Happy Earth Day! Earth Day reminds us to look at the beauty around us and to do our part in sustaining it. One of the many ways we can contribute to sustainability is by having sustainable gardens. Healthy soil, water usage, supporting animals and insects, selecting plants that are compatible with the environment, and using environmentally friendly gardening tools are all ways to become more sustainable. Let’s grow a greener future together!
The American Horticultural Society is pleased to announce the return of its national speaker series featuring current and past winners of the Great American Gardeners Awards and Book Awards. Since 1953, the AHS has been using these award programs to recognize and celebrate horticultural champions that represent the best in American gardening. This dedicated webinar series will provide an additional spotlight on these outstanding individuals.
In a lively and engaging conversational format, speakers will share their knowledge and experience with our event host, Holly Shimizu, gardener to gardener. Holly is a nationally recognized horticulturist with a rich background in public gardens and garden communication. At the end of the discussion, guests will have the opportunity to ask questions.
Wednesday, May 10 at 7pm ET
Dr. Doug Tallamy, University of Delaware
Winner of the B.Y. Morrison Communication Award (2018)
Wednesday, June 14 at 7pm ET
Ira Wallace, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Winner of the Paul Ecke Jr. Commercial Award (2019)
Wednesday, August 23 at 7pm ET
Dr. Lucinda McDade, California Botanic Garden and Claremont Graduate University
Winner of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award (2021)
The series is free. RSVP required.
AHS is once again proudly sponsoring the New Directions in The American Landscape (NDAL) Virtual Education Series this spring, March through April. Registration will be open and recordings will be viewable for three months after each live session date. CEU’s available (APLD, LA CES, NOFA). Registration is now available.
Join Junior Master Gardener for their Virtual 2023 National Leader Training, February 21-22. This is a great opportunity for teachers, administrators, and program leaders to learn how to implement best practices, how to involve parents and students into programming, and how to build sustainability.
Keynote speakers:
To learn more about the JMG National Leader Training, visit www.jmgkids.us
JGM partners with AHS on the “Growing Good Kids – Excellence in Children’s Literature” award that honors best new children’s books about gardening and nature. Winners are announced at the AHS National Children & Youth Symposium. Learn more about the Growing Good Kids Book Awards.
One of the benefits of joining AHS is receiving The American Gardener, our award-winning magazine published six times a year exclusively for AHS members. It showcases insightful, educational stories and regional events for novice and master gardeners.
We’d like to share one of the articles with everyone: “New Plants for 2023,” by Clair Splan. She shares what new plants readers should watch for in 2023. Colorful annuals, adaptive perennials, persistent shrubs, and tasty edibles are all forthcoming.
Splan writes, “Most of these plants have been carefully hybridized to meet a particular need, such as improved hardiness, a more desirable size or form, better or longer blooming, or increased diseased resistance. Some may be heritage varieties that had disappeared from production long ago and are being brought back to a gardening community that has become more appreciative of plants with a pedigree.”
AHS is proud to be America’s resource for gardening, and this article and these new plant species deserve your attention. No matter where you garden throughout the country, we’re sure you’ll find something to add to your garden!
Not a member of AHS? Join today for as low as $35 per year at ahsgardening.org.
We are thrilled to be co-sponsoring this year’s incredible Colonial Williamsburg’s 76th Annual Garden Symposium: Digging the Garden: Horticulture, History & Archeology, to be held April 27-30. Join renowned horticulturists, archaeologists, historians, and guest experts as they examine best practices through an historical lens, using the past to inform the present and future
Guest Speakers include:
Register today. Virtual and in-person offerings.
Join Kerry Mendez for the Perennially Yours Webinar Series. The series, co-sponsored by AHS, Avant Gardens, Bluestone Perennials, Espoma, Great Garden Plants, and Plantskydd Animal Repellents, focuses on the art of high-impact, low maintenance, sustainable flower gardening and landscaping. Each webinar, held on a Saturday at 11 a.m. ET, includes detailed lecture notes and a CEU form for Master Gardeners and Green Industry Professionals. Individual webinars are $13.95. Bundle prices also available. Register today.
Join influential Landscape Designer Larry Weaner and native plant expert Ian Caton as they explore the integration of restoration ecology and fine garden design. Applicable Regions: Eastern and Midwestern U.S. (Florida excluded). Presented by New Directions in the American Landscape (NDAL), the virtual sessions are $105 each and include a 100+ page, login-protected course manual. The session will be recorded live and viewable to registrants for three months after each live session date. Register today.
December 1, 1-4:30 PM EST
The Canopied Landscape: Woodlands, Edges, and Hedgerows
An ecology-based approach to woodland design is more like guiding a vegetative process than implementing a static planting plan. Guided succession can foster the orderly transformation from an open field to a multi-tiered forest through planting, managed natural recruitment, or a combination of the two. Under existing canopy, where few herbaceous species can be established through direct seeding, we will discuss the planting of small “seed source colonies,” and management strategies to encourage their proliferation into the larger landscape. Management techniques that are unique to woodlands including selective height cutting, sunlight manipulation, and assisted seed dispersal, will also be described in detail.
December 2, 1-4:30 PM EST
The Artistic Overlay: Making “Wild” Legible
Ecological design need not be a bitter aesthetic pill that our clients must swallow to do the right thing. The order inherent in our wild native landscapes is widely considered beautiful. By translating that ecology-based order into the aesthetically based language of fine garden design, the results can be much more universally embraced by our clients. In addition, Larry will illustrate how highly gardenesque – and even formal – elements can gracefully interact and intermingle with wilder woodland, shrubland and meadow compositions. This approach can result in landscapes that are both ecologically productive and visually pleasing to clients with a variety of aesthetic preferences.
December 15, 1-4:30 PM EST
Plants of the Open Landscape: Meadows, Old Fields, and Shrublands
In this session, native plant authority Ian Caton will examine plants of the open landscape that exemplify the ecological characteristics described by Larry Weaner in previous sessions. His presentation will span the successional period from herbaceous meadow, to mixed woody/herbaceous old field, to the ecologically important but often neglected clonal shrub thicket. He will also present a group of “workhorse” native species for the sunlit landscape that combine reliability and weed suppression with attractive aesthetic character.
December 16, 1-4:30 PM EST
Plants of the Canopied Landscape: Woodlands, Edges, and Hedgerows
In this session, native plant authority Ian Caton will examine plants of the canopied landscape that exemplify the ecological characteristics described by Larry Weaner in previous sessions. His presentation will include plants found at all of the woodland’s vertical layers, from canopy to understory. He will also discuss their specific abilities to integrate with the unique colonization strategies inherent in woodland development and enhancement. Finally, Ian will present a group of “workhorse” native species for the woodland, including those that combine reliability with desirable aesthetic characteristics.