Join us for a lively early evening of conversation, insight, and inspiration at this special garden-focused program. Enjoy an engaging discussion and audience Q&A moderated by Mal Condon, Heritage’s Curator of Hydrangeas. He’ll be joined by an exceptional panel of experts: Jack Aldridge, Royal Horticultural Society horticulturalist; Murray Buckner, hydrangea grower and hybridizer; and C.L Fornari, author, garden communicator, and design consultant.
Bring your toughest gardening questions and get practical advice from the pros, all while relaxing with a complimentary beverage and light refreshments. Garden lovers should not miss this casual, informative reception!
Program Presenters
Jack Aldridge, Royal Horticultural Society horticulturalist
Jack is responsible for Oakwood at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden at Wisley, England, a 4.5-acre woodland garden, home to an exciting collection of trees and shrubs and their understudy of perennials and bulbs. He has been at Wisley as a horticulturist since immediately after graduating from the prestigious two-year Wisley Diploma in 2022. He is active internationally with the Dendrology Society and currently an author for their Trees and Shrubs online. Jack is a trustee at the significant White House Farm (WHF) Garden and Arboretum where he is currently guiding the updating, logging, and labelling of the WHF collections.
Murray Buckner, Hydrangea grower and hybridizer
Murray Buckner attended the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, and he remained in the Charlottesville, Virginia area working for landscape design firms. A devoted plantsman, he also dabbled in other plant-related endeavors simultaneously along the way, especially plant hybridizing.
His company – Full Moon Blooms – is a specialized operation devoted to the Hydrangea paniculata species. Now more than 15 years in the making, Murray’s total site includes substantial propagation, cut flower production, landscape shrub production, in-ground growing areas, and his significant hybridizing operation.
C.L Fornari, Author, garden communicator, and design consultant
Known as The Garden Lady, C.L. Fornari is a speaker, writer, and radio host on WCAI and WGBH Boston. She’s the author of nine books about gardening, including her latest book, Hydrangea Happiness. C.L. often suspects that all of these garden communications merely serve to put a somewhat legitimate frame around a serious case of plant lust. She grows annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees at Poison Ivy Acres on Cape Cod and her favorite time of year is when she can go into the vegetable garden at 5 pm and ask, “What’s for dinner?”