The Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) team participated in many aspects of the 2008 American Public Gardens Association (APGA) Conference in Pasadena, California.

Chad Husby organized and spoke at a session on challenges in plant collection and exchange for botanical gardens in the 21st century. This session also included Professor Sabrina Safrin of Rutgers University School of Law, Dr. Jim Folsom, Director of Gardens at The Huntington, and was moderated by Dr. Patrick Griffith of MBC.

Jeff Shimonski, MBC Honorary Member, was an invited speaker for a session titled: Doing the right thing: Sustainable Practice as evidence of the mission.

Chad and Patrick also represented MBC at the NAPCC members’ forum. Montgomery Botanical’s Palm Collection and Cycad Collection were recently recognized as nationally important collections by the NAPCC. Discussions of multi-garden coordinated efforts at palm and cycad curation were held.

As a member of the APGA’s Program Selection Committee, Patrick also participated in organizing the topics for the conference, and was also responsible for moderating a multi-speaker session on advancement and development at botanic gardens.

“MBC’s connectivity and collaboration within the botanic garden community is becoming more apparent,” stated Patrick. “The presentations by Chad and Jeff demonstrate areas in which MBC has a leading role. The MBC mission is based on plant collections, and MBC operations are based on sustainability. Both are fundamental to botanic gardens.”