WVHPG Educational Speaker Program Tuesday, 9 February 2027
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Join us on Tuesday, 9 February 2027 at 7:00 pm in the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene, 1685 W 13th Ave, Eugene OR 97402, to listen to Panayoti Kelaidis, Senior Curator and Director of Outreach Denver Botanic Gardens. He will be presenting "Gardens that Rock!".
Program:
Gardens that Rock! “Crevice gardening has ushered in a renaissance for rock gardening. There is something here for everyone!”
Rock gardens have a long and glorious history in Oregon--which has had some of the greatest alpine nurseries in America (and still does--Illahe Rare Plants in Salem to name one shining example). The Czech-inspired Crevice Gardening phenomenon has given this art a fresh face, but all wise perennial gardeners know that some of the choicest perennials do best—or even require—rocks to grow their best.
Who doesn’t love Primula? Saxifrage? Daphne? To grow most of these well, a rock garden is a must. Lewisia, Penstemons, Eriogonum and most Phlox—the gems among American wildflowers.
In this talk we’ll take a fond look at the evolution of rock gardens and focus on the dramatic new ways they are evolving. We will end with a glimpse of ten fantastic new rock garden gems you must not be without!
Speaker Bio:
Panayoti Kelaidis is a plant explorer, gardener and public garden administrator associated with Denver Botanic Gardens where he is now Director of Outreach. He began his career at DBG in 1980 as curator of the Rock Alpine Garden, where he designed and oversaw the initial plantings of this extensive garden. Garden Design Magazine has rated this garden as the best public rock garden in North America. He has designed plantings for many of the gardens at DBG, as well as being part of the design team at Centennial garden and has designed the Watersmart knot gardens at Denver’s Civic Center as part of Denver Mayor Hickenlooper’s Water Conservation initiative.
He has introduced hundreds of native ornamentals from throughout the Western United States to general horticulture. He has taken five collecting trips to South Africa researching the high mountain and steppe flora there, as well as travels to the Andes, the Himalaya (Pakistan, Sikkim, Tibet and China), as well as travels throughout much of Europe, Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Mongolia and and Kazakhstan) the Caucasus and Turkey. Perhaps the best known of Panayoti’s introductions are the many showy hardy ice plants: several dozen of these are now available at garden centers across America and in other parts of the world.
In addition to introducing a host of exotic plants to general horticulture, Panayoti has been a champion Western native plants. He was the second secretary of the Colorado Native Plant Society, and past president of the American Penstemon Society. He has explored the Western mountains from Alaska to southern Mexico, collecting seeds of more than a thousand kinds of Western American wild plants for Denver Botanic Gardens’ collections and for research and study.
Panayoti has been party to the discovery of a number of species of plants new to science including In 1980 he pressed the first specimens of a lady's tress orchid in Golden that was subsequently to be named Spiranthes diluvialis by Charles Sheviak. In 1987 John Lavranos sent Panayoti an Aizoaceae he collected on Komsberg Pass in South Africa which Panayoti subsequently shared with John Trager at the Huntington Botanical Garden, and finally Steve Hammer. This taxon was finally recognized as Delosperma sphalmanthoides by Hammer. In March of 1996 Panayoti and Jim Archibald collected a specimen of an undetermined Moraea on Mount-aux-Sources, Orange Free State, South Africa which Peter Goldblatt determined to be a new species (Moraea vigilans). Several more of his south African collections are undergoing evaluation as likely new species to be published in the coming years.
Panayoti takes particular pride in sharing the plants and information he accrues through many channels: he has lectured in nearly 150 cities in nine countries, and has been featured in dozens of television, newspaper and magazine pieces.
He has been inducted in 2000 to the Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Growers Hall of Fame. I in 2004 he received the Boulder History Museum’s 60 Year Living History award, in 2003 by being inducted into the Garden Club of America as Member-at-Large, in 2002 he received the National Garden Clubs Medal of Honor and in 2000 he received the Arthur Hoyt Scott Medal from the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College. He has received three of the North American Rock Garden Society’s awards over the last two decades. In 2009 he received the Liberty Hyde Bailey award of the American Horticultural Society.
He believes that gardening is humanity’s best way to gain an appreciation of nature and natural processes. In an increasingly urbanized and polluted world, horticulture is, perhaps, the best way to create a sustainable future for mankind and our planet.
Program Location:
The in-person meetings and speaker programs take place at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene at 1685 W 13th Ave, Eugene OR 97402.
Entrance is on the east side of the building and there is ample parking in the parking lots, which can be accessed from both Chambers St or W 13th Ave, with additional parking in the adjacent Looking Glass Center parking lot. Please do not park under their covered entry way. Overflow parking is also available in the first 20 spaces on the east and south side of Redeemer Fellowship Church just across Chambers St to the west. For location and parking information see our website at: www.thehardyplantgroup.org/contact
Meetings begin at 7:00 PM, but the doors open at 6:30 PM for botanical sample browsing, refreshments, and socializing. We meet the second Tuesday of the month, September through November, and January through May. The public is invited to attend our meetings. Admission is free for members and $5 for non-members.
This program will also be broadcast live via a Zoom webinar, if you are unable to attend in person, to all members of WVHPG. If you are not a member and would like to view this webinar please see our "About" page on our website to learn how to join. www.thehardyplantgroup.org/about
Program:
Gardens that Rock! “Crevice gardening has ushered in a renaissance for rock gardening. There is something here for everyone!”
Rock gardens have a long and glorious history in Oregon--which has had some of the greatest alpine nurseries in America (and still does--Illahe Rare Plants in Salem to name one shining example). The Czech-inspired Crevice Gardening phenomenon has given this art a fresh face, but all wise perennial gardeners know that some of the choicest perennials do best—or even require—rocks to grow their best.
Who doesn’t love Primula? Saxifrage? Daphne? To grow most of these well, a rock garden is a must. Lewisia, Penstemons, Eriogonum and most Phlox—the gems among American wildflowers.
In this talk we’ll take a fond look at the evolution of rock gardens and focus on the dramatic new ways they are evolving. We will end with a glimpse of ten fantastic new rock garden gems you must not be without!
Speaker Bio:
Panayoti Kelaidis is a plant explorer, gardener and public garden administrator associated with Denver Botanic Gardens where he is now Director of Outreach. He began his career at DBG in 1980 as curator of the Rock Alpine Garden, where he designed and oversaw the initial plantings of this extensive garden. Garden Design Magazine has rated this garden as the best public rock garden in North America. He has designed plantings for many of the gardens at DBG, as well as being part of the design team at Centennial garden and has designed the Watersmart knot gardens at Denver’s Civic Center as part of Denver Mayor Hickenlooper’s Water Conservation initiative.
He has introduced hundreds of native ornamentals from throughout the Western United States to general horticulture. He has taken five collecting trips to South Africa researching the high mountain and steppe flora there, as well as travels to the Andes, the Himalaya (Pakistan, Sikkim, Tibet and China), as well as travels throughout much of Europe, Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Mongolia and and Kazakhstan) the Caucasus and Turkey. Perhaps the best known of Panayoti’s introductions are the many showy hardy ice plants: several dozen of these are now available at garden centers across America and in other parts of the world.
In addition to introducing a host of exotic plants to general horticulture, Panayoti has been a champion Western native plants. He was the second secretary of the Colorado Native Plant Society, and past president of the American Penstemon Society. He has explored the Western mountains from Alaska to southern Mexico, collecting seeds of more than a thousand kinds of Western American wild plants for Denver Botanic Gardens’ collections and for research and study.
Panayoti has been party to the discovery of a number of species of plants new to science including In 1980 he pressed the first specimens of a lady's tress orchid in Golden that was subsequently to be named Spiranthes diluvialis by Charles Sheviak. In 1987 John Lavranos sent Panayoti an Aizoaceae he collected on Komsberg Pass in South Africa which Panayoti subsequently shared with John Trager at the Huntington Botanical Garden, and finally Steve Hammer. This taxon was finally recognized as Delosperma sphalmanthoides by Hammer. In March of 1996 Panayoti and Jim Archibald collected a specimen of an undetermined Moraea on Mount-aux-Sources, Orange Free State, South Africa which Peter Goldblatt determined to be a new species (Moraea vigilans). Several more of his south African collections are undergoing evaluation as likely new species to be published in the coming years.
Panayoti takes particular pride in sharing the plants and information he accrues through many channels: he has lectured in nearly 150 cities in nine countries, and has been featured in dozens of television, newspaper and magazine pieces.
He has been inducted in 2000 to the Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Growers Hall of Fame. I in 2004 he received the Boulder History Museum’s 60 Year Living History award, in 2003 by being inducted into the Garden Club of America as Member-at-Large, in 2002 he received the National Garden Clubs Medal of Honor and in 2000 he received the Arthur Hoyt Scott Medal from the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College. He has received three of the North American Rock Garden Society’s awards over the last two decades. In 2009 he received the Liberty Hyde Bailey award of the American Horticultural Society.
He believes that gardening is humanity’s best way to gain an appreciation of nature and natural processes. In an increasingly urbanized and polluted world, horticulture is, perhaps, the best way to create a sustainable future for mankind and our planet.
Program Location:
The in-person meetings and speaker programs take place at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene at 1685 W 13th Ave, Eugene OR 97402.
Entrance is on the east side of the building and there is ample parking in the parking lots, which can be accessed from both Chambers St or W 13th Ave, with additional parking in the adjacent Looking Glass Center parking lot. Please do not park under their covered entry way. Overflow parking is also available in the first 20 spaces on the east and south side of Redeemer Fellowship Church just across Chambers St to the west. For location and parking information see our website at: www.thehardyplantgroup.org/contact
Meetings begin at 7:00 PM, but the doors open at 6:30 PM for botanical sample browsing, refreshments, and socializing. We meet the second Tuesday of the month, September through November, and January through May. The public is invited to attend our meetings. Admission is free for members and $5 for non-members.
This program will also be broadcast live via a Zoom webinar, if you are unable to attend in person, to all members of WVHPG. If you are not a member and would like to view this webinar please see our "About" page on our website to learn how to join. www.thehardyplantgroup.org/about
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Where is it happening?
Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene, 1685 W 13th Ave, Eugene, OR 97402-3743, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherWillamette Valley Hardy Plant Group
