One of the best ways to learn about gardening is to learn from the Masters. And one of the best way to hear the Masters, if you cannot attend Horticulture Schools, is to attend plant conferences. These conferences are given all around the US as well as other countries and are generally open to the public.
An excellent conference is the Perennial Plant Conference co-sponsored by Chanticleer Gardens, the Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group, Longwood Gardens, The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and The Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College. These are all power groups in horticulture and the speakers they get for the conference are internationally known in the plant world. Also, the conference is part of the Continuing Education program of Longwood Gardens.
This year the Perennial Plant Conference will be on Friday, October 17, 2008 and will be held at the Lang Performing Arts Center, Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA.
Two of this year’s speakers are from England, a country with some of the most glorious gardens. David Jewell who writes for the Royal Horticultural Society journal “The Garden” will be talking about perennials in the RHS garden, Wisley, and Keith Wiley will talk about gardening ideas to be found in nature. Besides these two speaker there will be other gardening gurus including Scott Ogden and Lauren Ogden, authors who recently co-authored a new book from Timber Press, “Plant Driven Design.” They will talk about garden design.
You will get to tour the lovely gardens at Swarthmore College. The Scott Arboretum and gardens on the ampus are some of the major show gardens in the area. You will also be able to tour the new Swarthmore College roof gardens. Roof gardens are one of the hottest ideas in environmental gardens. If you have time, also visit the James R. Frorer Holly Collection at Swarthmore College. This is one of the largest collection of holly trees in the US.
Go online and get the Perennial Plant Conference form or phone Longwood Gardens and register for this Perennial Plant Conference right away. This is a popular conference that fills up quickly.
Here at the Scott Arboretum we are excited to be hosting the Perennial Plant Conference again this year. I have two corrections to the information above. You can phone Longwood Gardens to have your questions answered, but you can not register by phone. Simply print off the registration form http://www.perennialplantconference.org/ and mail it to Longwood Gardens.
Longwood Gardens is a co-sponsoring institution for this conference, but this not part of their continuing education program.
I look forward to see everyone at the conference.
Sincerely,
Becky Robert