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The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission

GreenScapes Symposium

GreenScapes Symposium 2024 Event - Innovative Designs From the Field / Friday, February 14, 2024 / 9am to 4pm
Empty chair in the middle of a home garden outside with perennial flowers and grasses.
A meadow with naturalized native plants and trees in the background and a rusted metal fence. Image is taken at Glenstone Museum
Wooden boardwalk criss crossing through a forest at Glenstone Museum
Red echinecea coneflowers and red and orange coreopsis flowers in the gardens of Stoneleigh Garden

Innovative Designs from The Field

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Friday, February 16, 2024, 8:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST

*Live Zoom Event

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This symposium will offer new and innovative sustainable design and maintenance strategies to take your home garden or professional work to the next level. Join industry experts as they share practical and scalable lessons from the field representing a diverse range of natural landscapes and human environments.

We’ll explore the latest research from the University of Delaware, including case studies from award-winning public gardens and museums. Designers will share the challenges faced and solutions discovered working on projects with leaders like Roy Diblik, Piet Oudolf, and Cassian Schmidt.  Learn how to create masterpieces by leveraging block and matrix plantings that maximize the characteristics of native species. Lectures will reimagine traditional landscapes with native plants and offer the latest in ecologically focused management strategies.

*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. Professional development credit hours will be available for each session.

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 

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.

  • Register using ActiveMontgomery.org  (Activity # PBG0057) or call 301-962-1451
  • Registration Fee: $60

Registration Help

  • Click here for Frequently Asked Questions on creating and accessing your Active Montgomery user account.
  • You must first either create an account or log into it before you’re able to add the event to your cart for payment.
  • If you haven’t accessed your Active Montgomery account in the past 6 months, then you will need to reset your password.
  • If you forgot your password OR need to reset it, select the Forgot your Password box under the Log-In box. Provide the email address you used to create your account. You will receive an email with the temporary password you can sign in to change your password.
  • If you are still experiencing issues, visit the contact us page for assistance or call 301-962-1451.

Schedule of the Day

TIMEAGENDA
8:45amWelcome & Introductions
9:00amLessons from Stoneleigh: Reimagining Traditional Landscapes with Native Plants
Ethan Kauffman, Director, Stoneleigh

With a 150-year history as a private estate originally designed by the Olmsted Brothers, Stoneleigh became one of the newest public gardens in the Philadelphia region in 2018.  This lecture will assess the discoveries made from transforming a traditional landscape into an ecological haven for native plants and the wildlife that depend upon them. Ethan will highlight how Stoneleigh’s team of horticulturists have been using cutting edge techniques, planting lesser-known species, and creatively reinventing formality with an exclusively native plant palette. Be inspired by the reimagination of a historical landscape into an ecologically vibrant wonderland of biodiversity.

10:15 amBreak
10:45 amHow Field Research Is Informing Sustainable Design and Maintenance Practices
Dr. Susan Barton, professor and extension specialist, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware

Dr. Barton will evaluate research findings from landscape projects ranging from highway roadsides and public gardens to high schools and suburban homes.  She’ll share strategies for leveraging native plants in stressful environments drawn from a 20-year project with the Delaware Department of Transportation.  A grant project conducted at Winterthur Museum & Gardens will inform the most effective design and management strategies for supporting biodiversity in plant, insect, and bird populations. Different approaches to maintenance will be explored that affect the various ways people move through landscapes and engage with public spaces. These fascinating case studies will help increase the sustainability of the landscapes you manage.

12:00 pmLunch
12:15 pmSponsor Presentations
1:00 pmThe Masterpiece of Glenstone: From Suburbia to Organic Oasis
Paul Tukey, Director of Environmental Stewardship, Glenstone Museum
Jennifer Corlett, Senior Associate, PWP Landscape Architecture

Glenstone Museum in Maryland is known for housing some of the greatest masterpieces of the modern art world. However, many consider the real masterpiece to be the 350-acre organic landscape that was once a bulldozed field and housing development.  This lecture will explore the process of regenerating a new landscape on a large scale that emphasizes the beauty of nature’s ecological systems. Highlights include reforesting the campus with more than 11,000 trees, engineering watersheds, and restoring streams.  Renowned landscape designer Larry Weaner applied his expertise in native landscapes to develop a palette of native grass and perennial meadows. Innovative design and maintenance strategies will be explored based on how visitors observe and interact with various areas throughout the grounds. These lessons can be scaled to any site and help prioritize plant selections and ongoing maintenance practices.

2:15 pmBreak
2:45 pmThe Inside Scoop: Naturalistic Planting Design Lessons from Industry Innovators
Austin Eischeid, landscape designer and owner, Austin Eischeid Landscape Design

Up and coming landscape designer, Austin Eischeid, shares practical design lessons learned from working closely with groundbreaking industry leaders like Piet Oudolf, Roy Diblik, Cassian Schmidt, and Adam Woodruff. Unpacking key lessons from these innovators, he’ll focus on dynamic naturalistic plantings using strong perennials and grasses with all season interest. Austin will examine the importance of good design based on the understanding of how plants evolve over time in specific landscapes and in a variety of plant combinations. Through his work redesigning the master landscape plan for Millennium Park in Chicago and other projects, Austin will demonstrate how matrix and block plantings can maximize rhythm, repetition, form, and color to evoke the spirit of nature in a controlled way.

4:00 pmClosing Remarks

Continuing Education

The following CEUs will be offered for the 2024 GreenScapes Symposium.

  • American Society of Landscape Architects (LA CES 5.0)
  • Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD 5.0)
  • Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professionals (CBLP 5.0)
  • DC Master Gardener (5.0)
  • Delaware Master Gardener (5.0)
  • ISA BCMA Management: 5
  • ISA Certified Arborist: 5
    • Climber Specialist: 5
    • Utility Specialist: 5
    • Municipal Specialist: 5
    • Aerial Lift Specialist: 5
  • Maryland Master Gardener (5.0)
  • New Jersey Master Gardener (5.0)
  • New York Master Gardener (5.0 – contact your local extension agent)
  • Penn State Extension Master Gardeners (5.0)
  • Virginia Master Gardener (5.0 – contact your local extension agent)

Presenting Sponsors


Associate Sponsors


Friend Sponsors


Donor Sponsors


In-Kind Sponsors