Join us for the HPSO 2022 Winter Program!

"One Gardener,  Two Visions:  the hardy and the not-so-hardy in California and coastal southwestern Oregon" with Scot Medbury, hosted by Bob Hyland

Sunday, February 13th, 2022 | 1:00 PM | Zoom Program

Click here to sign up!

Since 2020, Scot Medbury manages two very different gardens. The Sonoma Botanical Garden, where he serves as Executive Director, is tucked against the rugged foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains in the famed Sonoma Valley of Northern California. Meanwhile, he has a private garden project underway on a property in Southwest Oregon’s coastal Curry County. Medbury’s presentation for the HPSO Winter Program will highlight the opportunities, challenges and amazing horticultural palette that distinguish both of these remarkable gardens.

The Sonoma Botanical Garden is relaunching itself as a more relevant resource for gardeners in a wildly changing climate. The 35-year-old institution – formerly known as Quarryhill – has recently expanded its mission to embrace the cultivation and interpretation of the native flora of California, in addition to its historic focus on wild-collected Asian plants. Both its stunning collections of Asian magnolias, maples and other rarities will be featured, along with awe-inspiring California oak-savannah and chapparal plant communities. 

Medbury’s Oregon garden project is in the remote southwestern-most corner of the state, known for supporting the cultivation of a wide range of tender plants and therefore making for what is arguably the hands-down best gardening climate in the United States.  Southern hemisphere introductions from Tasmania, Chile, New Zealand and a range of oceanic islands flourish in ways not seen either north or south along the coast, as do citrus and other subtropicals.  Forget “Zonal Denial” – here is a place where you can grow pretty much everything!

Click here to sign up for this program!

About Scot Medbury

Executive Director, Sonoma Botanical Garden

Scot Medbury has been involved in the curation, cultivation, and interpretation of acclaimed botanical garden collections for over 40 years. He completed undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Washington and went on to become director of the San Francisco Botanical Garden and the Conservatory for Flowers in Golden Gate Park. He then was appointed Brooklyn Botanic Garden's President and CEO, serving for 15 years and leading a $125 million capital campaign and a decade of major renovation. He returned to the West in 2020 to become the Executive Director of Sonoma Botanical Garden, formerly Quarryhill. The garden has one of the largest collections of wild-source Asian plants in North America, including rare magnolias, rhododendrons, maples and other species, and has recently expanded its mission to also highlight California’s endangered native plants. www.sonomabg.org

This is a Zoom presentation. Price is $10 for members; $20 for non-members
HPSO programs are recorded and available for two weeks following the original presentation to all those who register for the programs. Registration is now open: 2022 Winter Program - Scot Medbury