Looking for strategies to garden smarter and boost your landscape’s ecological impact? Join The American Horticultural Society on November 12 at 2 pm Eastern online to explore how native grasses and sedges do heavy lifting in the garden—far beyond what conventional turfgrasses can offer. Prized as ecological workhorses, these extraordinary plants build and preserve soil, suppress weeds, reduce inputs, and support biodiversity. But their value doesn’t end when the growing season winds down. Native grasses and sedges add beauty and function across the year. In this webinar, we’ll examine what makes grasses special and explore how to put them to work on your site. From sun to shade, short groundcovers to tall accents, learn how native grasses and sedges can increase resilience and provide year-round performance in any landscape.
Shannon Currey is a horticultural educator with Izel Native Plants. She has worked in the nursery trade since 2006, developing expertise in grasses and sedges and expanding her knowledge into native perennials. Currey has written for national publications and traveled the country speaking to professional organizations, community groups, and at public gardens. She currently serves on the North Carolina Plant Conservation Program Scientific Committee, holds advisory roles with several organizations, and served on the Board of the Perennial Plant Association. Currey lives in Durham, North Carolina and loves exploring gardens and native flora everywhere she goes.
Join The American Horticultural Society and renowned houseplant educator and influencer Paige Tailyn Johnson online on November 5 for The Living Plant Museum, a fascinating look at the history of plants and the ways caring for them can enrich our own lives. Discover how our relationships with plants can support personal growth while deepening our appreciation for the living world around us. $15 AHS members/$20 non-members. Register at https://ahsgardening.org/ahs-live-the-living-plant-museum/
President’s Council members: Receive complimentary registration, along with a special gift and an update from Suzanne B. Laporte, President & CEO, featuring the latest news from AHS and River Farm. RSVP to Allyson Liu at aliu@ahsgardening.org or 703-768-5704 x140.
Step into the often-complex history of Thomas Jefferson’s landscapes and gardens at Monticello. The heirlooms of the garden, like priceless antiques, can tell us important and fascinating stories about our past. Unlike fragile relics kept in museums, living antiques depend upon us for survival and are best preserved and enjoyed by growing them. Peggy Cornett, Monticello’s Curator of Plants, will discuss Jefferson’s lifelong passion for the natural world, landscape design, and horticulture and the many plant varieties—from historic tulips and ancient roses to heirloom fruits and vegetables—that have been collected, propagated, and preserved through the Center for Historic Plants for over forty years. This American Horticultural Society online program will take place October 29 at 2 pm Eastern, and is $15 for AHS members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at https://ahsgardening.org/ahs-live-thomas-jeffersons-gardening-legacy/
Peggy Cornett, curator of plants, has worked at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello since 1983, beginning as the associate director of gardens and grounds. She earned degrees in English and Botany from UNC-Chapel Hill and a master’s from the University of Delaware’s Longwood Graduate Program. Prior to Monticello, Peggy worked in the restored gardens at Old Salem Museum and Gardens (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana. She served as director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants for seventeen years. Peggy often lectures on garden history topics, writes articles for gardening magazines, professional journals and books, and gives radio and television interviews including PBS programs. Peggy serves on the garden advisory panel for Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest and edits Magnolia, the publication of the Southern Garden History Society (SGHS). In 2008, she received the SGHS “Flora Ann Bynum Medal” for exemplary service in the garden history field. In 2016 she received the Garden Club of America’s Zone VII Horticultural Commendation for her horticultural expertise, generosity in sharing knowledge, and dedication to preserving Thomas Jefferson’s botanical legacy. More recently Peggy received Honorary Memberships in the Garden Club of Virginia and the Garden Club of America. Peggy’s book, Thomas Jefferson’s Flowers, Historic Gardens at Monticello, was published by the University of Virginia Press and released May 2026.
In the context of a changing climate, clarified social and political tensions, and rapid urban development, an understanding of ecologies of memory can offer creative departures for contemporary design practice. The Ecologies of Memory framework explores stakeholders’ individual and collective stories of place to inform dynamic landscape design. Sara Zewde will share recent design work of Studio Zewde across a range of United States geographies using this framework. This American Horticultural Society webinar will take place October 23 at 11 am Eastern, and is $15 for AHS members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at https://ahsgardening.org/ahs-live-ecologies-of-memory-landscapes-as-story-networks/
Sara Zewde is founding principal of Studio Zewde, a design firm practicing landscape architecture, urbanism, and public art. Named to TIME Magazine’s TIME100 Next, Architectural Digest’s AD100, and a United States Artists Fellow, her work is celebrated for design methods that sync culture, ecology, and craft. In parallel with practice, Sara serves as Associate Professor of Practice at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard GSD, a Master of City Planning from MIT, and a BA in Sociology and Statistics from Boston University. She is also currently writing a book on Frederick Law Olmsted’s travels through the Slave South, to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2027.
Join the American Horticultural Society, Eric Groft, and Lili Herrera as they discuss some of their firm’s most notable public landscapes, including The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, The National World War II Memorial, The Virginia Avenue Gardens of the Federal Reserve, The Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, and the White House Rose Garden in Washington, DC. Together, Eric and Lili will show how OEHME, VAN SWEDEN applies the New American Garden style to public, civic, and memorial landscapes internationally. Acknowledging the inevitable changes that time brings—trees grow, climates change, Administrations cut down trees, and scientific understanding evolves—they will discuss how enduring relationships with clients and collaborators have allowed OvS to steward public landscapes towards resilience through time and transition. The program will take place online on October 15 at 2 pm Eastern, and is $15 for AHS members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at https://ahsgardening.org/ahs-live-horticulture-and-history-in-the-public-realm/
Based in Washington, DC since 1977, OEHME, VAN SWEDEN | OvS is a diverse group of landscape architects, horticulturalists, designers, creative thinkers, and collaborators. OvS’ pioneering design solutions balance bold horticultural diversity and architectural artistry. The firm explores ecology, culture, and history in every project to distill the land’s form and function. The result is a contextually appropriate, high-performance composition that connects people to place. The firm’s portfolio of work ranges from expansive civic spaces and commercial redevelopments to botanic gardens and sculpture parks to urban residences and estates.
Every aspect of a garden – every root, soil microbe, flower, pollinator, and season – is bound up in a web of relationships that by itself cannot survive. Nuwu Pahsats, “The People’s Garden” at Springs Preserve in Las Vegas, is built on that same principle: mutually flourishing relationships between plants and pollinators, between people and the living earth, between speakers of an endangered indigenous language and their interpreters, and between a coalition of tribal communities, NGOs, government agencies, Master Gardeners and nurseries learning to grow native plants together. In this talk, Ian Ford-Terry tells the story of how patient, genuine collaboration with the Las Vegas Paiute Language Group turned a well-intentioned “ethnobotanical garden” concept into a revitalized cultural landmark, traditional ecological knowledge and language repository, and culturally responsive seed bank and nursery — and what that slow, intentional work of relationship-building can teach any gardener cultivating community alongside their plants.
Ian Ford-Terry serves as the Archaeologist & Tribal Liaison for the Springs Preserve, where he applies his interdisciplinary expertise in horticulture, ethnobotany, and archaeology. His work focuses on leveraging Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to inform modern land and plant conservation practices, particularly in arid ecosystems like Southern Nevada. At Springs Preserve, Ford-Terry evaluated and determined the plant selections for Nuwu Pahsats Garden, the Ethnobotanical Garden of the Nuwuvi, by consulting with the Southern Paiute people and integrating ethnographic and archaeobotanical data. He also established the Nuwu Pahsats Speaker Series, featuring Indigenous Knowledge Keepers discussing heirloom seeds, food sovereignty, and traditional farming practices.
Further encouraging collaboration in horticulture, Ford-Terry also founded and leads a broad-based Native Plant Propagation Coalition, consisting of Bureau of Land Management botanists, National Park Service nursery managers, Southern Nevada Water Authority restoration ecologists, University of Nevada Reno Extension Master Gardeners, THPOs, and local nursery managers. The Coalition focuses on sharing propagation protocols and plant material. Ford-Terry also directs the collection, cleaning, cataloging, and distribution of native and heirloom seeds. Ford-Terry’s community engagement includes securing funding from NFL Green to develop landscape and install irrigation at the Las Vegas Indian Center Healing Garden, where he co-designed a permaculture plan. Additionally, while working in a previous position at University of Nevada Reno Extension, he led an effort to train staff and Master Gardener volunteers on accessibility standards and ADA compliance. Ford-Terry holds an M.A. in Anthropology (Archaeology/Paleoethnobotany) from University of Nevada Las Vegas, with a focus on Agave-Human Symbiosis. He is the recipient of the American Horticultural Society’s 2026 Horticultural Innovation Award.
Located just a few short miles from the New Hampshire seacoast, Bedrock Gardens integrates unusual botanical specimens, unique sculptures, and interesting landscape design and features. Over the past forty years, this thirty-acre site transitioned from a historic farm to an oasis of horticulture, art, and inspiration, featuring stunning landscapes such as a Spiral Garden, Parterre Garden, and Rock Garden. Attendees at this American Horticultural Society live tour on September 25 will have the unique opportunity to tour Bedrock Gardens with its creator Jill Nooney and to hear her speak on her recent book detailing the garden’s history. The tour will focus on spectacular fall color, including the GrassAcre, filled with Switchgrass, Hakone Grass, and Little Blue Stem. Registrants can also purchase the book in advance at this link for signing.
Jill Nooney grew up in rural New Jersey. She attended Bennington College, Smith College School of Social Work, and the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design. She has had a lifelong interest in plants, art, and healing the human spirit. She lives with her husband, Bob Munger, in an old farmhouse in New Hampshire. Together, over the span of forty years, they created Bedrock Gardens and, in 2023, they gifted the garden to the Friends of Bedrock Gardens to be enjoyed by all as a public garden.
On September 23 at 7 pm Eastern on Zoom, Cricket Riley will share the inspiration behind the book Designing the Lush Dry Garden and discuss how personal experience, place, and climate shape the way we design and experience our landscapes. She will explore what it means to create gardens that are vibrant, resilient in the face of a changing climate, and expressive of individual values and aesthetics. The talk will highlight influences from the Ruth Bancroft Garden as well as practical design strategies and thoughtful plant choices that balance beauty with sustainability, offering attendees approachable ideas they can adapt to their own spaces. Cricket will also touch on how observation, experimentation, and seasonal change inform successful garden design over time. The American Horticultural Society presentation will conclude with an interactive Q&A, inviting audience members to ask questions and explore how the concepts, tools, and inspiration from the book can be applied to their own unique landscapes and gardening goals.
CRICKET RILEY is co-owner of Lush Dry Gardens, a landscape design firm specializing in low-water garden design, and worked at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, CA, from 2017 to 2025. During her tenure she held multiple roles, including founding and serving as Director of the Design Services department. She was the primary instructor for the Dry Garden Design Certificate Program, which she co-created with Alice Kitajima in 2020.
ALICE KITAJIMA’s deep connection to gardens and landscape design began early, inspired by her father, who immigrated to Los Angeles to design and install Japanese-style gardens. After completing her forestry and music studies at the University of California, Berkeley, she worked at botanical gardens and arboreta across the United States. As Program Director at the Ruth Bancroft Garden, she led the education department with a passion for helping people build meaningful, lasting connections with plants.
Early July is a glorious time to explore the gardens of Austria and Bavaria, when long days and warm light bring landscapes into full, exuberant bloom. This thoughtfully curated American Horticultural Society journey with Panayoti Kelaidis traces a path from imperial Vienna through the Danube Valley and Upper Austria to the Bavarian Forest, revealing a rich spectrum of garden styles, from grand Baroque masterpieces to intimate, passion-driven private gardens. Along the way, enjoy expert-led explorations of historic palace grounds, owner-guided visits to gardens rarely open to the public, and meaningful conversations with horticulturists who share both technique and philosophy. Balanced with elegant accommodations, regional cuisine, and scenic drives through some of Central Europe’s most beautiful landscapes, this program offers a deeply engaging experience that connects you to the people, traditions, and ideas shaping these remarkable gardens today.
Trip Highlights
Owner-led visits to exceptional private gardens in Austria and Bavaria, offering intimate access and personal insight
Expert-guided tours of Vienna’s great Baroque gardens, including Schönbrunn and the Belvedere, illuminating their design, symbolism, and imperial legacy
Peak summer bloom at its most vibrant, with fragrant roses, abundant perennials, and crisply defined formal plantings at their seasonal height
Behind-the-scenes access to innovative, sustainable horticulture at Die Garten Tulln, Europe’s pioneering ecological garden showcase
Engaging conversations with gardeners, designers, and horticulturists, sharing techniques, philosophies, and the stories behind their landscapes
A rich progression of garden styles, from imperial estates and monastic gardens to expressive, privately created landscapes
Scenic travel through Central Europe, from Vienna and the Wachau Valley to the Bavarian Forest, blending horticulture with cultural discovery
The American Horticultural Society has announced the inclusion of Grandmothers’ Garden in Westfield as part of the AHS Garden Network. Located within Chauncey Allen Park, this historic 1935 design by landscape architect Thomas Desmond features a formal layout of geometric beds organized around a central Summer House. Designed in the Colonial Revival style, Grandmothers’ Garden is home to a vibrant mix of formal flower beds and delicate herb gardens. Each season brings new color and fragrance, from spring bulbs and perennials to lush annuals planted by dedicated volunteers. The blossoms and herbs offer beauty, texture, scent and timelessness, creating a living tapestry that recalls both the Garden’s history and the humanity that allows it to thrive.
The history of the garden may be found at https://www.grandmothersgarden.org/home. Photography is encouraged – for policies, click HERE. The garden is located on Smith Avenue in Westfield, open daily from dawn to dusk.
