron walks the perimeter of the Croquet Court at Ladew Topiary Gardens shaking her head, holding back tears. This is the week the 60-year-old wall of Eastern hemlock trees surrounding the courtthan 100 trees that had been shaped over time into a perfectly manicured garden of 15-foot-high windowed walls and archways. The stumps make the northwest Harford County estate, considered one of the premier topiary gardens in the United States, look like the victim of bad razor cut.And all because of a bug: the hemlock woolly adelgid, an insidious killer that sucks the tree's sap while injecting lethal spittle.

Almost as long as Americans have been creating gardens, they have sought to enhance them with benches, statues, fountains and a variety of other decorative items. But until recently, American styles have been sorely neglected in favor of the English and Continental models. If you ever longed for more information or inspiration on historic garden furnishings in this country, Barbara Israel is the person to ask. Her new book, "Antique Garden Ornament: Two Centuries of American Taste" (Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1999, $49.50)

THERE may be no more idyllic spot for a summer picnic than Ladew Topiary Gardens. There are plenty of trees available to provide the requisite leafy shade, a steady parade of flowering plants to set a colorful background, and good eats to buy and consume either in the charming cafe or to tote elsewhere on the grounds in a picnic basket. No basket? No worries; the cafe has plenty to spare, and if you return the basket filled with the disposable remnants of your prepackaged lunch, you'll get a dollar back.