For more than 25 years, the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College has sponsored the annual Perennial Plant Conference. This year’s conference is scheduled for Friday, October 14, 8 am to 5 pm at the Lang Performing Arts Center. The event will be co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Longwood Gardens, Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Chapter, and  Chanticleer.

The day long educational conference spotlights lectures by perennial experts on a wide range of subjects, including a review of specific genera of perennial plants; how to use perennial plants in the landscape; and practical issues such as pest and disease management. The specific focus of this year’s conference will be: ‘Shade Perennials: Gems Of The Forest Floor’; and ‘How Our Gardens Change Over Time’.

Conference attendees will have opportunity to observe perennials in a wide variety of gardens and landscapes on the Swarthmore College campus, considered to be “the most beautiful campus in America.” The Conference awards 5 credit hours for American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) members, or 4.75 CEU for Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD).

For online registration, visit here. Included in the registration packet is a complimentary weekend admission pass to Chanticleer and Longwood Gardens of Kennett Square, the weekend following the conference. For more information, call Longwood Gardens at (610) 388-1000 x507 or visit the Longwood Gardens website.

The list of speakers noted on  the Perennial Plant Conference website, is as follows:

Roy Diblik is the co-owner of Northwind Perennial Farm, Burlington, Wisconsin and author of Small Perennial Gardens:The Know Maintenance Approach.

Sydney Eddison has written seven gardening books, most recently Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as you Grow Older. She writes for Fine Gardening and other publications, and is a popular lecturer.

Fergus Garrett is Head Gardener and CEO at Great Dixter, East Sussex, United Kingdom, where he has worked since 1992.

Nan Sinton is a landscape designer, horticultural educator and consultant.

Gregg Tepper is the Woods Path Horticulturist at Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware.

Aardweg Landscaping, of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, has been designing and installing perrenial gardens in the Main Line and suburban Philadelphia for more than 35 years. Perennials annually offer  incomparable garden drama and color, as they come up each spring and perform in a way that no other plant group can match. Aardweg Landscaping specializes in perennial garden composition, creating a succession of bloom with changes in line, form and texture. For more information about Aardweg Landscaping, please call 610-355-0703 or visit the Aardweg Landscaping Website.