Schedule

8:00-9:00 Breakfast/Sales/Garden Auction

9:00-9:15 Opening Remarks and Welcome

9:15-10:15 Roy Diblik-The Art of Developing Perennial Plant Patterns

10:15-10:45 Coffee Break/Sales/Garden Auction

10:45-11:45 Anthony Aiello-The Five W’s of Plant Exploration—Who, What, Where, When and Why

11:45-12:45 Lunch/Sales/Garden Auction/Slide Show

12:45-1:45 Holly Shimizu-How Climate Change Will Affect Our Gardens

1:45-2:15 Coffee Break/Sales/Garden Auction

2:15-3:15 Brie Arthur-The Foodscape Revolution

3:15-3:30 Closing Remarks and Announcement of Garden Auction Winners

Registration

Registration Form

Registration is by mail and must be postmarked by March 2, 2019.  Mail your completed registration form with your check payable to RMGofMC to:  Suzanne Hickman, 15 Farm Road, Ewing, New Jersey 08638. The cost is $80 if postmarked by February 16, 2019; $90 after that. If you have questions, contact Suzanne Hickman at 609-883-6397 or send an email to RMGofMCSymposium@gmail.com. Carpooling is recommended.

Boxed Lunch Choices

HONEY BAKED HAM on croissant, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, potato chips and chocolate chip cookie

TUNA SALAD on sliced multigrain, lettuce, tomato, potato chips, chocolate chip cookie

VEGETARIAN on sliced multigrain, cucumber, green bell peppers, provolone, lettuce, tomato, olives, potato chips and chocolate chip cookie

GLUTEN FREE Chef salad with ham, turkey, swiss and cheddar, tomato, fresh leaf lettuce, potato chips

The Speakers

Roy Diblik is a recognized perennial plant expert, grower, designer, speaker and author. Combining his 35 years of knowledge growing traditional and Midwest native perennials, he specializes in highly aesthetic, sustainable plant communities for all seasons, while reducing maintenance through design. He believes that gardens should be thoughtful, ecologically directed, emotionally outreaching and yet very personal. Roy’s recent work includes a planting of the new Oceanarium at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and a garden for the modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is best known as the plantsman behind Piet Oudolf’s midwestern garden designs, including the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago.

A natural plantsman, Roy also found time to write The Know-Maintenance Perennial Garden (Timber Press). This book manages to bring the whole subject of planting design refreshingly down to earth. http://northwindperennialfarm.com/

The Art of Developing Perennial Plant Patterns

Your possibilities are limitless, by understanding how plants grow from youth to maturity and their individual characteristics and cultural needs you can combine plants socially to create healthy, long lived gardens.   We will talk about a few plants, understand their relationships to others and apply these practices to all plants that you desire to come to know.

Anthony Aiello is The Gayle E. Maloney Director of Horticulture and Curator at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has managed the Morris Arboretum’s historic gardens and living collections since 1999. This position has allowed him to travel throughout the U.S., Europe, and China to find novel plants suitable for growing in the Delaware Valley. He has a B.S. from Cornell University and M.S. from Purdue University and for many years chaired the North America-China Plant Exploration Consortium (NACPEC). Recently, he travelled with colleagues to China to study the genetic diversity of the endangered paperbark maple (Acer griseum). A native Philadelphian (and long-suffering Philly sports fan), he has written extensively about his travels, a variety of trees and shrubs, and the history of horticulture. http://www.morrisarboretum.org/

The Five W’s of Plant Exploration—Who, What, Where, When and Why

Drawing on his domestic and international experiences, Tony will answer the who, what, where, when and why of plant exploration.  In this presentation, he will discuss how domestic and international plant collecting can expand our range of plant choices and address environmental and biological challenges currently facing plants in the landscape. He also will describe the process of plant exploration, and profile promising plants that have resulted from 30 plus years of exploration by the Morris Arboretum and its partners.

Holly Shimizu is a nationally recognized horticulturist, consultant, and educator. With a rich background in all aspects of public gardens, extensive experience leading garden tours and workshops, and a proven commitment to plant conservation and sustainability, she has been making plants and gardens more accessible and exciting to both professionals and amateurs for over four decades. She has served as Executive Director of the U.S Botanic Garden in Washington, DC and was the first curator of the National Herb Garden at the U.S. National Arboretum. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Horticultural Society, the American Botanical Council, and the Southern Delaware Botanical Garden, as well as lead of the Environmental Committee of Glen Echo, MD. Holly is the recipient of multiple awards. Together with her husband, Osamu, a garden designer whom she met while working in Europe, Holly designed and maintains award-winning gardens at their home near the Potomac River in Glen Echo, MD, and around their 1730 house in Lewes, Delaware. Fiddlehead Cottage (adjacent to the Lewes house and co-owned with Carole Ottesen) opened in June 2017 and sells vintage and one-of-a-kind garden finds and furnishings. http://hollyshimizu.com/

How Climate Change Will Affect Our Gardens

As gardeners we have the ability, even in our own small way, to have a positive impact on the health of our surroundings by making wise decisions especially related to plant choices, water issues, and garden style. With the climate changing, we see changes in the seasonal life cycle affecting blooming times, migration and mating seasons. If migrants arrive before or after food sources are available then growth and survival are reduced. With more unpredictable weather, more intense heat, wet, and storms we benefit from having rich genetic diversity to increase the ability for plants to adapt.

Holly will explore changes in herbs and use her new garden in Lewes, Delaware as an example of how our climate has changed and focus on the herbs that are thriving.

Brie Arthur is a passionate leader in the Foodscape movement, a model of community development that incorporates sustainable, local food production. She speaks on a variety of horticulture topics around the country and has appeared as a correspondent on the PBS television show Growing A Greener World. In her debut book, The Foodscape Revolution, Brie shares garden advice with those excited about the future of growing with ecological, economic and nutritional sensibilities.

In 2017 Brie was awarded the first ‘Emerging Professional’ distinction by the American Horticultural Society and was named in Grower Product News class of 2016 40 under 40. As founder of Emergent: A Group For Growing Professionals, Brie encourages an open dialogue and networking opportunities between seasoned professionals and rising green industry members. She is Vice-President of the International Plant Propagators Society Southern Region and will serve as President in 2020. Brie is also on the board of directors for the North Carolina Botanical Garden Foundation and served as GWA (Garden Writers of America) National Director of Region IV from 2015-2018, representing garden communicators across the southeast US.

Looking to the future, Brie continues to travel extensively sharing wisdom and humor with diverse audiences. Her second book, Gardening with Grains published by St Lynn’s Press, will be available in 2019. https://www.briegrows.com/

The Foodscape Revolution          

Brie has fine-tuned her signature design technique of Foodscaping, a sustainable landscape practice that embraces beauty and utility. Working with public school systems and suburban developments, Brie is the changing the way green spaces are designed and utilized.   Encouraging everyone to “think outside of the box,” learn how pairing edibles in a traditional ornamental landscape increases bio-diversity and adds purpose to everyday spaces. The best edible and ornamental plant combinations are featured to inspire attendees to create purposeful landscapes that engage people of all ages! Easy strategies are explained, including how to plant a bed edge to deter moles and voles. This is a fast faced, informative presentation that leaves attendees inspired and ready to foodscape!