with Myriam Gurba, author
Thursday, April 9, 2026 from 7-8 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members

Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and Beginnings is both a love letter to California and a literary tour de force that tells the story of resilience and reclamation through a relationship with plants, memory, myth, and indigenous knowledge. Author Myriam Gurba meditates on susto, a spiritual sickness specific to Latin America, and its culturally specific treatments such as herbalism, botanical spirits, and soil.

Myriam Gurba is a writer and activist. Her first book, the short story collection Dahlia Season, won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. O, the Oprah Magazine ranked her true-crime memoir Mean as one of the “Best LGBTQ Books of All Time.” Her recent essay collection Creep: Accusations and Confessions was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award for Criticism and won the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction. She has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Vox, and Paris Review. Her most recent book is Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings.

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with Thomas Rainer, principal, Phyto Studio
Thursday, April 16, 2026 from 7-8 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members

Vegetation is shifting in response to intensifying environmental pressures—from invasive species and habitat fragmentation to rising nutrient loads and imbalanced herbivore populations. Drawing from his firm Phyto Studio’s experience with high-visibility public projects, landscape architect Thomas Rainer shares actionable strategies for designing resilient plantings. Learn how to work with competitive dynamics, select vigorous native species, introduce designed stress through soil manipulation, and embrace adaptive management models that favor abundance. This talk offers a grounded path forward for planting in a rapidly changing world.

Thomas Rainer is a leading voice in ecological landscape design, pioneering a plant systems approach that anticipates a changing future. As a registered landscape architect based in Arlington, Virginia, Thomas reimagines ecological planting for gardens and public spaces, focusing on merging ecology with horticulture to shape resilient, adaptive landscapes that address today’s environmental challenges. His career features signature designs at landmark locations such as the Battery Park, Toronto Botanical Garden, and The New York Botanical Garden. He has designed over 125 residential gardens spanning from Maine to Florida. Thomas has taught planting design for the George Washington University Landscape Design program, as well as design workshops globally. He is the co-author of the bestselling Planting in a Post-Wild World with Claudia West.

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with Nancy Pappas, managing director, Headwaters at the Comal and John Asher, landscape designer, Blackland Collaborative
Friday, April 24, 2026 from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. CT
New Braunfels, TX
$50 AHS members/$60 non-members

The Headwaters at the Comal sits at a remarkable moment in its transformation, and visitors on this tour will experience all three chapters of its story firsthand. The journey begins in the recently completed past: a former industrial hardscape now reimagined as a Low Impact Development parking lot and entrance garden, where native plants, rain gardens, and swales intercept and treat stormwater before it ever reaches the Comal River watershed. The tour then moves into the living present. The approximately quarter mile trail walk winds through established landscape born from a major 2016-2017 restoration that diverted over 12,000 pounds of pollutants from the Comal’s headwater spring run and has since matured into a thriving corridor of biodiversity offering rare refuge for native species in a region where natural habitat is rapidly disappearing. Finally, the group will witness the future taking shape in real time: the ongoing removal of remaining asphalt and impervious cover, and the conversion of existing structures into interpretive nature centers for the community. This is restoration not as a finished product, but as a living process and this tour offers a front-row seat.

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with Colah Tawkin, podcaster
Thursday, May 7, 2026 from 2-3 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members

Join Colah B. Tawkin, creator of podcast Black in the Garden, for a conversation reflecting on the podcast’s highlights and impact, the future of horticultural communication, insights on land stewardship and farming heritage, and all things Black and botanical.

Colah B. Tawkin, creator of Black in the Garden, is a ‘plantrepreneur’, podcaster, and the guide to all things Black and botanical. Since 2019, she has produced more than 150 episodes about farming heritage, food sovereignty, cooperative economics, and land stewardship. Black in the Garden has been distributed by the NPR podcast network in production at WABE Studios in Atlanta, GA. The show has reached over 100 countries, serving a global audience with top ratings and multiple-year features on Apple Podcasts Black History Month Collection. Colah has collaborated with the Smithsonian Gardens, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Atlanta Botanical Garden. She has given TEDx talks, been honored as a Cultivator of Celebration by Cornell Botanic Gardens, and been commissioned by The Atlanta History Center to curate The Botanical Black History podcast series.

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with Michael Guidi, manager of horticulture research programs, Denver Botanic Gardens
Thursday, May 14, 2026 from 2-3 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members

Shrublands exist all around us, thriving in almost any environmental condition, from the desiccating sunshine of the endless sagebrush steppe to the deep, private shade of moist forests. These diverse and inspiring ecosystems serve as perfect models for our gardens. Beyond their inherent beauty, they provide nurturing habitats, demonstrate resilience in the face of a changing climate, and offer a challenge to conventional garden-making through their intense aesthetics and obscured intentions. Join coauthor Michael Guidi of Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic Planting Inspired by Wild Shrublands to explore a glorious spectrum of wild shrublands and discover the philosophies and design strategies for bringing these magnificent plant communities into your home garden.

Michael Guidi is the Manager of Horticulture Research Programs at Denver Botanic Gardens, where he integrates scientific research, ecological theory, and practical horticulture to promote resilient plant choices and landscape strategies. His work spans a wide range of topics, including plant breeding, plant tissue culture, direct-seeded vegetation, and green infrastructure. An advocate for dynamic, self-sustaining gardens, he demonstrates how thoughtful planting design can enhance biodiversity, bolster ecological resilience, and improve human well-being. In 2024, he coauthored Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic Plantings Inspired by Wild Shrublands, a book that explores the biology, philosophical foundations, and landscape potential of shrubland habitats worldwide. Michael holds a master’s degree in Ecology from Colorado State University.

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with Richard Hayden, AHS board member and senior director of horticulture, The High Line
Friday, May 15, 2026 from 10-11:30 a.m. ET
New York, NY
$40 AHS members/$50 non-members

The High Line gardens are famous for their lush and emotionally evocative four-season design and the High Line continues to evolve, responding to a changing city and a maturing tree canopy requiring careful curation from a talented team of horticulturists. Join Richard Hayden, Senior Director of Horticulture, for a tour and deep dive into the stewardship techniques employed, the iconic plants and the ecological function of this reclaimed railway garden. We’ll also tour two new garden sections designed by Piet Oudolf, whose original design and long term collaboration with the High Line has helped to keep the garden at the forefront of public gardens, prompting the New York Times to label it ‘One of the 25 Must See Gardens of the World.’  

Richard Hayden is a passionate horticulturist dedicated to an ecological and naturalistic approach to garden care and design. Since 2022 he has served as the Senior Director of Horticulture at the High Line where he leads a team of horticulturists in the stewardship and public programming of an historic, elevated rail line on the west side of Manhattan that was reclaimed to become a biodiverse public garden with naturalistic plantings designed by Piet Oudolf.

Hayden previously served as Assistant Deputy Director at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLA), where he was the primary project manager for the reimagining of the La Brea Tar Pits Museum and eleven acre park site. He also oversaw the Nature Gardens at NHMLA, a wildlife habitat garden, where he collaborated with scientists, educators and interpreters to promote the garden as a leading site for the study of urban nature. 

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with Andrew Fisher Tomlin, author and director of environmental design, London College of Garden Design
Friday, May 8, 2026 from 2-3 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members

There are many different approaches we can take to filling our gardens, landscapes and lives with plants. In this talk based on his new book, The Modern Professional Planting Designer, Andrew Fisher Tomlin will reveal some of the tools that will help you achieve professional-level solutions in planting. He will explore the difference between ornamental, naturalistic and nature-based planting design and discuss a guiding framework to support the development of your own planting design choices. With examples of real-life projects in Europe and the USA, he will finish with a preview of the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Andrew Fisher Tomlin is widely acknowledged as leading the development of a distinct professional career path in planting design through his own work and as a director of the internationally renowned London College of Garden Design in London and Melbourne where he has mentored some of the most exciting new designers coming out of the UK and Australia over the past 20 years. Andrew is a Chartered Horticulturist and a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers in the UK and has received design awards in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. He also teaches students of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and has given papers at institutions worldwide such as the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

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with Dr. Jared Barnes, professor, Stephen F. Austin State University
Thursday, May 21, 2026 from 7-8 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members

While the American South houses incredible plant diversity, its gardens rarely reflect that richness. Join Dr. Jared Barnes as he shares his approach to naturalistic plantings that are both ecologically grounded and beautiful. In this spirited presentation, we’ll cover ecological principles and planting strategies for crafting sustainable gardens that are suited to the Southern landscape and some of his favorite heat tolerant plants.

Cultivating plants and cultivating minds, Dr. Jared Barnes is an award-winning associate professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University where he stewards the Plantery, SFASU’s student botanic garden. He is the author of The New York Times–featured newsletter plant•ed and host of The Plantastic Podcast. His passion has been recognized by peers in numerous interviews, including NY Times, Horticulture, People, Organic Gardening, Greenhouse Grower, AmericanHort Connect, Ken Druse’s Real Dirt, and Nursery Management, and his articles have appeared in Horticulture, The American Gardener, and Fine Gardening. Dr. Barnes holds his Ph.D. in horticultural science from North Carolina State and is the recipient of several awards, including awards from the Perennial Plant Association. His family garden was featured in the 2025 book Gardens of Texas by Pam Penick.

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with Melissa Ozawa, director of content & communications, Perfect Earth Project
Thursday, May 28, 2026 from 2-3 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members

Through the nature-embracing lens of Perfect Earth Project, renowned garden writer and editor Melissa Ozawa will reflect on how her career has shifted her perspective on the purposes of landscape cultivation. Part presentation and part conversation, this contemplative program will serve as a catalyst to reconsider what and why beauty can mean in the garden.

Melissa Ozawa is the director of content & communications for Perfect Earth Project. Her love for gardens and nature began when she was a small child in Tokyo, playing among the cherry blossoms in Aoyama cemetery and irises at the Nezu museum garden. She has been writing and editing stories about gardening and sustainability for more than two decades and was recently the features and garden editor at Martha Stewart Living, where she traveled around the country to create and write stories for more than 10 years. She has also held editorial roles at House & Garden and Country Living magazines, and worked at the Garden Conservancy, planning garden tours and national lecture series. She got her start at the Academy of American Poets, where she was editor of the journal American Poet and helped to promote a slate of national literary programs. She lives in New York City and works in her garden in New York’s Columbia County every chance she can. 

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with Christin Geall, author and floral designer
Friday, May 29, 2026 from 2-3 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members

Our love of flowers and desire to be close to them has, across cultures and for millennia, created both landscapes and livelihoods. In this talk, Flora Culture author Christin Geall will take us on a journey across continents to explore the origins of some familiar garden favourites. By weaving her narrative between art, ecology, science, and history, Geall will get you thinking about your relationships to flowers, fashion, gardens and design.

Christin Geall is a writer, designer, and photographer whose work focuses on the intersections of nature, culture, and horticulture. She is the author of Flora Culture: How Flowers Shape Our World (2026) and Cultivated: The Elements of Floral Style (2020).

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