Get to Know the Speakers at the Perennial Plant Symposium

Posted by Brian Sparks|May 17, 2021

The Perennial Plant Association (PPA) has announced its line-up of speakers for the upcoming PPA Virtual National Symposium, which is being held from July 27-29. This year’s inspiration for the Virtual National Symposium program and session topics is drawn from the theme “Celebrating Perennials: People, Place & Purpose,” with speakers from places such as Italy, Britain, Brooklyn, Denver, and beyond.

The full roster of speakers and session topics can be found here. A few speaker highlights include:

Panayoti Kelaidis is a plant explorer, gardener, and public garden administrator associated with Denver Botanic Gardens where he is now Senior Curator and Director of Outreach. Kelaidis will address attendees at the Symposium with a lively discussion titled “Reinventing a Western Landscape Aesthetic.” He will share some of the heroes — both people and plants — who have created the transformation of Western landscapes from English style into something far more sustainable and appropriate to a Western setting, as well as discussing its relevance and impact on other regions. Follow him on Instagram at @panayotikelaidis.
Jason Reeves, a horticulturist, landscape designer, lecturer, and writer, joins the PPA Virtual Symposium with a tour of his private home garden in Western Tennessee. Reeves received his Master’s degree in Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 2002, he became a research horticulturist and curator of the University of Tennessee Gardens located at the West Tennessee Research and Education Center in Jackson. Reeves’ colorful plant combinations and unique garden art, made by recycling everyday objects, draws several thousand people each year to the Center’s annual lawn and garden show, Summer Celebration. He influences others to be creative and challenges true plants people to always continue to learn.
Scott McMahan, Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Manager of International Plant Exploration, will offer final remarks as the closing speaker at the Virtual National Symposium with the session titled “Plant Exploration with a Purpose.” McMahan’s lecture will focus on photos and stories from 20 years of plant exploration in Southeast Asia and how that has prepared him in his current role at the Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG). In particular, he will speak on the work he and his colleagues have been doing in the wilds of China, Vietnam, and India. McMahan oversees plant collection and evaluation at ABG as well as the creation of a visiting scholar program to promote the exchange of knowledge and plants with other botanical institutions around the world.

Each day of the three-day educational event will consist of hour-long opening and closing sessions, mini sessions, tour talks, and traditions such as the New to the Market Forum and Landscape Design Awards. Throughout the event, attendees will participate in polls, trivia, Q&A with presenters, as well as be engaged beyond education.

The Virtual National Symposium is part of PPA’s 2021 Hybrid National Symposium showcasing online education days as well as in-person, smaller, outdoor PPA Pop-Up events held at various locations around the U.S. To learn more about the Pop-Up events, visit https://perennialplant.org/page/Popups.