Southeastern Plant Symposium set to launch in June

Colleagues Mark Weathington, Director of JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University, and Tony Avent, Founder of Juniper Level Botanic Garden and Plant Delights Nursery, will launch the first Southeastern Plant Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 7 and 8.

"The Southeastern Plant Symposium is an incredible opportunity for professionals and non-professionals to hear many of the world's renown plant speakers in a single event," Avent said. "The Symposium will provide accurate information from people who know and grow the plants, as opposed to the frequently incorrect information that's perpetuated online.”

"There are many great new plants entering the market from plant breeders, from explorations around the world, and from collections of botanic gardens," Weathington said. "We'll be talking about cutting edge plants at the forefront of new trends in gardening and new plant selections that reinvent how we think about gardening."

Southeastern Plant Symposium speakers include:

• John Grimshaw, Director, The Yorkshire Arboretum, Castle Howard, York, UK

• Scott McMahan, Manager, International Plant Exploration, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta, Georgia

• Ted Stephens, Owner, Nurseries Caroliniana, Augusta, South Carolina

• David Creech, Professor Emeritus, SFA State University, and Director of Stephen F. Austin Gardens. Nacogdoches, Texas

• Julie Moore, Office of Endangered Species, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Washington, DC

• Tony Avent, Founder, Juniper Level Botanic Garden and Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, North Carolina

• Adam Black, Director of Horticulture, Peckerwood Gardens, Hempstead, Texas

• Leanne Kenealy, Plant Breeding and Nursery Technician, JC Raulston Arboretum, Raleigh, North Carolina

• Buddy Lee, Director of Plant Innovations, Plant Development Services (PDSI), Loxley, Alabama

• Guy Meacham, New Plant Development Manager, J. Frank Schmidt & Son Company, Boring, Oregon

• Tom Ranney, JC Raulston Distinguished Professor and Mountain Crop Improvement Lab, Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center, NC State University, Fletcher, North Carolina

• Kim Shearer, Tree and Shrub Breeder and Manager of New Plant Development Program, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois

• Tim Wood, Product Development & Marketing Manager, Spring Meadow Nursery, Grand Haven, Michigan

• Donglin Zhang, Professor, Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

"Targeted attendees include, private plant collectors, landscape architects and designers, nursery and botanic garden staff, members of HOA landscape design committees, city and county horticulturists, parks staff, new homeowners who want to create a distinctive landscape design, and members of the public who are passionate about new and different plants," Avent said.