2024 OHIO LANDSCAPE PLANT SYMPOSIUM

Kick-off spring with a full-day horticultural extravaganza at Secrest Arboretum featuring nationally-recognized speakers. If you love plants like we do, this is an event you can’t miss!

Cost: $85.00 per person; lunch is included

Speakers:

• Tony Avent, Proprietor, Plant Delights Nursery
  • Southern Plants for Northern Climates: Due to an array of glaciation events, many plants moved south to escape the cold, far from their genetic origins, resulting in unexpected winter hardiness. We’ll explore some exceptional perennials with southern roots that have great potential for Zone 5/6 gardeners.
• Andrew Bunting, V.P. of Horticulture, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
  • Magnolias for the Midwest: In this presentation, Andrew Bunting, Vice President of Horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and author of “The Plant Lover’s Guide to Magnolias”, will explore the best-of-the-best for magnolias that will thrive in the Midwest, including several native magnolia varieties. This lecture will cover both species and cultivars alike, and will detail the attributes of each magnolia, including how they can be used in the landscape, cultural considerations, pruning, and more. Andrew will also discuss some of the best mail order nurseries where these magnolias can be found.

• Ed Lyon, Director, Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University

  • ​​​​​​​From Bringing Nature Home to The New Wild: A Balanced Perspective on Gardening in the Future: Our ecosystems will collapse if we don't garden with all natives. The species that conservationists fear most are precisely the ones that nature needs most. Two contradictory statements, which is right? These are perhaps the most challenging times for gardeners in history. Conventional narrative is that climate change may be leading the world toward what some term as the earth's sixth great mass extinction. We all want to garden with ecological responsibility but where does advocacy become activism and what are the truths behind the controversy and hype? More than ever, we need open minds and accurate science-based education; Ed Lyon will delve deeply into some of those issues in this presentation.

• Richard Olsen, Director, U.S. National Arboretum​​​​​​​

  • Where the Wild Things Are: The role of cultivation in plant conservation: Through history, gardeners have served as a vast contingent of citizen scientists preserving plant diversity. Cultivating a plant is, more and more, an act of conservation. As such, this talk will celebrate the role gardeners play in ensuring future generations experience the wonders of the plant kingdom. In the process, will highlight examples of plants in our gardens and the community of gardens, public and private, collaborating on cultivating the world’s flora.

• Tim Wood, Product Development & Marketing Manager, Spring Meadow Nursery​​​​​​​
  • The Hunt for New, and Better Plants: Every new plant has a story. Join Tim Wood, plant hunter, shrub breeder and plant enthusiast as he takes you on a plant hunting journey in search of new and useful woody plants. Get to know some great new plants, the interesting people behind them, and what makes them better for growers, garden centers and gardeners.   ​​​​​​​

Sponsored by:

Friends of Secrest Arboretum, Ohio Landscape Association, Bartlett Tree Experts, and Kingwood Center Gardens