“Super Tough Wildflowers” by Ian Caton of Wood Thrush Native Plant Nursery
Date/Time
Monday, October 22, 2018
7:00 pm
Location
Roanoke Council of Garden Clubs
Categories
As a Landscape Designer and home gardener Ian has often had ambitious plans for the creation of amazing diverse gardens with visions of trilliums, phlox, lady slippers and other plants wild and rare. Then reality sets in with the first shovel of hard clay. Then extreme drought, pesky wood goats (deer) and other adversities took over. Eventually he learned how to garden in a way that works with difficult soils, harsh climates and other pests. This lecture is designed as an introduction to wildflowers that have proven, through experience, to be particularly reliable and tough under the most adverse conditions: drought, flooding, extreme heat, hard-pan soils, deer, invasive species invasion, and damage from overenthusiastic pets, children and spouses.
Ian Caton has been the owner/operator of Wood Thrush Native Plant Nursery (Formerly Enchanters Garden) since March of 2013 when he took it over from the previous owner (Peter Heus) who had been operating the nursery since the early-mid ‘90s. Previously Ian had been an employee of Larry Weaner Landscape Associates (A landscape firm specializing in the use and promotion of native plants in landscaping) since 2001. He graduated from Delaware Valley College with a B.S. in Ornamental Horticulture and Environmental Design. He has an extensive knowledge of native plants, natural communities, and their incorporation into the human environment. This experience was gained primarily through his long running relationship with Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve as well as long experience designing and installing native landscapes. He has also had the opportunity to work with local governments on the development of landscape plans for public spaces.
Past speaking engagements have included Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, New York Botanical Gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Brookside Gardens Green Matters Symposium, The Connecticut Mad Gardeners, The Master Gardeners of Camden County, The Irvine Nature Center’s Native Plant Seminar, and the New Directions in the American Landscape Conferences put on by Connecticut College and The University of Pennsylvania.
Wood Thrush Native Plants is a nursery specializing in native plants of the Appalachian region including West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and North Carolina. A focus of the nursery is the introduction of new and rare native plants which are little known or underappreciated in the nursery trade.
Contact: Ellen Holtman, 389-1514