Women in Horticulture

Although she was born into slavery in Georgia in 1829, Carrie Steele was one of the first black landowners in Atlanta and left behind a legacy that forever changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. She is an unsung hero in the horticulture world. Steele moved to Atlanta, Georgia after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Executive Order of 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation. We do not know much about Steele’s early years, apart from the fact that she was abandone

I met Lindsey Muscavitch on one of our first Zoom calls for the newly formed Women in Hort Chicago group. When she mentioned her connection to horticulture as a plant buyer at Lurvey's Home and Garden in Des Plaines, Illinois, specializing in seasonal color product lines for annuals, veggies, and outside tropicals, I thought we all should know more about this career. Lindsey’s passion for plants and her approach to her work she calls "behind the scenes" clearly show a stron

On Sunday, July 12th, 2020 Women in Horticulture held our first virtual Professional Show and Tell! Professional Show and Tells are a great place for presenters to test out a new idea, spark conversation, and share their stories. These are my favorite type of WinH events. It is incredible to be part of a community of people who share their knowledge so freely. We had originally planned to hold this event in person but we went with a virtual platform because of the coronavirus

Jenna Bachman is a Philadelphia-based horticulturist who currently works at Andalusia Historic House and Gardens, a sprawling landscape dating back more than 200 years and located immediately adjacent to the Delaware River. Previously, she was a Garden Design Lead at Terrain, where she worked directly with clients to implement gardens and container displays as well as the occasional floral arrangement for events. Jenna's career in horticulture developed from her keen sense of

Sarah Snow is a professional gardener with a wealth of unique experiences in horticulture spanning the Eastern seaboard. After graduating with a BS in Geology from Florida State University in Tallahassee, she became an NYC Civic Corps/Americorps member working at the Gowanus Canal Conservancy in Brooklyn, NY as their gardens and compost coordinator in the early stages of what is now a robust nonprofit environmental stewardship organization. After spending several seasons as

To all of our readers, Happy New Year! Thank you for following along, commenting, and sharing our Featured Horticulturist profiles in 2019. We strove to represent a broad spectrum of expertise, region, education, background, and passion from a set of women at varying points in their lives and careers. And on behalf of our interviewers and editors, thank you to all of the Featured Horticulturists who took the time to share their insights and reflections about being a woman in

Mae Lin Plummer had an 18-year corporate career as a project manager until one weekend-long short course in botany upended her life as she knew it. In the interview that follows, Mae Lin shares a bit about her courageous, rapid, and convincingly joyful career transition out of the financial industry and into horticulture. She took steps to further her education and volunteer, in addition to founding a garden design practice called The Laughing Garden, fueled by the same spark

A glimpse into a day in the life of Sandra Lopez Cortez would show her at times working her full time job, juggling several volunteer commitments, attending college courses, and parenting a growing family. It's owing to her ambition, endurance, and optimism that Sandra has developed so much personally and professionally throughout the course of her life, replete with huge cultural shifts and milestones that include moving with her parents to the United States as a young teena

Cindy Newlander is the Associate Director of Horticulture at Denver Botanic Gardens. Since 2002, she has led the Plant Records team and played a key role in developing the Gardens Navigator website, which makes the information DBG collects available and searchable to to the public in the form of photos, maps, labels and a database that documents the extensive living collection. She is a co-author of the Timber Press field guide, "Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountain Region" that

Written by Kate Galer, WinH Program Director Photographs by Kate Galer and Julie Bare On Friday evening, September 20th, a group gathered at the Penn State Center at 675 Sansom Street to share ideas, practices, and knowledge used in the horticulture world. After finding the small door on a small block of Sansom Street near Jeweler’s Row, we were met by Penn State’s Tommy McCann and Dori Cross. Tommy is the Horticulture Extension Educator for Philadelphia and throughout the

I was a fan and reader of Maggie Tran's reflections before I had ever actually met her. Over the years, she's kept several blogs chronicling her experiences as a gardener, which I would usually happen upon when googling something specific but obscure (for instance, training rose canes into globe shapes, a technique used at Sissinghurst). Her writing is simultaneously contemplative and technical. I'd so often have the feeling as a reader and fellow gardener that Maggie actuall

After reading A Woman’s Hardy Garden by Helena Rutherfurd Ely for the WinH inaugural book club meeting, we thought it was more than appropriate to interview Quill Teal-Sullivan as our Featured Horticulturists for June. Quill is the Director of Historic Preservation at Dunn Gardens in Seattle, WA but prior to that she was the Garden Manager and Curator at Meadowburn Farm (Ely's historic garden) in Warwick, NJ. She holds a MS in Public Horticulture from University of Delaware a

On Monday May 20th, Women in Horticulture joined Kim Andrews, Executive Director of Shofuso Japanese House and Garden and the Japan Society of America, for an After Hours Tour of Shofuso. Before the tour of the garden and house, some of us joined Kim for a short walk and talk around the Centennial Arboretum. As the group sat at the Alexander Stirling Calder Sundial and viewed the magnificent allée of cherry trees, Kim detailed the history of the area before, during, and afte

Sarah Dominsky has put down roots in central Virginia after spending the better part of the last decade bouncing between the East and West coasts training and practicing in the complementary and sometimes competing fields of landscape architecture and horticulture. When she graduated with a BLA at the peak of the Great Recession in 2009, job prospects were slim and the market had stalled, which is what led her to take a series of internships, including a long run at the Golde

The 2nd Annual Celebration of Women in Horticulture took place on Wednesday, March 27th, 2019 at the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Women in Hort members gathered at the Hilda Justice building on campus to enjoy each others company, wonderful artifacts from the PA School of Horticulture for Women, and a lovely spread of food before heading to the lecture by Dr. Chantel White. This annual celebration has become a great way to kick off the spring season (or what I consi

Abra Lee is doing something for the first time - she's freelancing. She starts everyday by writing, waking at 4:00am because she knows she'll be undisturbed until 6:30am. Even when she's not inspired, she still writes at least 3 pages, something she learned from the book The Artist’s Way. She's been working in the green industry for 18 years, both in the public and private sectors. Before transitioning to her new freelance lifestyle, Abra served as an Extension Agent with the

My great-grandmother was a woman who persevered in the face of family tragedy and challenging economic circumstances. Frances Vaughan Gardiner Finletter was born on September 16, 1892, and became one of the first women to be accepted into membership in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). She managed her own private practice, and was active in the profession for 55 years. Widely respected, when she was in her early 80s, she was named chairman of an at-large co

For March Featured Horticulturist, we're so delighted to introduce one of our own, Lucy Dinsmore. Lucy has been involved with Women In Horticulture since its early days, joining in Fall 2017 to spearhead social meet ups in the Delaware Valley where the group was founded, and quickly becoming a core organizer. She was first drawn to how approachable the scene within WinH is, and in many respects we have Lucy to thank for cultivating an atmosphere that is welcoming to newcomers

Janet Draper wouldn't be the first horticulturist to query whether she was in the industry more for the plants or for the people. It's a resounding refrain among gardeners, that landing among fellow "plant people" was like finding new kin: a group with a feverish thirst for everything plant related and a seemingly unflagging ability to talk about it. For so many horticulturists, the revelation that there are other people out there like us--and that one can not only study hor

This post is a summary of the second half of our Professional Show-&-Tell at the Morris Arboretum on January 19th. Presentations by Lucy Dinsmore and Martha Stephens are featured below. Notes from the open Q&A at the end of the event are included at the end due to the informative conversation that we had. If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out Part I of this event's recap as well! Lucy Dinsmore Looking at Plants from Below As a horticulturist with experience in