Plant Select Member Webinars 2024
The following autumn webinar is open to Plant Select members. It will be recorded. If you are unable to attend live, please register to receive the recording.
Aren’t a member yet? Become a Plant Select member here. Your membership helps fund diverse, climate-resilient plants—including native introductions—for more sustainable western landscapes. Our non-profit couldn’t exist without our members, and we thank you!
The Story of SummerHome Garden: An Urban Pocket Park
Thursday, September 26, 2024 | 6-7:15 pm MT
Determined to do your part for climate change? Wondering if you can rewild your outdoor space? You can!
Please join Lisa Negri as she introduces you to SummerHome Garden—an urban “pocket park” and nature refuge that hums with life amid Denver’s urban dwellings. Lisa will share how and why SummerHome Garden was created, how it’s designed with climate in mind, and the unexpected events and magic that have occurred since its creation. Explore the obstacles that Lisa overcame in creating this inner city park in Denver. The garden contains more than 100 species of drought tolerant, regionally adapted plants that thrive in high and dry Colorado, including many Plant Select staples.
About our speaker:
Lisa Negri is the founder and caretaker of SummerHome Garden, and she’s no stranger to math, science and working with the earth. As the CEO of an environmental engineering company for 20 years, she was well known as a thought leader and has been a frequent catalyst for growth and change.
Today, SummerHome Garden allows Lisa to blend that engineer’s mind with a passion for education, commitment to community, active philanthropy and dedication to curbing climate change. She believes that changing even one small corner of the world makes a difference.
Completed Webinars 2024
If you missed one of the great talks below, we’re developing ways to give our members access to the recordings. We also will plan more webinars for the winter.
The Making of Stylized Prairie and Meadow Gardens
Thursday, January 18, 2024 | 6-7:15 pm MT
Bryan Fischer of The Gardens on Spring Creek (Fort Collins, Colo.), will discuss the making of stylized prairie and meadow gardens. You’ll have a chance to learn about design, plant palettes, and meadow and prairie garden concepts. Bryan will share examples from the native prairie garden at The Gardens on Spring Creek, as well as his personal garden featuring native and adapted plants. Plus, there will be time for Q&A.
**Registration closed**
About our speaker:
Bryan Fischer is curator of plant collections and horticulturist for The Gardens on Spring Creek in Fort Collins, Colo. There, he designed and manages a half-acre, native-only prairie garden, in addition to tracking the institution’s plant collections and providing horticulture counsel to staff. The meadow-style garden has more than 120 taxa in a matrixed design, and it’s one of the largest public gardens of its kind in the region. He took his “lessons learned” from his then 4-year-old prairie garden endeavor to install a similar meadow in his own backyard, improving upon his process and adapting it to home scale.
In addition to his work for The Gardens on Spring Creek, Bryan is a regional columnist for Fine Gardening online. He holds a B.S. in horticulture from Colorado State University (CSU) and has more than a decade of professional experience in horticulture, including academic and applied work at CSU, Denver Botanic Gardens, and The Gardens on Spring Creek.
Regional Natives for Western Gardens
Thursday, February 8, 2024 | 6-7:15 pm MT
One of the most requested topics we received for a member webinar was: Plant Select native plants. Please join Mike Kintgen, curator of alpine collections at Denver Botanic Gardens, as he explores regional natives for western gardens. He’ll discuss Plant Select native trees, shrubs and perennials… and a few western natives he’d love to see in the program. Mike has gardens at 5,280 feet, as well as in the mountains at 8,150 feet, so he’ll be sure to touch on some Plant Select native plants that will grow at higher elevations. Bring your questions! There will be time for Q&A.
**Registration closed**
About our speaker:
Mike Kintgen has been gardening since he was seven years old in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and the metro Denver area. With an educational background in landscape horticulture, environmental biology and alpine ecology, Mike has worked at Denver Botanic Gardens since 2004, focusing on high elevation and western native plants. He is a member of numerous plant societies focusing on alpine, rock gardens and western native plants.
Mike is a popular lecturer and has spoken across North America, as well as in Europe and Argentina. He’s helped author multiple books with Denver Botanic Gardens including Steppes and Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountain Region. Most recently, Mike helped author the North American Botanic Strategy for Alpine Plant Conservation with Betty Ford Alpine Gardens and Denver Botanic Garden’s Research Department.
Outside of work, Mike enjoys home gardening, hiking and exploring for plants in their native habitats.
Establishing Meadow Gardens From Seed
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 | 6-7:15 pm MT
Interested in naturalistic landscaping? Join us as John Murgel of Colorado State University Extension discusses establishing meadow gardens from seed. In this webinar, you’ll get a fresh look at the value of landscaping with stable plant communities in a meadow format and how to apply this type of landscaping in our unique, western growing conditions. John will share key findings that he and his collaborators have learned from their meadow test sites (sowing seed and mulch, watering, weeding, etc.), including problems and successes they’ve had. Plus, there will be time for Q&A.
**Registration closed**
About our speaker:
John Murgel is the extension specialist in horticulture and natural resources for Colorado State University Extension in Douglas County (south metro Denver). He studied ecology and evolutionary biology at University of Colorado-Boulder and horticulture at Colorado State University. His career includes a decade in public gardens before joining Colorado State University Extension in 2020.
John is especially interested in harnessing ecological processes to make gardening easier and in taking drought-tolerant landscaping to extremes (…so he never has to fix his home irrigation system again).
Intro to the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS)
Thursday, March 7 | Noon-1 pm MT
** This lunchtime webinar will be offered by invitation to city foresters, plant breeders, universities, botanic gardens and growers. All Plant Select members are welcome, if you’re interested in learning about this germplasm program.**
Are you looking for ways to increase the diversity of trees and other plants in your area through germplasm? Are you looking for more options for programs to submit trees and shrubs? The U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) is a collaborative effort to safeguard the genetic diversity of important plants, including natives. It’s also a resource for plant breeders, universities, botanic gardens, growers and city foresters… but many people don’t know about it! In this talk, Horticulturist Jeff Carstens will share what the NPGS does, how to use its database and services, and when it may be of use to different organizations.
**Registration closed**
About our speaker:
Horticulturist Jeff Carstens serves as a curator for the horticulture project at the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station (NCRGPIS) in Ames, Iowa. The NCRGPIS is part of the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System. As a curator, Jeff is responsible for maintaining a diverse collection of woody and herbaceous plants totaling just over 4,000 accessions. In recent years, Jeff’s main responsibilities have been coordinating efforts to preserve germplasm of North American Fraxinus in response to the emerald ash borer. Jeff received a B.S. in horticulture and M.S. in entomology, both from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Western Pollinators, Plants and Best Practices
Thursday, March 21, 2024 | 6-8 pm MT
Join Lisa Mason of Colorado State University Extension as she invites us into the world of western pollinators. You’ll get a fresh look at popular pollinators like bees, as well as lesser-known (but awesome) plant visitors that are often misunderstood. Lisa will share some of her favorite plants for attracting diverse pollinators to western gardens, including options from Plant Select. And you’ll walk away with actionable practices for pollinator-friendly landscaping, including insights into pollinator landscaping trends that are based in science… and a couple that are best to skip. Plus, there will be time for Q&A.
**Registration closed**
About our speaker
Lisa is an entomologist and the horticulture extension specialist for Colorado State University Extension in Arapahoe County (metro Denver area). She also is the founder of Colorado’s Native Bee Watch program, which she started in 2016 for her Master’s Degree in entomology at Colorado State University. In 2018, she brought Native Bee Watch to Colorado State University Extension when she started her position. Lisa is passionate about the Native Bee Watch program because it incorporates education, research and on-the-ground community work—all important components needed to support pollinator conservation.
Lisa enjoys bringing science education to communities on pollinators, insects, trees, plants, gardening, home landscape care, and ecology. Her research interests include using community science to support pollinator conservation.
