Past Events
Below you’ll find announcements of the group’s past events. As we get familiar with our new website, we hope to include photos and recaps of our past events, to document our history.
2023 Study Weekend
We have a section of this website dedicated to this event.
You’ll find it under the menu item 2023 Study Weekend.
2022 Fall Study Day
October 29, 2022
Saturday, October 29, 2022, 10:00 am – 3:45 pm
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver
REGISTRATION
$50 for members, $60 for non-members and all tickets at the door
PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY
To register please send either
1) an e-transfer to lizatvhpg@gmail.com with YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND THE NAME(S) of registrants in the note section; we cannot contact you or register you without your email address and your name(s);
2) mail a cheque, payable to the ‘Vancouver Hardy Plant Group’, to Lindsay MacPherson, 11662 Carr Street, Maple Ridge, V2X 5M9. Cheques must be received by October 25.
Antony O’Rourke, English Heritage Down House, Head Gardener, Downe, England
“Charles Darwin – No Ordinary Life”
“The Living Landscape Laboratory at Down – How Darwin used his own back yard to test his groundbreaking theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection 1842-1882”
Antony is a graduate of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. He has worked in numerous botanical gardens including the University of Bristol, Tresco Abbey in the Isles of Scilly and the Jerusalem Botanical gardens in Israel where he managed their centre for plant introduction and propagation. He ran his own very successful company in west London designing and maintaining high end gardens for a diverse client base. Now in his sixth year at Down, Antony is a passionate plants person and has amassed extensive knowledge in the cultivation and natural history of many plant groups. His particular passion is for carnivorous plants, orchids, tropical plants and hardy herbaceous plants. He is a passionate advocate of organic gardening and wildlife conservation. Says Antony, ‘I enjoy the challenge of presenting the gardens and landscape as the Darwins would have known it, from the ornamental beds through to the produce grown in the kitchen garden and of course bringing to life the narrative of the experimental Mr. Darwin at Down’
Riz Reyes, Assistant Director of Heronswood Garden, Kingston, WA
“Grow: Life Lessons from the Garden”
A young gardeners perspective in fine gardening and plant collecting. Join horticulturist and children’s book author, Riz Reyes, for a presentation that’s both informative and personal as he shares stories about extraordinary plants and introduces his new book “Grow: A family guide to plants and how to grow them”.
An early curiosity about fruits and flowers in his native Philippines developed into award-winning garden/floral displays and recognition in the Pacific Northwest gardening scene at an early age. Riz Reyes immersed himself in the remarkable diversity of plants that thrived in the maritime region and finds every opportunity to seek out and work with the most uncommon selections in the trade and generously shares his knowledge and experience with others.
He earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. His own enterprise, RHR Horticulture, focuses on garden education/consulting and floral design.
Riz published his first children’s non-fiction book in March 2022 titled “Grow: A family guide to plants and how to grow them”.
Gary Lewis, Owner of Phoenix Perennials, Richmond, BC
“The Complete Talk of Groundcovers”
Gary will present to us the practical and environmental benefits of ground covers, strategies and opportunities for using ground covers, and ground covers in design from small to large gardens. It will include images from the book and likely additional images not included in the book from gardens and travels on at least four continents. Gary is a regular speaker at garden clubs and has appeared many times on radio and television. He has written for a variety of gardening magazines and in fall 2022 his encyclopedia, “The Complete Book of Ground Covers”, will be published by Timber Press. This compendium focuses on 4000 different ground covers for the temperate gardening world accompanied by 650 photos he took on travels around the world.
In 2013 Gary was selected as Communicator of the Year by the BC Landscape and Nursery Association and in 2017 was the recipient of the Retail Sales Award from the Perennial Plant Association.
Gary is an avid traveller and has led botanical and garden tours to Holland and Belgium, New Zealand, South Africa, and Western Australia with future trips planned to Ireland, France, and a return to South Africa.
Spring 2023 Study Day
Saturday, March 11, 2023 – 10:00 am – 3:45 pm
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver
Registration
$85 for members, $95 for non-members and all tickets at the door Note: the higher price is only for this particular study day
PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY
To register for the Spring Study Day, EITHER
1) Please either send an e-transfer to lizatvhpg@gmail.com with you name or names in the note section; or,
2) send a cheque, payable to the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group, to
Elizabeth Taylor
3642 West 1st Avenue
Vancouver, V6R 1H2
Cheques must be received by February 28.
Dan Hinkley, Plantsman extraordinaire, author, Windcliff, Washington.
Talks:
“Four decades in two gardens:
Heronswood and Wincliff”
&
“In pursuit of plants:
reason process and places”
A Vancouver Hardy Plant Group favourite, Dan Hinkley is a renowned plantsman, nurseryman, horticulturist, author and public speaker. With gardening and botany as lifelong passions, Dan completed a MSc. in Urban Horticulture at UW. He came to the gardening connoisseurs’ attention with his Heronswood Nursery (Kingston Washington, started 1987), full of his wild collected plants, and his renowned catalogue written with keen observation and sharp wit. After selling Heronswood in 2000, Dan continued to collect worldwide and propagate there until 2006, with over 2,400 plants listed in the catalogue.
In 2000, Dan and his partner, architect Robert Jones, created a new home and garden that embraces our Mediterranean climate, named Windcliff, on a bluff above Puget Sound near Indianola. “Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens” is Dan’s 2020 book about how this garden embraces his experiences in the world of plants.
Jimi Blake, Proprietor and Author, Hunting Brook Gardens, Wicklow, Ireland.
Talks:
“A Beautiful Obsession”
&
“Woodland Plants”
Jimi Blake is a self-confessed ‘plantaholic’, international lecturer, columnist, author of ‘A
Beautiful Obsession’, and co-host of Ireland’s Garden Heroes.
Jimi is also the custodian and visionary creator of Hunting Brook Gardens in Co. Wicklow
where he grows the largest and most exciting private plant collection in Ireland. This is Jimi’s
living canvas where he experiments and innovates playing with colour, shapes, textures and
forms to create a thoroughly immersive experience with fresh surprises at every turn.
When he’s not creating in the garden, he’s working on his other big passion – teaching and
sharing his knowledge through his online courses, workshops, lectures and tours.
VHPG is adding a list of interesting websites, videos, newsletters, and Instagram accounts on our website. Perhaps this will give us a garden boost to where we can’t go in real life. If you would like to add to this list, please send a note to danacromie@gmail.com
Virtual Chelsea https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/virtual-chelsea
Virtual Kew www.kew.org/about-us/virtual-kew-wakehurst
The Gardener – A film about Frank Cabot at Les Quatre Vents https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/the-gardener
Facebook only
Peter Korn – facebook.com/peter.korn.5
Tim Ingram – facebook.com/gillian.ingram.773
On line zoom lectures from Xerces Society for Invertebrate conservationhttps://xerces.org/events
Margaret Roach, A Way to Garden Websitehttps://awaytogarden.com/
Garden Masterclass with Annie Guilfoyle and Noel Kingsbury, Online Blog and Podcasts
https://www.gardenmasterclass.org/blog-and-podcasts
Sarah Raven Websitehttps://www.sarahraven.com/
Huw Richards Grow Foods Organically YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeaKRrrpWiQFJJmiuon2WoQ
Great Dixter Zoom Lectures – next, May 9th – https://www.greatdixtershop.co.uk/PBSCCatalog.asp?ItmID=31488019
The Garden Museum, London newsletter – https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/
Art of the Garden: Dan Pearson – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2w0HILcvLw
Dan Hinkley’s weekly at Heronswood – https://heronswoodgarden.org/video/
Ian Young’s Bulb Log, Scotland, weekly digest – http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/
danger garden, a daily garden blog from Portland – http://www.thedangergarden.com/
Instagram accounts worth following
John Grimshaw, Yorkshire Arboretum
Fergus Garrett, Great Dixter head gardener
Aaron Bertelsen, Great Dixter veg gardener, kitchen and house manager –
Great Dixter House and Gardens
Tony Kirkham, Kew
Sue Wynn-Jones, Crug Farm Plants
James Hitchmough, University of Sheffield, Horticulture Ecology and Landscape Architecture
Nigel Dunnett, University of Sheffield, Planting Design and Urban Horticulture
Jimi Blake, Huntingbrook Gardens, Ireland
Gravetye Manor, Gardens Team
Beth Chatto’s Plants and Gardens
Panayoti Kelaidis, Denver Botanic Garden
Sean Hogan, Cistus Nursery, Portland
Sue Milliken, Far Reaches, Washington
Amy Sanderson, Stellata Plants, Saanich
Stellata Plants, Saanich
Liberto Dario, grower and tour guide, Greece
“Growing Smarter” Hardy Plant Study Weekend June 18 – 20, 2021 Vancouver, B.C.
Vancouver Hardy Plant was to be hosting the Hardy Plant Study Weekend in June 2021, this has changed to June 2023.
Saturday, October 24th, 2020 Cancelled New Perennialist, from Toronto, Canada; and Down House
Saturday, October 24th, 2020.
Tony Spencer, known as the
New Perennialist,
from Toronto, Canada;
and
Antony O’Rourke,
Head Gardener of Down House,
Charles Darwin’s House and Garden,
in London, UK
Monday, May 4th, 2020 evening lecture,This event has been cancelled.
“Due to the current COVID 19 Coronavirus, Ken Cox has cancelled his entire speaking tour
to North America which includes his planned evening talk to the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group on May 4, 2020”
SPRING STUDY DAY – Saturday, March 2nd, 2019
Spring Study Day
Saturday, March 2, 2019
To register for the Spring Study Day, please forward you cheque, payable to the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group, for $45 (members pre‐paid), $50 (non‐members and all tickets at the door), to Lindsay Macpherson, 11662 Carr St, Maple Ridge, BC, V2X 5M9. If you are purchasing for others, please indicate their names and whether they are member or non‐members. Cheques should be received by February 22, 2019, which will allow time for your name to be copied onto a name tag that you will collect and wear after signing in at the pre‐paid table, thus helping the committee in providing orderly access to the event. Cheques received after that date will be kept in the order they have been received and may or may not gain you entry to the event.
SPRING STUDY DAY OUTLINE
10:00 – 10:10 Vancouver Hardy Plant Group notices and introduction
10:10 – 11:10 Panayoti Kelaidis – 40 Years at Denver Botanic Gardens
11:10 – 11:35 Complimentary coffee – you are encouraged to bring your own cup
11:35 – 12:35 John Anderson – Plant Hunting in Cultivation
12:45 – 1:30 Lunch – please bring your own
1:30 – 1:40 Door prizes and settling down
1:40 – 2:40 Panayoti Kelaidis – Genus: Iris
2:40 – 3:40 John Anderson – Gardens I Have Managed
3:45 Conclusion
John Anderson, Keeper of the Gardens, Windsor Great Park, UK
John Anderson began his garden training at the National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin, Dublin and went on to study at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. His first appointment as Head Gardener was at the famous Mt. Usher Gardens in Co. Wicklow, where he was also curator of the National Collection of Eucryphia, Eucalyptus and Nothofagus. Subsequently he undertook an appointment with the National Trust for Scotland in Inverewe, and then in 2006 moved to Exbury in southern England, home of the Rothschilds, located among 200 acres of woodland gardens along the coast of Hampshire. At each of these later gardens he was responsible for curating National Collections of various species of interest in our area.
John remained at Exbury for ten years before moving on to an even more prestigious appointment in 2016. As the fourth Keeper of the Gardens at Windsor Great Park, he is responsible for the Savill Garden, Valley Gardens, and Her Majesty’s Private Garden at Frogmore.
In addition to his work at Windsor Great Park, John is also Vice-Chairman of the RHS Plant Committee and an RHS Judge.
Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator & Director of Outreach,
Denver Botanic Gardens, CO, USA
Panayoti Kelaidis represents Denver Botanic Gardens in educational, professional, and promotional endeavors in his role as an expert in horticulture, science, and art. A past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society (NARGS) and the American Penstemon Society, he is the recipient of the Award of Excellence from National Garden Clubs and the Arthur Hoyt Scott Medal from Swarthmore College.
Panayoti’s association with the Denver Botanic Gardens spans almost 40 years, but he was already an enthusiastic gardener at age 8. Much of his life has been spent exploring alpine trees, ferns, cacti, bulbs, and xeric plants both in the US and more exotic locations. He also co-authored the first comparative study of the steppe climate regions of North and South America, Africa and Central Asia, and has recently returned from a tour of the plant-rich high elevation areas of China.
A Special Evening Presentation by Dan Hinkley – Tuesday, September 11th, 2018
SPRING STUDY DAY – Saturday, February 17th, 2018
Time: 10:00am – 3:30pm
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre,
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver
To register for the Spring Study Day, please forward your cheque, payable to the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group, for $45 (members pre-paid), $50 (non-members and all tickets at the door), to Lindsay Macpherson, 11662 Carr St., Maple Ridge, BC, V2X 5M9. If you are purchasing for others, please indicate their names and whether they are members or non-members. Cheques should be received by February 9, 2018, which will allow time for your name to be copied onto a name tag that you will collect and wear after signing in at the pre-paid table, thus helping the committee in providing orderly access to the event. Cheques received after that date will be kept in the order they have been received and may or may not gain you entry to the event.
SPEAKERS
Bill McNamara, Quarryhill Botanical Garden, Glen Ellen, CA
TOPICS:
“Magnolias in China and at Quarryhill”
“Plant Hunting: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”
After completing a degree in English at UC Berkeley in 1975, Bill McNamara travelled the world before settling in the Sonoma Valley and setting up a landscape contracting company. In 1985 he was hired to do installation of a new garden on the site of quarried land owned by Jane Davenport Jansen, a restaurant heiress who had made her home in Glen Ellen two decades earlier.
During the design process for this garden, and with the serendipitous influence of an English plant hunter, Lord Howick, the seed was sown in Mrs. Jansen’s mind to create a naturalistic-style garden which could house specimens of the various temperate zone, wild, Asian plants which were being discovered by Howick’s expeditions, and also allow for their propagation and preservation.
Bill was included on these expeditions from the early days of his working for Mrs. Jansen, and by 1994 had become the Director of Quarryhill Botanical Garden. He has continued the collaborations, plant-finding expeditions, and the learning process ever since, leading to significant new finds. In 2005 he graduated with an M.A. in Conservation Biology, and is currently the President and Executive Director of Quarryhill.
Bill is the rare U.S. recipient of three coveted horticultural awards. In 2010 he was honoured with the Arthur Hoyt Scott Award by the American Horticultural Society (AHS), and in 2017 with the both the Veitch Memorial Medal from England’s Royal Horticultural Society, and the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award from the AHS. He also received the prestigious Eloise Payne Luquer Medal from the Garden Club of America in 2009, the Annual Award from the California Horticultural Society in 2012, and the Award of Excellence from the National Garden Clubs in 2013.
Douglas Justice, Associate Director, Horticulture & Collections, UBC Botanical Garden, Adjunct Professor, School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture, UBC
TOPIC:
“Using Shrubs as Small Trees in the Garden”
Douglas’s primary responsibility at the UBC Botanical Garden is the day-to-day operation of the garden and interpretation of the plant collections. He is also involved with public and industry outreach, and teaches horticulture and plant identification courses for the Faculties of Land & Food Systems and Applied Sciences.
Prior to joining the UBC Botanical Garden, Douglas taught horticulture at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley where he focused on plant identification, integrated pest management and nursery production. He trained at Massot Nurseries (Richmond) and in his early years worked as a gardener in Vancouver and at Windsor Great Park, England.
Among his publications one of the most familiar is Ornamental Cherries in Vancouver, published most recently in 2014. He co-authored The Jade Garden, “an authoritative guide to 130 of the most fascinating yet little-known ornamental trees, shrubs, and perennials from ‘the green mantle’ of Asia”. In addition, Douglas is the author of the two mobile apps, Vancouver Trees Basic and Vancouver Trees Pro, valuable for identification and usage in our area.
Sarah Common, BSc Agriculture, Bee Master, Hives for Humanity
TOPIC:
Gardeners and Bees – Working Together in Community
Hives for Humanity works to create opportunities for connection to community, through bees. We are passionate about social and biological environments, and this talk will discuss intersections of the two, and share the story of our work. Why are bees great pollinators? How can gardeners create spaces that foster habitat and forage for wild and managed species of bees? How can gardeners and beekeepers be advocates for species of bees living at-risk? What parallels exist between our gardens, bee habitats and our human communities and how might we work to create health and balance in all?