Native Green Roofs: Natural Applications for Artificial Conditions | Ethan Dropkin & Laura Hansplant

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By drawing inspiration from plant communities with similar conditions, we can create green roofs that are ecologically complex, highly resilient, and provide significant ecological benefits. Maintenance requirements, typically high on traditional roof gardens, can also be reduced. This session will use case studies to illustrate ecological, horticultural, and engineering techniques for designing green roofs as high-performing elevated habitat.

Friday, March 5th, 2021 | 1:00 – 4:30 PM EST

Fire and the Landscape: Safety, Ecology, and Cultural Practice

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Ecologist Eric Knapp will discuss redesigning the near-home landscape to improve the odds of wildfire survival. He will demonstrate how designers can use plant selection, plant arrangement, prescribed burning, and other approaches to avoid denuding the landscape in the name of fire safety. Margo Robbins will then demonstrate the benefits of fire as a land restoration tool, and how controlled burns can help protect communities from wildfire.

Nursery to Design: Plant Purchasing and Site Layout for Native Landscape Projects

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The ecology-based landscape movement is slowly changing the way plants are being grown, procured and planted. This includes alterations in species, propagation technique, size, packaging, site layout, and the expanded use of seed. In these presentations a nursery grower, seed producer, and landscape contractor will illustrate what designers and planters need to know about new developments in how to handle plants and seeds before and after arriving at a project site.

Fostering Spontaneous Regeneration of Native Species: Releasing the Potential | Daniela Shebitz, Emile DeVito, Kelly Gutshall, and Justin Spangler

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Part One | A New Jersey Pine Barrens Case Study – Daniela Shebitz, Emile DeVito
Through this presentation, we will discuss how in communities without invasive species,
restoring a natural hydrological or fire regime can be enough to foster spontaneous native species regeneration from existing plants and seed banks. We will illustrate how native wetland communities were restored, without planting, on a series of retired cranberry bogs. Atlantic white-cedar
(Chamaecyparis thyoides) swamps were used as a reference site, and we found that all sites where natural systems were re-established were recovering strong native plant communities, regardless of the level of previous disturbance and restoration activities.

Part Two | Restoring Floodplains and Releasing the Hidden Seed Legacy – Kelly Gutshall, Justin Spangler
Our seemingly pristine streams and woodlands are teeming with clues of the dramatic alterations that resulted from massive deforestation and a dependence on a water powered industrial past. Before restoring our streams and floodplains, we must understand how this legacy continues to challenge our water resources with issues we are facing today… flood resiliency, water quality, and biodiversity. These challenges also offer opportunities for spontaneous regeneration of threatened and endangered species of plants and harbor animals dependent on these sensitive ecosystems.

Wednesday, February 10th, 2021 | 1:00 – 4:30 PM EST

Research into Landscape | Larry Weaner and Steven Handel

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Ecologists at universities, professional societies, and other scientific institutions commonly engage in research to better understand how plants operate in the wild. Unfortunately, landscape designers rarely access the resulting data or use it to enhance their projects. In this presentation, ecologist Stephen Handel and landscape designer Larry Weaner will present detailed case studies where research data was directly applied to the planted landscape. Examples will vary in scale from restoration to residential, and illustrate the concrete benefits that can be derived when designers seek out information from the highly relevant world of ecological restoration.

Tuesday, January 26th, 2021 | 1:00 – 4:30 PM EST

Distilling Nature’s Essence in the Garden | Arthur Joura & Patrick Chassé

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Part One | Learning by Seeing – Arthur Joura
What greater purpose does landscaping serve than keeping human beings attached to nature? For designers to achieve such a purpose, it is most desirable for them to study the natural example, and contemplate how it affects all of us. This is true whether the designed environment covers acres or, as in the Bonsai tradition, it can be held in two hands. This program features miniature living landscapes, some depicting real places and some imaginary, but all built upon the foundation of seeing the natural example.

Part Two | Gardens in the Mind’s Eye – Patrick Chassé
Many artists have explored new ways of looking at the world and expanded on traditional ways of expressing their ideas visually. In this presentation, master designer Patrick Chassé will explore how landscape practitioners can find and use “parallel” ideas by other creative artists. He will also illustrate how art can help designers express these ideas to clients in ways that garden plans and renderings cannot equal.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2021 | 1:00 – 4:30 PM EST

Landscape Learning Threads – Observation and Analysis into Practice | Ian Caton and Larry Weaner

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Long-term observation of a plant’s behavior in the wild can yield valuable insight into its likely behavior in a garden. If that insight is applied to other similar species, that value is multiplied. In this presentation Larry and Ian will show how observation and ecologically-informed analysis shaped their understanding of how, where, and why wild indigenous species succeed or fail in cultivated settings. Finally, they will informally discuss some of the pivotal projects, conversations, and realizations that transpired during their long-time landscape collaboration.

Monday, January 4th, 2021 | 1:00 – 4:30 PM EST

Heavenly Plants for Tough Spots and Hellstrips

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Landscaping in challenging sites can be an exasperating exercise. This presentation features superhero plants that thrive in dry shade; hot, sandy locations; wet areas, on slopes; and in hellstrips between sidewalk and street curb. Kerry Ann Mendez is an award-winning speaker, author and garden designer.

Power Up Garden Beauty; Power Down Garden Maintenance

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Kerry Ann Mendez is an award-winning speaker, author and garden designer.
This event will feature:
– How to get more bang for your buck with some amazing perennials, flowering shrubs, and annuals that provide much more color than commonly planted varieties
– Underused beauties (many of which are natives or nativars) that are pollinator-friendly and require less water
– Ways to reduce the amount of maintenance needed to keep your garden looking fabulous
– Plants for all light conditions, ranging from Zones 3 to 9, will be featured.

National Children & Youth Garden Symposium

The National Children & Youth Garden Symposium (NCYGS) is the only national event of its kind dedicated to providing training and networking opportunities for educators that are working with young people in school, community, and public gardens and other green spaces. NCYGS 2021 will take place virtually July 7-9.