First-Ever Southeastern Plant Symposium Takes Place in June in North Carolina
May 12, 2019 
JC Raulston Arboretum
Mark Weathington of the JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University and Tony Avent of Juniper Level Botanic Garden and Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, NC will launch the first Southeastern Plant Symposium in Raleigh on June 7-8.
“The Southeastern Plant Symposium is an incredible opportunity for professionals and non-professionals to hear many of the world’s renown plant speakers in a single event,” Avent says. “We are bringing in the most knowledgeable and most passionate plant lovers to speak.”
“There are many great new plants entering the market from plant breeders, from explorations around the world, and from collections of botanic gardens,” Weathington says. “We’ll be talking about cutting-edge plants at the forefront of new trends in gardening and new plant selections that reinvent how we think about gardening.”
“The Symposium will provide accurate information from people who know and grow the plants,” Avent says. “Our speakers will cut through the new plant clutter to expose attendees to what is truly exceptional.”
Southeastern Plant Symposium speakers include:
• John Grimshaw, Director, The Yorkshire Arboretum, Castle Howard, York, UK
• Scott McMahan, Manager, International Plant Exploration, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta, GA
• Ted Stephens, Owner, Nurseries Caroliniana, Augusta, SC
• David Creech, Professor Emeritus, SFA State University, and Director of Stephen F. Austin Gardens. Nacogdoches, TX
• Julie Moore, Office of Endangered Species, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Washington, DC
• Adam Black, Director of Horticulture, Peckerwood Gardens, Hempstead, TX
• Leanne Kenealy, Plant Breeding and Nursery Technician, JC Raulston Arboretum
• Buddy Lee, Director of Plant Innovations, Plant Development Services (PDSI), Loxley, AL
• Guy Meacham, New Plant Development Manager, J. Frank Schmidt & Son Company, Boring, OR
• Tom Ranney, JC Raulston Distinguished Professor and Mountain Crop Improvement Lab, Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center, NC State University, Fletcher, NC
• Kim Shearer, Tree and Shrub Breeder and Manager of New Plant Development Program, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL
• Tim Wood, Product Development & Marketing Manager, Spring Meadow Nursery, Grand Haven, MI
• Donglin Zhang, Professor, Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
“Horticulture and landscape plants are among our most basic needs after food and shelter,” Weathington says. “Study after study shows that stress levels go down when we are surrounded by plants, and concentration goes up. Nature Deficit Disorder and Plant Blindness are climbing because we are increasingly disconnected from the natural world. Gardening is one of the best ways to combat these modern problems.”
Click here for more information and to register.
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