Women in Horticulture

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

On one of the hottest days of the year, Women in Horticulture hosted the first Public Gardens Day for Horticultural Professionals. This event was created as an alternative to National Public Garden Week, which occurs in mid-May, when "public gardens emphasize their importance and impact as community resources and catalysts for change and resilience by encouraging the general public to visit, engage, donate, and/or volunteer." While that's great for the general public, us busy

Our Summer Celebration, hosted by Friends of Linwood Park in Ardmore, PA on Saturday, June 8th, was certainly a cause for celebration! Women in Horticulture is three years old! Over the past three years WinH has hosted so many wonderful events. From professional development opportunities, networking events, garden tours, to happy hours. And our network has grown so much over those three years. What started as two people (Cat Meholic and Rachel Burlington) has now grown to an

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

On Thursday May 9th, 2019 Women in Horticulture members had the pleasure of hearing Katie Dubow, Creative Director at Garden Media Group, present the 2019 Garden Trends Report. The event was hosted by The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society at their headquarters at 20th and Arch St. in Philadelphia. Before the lecture began members were able to mingle and browse the shelves in the PHS McLean Library. As well as, enjoy the gorgeous outdoor planters brimming with foxgloves, lupi

On Sunday, March 31st, 2019 Women in Horticulture held their Inaugural Book Club Meeting at Jenny Rose Carey's Northview Garden. Jenny's Carriage House, packed full of books, was the perfect setting for our first meeting. Not only did she and Hanna von Schlegell, Head Gardener at Northview Garden, host but they also provided us with a lovely spread of snacks and tea. We are very grateful to Jenny and Hanna for providing us with the perfect atmosphere for our first book club

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

It's that time of the year when I imagine most people, like myself, are hunkering down and waiting out winter. Now is a perfect time to set yourself up for a successful growing season by doing a little tool maintenance. In between looking at seed catalogs, make some time to clean and sharpen your garden tools. You will thank yourself come spring and hopefully incorporate it into your regular winter maintenance routine. This past November Women in Horticulture hosted a tool ma

On Groundhog Day 2019, a great group of women turned out on a Saturday morning to do things we seldom or rarely do, some of which we dread doing: getting professional headshots of ourselves and engaging in public speaking exercises. The day was orchestrated by Women in Horticulture’s Cat Meholic in conjunction with Martha Stephens at Kendal Crosslands Arboretum, which generously provided us the space. An incredible group of women turned out for the event and represented a sma

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

On January 19th Women in Horticulture gathered for our favorite event, the Professional Show-&-Tell! Traditionally, this event gives six speakers ten minutes each to present on a topic of their choosing. This year, we added a twist, giving speakers the challenge of using as few slides as possible for their presentation. This theme, “A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words” was inspired by a previous speaker at this same style event, Laureen Griffin. Through her talented storytelling,

Women in Hort members were lucky to be treated to a great event this last Saturday! Kate Galer and Julie Bare created a wintertime opportunity for us to gather over seeds and have gardening discussions. We had a mix of attendees from area garden groups, public gardens, and for-profit horticulture businesses. For me this event gave me a chance to relax with my colleagues and talk plants, garden projects, and upcoming industry events. I had conversations about turf removal tech

At our Annual Planning Meeting in November at the Tyler Arboretum one of our main tasks was to create a theme to unify our activities in the coming year. Going into this meeting many of us expected the theme to relate to the next generation of horticulturists. But, after break out discussions, we all seemed to come to a similar conclusion, we needed to focus on our needs at this time. All of us at the meeting are enthusiastic about helping the next generation of horticulturis

1924-2006 | United Kingdom Guest Blogger, Martha Keen, has written the piece below about the dynamic Historic Woman in Hort, Valerie Finnis. "Plantswoman, educator and photographer Valerie Finnis is a horticulturist for the ages. While several cultivars that she introduced still carry her name, her sociability and charisma, keen eye for design and candor in capturing her subjects, and encyclopedic alpine plant prowess warrant retelling perhaps most of all. | Left: Rock garden

Last month, Women in Horticulture participated in a critical thinking workshop at Mt. Cuba Center. The content was created by Kathy Salisbury, Director of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. I hope this summary helps capture the day. What if you met someone who waxed poetic about their beautiful hedge of burning bush (Euonymus alatus)? What if they said they don't believe climate change could possibly be caused by humans? I know my first instinct would be to prepare my

Collaboration has been the key to successful events for Women in Horticulture. Our event "Heroines in Horticulture" hosted by Chanticleer earlier this month highlights this. It all started with Erin McKeon reaching out to create a Women in Horticulture event at Chanticleer. As we were brainstorming event ideas we quickly thought of Martha Keen, an area expert on historic women in horticulture. We wanted to give attendees a glimpse into the past to see the women that have stro

On the final day of the American Public Gardens Association’s national conference in Disneyland I saw a friendly person wearing a conference name tag smile at me. I quickly introduced myself “Hi, I’m Cat Meholic….” Patting the seat next to her she responded brightly “I’m Melissa, I’m from Longwood Gardens.” Immediately, I felt that Melissa was engaged, and interested in what I had to say. I found myself impressed with how genuinely she loved her work and wanted to create fant

At the volunteer work day in April of this year, with our heads in the dirt, a group of Women in Hort were brainstorming new event ideas. Our idea was that since we all want to be in the physical aspect of horticulture for the long haul we should create a program that teaches us how to protect our biggest horticulture asset; our bodies. After months of planning, emails, sponsor requests, an in-person meeting, phone meetings, event space reserved, parking reserved, invitation