Symposium - Speakers

Speakers

Opening Keynote and Session Speaker Jay Sifford

Jay Sifford (www.siffordgardendesign.com) is a garden designer, writer, speaker, and frequent podcast guest who believes great gardens are built on four cornerstones: art, magic, story, and horticulture. He approaches garden design from a psychological, philosophical, and spiritual standpoint. Named North Carolina’s Most Outstanding Landscape Designer 2021 by LUXlife magazine, he has won numerous awards by Houzz, and has been featured in Fine Gardening, Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens, and Country Gardens as well as in several books. Jay cultivates a 300-square-foot courtyard garden in Davidson, NC, and a mountain escape in the sunny, stylized meadow and a shade garden underneath a canopy of mature rhododendrons.

Opening Keynote: Let's Make Some Garden Magic!

A garden is more than a way to decorate a yard, or a collection of plants. It’s an immersive place, full of magic, mystery, intrigue, and surprises that connects to our inner being and transports us to another place and time. Learn how to design a magical garden that allows your imagination to soar.

Session Topic: Common Plants, Uncommon Uses

As a gardener, you're likely a collector of the rare and unusual. What's the value of incorporating the common and mundane into your planting scheme? How can you use common plants that are available at any big box store to 'finish off your design'? Put them to work thoughtfully in unexpected ways to create a unique garden that creates a sublime space that speaks to your home and your own personal story.

Closing Keynote and Session Speaker Holly Scoggins, Ph.D.

An Associate Professor Emeritus from Virginia Tech, Holly retired in January 2020 after 20 years in the Department of Horticulture with teaching, research, cooperative extension, and administrative responsibilities. Holly received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Georgia and her Ph.D. in Horticultural Science from North Carolina State University. Her passion for teaching and research has been recognized with many honors and awards. After 'retirement,' she joined the educational staff at AmericanHort, the horticulture industry's trade association. Her current role is as Program Manager for NewGen® Boxwood, the national brand of Saunders Brothers Inc., a large nursery grower of quality ornamentals in central Virginia. Holly is the past President of the Perennial Plant Association and enjoys sharing her love of plants. She's outdoors at every opportunity gardening, hiking, fishing, and beekeeping. Because she does not have quite enough horticulture in her life, Holly and her husband Joel Shuman run Bee Berry Farm, a you-pick blueberry farm and apiary in southwest Virginia.

Closing Keynote: Mistakes Were Made: Three Decades of Gardening Gaffs and Poor Plant Choices

From the inability to drive past a garden center without stopping, to issues with unexpectedly rowdy spreaders, Holly shares a light-hearted romp through some of her personal gardening challenges (and a few solutions, thank goodness). Motto: “It seemed like a good idea at the time…”

Session Topic: Perennials with POW!

Holly shares fun, fabulous, high-impact perennials and woodies to freshen up borders, attract pollinators, and impress your friends (heh). Some are new, some underused, and something for every garden size, style, and growing season. Maintenance tips included!

Session Speaker Craig LeHoullier

Craig lives and gardens in Hendersonville, NC. A Rhode Island native, he caught the gardening passion from his grandfather and dad. His love of heirloom tomatoes began in 1986 with his joining the Seed Savers Exchange, an organization for which he continues to serve as adviser for tomatoes. He is responsible for naming and popularizing many well-known tomatoes, such as Cherokee Purple. In 2005 he added amateur tomato breeding to his resume as co-lead of the Dwarf Tomato Breeding project, responsible for creating 157 (and counting) new compact growing varieties for space-challenged gardeners.

Craig's writing career kicked off with Epic Tomatoes (2014); his second book, Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales, soon followed (2016). Book 3, which focuses on the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, is in progress and should be completed during 2025.

A popular lecturer across the country at major gardening events, as well as a frequent guest on podcasts and radio shows, he does a weekly Instagram Live each Friday at 4 PM Eastern from his garden throughout the growing season. Craig also collaborated with Joe Lamp’l to create the on-line course Growing Epic Tomatoes as part of Joe’s Organic Gardening Academy. The course is available to purchase and experience at your convenience.

Morning Session Topic: Epic Tomatoes from YOUR Garden – stories and tips from 40 years of digging in the dirt

Buckle up and prepare to be taken on Craig's colorful, information packed journey through his 40 years and counting adventure with tomatoes. The first half of the workshop will focus on helping gardeners choose among the baffling array of tomatoes, and include a bit of history and some interesting anecdotes and stories. The second half will take the audience from seed to harvest, including many important success factors, troubleshooting, and ways to navigate the inevitable challenges that all tomato growers face. Be sure to bring your questions!

Afternoon Session Topic: Techniques and Tomato Types – Success with Containers, Straw Bales – and all about the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project

Rarely do gardeners have the perfect sun exposure in their yard aimed at the perfect location for their gardens. Learning how to grow just about anything in containers or straw bales allows for locating productive gardens where the sun shines best. This colorful, info packed workshop will show gardeners how to grow their favorite crops in ways they may not have previously considered. In addition, information about the exciting new dwarf growing tomatoes bred by Craig and his volunteers will show the perfect types of tomatoes to place in those containers or straw bales. Bring all of your questions for Craig to answer.

Session Speaker Paul Thompson

Paul recently retired after more than 30 years with Clemson Extension Service as a Distinguished Agent in Urban Horticulture. He has a Master's degree in Plant Health from Clemson University. He is a certified Nursery Professional with the South Carolina Green Industry Association. For years, Paul coordinated the Master Gardener Program for York, Chester, and Lancaster Counties. He writes a monthly column for YC Magazine, a quarterly column for SC Farmer magazine, and is a regular guest on SCETV's Making it Grow.

Session Topic: Small Trees for Small Landscapes

With more and more developments being built with smaller lots, many of our shade trees grow too large for the space provided. Paul will introduce you to trees that will mature to 35 feet or less, many of which have beautiful flowers.

Session Speaker Sara Gagné

Sara A. Gagné is the author of Nature at Your Door: Connecting with the Wild and Green in the Urban and Suburban Landscape (Stackpole Books, 2023); and associate professor and chair in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Geographical Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Gagné’s research, teaching, and writing are dedicated to understanding and communicating how people and nature interact in cities. She lives in Charlotte, where she tries to spend as much time as possible looking for otters, salamanders, and other wild neighbors.

Session Topic: Where is the Best Place to Connect with Nature? At Your Door!

I bet you won’t believe me when I tell you that you share your home and yard with thousands, yes thousands, of other species. From coyotes to luna moths, you are surrounded by a constellation of wildlife in the ecological galaxy that is your town or city. Join me as I show you how you influence the species around you, and in turn, how they influence you in your yard, along your street, in your neighborhood, and citywide. In each place, I’ll share easy ways to build on your budding relationship with urban nature.