Boston Flora

Tag: Gardens of Texas

  • Plantastic Podcast

    The Plantastic Podcast is a show for plant killers, green thumbs, and everyone in between. Listen along as Dr. Jared Barnes deconstructs the practices of the best plantspeople of our time so that you can better cultivate your plants and yourself. Recent episodes include a conversation with Heather Holm on Pollinators and Native Plants, Shelby Radcliffe on Designing with Florida Natives, Tim Boland on Lessons from the Polly Hill Arboretum. and Shaun McCoshum on Natural Habitats and Wildlife Gardening. His website, Meristem, will link you to his blog and podcasts,

    Jared Barnes, Ph.D., started gardening when he was five years old, and since then he has enthusiastically pursued how to best cultivate plants and cultivate minds. He currently fulfills those passions as an award-winning associate professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX where he stewards the Plantery, SFASU’s student botanic garden. He writes a weekly newsletter titled plant•ed that was featured in the NY Times, hosts The Plantastic Podcast, and gardens with his wife Karen and daughter Magnolia at their smallholding Ephemera Farm which was featured in the 2025 book Gardens of Texas by Pam Penick.

    He obtained his Ph.D. in horticultural science from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC; he interned the summer of 2008 at The Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA; and he has traveled around the US and into eleven countries to gain a national and global perspective of horticulture.

    Recent awards include the 2021 Stephen F. Austin State University Teaching Excellence Award, 2019 Perennial Plant Association’s Academic Award, the 2017 Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful Sustainability Award, the 2016 Perennial Plant Association’s Young Professional of the Year, and a member of GPN’s 2016 Class of 40 Under 40.

  • Friday, March 6, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Ecological Restoration & Design, Online

    Blackland Collaborative is an ecology-based consulting group with over 40 years of collective experience in restoring, creating, and conserving functional ecosystems. This American Horticultural Society online program on March 6 will discuss some of the Collaborative’s Texas-based landscape projects, such as the Headwaters at the Comal and the George W. Bush Presidential Center, to examine ecological design for native grasslands, riparian restoration, urban ecology, native prairie green roofs, landscape restoration plans at multiple scales, and pocket prairies.

    John Hart Asher has over sixteen years of experience designing and building functional ecosystems within urban conditions. He has conducted basic research in ecological engineering, ecological restoration, and land management, offered workshops to professionals and the public, and provided fee-supported ecological consulting expertise to clients across Texas. As part of the consulting team, John Hart works with integrated design teams composed of engineers, architects, landscape architects, and developers to integrate sustainable design, practices, and philosophies into projects. He specializes in translating sustainable design into successful projects that provide varying layers of ecosystem services. His home pocket prairie has recently been featured in the newly released books: Gardens of Texas: Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State and Gardenista: The Low Impact Garden: A Guide to Creating Sustainable Outdoor Spaces.

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    Environmental Designer John Hart Asher, photographed at home by David Rice.