Daily Archives: September 3, 2021


Wednesday & Thursday, September 22 & 23, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm, and Friday, September 24, 8:00 – 12:30 pm – Plan it Native Landscape Conference, Online

Deep Roots and its partners present the annual Plan It Native Landscapes Conference. This year’s event features live online content that can be accessed from anywhere, plus in-person Kansas City field trips for the best of both worlds! The conference takes place September 22-24, three half-days packed with interactive sessions, inspiring keynote speakers, and opportunities to connect with the native plant community.

About Deep Roots

Deep Roots is a not-for-profit organization comprised of multi-sector partners working to increase native plant landscapes. Our mission is to encourage the appreciation, conservation, and use of native plants in the heartland. Following in Olmsted’s footsteps, Deep Roots is an organization that focuses on the benefits of native landscape design and conservation while emphasizing the values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Native landscapes contribute to improving public health, smart urban planning, and much more! Deep Roots’ partners consist of small and large businesses, municipalities, state government agencies, parks departments, not-for-profit organizations and individuals. Partners collaborate to share resources, opportunities, and create synergy to plant more native species and provide education that results in more native landscapes. In 2019, Deep Roots created the Plan It Native Landscapes Conference to help increase the collective native plant expertise of the region. In 2020, more than 560 people from 40 states and 4 countries attended online.

Plan It Native 2021

Plan It Native provides education relevant to professionals (a minimum of 9 CEUs are available for landscape architects), native plant enthusiasts, and home gardeners. Whatever your experience with native plants, you will find resources to grow your knowledge. You’ll learn from speakers who understand your challenges and provide expert advice to help you advance.

Plan It Native is organized into three tracks:
• Design & Business – From formal to naturalistic, from the greenhouse to the retail counter to your front yard, these sessions will help you create more beautiful and beneficial projects.
• Land Stewardship & Management – Sessions on the establishment, restoration, and management of native woodland, wetland, riparian, and prairie.
• Policy & Communications – A new track for this year, these sessions will help you build awareness and action for native plants within your community.

With daily keynote speakers, and a wealth of virtual networking opportunities, Plan It Native is far more than just a webinar! Along with 18 concurrent sessions in the three tracks, attendees will also enjoy keynote sessions from these notable experts:

Nancy R. Lee, founder Social Marketing, Inc.
Nancy Lee has more than 30 years of professional marketing experience, with special expertise in Social Marketing, the proven discipline for behavior change for social good.

Wambui Ippolito, Horticulturist and Landscape Designer
She is the 2021 Best in Show award winner at the Philadelphia Flower Show. She is the first Black woman ever to win and first solo female Major Exhibitor to do so.

Dr. Peter Raven, President Emeritus, Missouri Botanical Gardens
Author of numerous leading textbooks and several hundred scholarly articles, Dr. Raven has been a tireless champion of sustainability and biodiversity, earning him the plaudit of “Hero for the Planet” from Time.


Thursdays, September 16 – September 23, 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Northeast Ethnobotany

Plants shape our lives in many ways: they provide food, fiber and medicine among other uses. This two-part Berkshire Botanical Garden class, led by ethnobotanist and ecologist Drew Monthie, will explore some of the indigenous and European ethnobotanical practices of the Northeastern US and their historical context. The phytochemistry of plants (their chemical constituents) and their use as medicine will also be a topic of exploration, along with the ethics of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Students will complete a short research project with a focus on one of the ethnobotanical topics mentioned above. The class meets Thursdays, September 16 – 323, from 5:30 – 8:30 .

Instructor Drew Monthie has operated Ecologic Consulting LLC, specializing in plant-driven design and consultation since 1998. He is based in the Shirt Factory building in Glens Falls, NY. He has been growing plants since the age of 4 and was influenced by his parents and grandparents who always had vegetable and perennial gardens. He worked in nurseries during high school and attended the BOCES horticulture program. After high school, he attended SUNY Cobleskill School where he earned an A.A.S. in Plant Science. After owning and operating a nursery/landscape business for about a decade, he returned to college to earn his B.S. in Ecology and then an M.A. in Ethnobotany. He has been teaching and designing courses as a Professor in the Natural Sciences for SUNY Empire State College for the last decade in the areas of study of horticulture, botany, ethnobotany and ecology. He is also a photographer, and you can find some of his photographic work on his other website: http://StarflowerStudioNY.com.

BBG Members: $145, Non-Members: $160. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.