We are delighted to welcome Abra Lee in person. Her energy was evident when she last joined us via Zoom in February 2023, and we look forward to her return. Abra will introduce us to the hidden figures of horticulture celebrated in her new book, Conquer the Soil: Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country’s Gardeners, Farmers, and Growers.

Abra Lee is a storyteller and author. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, Fine Gardening, and Veranda Magazine. Lee is a graduate of Auburn University College of Agriculture and an alumna of the Longwood Gardens Society of Fellows, a global network of public horticulture professionals. In January 2022 she joined Oakland Cemetery, a revered garden cemetery and vibrant park located in downtown Atlanta, as Director of Horticulture.

Ferns and grasses are the canvas on which nature paints its portraits. Whether it is a lush forest floor, boggy carpet, or rustling prairie, these plants are there, weaving in and around and knitting together their chosen tapestry with a soft, tangible grace that is so subtle that it is overpowering when you really, truly stop and see. Stripping away names and associations, gardens and landscapes are fusions of form, color, and texture. The three act in concert to create spaces, moods, and aesthetic impressions. Though we tend to focus on color, it is form and texture that really create spaces and give them tone and mood. In a sense, color is candy for the eye, while texture and form are the starch and protein—richer, more complex, and enduring. In this one-hour tour, Bill Cullina, the Executive Director of the Morris Arboretum & Gardens and author Native Ferns, Moss, and Grasses will introduce you to some of his favorite texturally rich and visually delectable native ferns, grasses, and sedges.

Bill Cullina is the F. Otto Haas Executive Director of the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to this he was the President and CEO of Coastal Maine Botanic Garden for eleven years. Cullina holds degrees in plant science and psychology, has been working in public horticulture for over 30 years. A well-known author and recognized authority on North American native plants, Cullina lectures on a variety of subjects to garden and professional groups and writes for popular and technical journals. His books include Wildflowers; Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines; Understanding Orchids; Native Ferns, Mosses, and Grasses; and Understanding Perennials. He has won several awards, including the Scott Medal and the Award of Excellence from Garden Clubs of America.

In the soil immediately surrounding plant roots, a teeming unseen web of life thrives in the rhizosphere. Like a newly encountered “lost” jungle tribe, there are unfolding discoveries of this underground society where roots, animals, and microbes interact. The associations go beyond the known fungus/plant interactions of the mycorrhizal network. Bacteria also play  important roles, interacting within and around roots. Learn about the intriguing intercommunications of roots with soil fungi and bacteria and how this knowledge is leading to the development of safer biopesticides, enhancing plant resistance to pathogens, and contributing to agricultural and home gardening success.

Louise Clarke is co-principal of Verdant Earth Educators, a green industry consulting and education firm. A horticulturist emerita from the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, she is also a certified arborist holding credentials from the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and a certified green roof professional (GRP). Louise currently teaches Botany and Garden Appreciation courses at the Barnes Arboretum School of Horticulture of St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia. She also teaches workshops and lectures for Longwood Gardens, Mt. Cuba Center, Tyler Arboretum, and other venues. She is active in Garden Communicators International and the North American Rock Garden Society as the Delaware Valley Chapter president. Louise is a graduate of Temple University’s College of Environmental Design, and has international gardening experience as a guest gardener for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Landscape in Windsor, UK. Based on her former career as a clinical laboratory scientist, she is conversant in academic research and interprets those findings into digestible information for non-science audiences.

 Many of the landscapes that Apiary Studio creates are made from materials that are typically excavated from demolition sites or thrown out as remnants, cutoffs or scraps. We are driven by the design challenge to give recycled materials and disused spaces a second life through thoughtful craft and construction. There is so much room to explore what is considered waste, and what is actually sustainable. This presentation will focus on our process and belief that often the lightest touch can be the most revealing solution.

Possessing hands-on knowledge of construction, landscape installation, and nursery production, Hans’ design sensibilities are rooted in the physical experience of working directly with plants and materials. Hans holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from North Carolina State University and has spent time working internationally in Germany as well as at several New York City landscape architecture firms. Martha is responsible for Apiary Studio’s horticulture arm, including gardening installation and maintenance, propagation and nursery procurement, and planting design. She is a graduate of the Professional Gardener Program at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA, holds a BA in philosophy and the history of math and science from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM. Martha is a waller in training and an evangelist for the intelligence of craft and physical work.

Join edible landscaper, author, and permaculture designer Michael Judd for an engaging journey into the art of growing food with beauty, resilience, and ease. This talk explores how to create edible landscapes with a permaculture twist, highlighting some of the most rewarding fruits and berries to grow in the Mid-Atlantic region. Michael will showcase practical, low-maintenance designs and naturally resilient plants that thrive with minimal effort—perfect for home gardens, backyards, and larger landscapes. Along the way, you’ll discover simple food forest design techniques that create thriving ecosystems supporting both biodiversity and abundance. Whether you’re just starting your edible gardening journey or already an experienced grower, you’ll walk away with inspiring ideas and hands-on strategies for cultivating delicious, regenerative food right where you live.

Michael Judd has worked with agro-ecological and whole-system designs throughout the Americas for over two decades, focusing on applying permaculture and ecological design. His projects increase local food security and community health in both tropical and temperate growing regions. He is the founder of Ecologia Edible & Ecological Landscape Design, Project Bona Fide, an international nonprofit supporting agro-ecology research, and co-founder of SilvoCulture, a Maryland based nonprofit which is helping plant 1 million nut trees in the Mid-Atlantic region. He is also the author of ‘Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist’, and ‘For the Love of PawPaws’.  Michael’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and BBC. Presenter for notable institutions such as the US Botanical Garden, Smithsonian, and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Michael and his family live along the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Frederick, Maryland.

The vibrant photos in bulb catalogs offer endless possibilities, and it can be overwhelming to choose! Join Lisa Roper as she helps us narrow down the options, focusing on fall-planted, spring-blooming bulbs, including many unique varieties. Lisa will discuss the cultural requirements for bulbs to thrive, as well as how to effectively combine them with perennials, annuals, grasses, and other bulbs for optimal visual impact. She will also cover essential planting techniques, tips for perennializing bulbs, and strategies to deter critters.

Lisa Roper is the Gravel Garden and Ruin horticulturist at Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, PA. She has gardened in various parts of Chanticleer for 34 years. She photographs the garden each week for What’s in Bloom on the website. She has a BFA from The Cooper Union, where she studied fine art and photography. She is also a graduate of the Longwood Gardens Professional Gardener Training Program. Lisa has been a guest gardener at Stellenbosch University Garden in South Africa and at Great Dixter in East Sussex, UK. She is a contributor to The Art of Gardening, Design Inspiration and Innovative Planting Techniques from Chanticleer. In her spare time, she gardens at home with her husband, Allan Summers, and a flock of chickens who nibble insects as she weeds.

Water has a special place in gardens, creating a haven for wildlife, enhancing beauty, adding calming sounds, and allowing reflection.  For centuries, people have incorporated water features and water plants into outdoor spaces with wonderful results. While the use of water features was historically limited to only intensively cultivated gardens, new cultivars and growing methods have made keeping aquatic plants easier than ever, fitting into even the most modest space. See how water becomes a garden!

Kelly Billing has a rich history in water quality research, leading her to promote the use of natural processes over chemicals to create healthy waterbodies. She is a Certified Professional Horticulturist, has served on the Board of Directors for the International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society (IWGS.org), speaks internationally and writes regularly for various trade magazines and water gardening publications. She has co- written “The Lotus, Know It and Grow It” with Paula Biles and “Water Gardener’s Bible” with Ben Helm. Kelly’s love of nature, passionate style and vast expertise are unique assets she applies to helping others reach their water garden goals. For more information about changing the way Water Becomes a Garden, visit www.kellybilling.com.

Viburnums, cultivated globally for centuries, offer exceptional landscape value. Their beauty, fragrance, adaptability, and pest resistance make them a favorite among gardeners. They serve diverse functions, providing food for birds and pollinators and enhancing the aesthetics of any space. This lecture will showcase a wide array of viburnums, from popular favorites to lesser-known gems, highlighting the incredible diversity of this genus. We will explore deciduous and evergreen varieties, as well as tree and shrub forms. The presentation will delve into the landscape value and cultural adaptability of viburnums, discussing their use in both natural and cultivated settings. We will also cover soil and light preferences, and address IPM strategies for managing the viburnum leaf beetle. 

Vincent Simeone is the Director of Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park in Oyster Bay, NY. He received an AAS degree in ornamental horticulture from Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, New York and a BS in ornamental horticulture from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, where he studied under well-known professors Dr. Michael Dirr and Dr. Allan Armitage. Vincent has expertise in woody plant id, culture, and the use and selection of superior varieties. Vincent has won a number of awards, including the George L. Good Gold Medal of Horticulture from the New York State Nursery and Landscape Association in 2021. Vincent contributed to a first ever textbook on public garden management and has published seven gardening books of his own including a revised edition of a book on garden sustainability, titled Sustainable Gardening: Grow a “Greener” Low-Maintenance Landscape with Fewer Resources. For more information: www.vincentsimeone.com.

Our tropical summer weather is perfect for tropical plants. They can infuse the temperate landscape with vibrant energy and excitement, offering striking design elements during the hottest months of the growing season. However, many temperate gardeners, unfamiliar with these plants, may hesitate to experiment, concerned about ending up with gaudy Victorian bedding schemes or struggling with winter care. Marianne will present four memorable categories and share design tips aimed at enhancing the temperate garden without overwhelming it. She will highlight some spectacular examples suitable for containers and garden beds—many of which are surprisingly easy for home gardeners to overwinter. A plant list will also be provided.

Marianne Willburn is an opinion columnist for The American Gardener, published by the American Horticultural Society, and the author of Tropical Plants and How to Love Them and Big Dreams, Small Garden. She serves as a contributing editor at GardenRant.com, and her writings have appeared in prominent outlets such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, along with major magazines and national podcasts like Cultivating Place and A Way to Garden. With over a decade of experience as a newspaper columnist, Marianne has earned eight Gold and Silver Media Awards from Garden Communicators International (formerly GWA). Her latest book, Tropical Plants and How to Love Them garnered both Gold and Silver Media Awards for writing and design in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Peter Seabrook Practical Book of the Year by the Garden Media Guild (UK) in 2021. In 2013, she began an intensive gardening journey on ten acres in a rural area of Northern Virginia. Marianne shares her gardening experiences on Instagram (@marianne.willburn) and through her podcast, The Garden Mixer, co-hosted with Leslie Harris.

Most folks are familiar with the concept of the mixed border—perennials, annuals, shrubs and evergreens blended together in a seamless composition with year-round interest. It sounds good in theory, but transplanting this concept into a real garden is more difficult than it seems. Not all woody plants mix well with perennials and annuals for several reasons, including differing soil and fertilization needs, incompatible growth habits, aggressive root systems, or fear of crowds. This said, there is a number of native shrubs and small trees that mix wonderfully with herbaceous perennials and annuals. Many can even be cut back every year or two just like their non-woody neighbors to control their size and promote flowering and vigorous growth. In this talk, Bill Cullina will profile his favorite fifty “natural mixers,” focusing native woody plants that bring, form, texture, color and wildlife to the perennial garden.

William Cullina is the F. Otto Haas Executive Director of the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to this he was the President and CEO of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens for eleven years. Cullina holds degrees in plant science and psychology and has been working in public horticulture for 30 years. He has extensive experience in horticultural and forestry research and commercial nursery production. He has won several awards, including the Scott Medal and the Award of Excellence from the Garden Clubs of North America. A well-known author and recognized authority on North American native plants, Cullina lectures on a variety of subjects and writes for popular and technical journals. His books include Wildflowers, Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines, Understanding Orchids, Native Ferns, Mosses, and Grasses, and Understanding Perennials.

Writing The Yard with Tom Horton

Join renowned environmentalist Tom Horton on his journey from crabgrass to urban forest. In 15 years, he has filled his modest urban yard with over 100 species of predominately native trees and shrubs. It has become a habitat, in his words, “the soils allowed to utter all their notes rather than drone the tone of lawn.”   More than that, it has become a fertile seedbed for his writing and teaching. E. B. White said, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy” it. Tom will show us how he has managed to do both. Tom Horton needs no introduction to many of our members. An Eastern Shore native, he is the nation’s leading environmental journalist on the Chesapeake Bay. He has long written on environmental issues, for The Baltimore Sun from the early 1970s until 2006, for numerous magazines, and currently for the Bay Journal. He has produced documentaries on the Bay, is the author of eight books winning multiple awards and is an adjunct professor of Environmental Studies at Salisbury University.

Thank you to Pinehurst Landscape Company for their generous sponsorship of the September lecture.

Discover the art of cultivating a distinctive garden that reflects your aspirations and preferences. Join Allan Summers as he unveils his methodology for crafting extraordinary spaces, showcasing a variety of gardens that exemplify design principles, harmonious plant pairings, and various sources of inspiration.

Allan Summers is a principal in RAS Landscape Architects of Media, PA. He has a passion for horticulture and fine art and over 30 years’ experience providing planning and design services through all phases of landscape architecture from conception through final construction. His interests are reflected in a wide variety of projects.  Some of the work with which Allan has been involved will be familiar to many of you: RAS developed the site master plan and initial concepts for the entry and arrival sequence, parking, buildings, and the meadow garden at Delaware Botanic Gardens. They developed the Master Plan to guide the first phase of Chanticleer’s transition from private estate to public garden and developed the plans for the planted public parking area, visitor restrooms and circulation, and an arbor overlook at the ponds. They received the Trumbauer Award for providing the planning and expertise to oversee the full-scale historic restoration of the gardens at Nemours.

Special Thanks to Leigh Barnes for sponsoring our May lecture!

Choice Conifers of the Mid-Atlantic Landscape
with Joseph Meny

Conifers perform many functions in the garden. There is a huge variety well suited to our gardens in the Delaware, Maryland and Washington area. Joe Meny will discuss the considerations one should make before selecting a particular conifer for the landscape setting. He will then introduce us to varieties that showcase unique characteristics, illustrating how conifers can be both focal points and the backbone of the garden.

Joe Meny has been at the U. S. National Arboretum since 2007 and is now the horticulturist in the Conifer and Maple Collections. He is tasked with maintaining the aesthetic and cultural requirements of plants in the garden while directing the future development of these collections through new acquisitions and germplasm.

Special Thanks to Pinehurst Landscape Company for sponsoring our April lecture!

Understanding Your Soil
with Neith Little

Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Time: 7:30 pm,
Location: Vollmer Center at the Cylburn Arboretum

So much of the health of our gardens depends on what is happening underground. Gain a better understanding of basic soil principles and how we can use that information to improve our garden soils.  Unearth the science beneath your feet and cultivate a garden that flourishes from the ground up.

Neith Little has been the urban agriculture Extension Educator for Baltimore City since 2016. She has worked as an agricultural Extension Educator for Dakota County, Minnesota and as Assistant Grower at Hampshire College Farm. Neith earned an M.S. from Cornell University in Soil and Crop Sciences and a B.A. from College of the Atlantic in Human Ecology.

Special thanks go out to our March Lecture sponsor Babikow Wholesale Nursery.

The Diversity, Ecology, and Propagation of Native Plants, Take 2 featuring Stan Kollar

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm
Format: This lecture will be a Zoom webinar. The program begins promptly at 7:00. The virtual doors will open at 6:55. This event will be recorded, and the recording will be available to registered participants for one week after the lecture.
Cost: The lecture is free to members, $10 for non-members.

Join Stan Kollar as he returns to make the presentation meant for our April meeting last year. Explore the rich history and current challenges faced by the flora of eastern North America with Stan Kollar. From woodlands to successional fields, and unique habitats like bogs and serpentine barrens, we’ll delve into the fascinating world of diverse plant species, their ecology and their critical role in today’s environment. Discover the intriguing stories of many unique species that have either vanished or are in serious decline, prompting us to reflect on the importance of their preservation. Stan will encourage us to contribute to the conservation effort by transforming our gardens and properties into habitats and refugia. We can preserve these species until we, as a society, prioritize and invest more in the conservation of these vital plant species.

Stan Kollar, with a passion for plants and ecology since his days at UC Santa Barbara in 1972, brings a wealth of knowledge to our session. In 1985, he and his wife Sharon founded Kollar Nursery, specializing in the cultivation of native plants indigenous to eastern North America. Serving as a Professor of Biology and Earth Science at Harford County Community College from 1976 to 2017, Stan’s professional journey spans landscape design, wetland restoration, water quality improvement, forest conservation, renewable energy, and the restoration of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in the Chesapeake Bay. Having explored every state in the U.S. and 13 other countries, Stan is both a seasoned traveler and an accomplished photographer.

Planting for the Future, Right Tree, Right Place with Robert Shaut

Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Vollmer Center, Cylburn Arboretum
Cost: The lecture is free to members, $10 for non-members.

Registration: Registration is not required for the in person lecture. Members who wish to attend virtually must register, using the button below. The lecture will be recorded. The recording will be available for one week following the lecture only to those who have registered.

As gardeners, our mantra is “Right plant, right place.” For trees, this becomes even more important. Species selection is becoming more and more imperative for gardeners, horticulturists, arborists, and landscape designers. With more pronounced droughts and precipitation events and unpredictable weather, selecting species for future climates is our responsibility.

Learn how to cultivate biodiversity and adaptive species that can sustain the volatility of the future. Trees have a critical role in combating heat islands and air pollution and in stormwater mitigation, particularly in underserved communities.

Robert Shaut is Director of Tree Operations at Casey Tree, which plants more than 6,000 trees a year in Washington DC, and maintains thousands more.  Robert holds a degree in horticulture from Longwood Gardens, a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Clemson University, and studied at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, UK.

Special thanks go out to our December Lecture sponsor Alpine Tree Professional Tree Care.