Cultivating with Purpose: Exceptional Woody Plants for Today’s Landscape

Cultivating with Purpose: Exceptional Woody Plants for Today’s Landscape SOLD OUT
Thursday, September 26, from 8am – 4:30pm
General Admission – $200 per person; Full-Time Student Admission – $175; Sponsorship opportunities available below!
Please note: Space is limited and registration is required. All tickets final sale, and students must show a valid student ID. This event will take place rain or shine.

 

Join us at the Conference Center at Planting Fields for an enlightening program featuring Dr. Michael A. Dirr, a world-renowned horticulturist, lecturer, and author from the University of Georgia. With numerous publications to his credit, including the widely acclaimed book Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, Dr. Dirr is a leading authority on woody plants. Dr. Dirr will share the day with presentations from noted landscape designer Lynden Miller and recognized horticulturist, Vincent Simeone. 

This all-day conference will cover the latest developments and introductions of woody plants, designing with shrubs, alternatives to common evergreens, as well as time-honored shrubs for landscape use. Breakfast, snacks, and lunch will be provided, and a silent auction will take place. 

Following the conference, books will be available for purchase and attendees will have the opportunity to meet Dr. Dirr during a book signing. For those who want to extend their experience, a Wine & Cheese Walking Tour with Dr. Dirr, Lynden Miller, and Vincent Simeone can be purchased separately–see more details below.

 

Schedule of Events

8am Registration and Breakfast, Silent Auction Opens

8:45am Welcome and Opening Remarks
Gina J. Wouters, President & CEO, Planting Fields Foundation
Vincent A. Simeone, Director of Planting Fields Arboretum

9am Dr. Michael A. Dirr, “Time-honored Flowering Shrubs: Abelia to Vitex”
Retired Professor of Horticulture, University of Georgia

Abelia × grandiflora is one of many examples of a time-honored, flowering shrub that weathered/survived the march of garden fashion while experiencing numerous improvements. Why the interest in Abelia × grandiflora? To name a few: fragrant flowers; drought/heat tolerant; early leafing out and late leaf drop (occasionally evergreen); rabbit/deer/insect/disease resistant; and sun/partial shade tolerant. This lecture will discuss the renaissance in time-honored flowering shrubs within Abelia, Buddleia, Calycanthus, Clethra, Daphne, Diervilla, Fothergilla, Hypericum, Lagerstroemia, Loropetalum, Osmanthus, Sarcococca, Spiraea, Syringa, Viburnum, and Vitex.

10:30 – 10:45am Break

10:45am Lynden Miller, “The Joys of Designing with Shrubs”
Landscape Designer and Author

Creating diverse landscapes with interesting plant combinations of both herbaceous and woody plants has become a vital part of the multi-seasonal landscape. This lecture will discuss how essential shrubs are to the design of a successful 4-season garden showing examples of combinations from public gardens and landscapes as well as from Lynden’s 40-year-old garden.

12 – 1pm Lunch at the Haybarn

1pm Welcome Back
Donna W. Moramarco, Director of Horticulture, Planting Fields Foundation
Vincent A. Simeone, Director of Planting Fields Arboretum

1:15pm Dr. Michael A. Dirr, “Forward Thinking: Advances in Hydrangea Breeding, Development, and Introduction”
Retired Professor of Horticulture, University of Georgia

Hydrangeas have a long, rich history in the western world dating back to the late1700’s. Through the 20th century hundreds of new introductions of Hydrangea macrophylla have appeared. Along with the H. macrophylla advances, breeders took aim at H. arborescens, H. paniculata, H. Quercifolia, and H. serrata. Hydrangea genes have been shuffled like cards resulting in plants never considered possible. Hydrangeas have become one of the most cultivated and recognized plants. This lecture will celebrate the importance of this iconic genus in the American landscape.

2:15pm Vincent A. Simeone, “Thinking Outside the Box: Selecting Alternatives to Common Evergreens”
Vincent A. Simeone, Director of Planting Fields Arboretum

There are many tried and true landscape evergreens such as Rhododendron and Azaleas, Arborvitae, Cherry Laurel, Leyland Cypress, Mountain Laurel, Holly, Pine, Spruce, and Viburnum. These popular mainstays offer reliable aesthetic value and versatility, but some are overused, resulting in a monotonous, vulnerable landscape with little to no diversity. This lecture will offer some more modern and underutilized genera of broadleaved and coniferous evergreens as well as lesser-known species and cultivars of popular genera we know and love. Special emphasis will be put on proper selection, pest and deer resistance, specific care and maintenance, landscape function and benefits.

3:30pm Closing Remarks
Vincent A. Simeone, Director of Planting Fields Arboretum
Donna W. Moramarco, Director of Horticulture, Planting Fields Foundation
*Silent Auction closes at 3:30pm

3:30 – 4:30pm Book Signing
Dr. Michael A. Dirr (list books)
Lynden Miller (list books)

3:30 – 4:30pm Continuing Education Credits

3:30 – 4:30pm Silent Auction Winners Announce

4:45 – 6pm Wine and Cheese Walking Tour SOLD OUT
Dr. Michael A. Dirr, Retired Professor of Horticulture, University of Georgia
Vincent A. Simeone, Director of Planting Fields Arboretum
Lynden Miller, Landscape Designer and Author

 

Speaker Bios
Dr. Michael A. Dirr is a world-renowned authority on woody plants. Now Professor Emeritus, University of Georgia, Dr. Dirr has published fifty scientific articles, over three hundred popular and trade articles, and twelve books, with the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, sixth edition, being the major teaching and nursery reference in the U.S. His teaching, lectures, seminars, garden study tours, and plant introduction programs have contributed endlessly to greater horticultural awareness. He has introduced two hundred trees and shrubs into commerce with thirty patents granted during his Georgia tenure and inventor or coinventor of seventy plant patents. He has received the highest teaching and gardening awards from the University of Georgia, the American Horticultural Society, American Society of Horticultural Science, American Nursery and Landscape Association, and The Garden Club of America.

 

Lynden B. Miller is a public garden designer in New York City. In 1982, she rescued and restored The Conservatory Garden in Central Park. Based on her belief that good public open spaces can change city life, she has designed many other gardens and parks in all five boroughs since that time. Her work in New York City includes designs for over 45 different public projects in gardens and parks including Bryant Park, The New York Botanical Garden, Madison Square Park, Tribute Park in Queens, the Entry Garden at Chelsea Cove in Hudson River Park and the 97th Street Park Avenue Mall. She has designed landscape improvements to the campuses at Columbia, Princeton, Stony Brook University. Mrs. Miller is on the Board of Trustees of the Central Park Conservancy, New Yorkers for Parks, Innisfree Landscape Foundation, the Bayard Cutting Arboretum, and the New York Botanical Garden and teaches about public space at New York University.

 

Vincent Simeone has worked in the horticultural field for over 38 years. He is currently the Director of Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park in Oyster Bay, NY where he has worked for 32 years and manages the facility. He received an AAS degree in ornamental horticulture from Farmingdale State College (SUNY), Farmingdale, New York, and a BS in ornamental horticulture from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA. While at Georgia, Vincent studied under well-known professors Dr. Michael Dirr and Dr. Allan Armitage. Vincent also obtained a master’s degree in public administration from C.W. Post- Long Island University. Vincent has specialized expertise in woody plant id, culture, use and selection of superior varieties. He was recognized as the Man of the Year by the Long Island Nursery and Landscape Association, awarded the centurion award by Farmingdale State College as one of the top 100 alumni of the past century, the Distinguished Arborists Award from the NYS Arborists-ISA chapter, and the George L. Good Gold Medal of Horticulture by the New York State Nursery and Landscape Association. A well-regarded author, he contributed to the first ever textbook on public garden management and has published seven gardening books of his own.

 

Wine and Cheese Walking Tour SOLD OUT
With Dr. Michael A. Dirr, Vincent Simeone, and Lynden Miller
September 26, from 4:45 – 6pm
$50 per person
Space is limited and registration is required. All tickets final sale. This event will take place rain or shine.

 

Sponsorship Opportunities
$5,000 – Platinum Sponsor
Name and logo featured on printed/digital programs and promotional materials
Four (4) tickets to Cultivating with Purpose: Exceptional Woody Plants for Today’s Landscape
Four (4) tickets to Wine & Cheese Walking Tour
Invitation for business to have table at conference

 

$2,500 – Gold Sponsor
Name and logo featured on printed/digital programs and promotional materials
Two (2) tickets to conference
Two (2) tickets to Wine & Cheese Walking Tour

 

$1,000 – Silver Sponsor
Name and logo featured on printed/digital programs and promotional materials
One (1) ticket to conference
One (1) ticket to Wine & Cheese Walking Tour

 

For questions, please email Donna W. Moramarco, Director of Horticulture at dmoramarco@plantingfields.org

 

Directions
LIE to Exit 41 North or Northern State Parkway to Exit 35 North. Proceed north on Route 106 towards Oyster Bay. Turn left onto 25A Northern Boulevard. Make the first right onto Mill River Road. Follow signs to Planting Fields Arboretum 1395 Planting Fields Road, Oyster Bay, NY 11771

 

Thank you to our sponsors: