2015 Native Plant Symposium
Brown University | September 19, 2015
⇒ the intersection of ecology and traditional horticulture from late 19th century practitioners to the present
⇒ managing the existing native plants in our landscape so they expand and thrive
⇒ the importance of collecting, saving, and propagating genetically diverse local seed essential to creating biodiverse and resilient landscapes
⇒ the challenges and rewards of saving, collecting and propagating native plants from seeds
Watch Our Speakers
Locally Sourced: The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Expands Its Native Flora Collection
Uli Lorimer is the Curator of Native Flora at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardenand Program Chair for the Torrey Botanical Society.
Seed: A Critical Natural Resource
Edward Toth is the director of the Greenbelt Native Plant Centeroperated by the City of New York, Department of Parks.
Wild + Neat: Native Plants that Bridge the Gap Between Horticulture + Ecology
Claudia West is the ecological sales manager at North Creek Nurseries, in Landenberg, PA.
The Self-Perpetuating Garden: Setting Processes in Motion
Larry Weaner is the founder of Larry Weaner Landscape Associates in Glenside, PA.
Conservation by Design: Native Gardens Past + Present
Bob Grese is a Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan, Director of the Mattaei Botanical Gardens + Nichols Arboretum, and editor of The Native Landscape Reader.
From our archives …
2013: Challenges of a Changing Landscape – from your garden to the New England Forest
The best hope for nature is to change the way we look at the natural world. Society is constantly undergoing an ethical evolution, and we’re in the process of learning that creatures other than human beings have value. We need a broader consciousness of the importance of our environment – it’s not just about what we want. This was the message brought by Bill Cullina in his keynote address, “New England Landscape Dynamics – A Long View,” and echoed by other speakers at the 2013 Native Plant Conference. Cullina, Executive Director of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, gave an overview of geographic changes in plant populations of the eastern United States following the last continental glaciation, described present-day biological “hot spots” of rare native plants, and went on to discuss the likely effects of global climate change on changes in hardiness zones of plants, the geographic distribution of common native plants, and the survival of rare plant species. From this perspective he addressed the challenge of what policies and practices should guide our stewardship of our landscapes, a challenged addressed in a variety of ways throughout the day.
