Community Corner
Old Seed Houses and Plant Nurseries in the Mid-Atlantic Talk hosted by Silver Spring Garden Club
The Silver Spring Garden Club is hosting at talk on:
Old Seed Houses and Plant Nurseries in the Mid-Atlantic
John Peter Thompson will present a talk on the nursery industry of 18th
and 19th century America. He will show examples of nursery catalogs, the
originals of which are located in the National Agricultural Library in
nearby Beltsville, MD. He will discuss some of the local nurseries such
as William Booth’s nursery in Baltimore and Joshua Pearce’s nursery in
Rock Creek, Washington, DC. John Peter will also show examples of
nursery catalogs from the Golden Age of ornamental gardening, 1870 to
1910. He will discuss the intersection between horticulture and
agriculture in the 18th century and the divergence of horticulture into
commercial crops, such as vineyards and orchards, and ornamental
landscaping as we currently understand it.
John Peter Thompson is a former nurseryman and current bioeconomic
policy analyst working on projects ranging from the Maryland Invasive
Plant Advisory Committee to biological control assessments for USDA’s
Forest Service. He is a nationally recognized speaker and author,
current third term member of the US National Invasive Species Council
Advisory Committee, the Maryland Invasive Species Council a credit
steward and technical subject matter expert for the National Landscape
Standards Project of the LBJ Wild Flower Center project, and Chair of
the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission. He is
currently teaching Introduction to Horticulture and Sustainable
Landscaping to Non-naive Speaker of English at the community college of
Prince George’s County.
WHEN: Monday, March 10, 8:00pm
Doors open at 7:30pm
WHERE: Montgomery College
Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus
Health Sciences Center Building
Room 222
This event is FREE and open to the public.
The Silver Spring Garden Club invites you to stay after the talk for light refreshments and a local garden slideshow.