Horticultural Heroes

West Coast horticulturists, Richard A. Brown and Rosalind Creasy, are among the distinguished recipients of this year’s American Horticultural Society Great American Gardeners Awards. The national award program recognizes outstanding individuals, organizations, and businesses whose work contributes excellence to American gardening. Recipients will be recognized for their achievements at an awards ceremony and banquet on June 5 at River Farm, the AHS headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.

Professional Award

Given to a pubic garden administrator whose achievements during the course of his or her career have cultivated widespread interest in horticulture.

Richard A. Brown

Richard A. Brown serves as the executive director of the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden Trust in Seattle, Washington. From 1976 until he retired in 2009, Brown was the first director of the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Prior to this position, he was director of the Plant Records Center that was being formed at the American Horticultural Society’s River Farm headquarters in the early 1970s, a job that suited his interest in combining modern statistical methods with horticulture while concurrently a student at the University of Delaware. Now semi-retired, Brown is a past president of the Northwest Horticultural Society and past board member of the American Public Gardens Association.

 B.Y. Morrison Communication Award

Recognizes effective and inspirational communication—through print, radio, television, and/or online media—that advances public interest and participation in horticulture.

Rosalind Creasy

Considered a pioneer in the edible landscape movement, Rosalind Creasy is the author of 18 books on gardening and cooking. Her first book, The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping, published in 1982, helped popularize the term “edible landscaping” in American horticultural vocabulary. An updated and revised edition of the book was published in 2010 and is now in its 4th printing. Creasy, based in Los Altos, California, is also a landscape designer who helped create an edible landscape at the San Jose headquarters of software giant Adobe Systems, and designed 80 acres of the Seed Savers Exchange main campus in Decorah, Iowa. She lectures across the country on gardening, cooking, and edible landscaping and also maintains a blog at www.rosalindcreasy.com.

Used with permission from the American Horticultural Society

Go here to read about the entire slate of 2014 award recipients.