GreenScapes Symposium

Advancing the Natural Landscape in a Modern World –

Solutions for Sites & Situations

Friday, February 18, 2022
9:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET

*Live Zoom event

 

Join us for a fascinating day of presentations highlighting design strategies that make it easier and more effective to integrate native plants into a variety of landscapes.

Gardening for wildlife and designing landscapes that mimic nature are being embraced by homeowners and design professionals alike. But leveraging native plants for specific environments and design outcomes can often be challenging. Obstacles can range from tough site conditions to urban gardens with limited space for creating beneficial ecosystems. How can we protect the function and structure of the natural ecology by substituting natives for invasive species? Learn exciting and novel uses of plants, planting design, and application of ecological principles to overcome these roadblocks and achieve high-impact, environmentally sustainable designs.

 

***This will be offered as a series of live online lectures using Zoom with audience Q&A incorporated into the program. Each session will be recorded and a link to watch the symposium will be emailed to all participants. 

 

About GreenScapes

The GreenScapes Symposium is an annual program sponsored by Brookside Gardens since 2004.  The symposium explores the latest topics related to landscape sustainability and the environment. This event appeals to a broad audience ranging from landscape architects and designers to master gardeners, horticulturalists, and urban planners. Environmental stewardship is a core value of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Brookside Gardens’ parent organization. As such, we strive to provide timely information and viable solutions to environmental challenges that help create a healthy planet for all people, plants and living things.

 

Registration Information 

Early Bird Fee: $45 p/person until January 7, 2022

Standard Fee:   $55 p/person after January 8, 2022

Register using this link ActiveMontgomery.org (Course #128034) or call 301-962-1470.

*Registration includes access to watch recordings of each session after the event.

***If you create a new Active Montgomery account, please check your Inbox for an email with a link to authenticate your account. This must be done prior to adding the GreenScapes event to your cart and checking out.

 

Schedule of the Day

Professional development credit hours will be available for each session (see below).

9:15 am Welcome & Introductions
9:30 am New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden
Kelly Norris, author, plantsman 

Creating landscape designs for small gardens that are both aesthetically pleasing and ecologically functional can be a challenging balancing act. Limited space restricts plant selections and quantity, making it harder to recreate a natural ecosystem that benefits pollinators and wildlife.  Join Kelly as he expertly translates designs based on natural plant communities for the smaller scale of the home garden. He’ll demonstrate how to harness the power of plant layers and palettes defined by nature to design and grow a lush, thriving garden. Combining horticulture with ecology, this presentation will deepen your understanding of plants and place to create beautiful and emotionally resonant designs that also support positive environmental change.
10:45 am BREAK
11:00 am Great Natives for Tough Sites: Using Native Plant Communities as a Guide for Better Designs
Janet Davis, owner, Hill House Farm & Nursery 

You’ll benefit from Janet’s decades of experience with growing native plants and working with diverse customers to integrate these plants into a range of landscapes. This presentation will help you better analyze and understand your options for native alternatives for tough sites, including helpful information like cultivation, soil and pH requirements, natural range, and hardiness. Whether its dry shade, waterlogged areas, or clay and compacted soils, you’ll learn how choosing natives for such sites will ultimately restore the native habitats and enhance biodiversity. This lecture will review natives that not only perform well but also add to the overall aesthetic and landscape design goals of your garden. You’ll be inspired to see your work as restoring natural ecosystems whether in your backyard, a public garden or for urban and commercial projects.
12:15 pm LUNCH
12:45 pm Sponsor presentations
1:15 pm More Than A Pretty Face: Native Alternatives to Invasive Exotic Plants
Colston Burrell, lecturer, garden designer, award winning author and photographer 

Landscape plants fulfill diverse rolls within our gardens. They contribute form, color and texture to the garden tapestry through flowers, foliage, fruits and bark. Yet many of the plants most readily available in garden centers and nurseries have become invasive and spread beyond the bounds of our gardens. These invasive species alter the structure and function of ecosystems and displace native species. This lecture presents a wealth of native trees, shrubs and perennials that can serve as alternatives to invasive species, additionally providing food for butterflies, birds and other wildlife.
2:30 pm BREAK
2:45 pm Low-input, High-impact Design for Sustainable Gardens & Urban Landscapes
Nigel Dunnett, plantsman, designer and Professor of Planting Design and Urban Horticulture, Department of Architecture, University of Sheffield 

Nigel is known for his gardens and landscapes that have lifted the spirits of city dwellers for decades. This lecture will explore how he achieves these sustainable plantings with their successional waves of colorful perennials, elegant grasses, and pollinators at work with so few demands on irrigation and other natural resources. He’ll share his pioneering ‘people-first’ approach to ecological planting design for public spaces and urban gardens by taking a deeper look at natural plant communities and the science behind the planted environment. You’ll learn exciting and novel uses of plants, planting design, and application of ecological ideas to achieve low-input and high-impact designs that are dynamic, diverse, and tuned to nature. Innovative design principles will be explored through Nigel’s successful landscape projects including Trentham Gardens, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, Buckingham Palace, Grey to Green Sheffield and The Barbican Centre in London.
4:00 pm CLOSING REMARKS

Continuing Education

The following are the CEUs offered for the 2021 symposium. Updated information will be posted soon:

  • American Society of Landscape Architects (LA CES 5.0)
  • Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD 5.0)
  • Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professionals (CBLP 5.0)
  • Maryland Certified Professional Horticulturist Program (CPH 1.0)
  • Delaware Master Gardener (5.0)
  • Maryland Master Gardener (5.0)
  • Pennsylvania Master Gardener (5.0)
  • Virginia Master Gardener (contact your local extension agent)

 

Featured Speakers

Kelly Norris 

Kelly D. Norris is one of the leading horticulturists of his generation. An award-winning author and plantsman, Kelly’s work in gardens has been featured in The New York Times, Organic Gardening, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, Fine Gardening and Garden Design and in numerous local and regional media appearances. His passion for planting at the intersections of horticulture and ecology has culminated in a new book New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden which debuts 2021 from Cool Springs Press. Kelly also presents plants for Cottage Farms Direct on QVC and lectures widely to consumer and industry audiences.

  

Kelly Norris

Janet Davis

Janet Davis received a Bachelor’s Degree in Horticulture from VA Tech, and has spent her entire career working in various horticultural pursuits—from growing organic vegetables, managing large commercial apple orchards, pulling weeds, growing native plants to designing landscapes—while spending as much time as possible hiking in our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and enjoying the plant communities of the Virginia Piedmont.  Her time spent “outdoors” fostered her passion for our native flora and plant communities, and spurred her desire to learn more about these plants and how to incorporate them into our managed areas.

For over 25 years, Davis has operated her landscape design-install-care business, incorporating native plants into garden settings and “managed” areas using sustainable garden techniques.  In 2006, she opened her native plant nursery business, Hill House Farm & Nursery, which grows and sells US native plants and select native cultivars from the Mid-Atlantic region.

Known as the “cheerleader” for native plants, Janet divides her time between her vocation and avocation—raising both native plants and her 16-year old daughter, Olivia—and lives with her husband and daughter–plus their 2 dogs and a pet Corn snake–in bucolic Rappahannock County, VA, just east of Shenandoah National Park.

Janet Davis 

Colston Burrell

Colston Burrell is an acclaimed lecturer, garden designer, award winning author and photographer. A certified chlorophyll addict, Cole is an avid and lifelong plantsman, gardener and naturalist. Cole is a popular lecturer internationally on topics of design, plants and ecology. He has shared his encyclopedic knowledge of plants and his abiding respect for regional landscapes with professional and amateur audiences for 40 years. He is principal of Native Landscape Design and Restoration, which specializes in blending nature and culture through artistic design. In 2008 Cole received the Award of Distinction from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers for his work promoting sustainable gardening practices.

Cole’s latest book, Hellebores: A Comprehensive Guide, coauthored with Judith Knott Tyler, received the 2007 American Horticultural Society Book Award. He is author of several popular titles, including Perennial Combinations, Revised 2008, (an Amazon.com bestselling garden title), Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials—10th Anniversary Edition with Ellen Phillips, Perennials for Today’s Gardens and A Gardener’s Encyclopedia of Wildflowers, which won the 1997 AHS Book Award. Cole’s articles have appeared in Horticulture, Landscape Architecture, Fine Gardening, American Gardener and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. His writing reflects a love of plants, and he champions their use in artistically designed, environmentally friendly gardens.

 Colston Burrell

Nigel Dunnett

Nigel is Professor of Planting Design and Urban Horticulture in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield and is one of the world’s leading voices on innovative approaches to planting design.  He is a plantsman, designer and pioneer of the new ecological approach to planting gardens and public spaces.  His work revolves around the integration of ecology and horticulture to achieve low-input, high-impact landscapes that are dynamic, diverse, and tuned to nature.

Nigel’s work is based on decades of detailed experimental research, and widespread application in practice: he works as a designer and consultant and regularly collaborates with a wide range of other professions, and his work has been widely applied in the UK and abroad.  In 2016 Nigel was appointed as an Ambassador for the Royal Horticultural Society and is a former Garden Club of America International Fellow.

Nigel has authored and co-authored key books on planting design, water-sensitive design, and urban rainwater management (Nigel Dunnett on Planting (Filbert Press 2019); Rain Gardens: sustainable management of rainwater in the designed Landscape (Timber Press 2007),; Green Roofs (Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls (Timber Press 2003)), and Urban Landscape Planting (The Dynamic Landscape: design, ecology and management of urban naturalistic planting (Taylor & Francis 2004). In Spring 2019 his book: The Essential Guide to Naturalistic Planting Design will be published (Filbert Press).  He is a regular lecturer to audiences throughout the world.

  

Nigel Dunnett

Registration Information 

Early Bird Fee: $45 p/person until January 7, 2022

Standard Fee:   $55 p/person after January 8, 2022

Register at ActiveMONTGOMERY.org (Course #128034) or call 301-962-1470.

 

Past GreenScapes Symposiums

Brookside Gardens has hosted the popular GreenScapes Symposium each year since 2004. With topics ranging from Water-Wise Landscapes to 2012’s Urban Farming Pioneers, GreenScapes aims to build awareness of the positive role plants and horticulture play in improving environmental quality.

  • 2021: Back to Our Roots: Leveraging Native Plants to Restore the Environment
  • 2020: Practical Solutions For Ecologically Sustainable Landscapes
  • 2019: Garden by Design: Creative Approaches to Diverse Landscapes
  • 2018: Restoring and Renewing Our Urban Landscapes
  • 2017: Plant Solutions in The Age of Climate Change
  • 2016: Garden Gateways
  • 2015: Protecting our Pollinators
  • 2014: Gardening in a Changing Climate
  • 2013: The New American Landscape
  • 2012: Urban Farming Pioneers
  • 2011: Real Food Renaissance
  • 2010: Food for Thought
  • 2009: Water-Wise Landscapes
  • 2008: Sustainable Landscapes
  • 2007: Trees: Urban Re-Leaf
  • 2006: After the Rain

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Last Updated: January 19, 2022