25. Scott Beuerlein on Zoos and Botanic Gardens

Scott Beuerlein Biography

Scott Beuerlein is the Manager of Botanical Garden Outreach at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. He runs the Zoo’s Botanical Garden educational programs, including three symposiums. He is involved in most of the department’s other outreach and with the plant trialing.  

Scott is a 1982 graduate of Xavier University, earning a B.A. in Communication Arts. He is an ONLA Certified Landscape Technician and an ISA Certified Arborist.  Scott is also a garden writer and horticultural speaker. He has published hundreds of articles and columns in several gardening and green industry publications. He currently pens two columns in each issue of Horticulture Magazine—the (usually, hopefully!) humorous Deep Roots column and the Garden Views series of interviews. Scott is a partner in the long running and highly respected GardenRant blog and posts about twice a month, including a spirited and sometimes passive-aggressive sparring of wits with garden writer Marianne Wilburn in a series of letters.   

Scott has received the following recognition for his horticultural efforts:

  • 2022 Silver Medal for blogs from the International Association of Garden Communicators 

  • 2020 Silver Medal for Magazine Article from the International Association of Garden Communicators 

  • 2020, Garden Clubs of America’s Club Horticulture Commendation

  • 2019, two Gold Medals for articles from the International Association of Garden Communicators 

  • 2019, the Civic Garden Center of Cincinnati’s Building Community Award

  • 2018, the Citation Award from the Garden Clubs of Ohio 

  • 2018, the Johnny Appleseed Award from Taking Root

  • 2015, named “One to Watch” by Cincinnati Magazine

  • In 2012, his garden received the Garden Recognition Award from the Cincinnati Horticulture Society

Scott is the currently serving as:

  • Board Member of Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum

  • Chair of the Boone County Arboretum Collections Committee

  • Member of the Cincinnati Urban Forestry Board

  • Member of the Green Industry Conference committee 

  • Member of the Perennial Plant Association’s Education Committee

  • Judge on the 2021 GardenComm Awards Committee 

Previously, Scott has served as:

  • Chairman of Taking Root, a tree planting initiative

  • Chairman of the Cincinnati Flower Growers Association

  • President of the Northern Kentucky Urban and Community Forestry Council

Learn more about Scott by visiting his website, by reading his articles on GardenRant and Horticulture Magazine, and learning from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanic Garden's website where there are additional resources, including event details, trialing program brochures, and the plant for pollinators initiative.

SHOW NOTES

  • The early passion for plants from a family of gardeners, and that passion rekindled when he had his first house

  • Starting a landscape company and eventually delving deeper into ornamental horticulture

  • Leaving Delta Airlines in 2008 to pursue his passion full-time and led him to his current role at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanic Garden

  • The prevalence of second-career individuals in horticulture and their diverse experiences

  • Pretending to teach people about plants as a kid

  • His role at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanic Garden involves communication, teaching, and sharing the importance of horticulture with the world

  • A shoutout to Steve Foltz

  • The success of symposiums at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanic Garden and the importance of information exchange within the horticultural community.

  • Plant trials to assess the success of various plants in their urban environment

  • Soil improvement techniques include removing heavy subsoil clay, backfilling with commercial topsoil blended with sand and compost, and creating raised beds

  • The importance of not walking on the soil to maintain its loose structure and achieve rapid plant establishment.

  • The commercial blend for topsoil typically includes clay, sand, and pine fines, with a focus on planting heavily and using liquid fertilizers for initial establishment.

  • How limited space led to a unique display/trial approach

  • The addition of a two-acre botanical garden on a nearby school campus at Rockdale Academy in Avondale and how it provided room for more scientific, side-by-side plant trialing

  • The zoo's involvement in community projects with projects funded by local organizations

  • Core principles of horticulture and zoos including diversity of projects, doing projects the same way each time, and use of shade trees

  • How horticulture is involved in planning for new projects at the zoo

  • Creating a sense of place for zoo exhibits

  • How the zoo uses plants to keep animals happy

  • The story of Fiona the hippo

  • How more zoos should integrate horticulture more

  • The significance of ArbNet accreditation levels based on collections, policies, education programs, and research, highlighting their achievement of level four on the first try.

  • Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)

  • Scott’s approach to writing and his contributions to GardenRant and Horticulture Magazine

  • Scott's interview column in Horticulture Magazine, where he engages with influential figures in horticulture and offers a sneak peek into the industry's professionals

  • Enjoying the gardening experience

  • The daily practice of walking through his garden to center himself, providing a quiet moment of reflection and appreciation for the work he has done.

  • The connection between people and plants

  • The impact of plants on hospital patients

  • How small actions like planting a pollinator garden or conservation at home can make a better environment

  • Favorite horticulture book is Hugh Johnson's Principles of Gardening, a comprehensive and readable book that covers the history, science, and various aspects of horticulture

  • The challenge of gardening with a bad back

  • Challenging the common belief that planting small trees results in faster and better growth compared to larger trees

  • The importance of sharing knowledge about soil and how success in gardening is strongly tied to the initial soil preparation and plant choice

  • How to propagate more horticulturists by exposing children to good horticulture through programs and community spaces

  • Learn more about Scott by visiting his website, by reading his articles on GardenRant and Horticulture Magazine, and learning from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanic Garden's website where there are additional resources, including event details, trialing program brochures, and the plant for pollinators initiative.

24. Janet Draper on Creativity at Smithsonian Gardens

Janet Draper Bio

Janet Draper has been the sole gardener for Smithsonian’s Mary Livingston Ripley Garden for 26 years.   This tiny 1/3 of an acre garden is located on the National Mall and is open 24 hours a day to visitors from around the globe.  Janet’s roles in the garden include everything from design and maintenance to cleaning the fountain and answering questions from visitors.  Janet’s approach is to try to do something different every year to challenge herself and to keep educating visitors about the amazing diversity of plants! 

Janet was raised in a rural farming community in Indiana and always knew she wanted to do something with plants. She pursued a bachelor’s in horticulture from Purdue University in 1987. Afterwards, she sought addition training with a series of internships that took her further than she could ever have imagined. She worked at Mt. Cuba Center for the Study of Native Piedmont Plants in Greenville, Delaware before it was open to the public; Kurt Bluemel’s nursery in neighboring Maryland where she learned the European approach to running a nursery, the famed perennial nursery of Countess von Stein-Zeppelin in Germany’s Black Forest, and Beth Chatto at her amazing Nursery and Garden in Elmstead Market, England. 

Once back in the States, she continued to gain experience at numerous nurseries from Long Island to Illinois.  After nearly a decade of working in perennial nurseries, she then started putting plants in the ground instead of little black plastic pots as an estate gardener and contractor for Oehme van Sweden where she helped install and maintain their designs.  She also helped co-found the Annapolis Horticulture Society. You can learn more by visiting Smithsonian Gardens, by contacting Janet at her email address drapeja@si.edu, and by following Smithsonian Gardens on Instagram.

Show Notes

  • Janet shares childhood experiences with gardening and her family's influence and early fascination with growing plants like cotton, Job's Tears, and peanuts

  • Janet talks about studying horticulture at Purdue and the influence of early mentors

  • Recommendations to gain hands-on experience and pursue internships

  • Her first internship at Mt. Cuba Center

  • Valuable lessons learned at Kurt Blumel Nursery

  • Lessons on learning plants and the importance of saying "I don't know"

  • Differences in horticulture education between the US and Europe and changes she would make

  • American Landscape Institute (ALI)

  • Her time in Germany working at Helen von Stein-Zeppelin’s nursery

  • The importance of hands-on learning and being open to new experiences

  • Working at Beth Chatto’s Plants and Gardens

  • Meeting Christopher Lloyd and seeing exciting colors at Great Dixter

  • Contrasting Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd’s approaches to combining plants

  • Discussing the influence of both Beth's naturalistic approach and Christopher's bold use of color

  • Janet discusses bouncing between different horticultural roles and eventually moving to Annapolis

  • Founding the Annapolis Horticulture Society and its continued success

  • The transition from private estate work to the public setting of the National Mall

  • The story of the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden at Smithsonian Gardens and how it used to be a road

  • How the garden was designed as raised planters for handicapped accessibility

  • Janet’s approach to garden planning, emphasizing color coordination, texture, and form by flying by the seat of her pants

  • Combining plants with a triangulation method by starting with a core plant, then adding three plants for texture, repeating the process to build outwards

  • Experimenting with new and unique plant varieties

  • Challenges and benefits of planning and adjusting on the go

  • Janet's Access database for tracking plants and their characteristics

  • Challenges during President Obama's first inauguration and how support from community, volunteers, industry friends, and the public led to restoration

  • Increased activity on social media to reach a broader audience by sharing knowledge, beauty, and the joy of gardening with the public

  • Janet's day-to-day adventures and how the garden dictates what needs to be done

  • The dynamic nature of public horticulture and the joy of working in the garden

  • The challenge of keeping the garden fresh and interesting after many years and adapting to the changing climate and finding plants that thrive in the heat and humidity of Washington, D.C.

  • The myth of closing down the garden in winter

  • How gardening is an evolving science

  • Planting what is not in your neighbor’s yard and oaks and embracing diversity

  • Janet shares her passion for the Perennial Plant Association, emphasizing its role in fostering collaboration, information sharing, and learning within the horticulture industry

  • How to propagate more horticulturists by finding passionate people and youth interested in plants and investing in them

  • Learn more by visiting Smithsonian Gardens , contact Janet at her email address drapeja@si.edu, and follow Smithsonian Gardens on Instagram.

20. Molly Hendry on Telling Stories with Gardens

MOLLY HENDRY BIO

Molly toggles the worlds of design and plants as both a trained horticulturist and landscape architect. Up through July 2023, she was the Associate Director of Gardens Support for the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens for 5 and a half years. There she was actively involved in the horticultural and design development of the 26 unique gardens that make up Birmingham Botanical Gardens. She was also a key support player in the renewal of the Gardens's master plan, in addition to managing ongoing garden projects. Since recording the podcast, she has stepped out to create her own garden design studio, Roots and Ramblings, where she does design work for folks in the Birmingham, Alabama area. With this studio, Molly is most interested in the intersection between people and places. She loves designing gardens for "hands in the dirt" gardeners, focusing on how design is not just a masterplan on a piece of paper, but an ongoing dialogue between a person and a place... often with a spade in hand! One of her top honors is that she spent 10 months living in the UK, sinking her hands into the soil at some of the top gardens across the country as the Garden Club of America's 2016–2017 Royal Horticultural Society's Interchange Fellow. You can learn more about Molly by visiting her website Roots and Ramblings and by following her on Instagram @mollshendry.

SHOW NOTES

  • Molly on her childhood spent outdoors

  • Encouragement from her parents to pursue landscape architecture 

  • Molly’s focus on horticulture and landscape architecture at Auburn University

  • The impact of study abroad trips on Molly and the stories she learned about gardens

  • How Rousham deeply touched Molly

  • Molly’s internship at Winterthur and a valuable lesson learned

  • Experiences while being the Garden Club of America's 2016-2017 Royal Horticultural Society's Interchange Fellow

  • Shadowing Nigel Dunnett and James Hitchmough to learn about naturalistic planting and how to think differently about plants and gardening

  • Time at Great Dixter and lessons learned from Fergus Garrett

  • Fergus’s sketches and mind maps

  • Molly’s roll as Associate Director of Gardens Support for the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens

  • Thoughts on how to illicit emotions in gardens

  • The analogy of garden design with Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat

  • Molly’s approach to designing gardens and questions she asks clients

  • How writing helps Molly be a better gardener and how she reviews her thoughts on New Year’s Day

  • Using the app Notability in the field and Google drive

  • Favorite books including Anne of Green Gables and Russell Page’s Education of a Gardener

  • The myth that we can’t garden the same as the English do

  • Molly’s favorite ice cream flavors

  • Propagating horticulturists by bringing in the human element and engaging with children

  • Learn more about Molly by visiting her website Roots and Ramblings and by following her on Instagram @mollshendry

16. Greg Paige on Being a Public Garden Rockstar

GREG PAIGE BIO

Greg Paige discovered his career goal early—creating and working in beautiful public gardens and sharing and teaching this passion with others. Greg currently serves as the Director of Horticulture at the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, North Carolina. Greg has had a storied life in public horticulture. His 30-year career involved work at some of the finest gardens in the country including Bartlett Tree Research Laboratory as Director of Horticulture and Arboretum Curator, Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Belmont, North Carolina, the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, the Holden Arboretum outside Cleveland, Ohio, and the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden in Cincinnati, Ohio.

You can learn more about Greg by visiting him at the JC Raulston Arboretum, watching videos from his work at the arboretum, and following him on Instagram.

SHOW NOTES

  • How his grandmother inspired him through books and his mother encouraged him to be outside

  • Pursuing a career in plants with a associates degree in forestry and working at an army munitions plant

  • Pursuing horticulture at Virginia Tech

  • Eye opening experiences doing an internship at Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and working with Steve Foltz

  • Advice for non-traditional students returning to school

  • Holden Arboretum curatorial internship and lessons about database curation, plant conservation, and plant explorations

  • Developing skills at a cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware

  • Experiences at The Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College and lessons about integrated pest management and volunteers

  • Lessons at Biltmore estate and the walled garden with color plantings

  • Admiration for the Appalachian mountains

  • Returning south to Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden and working with Douglas Ruhren and lessons about succession of bloom

  • Becoming Director of Horticulture and Arboretum Curator at Bartlett Tree Research Laboratory

  • Experiments and the research component at the Bartlett lab

  • Lessons learned about tree planting

  • Exploring planting prairies at Bartlett lab to reduce management and increase biodiversity

  • A new opportunity at the JC Raulston Arboretum

  • Systems and processes like setting alarms, bringing intelligent people into projects and having conversations, self care and running

  • The clipboard system learned from Andrew Bunting and using colored manila folders

  • How Greg moves projects forward at botanic gardens

  • Staying current in horticulture by attending conferences and talking to colleagues

  • Underused plants like shrubs (Deutzia and Hydrangea quercifolia) and more diverse urban trees

  • Greg’s knowledge about tree planting, how people shouldn’t prune, and bagging grass clippings and leaves

  • Myth busting pruning and how you can prune trees when the blade is sharp (i.e. anytime) and that you shouldn’t bag leaves

  • Books that Greg Paige returns to including Michael Dirr Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, Harrison Flint’s Landscape Plants for Eastern North America, Kelly Norris’s New Naturalism, and Thomas Rainer and Claudia West’s Planting in a Post-wild World

  • Propagating horticulturists including engaging with students and engaging with audiences

  • You can learn more about Greg by visiting him at the JC Raulston Arboretum, watching videos from his work at the arboretum, and following him on Instagram.

11. Abra Lee on Conquer the Soil

ABRA LEE BIO

Abra Lee is a storyteller, horticulturist, and author of the forthcoming book Conquer The Soil: Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country’s Gardeners, Farmers, and Growers. She has spent a whole lotta time in the dirt as a municipal arborist and airport landscape manager. Her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Fine Gardening, and Veranda Magazine. Lee is a graduate of Auburn University College of Agriculture and an alumna of the Longwood Gardens Society of Fellows, a global network of public horticulture professionals. You can learn more about Abra at her website Conquer the Soil, on Instagram @conquerthesoil, and on Twitter @conquerthesoil.

SHOW NOTES

10. Andrew Bunting on Life in Public Horticulture

Andrew Bunting is Vice President of Horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and leads the utilization of planting and design to promote environmentally sound gardening practices at PHS. Andrew has elevated each of the departments he oversees and has increased the brand and visibility of PHS through their respective work.

Andrew received his B.S. in Plant and Soil Science from Southern Illinois University. Prior to arriving at PHS, Andrew worked at Chicago Botanic Garden, Chanticleer Garden, and the Scott Arboretum for a tenure of 27 years. He has received the American Public Gardens Association’s Professional Citation, Chanticleer Scholarship in Professional Development, and the Certificate of Merit from PHS. He also serves on the Board of Magnolia Society International. Andrew published his first book in 2015 The Plant Lover’s Guide to Magnolias. Andrew enjoys bird watching, travel and, of course, gardening. You can learn more about Andrew by visiting PHS’s website and his Instagram page @abunting64.

ANDREW BUNTING BIO

8. Ethan Kauffman on the Magic of Stoneleigh

ETHAN KAUFFMAN BIO

Ethan Kauffman developed his love of the natural world exploring the hills in southeastern Pennsylvania. He cultivated his horticultural perspective over two decades of gardening in the deep south, including working at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden and then as director of Moore Farms Botanical Garden, where he led the transition from a private pleasure garden to a public botanical garden. Drawing on influences from both regions, he currently serves as the first director of Stoneleigh: a natural garden, a 42-acre former estate located in Villanova, PA, which opened to the public in 2018. At Stoneleigh, he enjoys creating a garden experience that inspires others to garden for beauty, biodiversity, and the health of our planet.

SHOW NOTES

  • Ethan’s introduction to plants, gardening, and the natural world at a young age from his parents

  • His collector gene starting at a young age with snakes

  • Early jobs including DEKALB summer work and nursery seed propagation

  • Graduating from Clemson and pursuing a career as a zoo keeper at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden

  • Ethan’s shift to Moore Farms Botanical Garden with Jenks Farmer and being bitten by the plant bug

  • Impacts on low versus high public garden density in the surrounding area

  • Lessons learned at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden and the value of making mistakes

  • Ethan becoming director of Stoneleigh

  • Issues with a local school and opening Stoneleigh to the public

  • Stoneleigh’s focus on native plants with Natural Lands and Ethan’s oversight

  • Elevating the design of a native plant garden through cultivar selection and design

  • The role of collections to better understand the diversity of a genus and the approach to mixing plant collections together for a polyculture

  • Highlights at Stoneleigh including the 200 foot long wildlife hedge, Catalpa court with the state champion southern catalpa, and the pool house and circular bog gardens

  • Working with staff and volunteers at Stoneleigh, the joys of getting to know everyone, and supporting the team the best he can

  • Moving projects forward through making good observations with tape recorders and phone cameras

  • Cultivating his skills by going to conferences and visiting gardens

  • A segue into Jared’s visit to see Nigel Dunnett’s superbloom

  • Superbloom music composer Erland Cooper’s Music for Growing Flowers

  • Ethan’s approach to editing the landscape at Stoneleigh

  • Inspiration from homeowners who aren’t bound by rules and from the wild places where plants grow where the books say they won’t

  • Breaking the colonial link to gardening from rethinking common names to acknowledging the diversity in people in horticulture

  • Ethan’s thoughts on seeing the Monarch butterfly migration in Mexico and the International Union for Conservation of Nature adding the Monarch to the Red List of Threatened Species

  • Early experiences with Monarch larvae on Asclepias syriaca with his dad

  • Busting the myth of the focus on crape murder

  • Propagating horticulturists by engaging kids with plants

  • An invite to visit Stoneleigh