Past Events

Special Afternoon Lecture 2025

Sissinghurst – A Garden, In a Ruin, In a Farm

Wednesday, September 17, 2025
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver

REGISTRATION 

Registration is $20.00 for members, by sending an e-transfer to danaatvhpg @ gmail.com before Sept. 10. 

Non-members and at the door tickets will cost $25.00.

Please note: it is VERY IMPORTANT to put the name(s) of the attendees in the notes section of the e-transfer. We actually do read this section and need this information ESPECIALLY if the legal name of the sender of the e-transfer is different from that of the attendee.

If you prefer to pay by cheque, please ensure it’s made out to VANCOUVER HARDY PLANT GROUP and mail it to Elizabeth Taylor, 3642 West 1st Avenue, Vancouver, V6R 1H2 by Sept. 5th, 2025.

Troy Scott Smith 

Troy Scott Smith has worked in leading positions in the UKs’ best gardens,
including Curator for the RHS and Head Gardener at both Bodnant and
Sissinghurst. Troy currently combines his role of Head Gardener at the
world renowned Sissinghurst, with consulting on a number of other
significant gardens.
Troy lectures widely across the UK and Internationally, writes for various
publications including, Gardens Illustrated, The English Garden, Country
Life, and The Telegraph. Troy is an occasional presenter on BBC
Gardeners’ World, sits on the Royal Horticultural Floral Committee and
teaches at The English Gardening School. 

Sissinghurst – A Garden, In a Ruin, In a Farm 

Troy worked here as a senior gardener for 5 years in the early 1990’s returning in May 2013 as Head Gardener. Since then he has been on a mission to revitalize the garden, bringing about a garden more authentic to Vita – a celebration of beauty, romance, intimacy, and emotion

We have a section of this website dedicated to this event.

You’ll find it under the menu item 2023 Study Weekend.

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. 

Saturday, November 2, 2024 – 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 for the Fall Study Day, EITHER

1) Payment by e-transfer to lizatvhpg@gmail.com  with your 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 October 25. 

FALL STUDY DAY OUTLINE 10:00 – 10:10 Vancouver Hardy Plant Group notices and introduction 10:10 – 11:10 Tony Spencer – “Open Source: Origins of the New Perennial Movement” 11:10 – 11:35  Complimentary coffee – you are encouraged to bring your own cup 11:35 – 12:35 Loree Bohl – “Danger Garden, Contained” 12:35 – 1:20  Lunch – please bring your own 1:20 – 1:30    Door prizes and settling down 1:30 – 2:30   Philip MacDougall – “Japan Meander” 2:30 – 3:30  Tony Spencer – “Wildscaping: Planting Design with a Canadian Twist” Link to Philips slide list Japan meander

Tony Spencer,  is the internationally-recognized Canadian writer, digital creator and planting designer behind The New Perennialist, an influential blog focused on Explorations in Naturalistic Planting Design. (www.theperennialist.com) He also hosts The New Perennialist talks, a webinar series featuring influential design innovators in the genre.
In 2024, Tony won his second ‘Top Landscape Design Award of Excellence’ from the US-based Perennial Plant Association (PPA) and in 2023, he was named PPA ‘Garden Media Promoter’ of the year. He is also winner of the 2024 Media Awards’ ‘Silver Laurel Medal of Achievement for Social Media’ presented by GardenComm.

Day to day, Tony is a puckish ringleader for the naturalistic movement all while experimenting on a new series of wild-ish gardens at his beloved cabin in the rolling hills of Mono, Ontario.
The New Perennial Movement has inspired designers worldwide to pursue a more naturalistic approach in their work. In his first talk for us, “Open Source: Origins of the New Perennial Movement”, Tony will trace the movement back to its early roots in northern Europe with a look at the seminal figures including Piet Oudolf who started it all. Then he will loop around for an overview of the New Perennial Movement and how designers and gardeners are connecting through their uncommon passion for a wilder vision of the modern garden.
Tony’s second talk “Wildscaping: Planting Design with a Canadian Twist” was recently presented at Italy’s ‘Landscape Festival’ which is recognized worldwide for its visionary content on design and ecological health. It offers an overview of Tony’s diverse projects- woodlands, ponds, green roofs, dry gardens- with a focus on Wildscaping and designing for climate change.

Loree Bohl, lives in Portland, previously Spokane and Seattle, making a complete PNW triangle. After purchasing her Portland home in 2005, Loree fell in love with the vibrant horticulture community in Oregon.
Her love for agaves, cactus and all things spiky—despite the fact she lives in “rainy” Oregon—was the inspiration for her blog’s name, “Danger Garden.” She publishes new stories 3 times a week that include photos of her garden, her travels to other private and public gardens, visits to nurseries and other random “planty” things she finds interesting.

Loree has served on the board of directors for the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon and Pacific Horticulture and is on the Garden Bloggers Fling advisory committee. She has written for Pacific Horticulture; the Oregon Association of Nurseries magazine, Digger; the Rock Garden Quarterly, and Better Homes and Gardens. Her first book “Fearless Gardening: Be Bold, Break the Rules, Grow What You Love” was published by Timber Press in 2020. She practices the fine art of garden “cramscaping” and is a firm believer there is always room for one more plant.
Loree is a fearless gardener whose own garden features a broad array of containers, many of which are unique combinations of found objects, most of which required seasonal movement or reconfiguring. Her talk for us “Danger Garden, Contained’. Is newly created for our Study Day and will focus on these container plantings.

Philip MacDougall, has long run his not-for-profit nursery, Chlorophyllia, a specialty nursery that focuses on woodlanders ignored by the ravenous deer. Philip scours the world (wild and marketplace) for new and interesting plants, with a fine focus on epimediums and ferns.
He has been a vendor at our study weekends and various specialty sales around the Lower Mainland for decades, and his home garden/nursery was on the Vancouver Hardy Plant open garden Fraser Valley day in 2023. A discerning reader of Dan Hinkley and Far Reaches catalogues, or the UBCBG database, will note many subtle references to Philip’s collections.

Like Loree, Phillip’s talk “Japan Meander” is newly created for VHPG members, his description “A visit to only far too few of my many favorite Japanese plants, peeks at several of Japan’s best gardens, plus onsen, temples, udon and an atomic bomb. I’ll talk on how Japan’s aesthetic has influenced our own much more western garden.”

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.

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

Fall Study Day

Saturday October 25th, 2025

10:00 am – 3:45 pm

REGISTRATION 

Registration is $50.00 for members, by sending an e-transfer to danaatvhpg @ gmail.com before Oct. 19, 2025.

Non-members and at the door tickets will cost $60.00.

Please note: it is VERY IMPORTANT to put the name(s) of the attendees in the notes section of the e-transfer.
We actually do read this section and need this information ESPECIALLY if the legal name of the sender of the e-transfer is different from that of the attendee.

If you prefer to pay by cheque, please ensure it’s made out to VANCOUVER HARDY PLANT GROUP and mail it to Elizabeth Taylor, 3642 West 1st Avenue, Vancouver, V6R 1H2 by Oct. 15th, 2025.

SPEAKERS 

Charlotte Harris
Co-founder Harris Bugg Studio, Exeter/London/Isle of Skye, UK 

Gardens as Stories:
Landscapes of Connection and Purpose

Charlotte Harris is an award-winning landscape designer and co-founder of Harris Bugg Studio, known for shaping some of the most evocative and environmentally responsive gardens being made today. She has won three RHS Chelsea Gold Medals, including Best in Show in 2023, and is widely recognized as one of the leading voices in contemporary British landscape design.
Charlotte’s work begins with deep listening — to the land, its stories, and the people it serves. Whether reimagining the Barbican Conservatory with immersive planting that is in dialogue with the Brutalist architecture or designing Horatio’s Garden Sheffield (with Hugo Bugg) as a sanctuary for spinal cord injury patients and NHS staff, her gardens are built to evolve and deepen over time.
Trained at Merrist Wood following a BA in History, and having worked with Tom Stuart-Smith, her design sensibility is informed by a deep interest in cultural, historical and environmental narratives. She is an RHS Show Garden judge, Contributing Editor at Gardens Illustrated, and a passionate advocate for greater equity in design and horticulture.
Charlotte’s gardens are celebrated for their emotional resonance, elegant planting, and strong sense of place.

Harris Bugg Studio works across the UK and internationally, with a portfolio spanning private estates, botanic gardens, and landmark urban developments. Described by the RHS as “pioneering design talents of their generation,” they are celebrated for soulful, seasonal planting; a deep commitment to biodiversity and regenerative design; and landscapes that reflect both people and place. Winners of six RHS Gold Medals and multiple national and international awards, their work combines design elegance with ecological depth — shaping some of the most progressive and purposeful landscapes being made today.

Richie Steffen
Miller Garden Executive Director,
Seattle, Washington

Elizabeth Miller Garden Update

Anyone who is acquainted with Richie knows he has horticultural exuberance! He loves plants and he willingly shares his vast knowledge of the plant kingdom. Richie joined the Miller Garden in 2000, bringing with him a variety of horticultural expertise. After moving from Maryland to Seattle in 1989, he worked at Sky Nursery in Shoreline, the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way, and as a part-time instructor for the horticulture program at Edmonds Community College before beginning work at the Miller Garden. In May 2017 Richie became director of the Miller Garden and he oversees all aspects of the Garden, including the plant collections, educational programs, and staff.

He also currently serves as a board member of the Northwest Horticultural Society as well as board member and president of the Hardy Fern Foundation.

Richie is always on the hunt for what is new in horticulture throughout the country by travelling, plant collecting, visiting gardens and networking with other horticulture professionals. He regularly lectures and writes and is always ready to share his love for plants. Richie also enjoys photography and his photos can be seen in many regional publications as well as the websites for the Miller Garden and Great Plant Picks.

Cameron Kidd
Victoria, British Columbia

Cultivating Success Through Trial and Error

Cameron Kidd is an enthusiastic rock and crevice gardener from Victoria, BC, with a passion for cultivating a diverse range of plants. With a special interest in geophytes, succulents, woodland plants, and spring ephemerals, Cameron enjoys experimenting with seeds from around the globe. His garden, located in a coastal temperate climate, features various aspects, habitats, and micro-climates that allow him to push the boundaries of what can thrive.
Embracing a trial-and-error approach, Cameron continually discovers what works best in his unique gardening environment. Join him as he shares insights and experiences from this extraordinary gardening journey.