Past Events

Saturday, March 08, 2025 – 10:00 am – 3:45 pm

H.R. MacMillan Space Centre

1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver

Fergus Garrett – Great Dixter, Northiam, UK

Fergus Garrett was raised in the United Kingdom and in Turkey, studying horticulture at Wye College, graduating in 1989.

Fergus has held the position of Head Gardener for the internationally acclaimed Great Dixter Garden in the UK since 1993. The charismatic gardener and writer Christopher Lloyd (1921-2006) with his unique gardening skills taught Fergus to keep the gardens of Great Dixter constantly changing throughout the seasons and to be adventurous in trying out new plants and plant-combinations.

In 2003, Christopher Lloyd founded The Great Dixter Charitable Trust to secure the legacy of Great Dixter House and Garden and in 2006, Fergus took over the position of the CEO. The Friends of Great Dixter and their continuous support helps the Trust to keep Great Dixter House and Garden open to the public, to develop educational programmes for all age groups and to make more people aware of the richness and importance of the biodiversity of Great Dixter’s gardens, meadows and woodland.

Fergus believes in passing on his knowledge and expertise through the national and international student- and volunteer-programmes at Great Dixter and via the many worldwide lectures he gives each year. He is a hands-on gardener and plantsman who has a keen interest in working practices. He is interested in ecology and how an ornamental garden and biodiversity interact. He is also keen on woodland management and green wood working. Fergus has written many magazine articles and lectures widely both nationally and internationally.

Today, Fergus continues with his role as CEO and Head Gardener at Great Dixter as well as spearheading several projects including the greening up of urban and suburban communities, biodiversity related projects in towns and villages, and training students from all over the world in the Dixter style of flower gardening.

Fergus’ hobbies and interests are looking at plants and plant communities in the wild; all things natural; geology; rocks; baskets; the sea and fish; cooking; boxing; Turkey and anything Turkish; rural crafts and nice people.

Fergus has been awarded numerous prestigious awards, culminating in 2019 with the highest accolade the Royal Horticultural Society can give: The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH).

Presentations:
‘’Biodiversity at Great Dixter’’
Great Dixter is an iconic garden in the South East of England. It was the home to the late Christopher Lloyd – undoubtedly one of the greatest gardeners of our time. The recent biodiversity audit at Great Dixter has revealed how extraordinarily rich Great Dixter the gardens and estate are in wildlife. The garden hosts over 40% of the UK bee species count just within a few acres, including many rare and scarce species. Fergus will give the background to the biodiversity audit, uncovering the process involved as well as breaking down the reasons for such diversity, especially in an intensively gardened flower garden full of flowers.

The findings from Great Dixter will relate directly to other gardens large and small proving how important a resource these spaces are for conserving some of our most threatened species. Collectively, along with roadside verges, brownfield sites, and urban and suburban spaces, gardens can play an important role in the future.

‘‘Great Dixter: Past, Present and Future”
Fergus will talk about the history of Great Dixter, the 15C manor house and its restoration by the famous Arts and Crafts architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens. He will explore the influence of Nathaniel Lloyd on its infrastructure and design, and Daisy Lloyd, his wife, on the garden, which she softened with her semi-naturalistic style. It was she who was the major influence on their youngest son, Christopher, who became one of the world’s greatest gardeners and garden writers.

The design of the borders, the planting style, meadow gardening and the importance of a biodiverse garden will be discussed, including the experimental and creative aspects of each. Fergus will also discuss the way forward for a sensitive historic garden and estate such as Great Dixter, with reference to the setting up of The Great Dixter Charitable Trust to protect the legacy of the Lloyd family.

Fergus will share his memories of Christopher (Christo) Lloyd, their relationship, the way they worked together to develop Dixter, how they challenged and experimented with garden design, made decisions, and took the garden to another level.

Amy Sanderson – Stellata Plants, Saanich

Amy Sanderson is a gardener and owner of the specialty nursery Stellata Plants in Central Saanich. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Amy’s unquenchable thirst for better garden plants sent her on a study tour of English gardens, including Beth Chatto’s and Great Dixter. Subsequently, there was no choice but to move to Vancouver Island and open a nursery focused on resilient perennials. With a passionate interest in the future of ornamental horticulture, in 2018 Amy coordinated the first international Beth Chatto Symposium: Ecological Planting for the 21st Century.

She is a regular volunteer in the Doris Page Winter Garden at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific. You can find regular  updates on Instagram: @amysandersonflowers or @stellataplants

Presentation:
“Making Abundance”
The first five years of gardening and starting a specialty nursery on Vancouver Island have been a roller coaster. Every year has seen infrastructure improvements and garden expansion, experimentation with new plants in collaboration with new  friends, novel weather extremes, and deeper exploration of Pacific Northwest ecosystems. Aided by the time-tested  techniques of unfounded optimism and turning a blind eye, this lecture will revel in the joy of increasing seasonal dynamism, colour, and diversity with flowers in a garden culture that continues to champion irrigated evergreens.

Dave Demers, Cyan Horticulture, Vancouver

Dave Demers’s love for gardening sprouted early in life—he had his first greenhouse by age 10 and started a local garden club before graduating from high school. After studying horticulture in Montréal and New York, he travelled the world for internships in a variety of botanical collections and for plant-hunting expeditions. A Quebec transplant, Demers moved to the West Coast to work at Heronswood and finally settled in Vancouver, BC, where he runs Cyan Horticulture, a design/build/maintain landscape firm, as well as a small specialty plant nursery, Cyan Plants.

Presentation:
“Maximalist Gardening – Making the Most out of our Changing Ecologies”
Gardening is hip again: homeowners, designers and politicians alike seem to embrace plants for their many attributes. The importance of biodiversity – and bioabundance – has become a rallying call that gardeners are well equipped to answer.

And yet, the pressure of being under the spotlight, the finite resources and a changing climate, all contribute to making  gardening more challenging than ever. In this talk, I will share some of my experience as a designer, a gardener and a former elected City official. I will go from a humble hell-strip trial to the expansive lawn-gone-wild roof meadow of a stylish furniture  store, from no-mow City parks to generously planted private gardens.

Saturday, March 09, 2024 – 10:00 am – 3:45 pm

H.R. MacMillan Space Centre

1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver

DANTE BAIES – Vancouver, Canada

Talk:
A Painter’s Garden – The story of Monet’s garden in Giverny: a behind-the-greens look at its transformation from cider orchard into art icon.

Many of you likely know me from my time as a regular volunteer at the much missed Free Spirit Nursery. What you may not know though is that before focusing my attention on evangelizing choice hardy perennials, I spent the summers of 2015-2017 toiling away—weeding, watering, digging, deadheading, and taking way too many photos—at Monet’s garden in Giverny. Terrified though I am at the prospect of doing so on such short notice, it is with fevered enthusiasm that I am putting together a presentation for you on what I learned about Monet and his iconic garden while I was there.

Dr. HENRIK SJOMAN – Gothenburg, Sweden

Talk:
The Essential Tree Selection Guide.

As Scientific Curator at Gothenburg Botanical Garden, and Senior Researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and Honorary Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Henrik’s work is mainly focusing on developing knowledge of site adapted plant use for urban environments. Finding ‘plants of tomorrow’ means to combine traditional plant hunting of less common species with research and evaluation, creating a diversified approach to a resilient urban forest suited to a future climate. Henrik co-authored ‘The Essential Tree Selection Guide’ published by Kew, co-authored with Arit Anderson.

Thomas Hobbs – Southlands Nursery.

Talk:
Garden Inspiration in France.

Tom Hobbs is well-known in the gardening world throughout North America and beyond as a plant guru, floristry specialist, and general aesthete. His flair for knowing how to inject excitement, style and opulence into a garden or any other space has, without doubt, had an invaluable influence on garden-making in British Columbia and much further afield.

Tom became known for operating the first ‘artistic’ floristry shop in the Vancouver area. However, the opportunity arose around 1991 to take over an existing nursery in the Southlands area. Tom not only for improved the nursery, but expanded the indoor plant merchandise and décor items, an area that Tom continues to expand.

Tom and partner, Brent Beattie, often open “The Farm’ to Vancouver Hardy Plant members.

This rural estate offers great lawns with sweeping views, informal islands of true treasures under giant conifers, a landscaped lake inserted into the forest margin, a formal kitchen garden that includes beds for breeding Iris, one of Tom’s favourites. There are architectural elements, follies and surprises at every turn. Tom has written two books, ‘Shocking Beauty’, and ‘The Jewel Box Garden’ based on his previous garden.

Douglas Justice – UBC Botanical Garden.

Talk:
Low-Maintenance Landscapes, Urban Tree Canopy Targets and other Myths.

Douglas Justice is the Associate Director, Horticulture and Collections, at UBC Botanical Garden. He is also an adjunct professor in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at UBC and the Program Manager and an instructor for the Botanical Garden’s Horticulture Training Program. He co-authored The Jade Garden: New and Notable Plants from Asia, and wrote a Field Guide to Ornamental Cherries in Vancouver with volunteers from the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. Douglas wrote the text for the mobile app Vancouver Trees and is now working to complete a similar volume describing cultivated shrubs in Vancouver. His pandemic project was co-authoring the book, The Lives of Leaves, which is now, finally, available in North America.

Growing Smarter:
Embracing resilience for sustainable gardens

The Hardy Plant Study Weekend is an annual three-day conference which takes place in the Pacific Northwest and has been hosted each year by one of the following: The Northwest Perennial Alliance, Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group or Hardy Plant Group of Vancouver/Victoria.  The location has varied between Bellevue and Seattle, Washington; Portland and Eugene, Oregon; and Vancouver or Victoria, BC.

This year the Hardy Plant Study Weekend will be hosted by the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group at the following location:

University of British Columbia
Woodward Instructional Resource Centre (IRC)
2194 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, BC.
Map

Please join us for a weekend of garden lectures, plant sales, open gardens and the opportunity to mingle with 420 plus enthusiastic gardeners.

Your registration fee will cover:

• all lectures and presentations on Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday morning.
• coffee and snack breaks .
• access to splendid private gardens in:
  Surrey/Langley on Friday
  Vancouver on Saturday
  West/North Vancouver on Sunday
  and a bonus tour of open gardens on Bowen Island–just a short (20 min.) ferry ride away from Horseshoe Bay–on Monday.

Several specialty nurseries will be attending the weekend, offering a choice selection of their unusual and hard to find treasures, and on Saturday night there will be an informal Soiree dinner at Southlands Nursery following open garden tours in Vancouver.

Special Afternoon Lecture 2025

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

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

October 29, 2022
Saturday, October 29, 2022, 10:00 am – 3:45 pm
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver

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

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.”

Fall Study Day

Saturday October 25th, 2025
10:00 am – 3:45 pm
H.R. MacMillan Space Center, 1100 Chestnut St., Vancouver

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.