March Into Spring XVIII - A Symposium for Gardeners
"A Changing World"
Saturday, March 22, 2025
8 AM – 5 PM

By popular demand, the venue for 2025 will once again be:
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Winterthur, Delaware

The 2025 March Into Spring Symposium will once again be a Hybrid Event with In-Person and Virtual Options. The Online Auction will remain online.

Speakers and Topics

Plus: Fabulous vendors, book signings, HPS/MAG book sale, trolley or walking tour of Winterthur Gardens, Online Auction, and Continuing Education credits. Details to come.

Vendors: 

Cairnsgrove Gardens & Apiary- Raw local honey, beeswax hand cream, beeswax candles, handmade soap, copper garden ornaments

Cymron Cottage Landscape Contractors & Plantsmen- Unique small shrubs and perennials

 Marano Gardens LLC- Rock garden plants, and related items

Rabbit Hole Plants- Rare and hardy plants from around the globe

Ryeland Gardens- Conifers, interesting trees and shrubs, early spring perennials, and a selection of indoor plants

Toadshade Wildflower Farm LLC- 100% native plants and native plants seeds - Toadshade offers over 400 different species native to the mid-Atlantic region

Triple Oaks Nursery & Herb Garden- Plants and horticultural items

Members and non-members welcome.

Early Registration cost through February 28:

In-person:  $90 members / $100 non-members
Virtual:  $60 members / $70 non-members

To register for the in-person event, click here.

To register for the online event, click here.

Late Registration cost March 1 through March 14:

In-person:  $110 members / $120 non-members
Virtual:  $80 members / $90 non-members

Refund Policy: Unless stated otherwise on the registration form, HPS/MAG does not issue refunds unless the event is canceled. If the event is canceled (due to factors such as inclement weather, insufficient registration, or other things beyond its control), HPS/MAG will issue the registrant a refund within 30 days of the planned event.

Schedule for the Day

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM              Registration and Morning Beverages and Bites- Menu Includes: Regular Coffee, Assorted Teas, Bottled Water, Assorted Petite Danish, Assorted Mini Muffins, Petite Chocolate Croissants Sliced Fresh Fruit & Organic Berries  

9:00 AM – 9:15 AM              Welcome and Logistics

9:15 AM – 10:15 AM           Richard Olsen, PhD, Director, US National Arboretum: Where the Wild Things Are: The Role of Cultivation in Plant Conservation

10:15 AM – 10:45 AM         Break: vendor shopping, book signing, and garden walks

10:45 AM – 11:45 AM         Eva Monheim: Shrubs & Hedges – The Ecological Role They Play

11:45 AM – 12:45 PM         Lunch in the Café or Garden Terrace,  and vendor shopping and book signing

12:45 PM – 1:45 PM           Jared Barnes, PhD: The Butterfly Effect: Micro Plants for Macro Impact

1:45 PM – 2:15 PM              Break: vendor shopping and book signing

2:15 PM – 3:15 PM              Mary Phillips: Plants, Wildlife and People

3:15 PM – 5:00 PM              Trolley or walking tour of Winterthur Gardens and vendor shopping

 Presentation Details and Speaker Bios:

Richard T. Olsen, PhD, Director, US National Arboretum: Where the Wild Things Are: The Role of Cultivation in Plant Conservation

Through history, gardeners have served as a vast contingent of citizen scientists preserving plant diversity. Cultivating a plant is, more and more, an act of conservation. As such, this talk will celebrate the role gardeners play in ensuring future generations experience the wonders of the plant kingdom. It will also highlight the community of gardens, public and private, collaborating on cultivating the world’s flora.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Richard Olsen’s relationship with horticulture stems from a deep respect for nature, cultivated in his early years in North Carolina through exploring the family garden and his time as a Boy Scout. What began as an appreciation for the artistic beauty of the outdoors eventually sparked a scientific curiosity that Olsen has explored throughout his career. Although he didn’t always plan for a career in horticulture, this lifetime of appreciation of the outdoors, and inspiring mentors, guided him to where he is today, director of the U.S. National Arboretum.
Founded in 1927 under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Arboretum is located on 451 acres of land in Northeast Washington, D.C. and contains more than nine miles of roadways. The Arboretum conducts research that benefits both American growers and consumers, and its collections house specimens for scientists to conduct research in fields like botany, horticulture and medicine.
Olsen’s ambitious plans for the Arboretum and Museum are backed by a successful career in horticulture and education. He has three degrees in landscape design and horticultural science under his belt. Along the way his mentors included horticultural icons – like Dan Hinkley, who sponsored Olsen’s internship at Heronswood Garden in Washington State, and the late J.C. Raulston, his former academic advisor. After finishing his doctoral degree at North Carolina State University, Olsen came to work for the Arboretum as a geneticist. In 2010 he headed the Arboretum’s germplasm program, which strives to maximize the plant genetic resource conservation. Following his stint as acting director in 2014, he was officially appointed director of the Arboretum in 2015.
Olsen has held leadership roles on the Casey Trees Science and Technology Committee, the Morton Arboretum Center for Tree Science Steering Committee and the J.C. Raulston Arboretum Board of Advisors. He also previously advised the U.S. Department of State and currently contributes to the Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections, which helps the federal government make informed decisions on science and technology policies.
https://www.usna.usda.gov/

Eva Monheim: Shrubs & Hedges – The Ecological Role They Play

Shrubs and hedges play critical roles in the environment depending on where they are located and who is interacting with them. Examples are the interaction of birds with shrubs during migration, and plants that are critical for water absorption. This talk covers many other environments to consider when planning and planting shrubs and hedges.

Speaker Bio: Eva Monheim is a speaker, horticultural and environmental consultant, garden coach, and an award-winning university educator. She is a faculty member at Longwood Gardens for the Professional Horticulture Program and Continuing Education Department. Monheim was an assistant professor at Temple University where she taught numerous subjects to undergraduate and graduate students in horticulture and landscape architecture. Many of her students have gone on to be leaders in the horticulture and green industry as well as doctors in plant science and related fields.

Monheim’s other endeavors include directing, producing, and co-hosting the award winning The Plant a Trillion Trees Podcast which is heard in over 110 countries. She is a Certified Arborist^® through ISA (International Society of Arboriculture). Monheim authored Shrubs & Hedges: Discover, Grow, and Care for the World’s Most Popular Plants, which was nominated by The Council on Botanical & Horticultural Libraries for outstanding contributions to the literature of horticulture. Monheim is co-principal of Verdant Earth Educators, LLC (VEE) a company that writes educational documents and standards, SOPs, landscape management plans, and trains professionals in the green industry.

https://www.evamonheim.com/

Jared Barnes, PhD: The Butterfly Effect: Micro Plants for Macro Impact

Dr. Jared Barnes explores how small plants can significantly enhance the ecological balance of your garden. These micro plants not only provide essential habitats for pollinators but also contribute to a thriving ecosystem by supporting beneficial insects and improving soil health. By strategically incorporating these plants, you can create a dynamic and sustainable garden environment that fosters biodiversity. Discover how small-scale choices can lead to large-scale positive effects, enriching both your garden's beauty and its ecological function.

Speaker Bio: Jared’s story – in his own words: There’s a coloring sheet of George Washington hanging on my fridge. It looks like a 1st grader colored it because, well a 1st grader did color it about 25 years ago. We were learning about the presidents around their birthdays that winter, and while the presidents were important, what really mattered to me was what I had colored on the back blank page. Rows and rows of colorful vegetables awaiting me in my garden in just a few more months.
My parents told me that I’ve been gardening since before I was five years old. I have two photos of the summer before my fifth birthday of a young stud weeding corn and tomatoes. The love of gardening was my grandfather’s fault; he instilled it in me. I recall many days where we would work together in his garden, him pushing the tiller and me raking our footsteps behind us. He would eventually make me my own little garden patch. It was great spending summers with him.
I got my bachelors in 2008 from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a focus on botany. The summer after graduation, I worked for an incredible internship at The Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College. That fall I started graduate school at NC State University, where I would spend six wonderful years growing even more as a person, a gardener, and a friend. While in Raleigh, I would have the opportunity to give presentations across the country from Greensboro, North Carolina to Portland, Oregon. I would travel the world and see horticulture from a new perspective in ten different countries. I would even land as a feature in Organic Gardening. As my parents said, who would have ever thought that a country kid from the woods of west Tennessee would end up in a national magazine.
https://meristemhorticulture.com/

Mary Phillips, Head of the NWF’s Garden for Wildlife^® program and Certified Wildlife Habitat^®: Plants, Wildlife and People

Diverse plant palettes embrace natural history to create a unique sense of place. Join Mary in exploring our mid Atlantic ecoregions’ plant and wildlife relationships and their value to people and ecosystems. Regarding natives, we lean into the science that at least 70% native plantings in a landscape are needed to make a significant difference for wildlife and the ecosystem.

Speaker Bio: Mary leads the National Wildlife Federation’s Garden for Wildlife^® program and Certified Wildlife Habitat^® as an ambassador for native plants and the wildlife they support. Her work ensures all habitat programs and resources are rooted in sustainable practices and the latest science. Since 1973, the Garden for Wildlife^® program has been the nation’s oldest and largest Backyard Habitat program generating and supporting millions of wildlife gardeners in North America. Since Mary arrived in 2014, the Certified Wildlife Habitat^® program has grown by 64% and has tripled its email subscriptions.
Mary’s strategic leadership aligns the native plant habitat mission across National Wildlife Federation’s, community initiatives, partner networks and external messaging. She collaborates with leading entomologists, pollinator conservationists, federal agencies, the organization’s science team and trend researchers to provide substantive content, to the Native Plant Finder™, Garden for Wildlife resources, and Spanish-language resources. This cross functional strategy has fostered public participation among millions of wildlife gardeners, more than doubled certifications, increased science and civic partnerships and created a Garden for Wildlife state network of 26 affiliate partners.
In 2020, inspired by the work native plants do to restore habitat, and based on consumer demand research conducted with the National Gardening Association Research and input from a survey of four hundred native plant growers nationwide, Mary created the Garden for Wildlife Native Plant Collections™. Curation of these collections was based on the development of ecoregional Keystone Plant lists in collaboration with Dr. Doug Tallamy and his University of Delaware research team. The goal of the social enterprise incubator was to engage everyday people in solutions for critical wildlife loss and climate impact and, connect local native plant growers to consumers through ecommerce. In the two years of the pilot launch (2021-2022), sales grew by 300%, distribution expanded from twenty-one to thirty-eight states and from two to five regional growers.
In coordination with the White House Office of Science and Policy, Mary co-founded the National Pollinator Garden Network in 2015 to launch the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge which created over a million pollinator gardens in three years. This partnership involved more than 50 national organizations with a third from the commercial garden trade, such as growers and independent garden centers. During this same time period, Mary launched the Butterfly Heroes™ Pledge which resulted in close to 500,000 participants receiving native milkweed seed to create monarch gardens nationwide.
https://www.nwf.org/