The more you garden the more you realize the importance of vertical elements. Verticality adds depth, perspective and greater connection with surrounding trees and buildings. Climbing vines offer one of the easiest ways to add instant verticality and to elevate your garden to a different plane.

On Thursday, vines expert Dan Long kicks off the eighth annual “American Gardening” lecture series at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx with a talk titled “Into the Third Dimension: Vines for Your Garden.”

Wayne Winterrowd, author of the highly regarded “Annuals and Tender Plants for North American Gardens” (Random House, 2004), will give the second lecture, titled “Love Me Tender,” that morning.

The six lectures will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on three Thursday mornings this winter in the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall at the Botanical Garden. The twin-bill lectures cost $31 for nonmembers, $28 for members. Get the whole series for $81 for nonmembers or $73 for members.

Here’s a look at the other two Thursdays:

- Feb. 15: “Wildflowers Aren’t Just for the Woods” by Bill Cullina and “There’s Nothing Like a Rose” by Steve Hutton.

Cullina is nursery manager and head propagator at Garden in the Woods, the Massachusetts headquarters of the New England Wild Flower Society, and the author of “Native Trees, Shrubs and Vines: A Guide to Using, Growing, and Propagating North American Woody Plants” (Houghton Mifflin, 2002). Hutton is the president of Conrad-Pyle Co. and All American Rose Selections.

- March 15: “Chemical-Free Gardening” by Jeff Lowenfels and “Tropical Paradise in a Temperate Climate” by Francisca Coelho.

Lowenfels writes a gardening column for the Anchorage Daily News and is the author of “Teeming With Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web” (Timber Press, 2006). Coelho, director of glasshouses at the Botanical Garden, promises to share her favorite tropicals and plant combinations. [nyjournalnews]