Native Plant and Sustainability Conference PHIPPS CONSERVAATORY NOV.5, 2011
The Native Plant & Sustainability Conference is an annual event for anyone who appreciates native plants and sustainable landscape management, and wants to learn more about them
Native Plant and Sustainability Conference
Nov. 5, 2011
The Native Plant & Sustainability Conference is an annual event for anyone who appreciates native plants and sustainable landscape management, and wants to learn more about them. At the conference, experts will share their knowledge on a variety of topics, including landscape design, great native plants, sustainable practices, plant and wildlife ecology, and the natural history of Pennsylvania.
Register in advance either by phone at 412/441-4442, ext. 3925 or in person at the Phipps Garden Center in Mellon Park. The cost is $80 per person prior to Oct. 20 and $95 per person after Oct. 20. Price includes a continental breakfast and lunch on the day of the event.
Program
9-9:20 a.m. - Registration
9:30–10:30 a.m. - Re-Envisioning Our Urban Landscapes
Patrick Cullina
As mature cities look to enhance and develop open space, the post-industrial landscape exists ripe for creative use. In fact, sites ranging from abandoned mills to derelict bridges are already teeming with ruderal plants that can inspire planting designs once these sites are enhanced and made accessible. Inspiration for creating compelling landscapes of all kinds is all around us—landscapes that feature great colors and textures, attract and shelter wildlife, and adapt to a host of cultural conditions. Whether you’re home or away, in the city, country or the roads that connect them, a host of ideas awaits the careful eye. In this presentation, you will explore such strategies and review a series of successfully adapted plants in thrilling landscapes, including New York City’s High Line park.
10:45–11:45 a.m. - Insect Galls on Native Plants
Carol Mapes
This talk will introduce you to the fascinating study of the co-evolutionary relationship between specific plant and insect species that results in gall formation on many of our native plants in Pennsylvania. In this presentation, you will learn about a large variety of galls of unique morphology caused by cynipid wasps, midges, sawflies, psyllids, aphids, and adelgids on leaves, flowers, fruits, stems, and branches of many different species of native plants.
Noon – 1 p.m. - Lunch and Book Sale
1–2 p.m. - Pride of Place: Planning for Successful Native Plant Gardens
Linda Johnson
The gardens that we envy in glossy magazines often speak to us as recognizable hallmarks from the desert Southwest, misty coasts of the Pacific Northwest, or Spanish moss-covered landscapes of the Deep South. Gardeners as a group are very attuned to their environments—what plant should go where, how much sun an area receives, how much rain fell during a certain week. How can careful plant choice help us reflect Western Pennsylvania in our gardens? What environmental factors affect the success of our plant choices? Having a deeper understanding of the ecology that influences native plant communities can make our landscaping choices both more successful and more representative of the distinctiveness of our area.
2:15– 3:15 p.m. - Distilling the Essence of a Native Landscape
Sheila Brady
In collaboration with the New York Botanical Garden, Oehme, van Sweden
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