June General Meeting: Guest Speaker Tony Spencer, “Wildscaping: Planting Design with a Canadian Twist”

Tonight, wildscaping guru Tony Spencer, a.k.a., The New Perennialist, will share ideas to link our homes and landscapes in a symbiotic loop that stimulates garden-spaces adaptable to the inevitable extremes of our changing climate. Leveraging plant-driven landscape design, he hopes to inspire us to create and sustain dynamic garden spaces to rekindle our relationship to the natural world. And, Tony will have plenty of stories and photos to share from his extensive countryside gardens, where he is conducting a series of open experiments to combine naturalistic planting design with green infrastructure for a fluid ecological art form.

Tony Spencer is the Canadian writer, digital creator and planting designer behind The New Perennialist. He is recognized and published internationally in the world of naturalistic garden design. Known for his award-winning blog, he also hosts The New Perennialist Talks, a webinar series featuring influential design innovators in the genre. In 2024, Tony won his second top Landscape Design Award of Excellence from the US-based Perennial Plant Association (PPA) and in 2023, he was named PPA Garden Media Promoter of the year. He is also winner of the 2024 Media Awards Silver Laurel Medal of Achievement for Social Media presented by GardenComm: Garden Communicators International. Day to day, Tony is a puckish ringleader for the naturalistic movement with over 85,000 followers on his various social media channels. He travels extensively to gardens and symposiums in his primary role as a communicator, documenter and sharer of ideas for this movement.  

Tonight’s guest speaker is planning to attend the meeting in-person. Should inclement weather prevent him from traveling to Richmond Hill, a live video broadcast of his remote participation will be projected onto a large screen in the auditorium.

First Flower Show of 2025

In-person meeting attendees are invited to enjoy the Spring Flower Show following tonight’s guest speaker presentation.
Please consider exhibiting specimens from your own garden (More info.). Entries need to arrive by 6:15 pm and new participants should contact our Flower Show Director for support and an exhibitor number.

Members: Instructions for participation in this virtual and in-person event will be emailed to members twice – once on the Friday prior to the meeting, and again on Monday. Instructions are also available by logging into our site and checking the “members-only” version of this event at  https://www.richmondhillgardensociety.org/event-6024634

Visitors: Guests are welcome to participate in this virtual and in-person event at a nominal fee of $5.00. Instructions for participation will be emailed to non-society members who complete the registration process prior to the event start time.

About In-Person Attendance at the McConaghy Centre: 

• Doors to the auditorium open at 7:00 pm
• The meeting begins promptly at 7:30 pm
• Please bring a mug or cup if you would like hot coffee or tea
• All attendees are encouraged to register online for inclusion in door prize draws
• Masks are not required, but are encouraged