Past Speakers
2024
C. Colston Burrell is an acclaimed lecturer, garden designer, award-winning author, and photographer. A certified chlorophyll addict, Cole is an avid and lifelong plantsman, gardener, and naturalist. He has twice won the American Horticulture Society Book Award for Hellebores: A Comprehensive Guide and A Gardener’s Encyclopedia of Wildflowers. Cole received the Award of Distinction from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers for his work promoting sustainable gardening practices.
Cultivar Wars: Are Native Cultivars Destroying Biodiversity
2023
Sara Zwede, Assistant Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Hebbert Award for Contribution to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT and the Silberburg Memorial Award for Urban Design.
Ecologies of Memory
2022
Rebecca McMackin, Horticulturist & Garden Designer; former Director of Horticulture at the Brooklyn Bridge Botanical Garden, 2010-2022
New Techniques in Ecological Horticulture: Beauty & Butterflies at Brooklyn Bridge Park
2020
Dan Pearson, British Landscape Designer, Horticulturist, Writer, and Gardener:
Human | Nature : How Horticulture & Design Can Re-engage Us with the Natural World
2019
Dr. Peter Zale, Ph.D
Plant Exploration at Longwood Gardens: Past, Present, and Future
2018
Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator and Director of Outreach at the Denver Botanic Gardens
From Denver to Seattle, A Shared Gardening Tradition
2017
Anna Pavord, noted author and lecturer
Landskipping – A Celebration of our Landscape
2016
Dr. Ari Novy, Executive Director US Botanic Garden
A Fresh Approach to the Urban Landscape
2015
Helen Dillon
The Evolution of an Irish Garden
2014
Valerie Easton, writer, author and former manager of the Elisabeth C. Miller Library; Daniel Hinkley, writer, lecturer, plant explorer and nurseryman; and Steve Lorton, writer, lecturer and former NW Bureau Chief of Sunset Magazine: A Tribute to Mrs. Miller and the Miller Legacy
2013
Tony Avent, Plantsman, Horticulturalist and owner of Plant Delights Nursery
2012
Peter Raven, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden
2011
Lynden Miller
Parks, Plants, and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape
2010
Gordon Collier
A Land Apart: New Zealand’s Remote Offshore Chatham Islands (Photo courtesy Dan Hinkley)
2009
Roy Lancaster
Mad About Plants — A Plantsman’s Garden
2008
Kathryn Gustafson
Landscape in a Changing Environment (Photo courtesy Charles Hopkinson)
2006
Peter Valder
The Romance of Chinese Garden Plants: Their Role in Art, Literature, Symbolism and Everyday Life
2005
Julie Moir Messervy
Inspired by Bach: Creating the Toronto Music Garden with Yo-Yo Ma
2004
Roger Phillips
Adventures in Plants and Roses
2003
Frank Cabot
The Maturing of a Garden
2002
Penelope Hobhouse
Nature and Art: Keeping the Balance
1999
Daniel J. Hinkley
Endless Bounty: Plants for Northwest Gardens from Around the World
1998
Roy Lancaster
Travels of a Plantsman: An Account of Recent Travels in China, Japan and Chile
1997
Judith Tankard
Walking in the Bootsteps of Gertrude Jekyll: Her Influence on Beatrix Farrand and Ellen Shipman
1996
Jim Gardiner
A Year at the RHS Garden: Past, Present and Future
1995
Sir Ghillean Prance
Plant Diversity and Conservation from Brazil to Kew Gardens