Highlights from Seed Your Future’s Seed to STEM 2026
Seed Your Future‘s Seed to STEM 2026 took place June 14–18, 2026, and brought together 34 educators from 17 states for a four-day immersive experience across five host sites in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The program helped to introduce teachers to a wide range of careers in horticulture through behind-the-scenes tours, industry connections, and classroom-focused training. Here’s a look at each stop during the event:
Day 1 — Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA)
Teachers arrived that afternoon and hit the ground running — gathering at Longwood Gardens for the first time in person as a cohort, breaking the ice with team-building activities, then rolling up their sleeves for their first working session before sitting down to a welcome dinner hosted by Longwood Gardens.
Day 2 — Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA)
Teachers opened the week with a behind-the-scenes look at Longwood Gardens. From the conservatory’s towering collections to the horticultural team managing 1,100 acres, educators saw career pathways in public horticulture up close and met eight professionals who make it all happen.
Day 3 — Overdevest Nurseries (Bridgeton, NJ)
Day 3 took the cohort to take a deeper look at ornamental tree and shrub production, with conversations about what it takes to build a career growing plants for landscapes across the country, water conservation, and integrated pest management.
Day 3 — Lucas Greenhouse (Monroeville, NJ)
Day 3’s second stop took the cohort to Lucas Greenhouse, where educators explored plant trials firsthand, got an up-close look at large-scale irrigation systems, and saw how seed planting has been transformed through automation with a glimpse into the technology and people driving today’s plant production.
Day 3 — DVFlora (Mantua, NJ)
Day 3’s third visit concluded at DVFlora, where educators experienced the floral supply chain in action — from importing and processing to the logistics that move flowers from farm to florist.
Day 4 — North Creek Nurseries (Landenberg, PA)
The educators discovered the scale and science of wholesale native plant production and the careers that power it, from seed production and propagation to trial and evaluation. Where horticulture meets ecology, educators saw firsthand how the industry is shaping environmental impact.
Day 4 — Longwood Student Panel (Kennett Square, PA)
The student panel gave educators a powerful moment — hearing directly from young people who stumbled into horticulture by accident, never knowing it was a career pathway, and wishing a high school teacher had told them sooner.
Day 4 — Professional Development Classroom and Workshop
Curing the Cross-Pollination Circles, educators shared their own expert teaching tips, classroom management strategies, and high-impact ideas with one another, creating a collaborative learning community where every participant both learned from and contributed to the collective expertise of the group.
Then, the Seed to STEM Classroom PD workshops experience equipped educators with ready-to-use resources, career-connected instructional strategies, and collaborative planning opportunities that deepened their understanding of the horticulture and floriculture industry while strengthening classroom instruction.
With Seed to STEM 2026 now complete, educators return to bring what they’ve learned back to their students.
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