Women in Horticulture

Jasmine Thompson grew up in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. She spent two years working in Northern California with two organizations, Community Food Council of Del Norte County and the Adjacent Tribal Lands. There, she helped build food forests for the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation and the Yurok Tribes. She learned about agricultural justice, pursuing an equitable balance of power within the agricultural system, per the Agricultural Justice Project. When Jasmine moved b

Women in Horticulture’s Kate Galer sat down with Rev. Carolyn Cavaness on a cold January evening to find out more about her and the Bethel AME Victory Garden. Rev.Cavaness is the pastor at Bethel AME Church in Ardmore, PA. She started the Ardmore Victory Garden program in 2019 in response to food insecurity in the neighborhood and community. Rev. Carolyn wasn’t a gardener or horticulturist when she started this journey, but as a leader and organizer, she has much to share.

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917 – 1977) was born into a sharecropping family in Mississippi and become a leader in civil rights. She established a cooperative farm to provide economic support to her community. Fannie Lou Hamer was born to a family of sharecroppers in 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She began picking cotton with her family at age 6. She was able to attend school sporadically and learned to read and write, but she began working full time by age 12. After marryin

Summer Badawi is a Minneapolis-based plantswoman, designer and educator with a particular passion for farming, food, and flowers. She has a degree in European History from University of Minnesota and is a 2011 graduate of Longwood Gardens’ Professional Horticulture Program. Until very recently Summer was running her own flowering farming business, Ladyfern Flowers, and working for Urban Roots, a non-profit based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Last year, Summer made the decision to s

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

In these new COVID-19 times, we had to pivot along with the rest of the world to find a creative way to continue programming otherwise cancel the event completely. That’s how we ended up with our first ever completely online event - our book club discussion. The original event was scheduled for a Friday evening, so we decided to keep the same day and time but switch to Zoom for our discussion. Although we all would have much rather been together, it was great to use the te

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

Financial planning isn't everyone's idea of a fun Saturday afternoon but a little planning now can insure that you're able to have lots of fun once retirement hits! On Saturday, February 8th, 2020 Women in Hort members gathered at Common Space in Ardmore to learn about financial planning from Gerry O'Neill. Gerry is the President and Owner of GJO Financial. Based in Chalfont, GJO specializes in retirement planning, college planning, estate planning, small business solutions,

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

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

When we last left off the Women in Hort crew had just finished lunch and was venturing out through meadows, along streams and up hills to visit the historic landscape of Bamboo Brook. If you haven't read part 1 of this blog recap, I recommend reading that first. Bamboo Brook neighbors Willowwood Arboretum and has been managed by Morris County Park Commission since 1972. The garden at Bamboo Brook was designed and planted by Martha Brookes Hutcheson. Her time at Bamboo Brook w

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

On Saturday, August 3rd, 2019 Women in Hort members took their first ever road trip to the fabulous Willowwood Arboretum and neighboring Bamboo Brook in Far Hills, NJ. Our tours were led by Zinnia Cheetham, Plant Records Curator Specialist, and we were in for a full day. The day began with a tour of Willowwood, after which we had lunch in the historic house, followed by a quick hike to tour neighboring Bamboo Brook. Part one of this event recap will cover our tour of Willowwo

Women in Horticulture is made up of so many knowledgeable women from all walks of the horticulture industry. One of my favorite parts of attending WinH events is knowing that I will learn something interesting from another WinH member. WinH members lent their collective knowledge to Tyler Arboretum this past Saturday, July 28th for their Garden Grown Event. This event was centered around their new Edible Garden. There were lots of fun things going on throughout the day, like

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