Plant Preview


Welcome to Plant Preview, a blog dedicated to helping gardeners learn about gardening techniques and preview new plant cultivars. Read about new plants here first and hear how your "comrades in compost" are making use of new plant introductions in their gardens and landscapes. Blog author Geri Laufer is a life-long dirt gardener, degreed horticulturist, author and former County Extension Agent. Plant Preview is copyrighted by Geri Laufer.

Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts

Monday, October 15, 2012

SE Regional Symposium, Herb Society of America, Oct 12-12, 2012

University of Georgia Horticulture Trial Gardens
The Southeast Regional Symposium of The Herb Society of America was held Oct. 12-13, 2012 in Athens, Georgia.

Dr. Allan Armitage
First we visited the UGA Trial Gardens and Dr. Allan Armitage showed us around.


Albuca spiralis 'Fizzle Sizzle' 
We saw plenty of flowers, annuals, perennials, roses, vines and the odd foliage plant!



Solanum wendlandii, Paradise Vine










Vince Dooley w The Rising Sun Redbud 
From there, we visited the specactular garden of UGA Coach Vince Dooley (retired legend), shown here with The Rising Sun Redbud PP21451 .

Pierced Hedge reveals St. Francis Statue


There were plenty of details to soak up in the Coach's garden, like the opening cut into this solid hedge, revealing additional gardens beyond, and a serene St. Francis of Assisi statue.




14 inch retaining wall
I hope to re-create a version of this low retaining wall in my own back yard which is sloped.
Here is Coach Dooley's gemlike Japanese Garden.

Japanese Garden at Coach Dooley's










Geri Laufer speaking on Tussie-Mussies
I peeked and saw I got a 10+ in the evaluation! 
The next day we had a series of programs for the educational symposium, including my talk on Tussie-Mussies and the Language of Flowers.

There was a lot of history of carried and worn flowers, and the floral language.







Tussie-Mussies hardback




Knot Garden at the State Botanical Garden














Rosemary in Bloom! 




Snowflake Scented Geranium














Geri in Vitex with Boxwood in foreground
The gnarly old Vitex at the State Botanic Garden made a cool place to sit, and in front of me were planted large, venerable plants of Golden Dream Boxwood PP16052 from Garden Debut(R).


Golden Dream Boxwood PP16052




All in all I had a very nice trip, although this speaking engagement meant I had to miss the 2012 Tucson Garden Writers Association conference this year because of the conflict in dates!  Thanks for driving, Sue!

Caladium container at State BG