Speakers

Karen Chapman 

Born in England, Karen grew up with a trowel in her hand.

After moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1996, she joined a prestigious nursery as a garden plant specialist before establishing Le Jardinet in 2006. Whilst initially specializing in custom container gardens, Karen now applies that same attention to detail by designing functional and artistic landscapes. Her designs have been featured in many prestigious publications, including Fine Gardening, Garden Design, and Better Homes & Gardens.

She is co-author of two popular books on foliage-driven design: Gardening with Foliage First and Fine Foliage, while her latest book is Deer-Resistant Design.
When not designing gardens or writing about them, Karen is usually teaching in workshops around the country, as well as through a number of online courses. She also leads both domestic and international garden tours, with a focus on ensuring her guests experience the local culture and glean insights from gardens visited.

Whether on the stage or the page, Karen’s aim is always to inspire, educate and share the fun of gardening with her audience.

Ian Caton

Ian Caton has been the owner/operator of Wood Thrush Native Plant Nursery (Formerly Enchanters Garden) in Floyd, Virginia since March 2013.

Wood Thrush Native Plants is a nursery specializing in native plants of the Appalachian region including West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and North Carolina. A focus of the nursery is the introduction of new and rare native plants which are little known or underappreciated in the nursery trade. 

Previously, Ian Caton was an employee of Larry Weaner Landscape Associates, a landscape firm specializing in the use and promotion of native plants in landscaping and has an ongoing relationship with the firm and its educational arm, The New Directions in the Landscape (NDAL) program.

Molly Hendry

Molly Hendry is a Birmingham, Alabama–based horticulturist and garden designer whose work is rooted in the belief that gardens are living systems shaped over time. Her training has taken her across the United States and abroad, studying gardens through both formal design and hands-on cultivation.

Most notably, Molly spent a year working in some of the United Kingdom’s most respected public gardens as the 2016–17 Royal Horticultural Society Interchange Fellow, an experience that deeply influenced her approach to planting design, maintenance, and long-term garden stewardship.

Upon returning to Birmingham, Molly spent five and a half years with the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens, where she helped guide the future development of the Gardens through new planting designs and contributions to the reimagining of the Garden’s Master Plan.

In 2023, she founded her own garden design studio, Roots & Ramblings, where she creates plant-forward landscapes for gardeners who value curiosity, process, and time spent in the dirt. Through her design practice, speaking, and writing, Molly continues to explore how meaningful gardens are cultivated not only through thoughtful design, but through nurturing thoughtful gardeners.

Dee Hall Goodwin

Dee Hall Goodwin is a Virginia-based flower farmer, floral designer, and horticultural educator. She is the owner of Mermaid City Flowers and the founder of Black Flower Farmers, a global network supporting Black growers. She lectures and designs across the country on perennial plants and sustainable growing practices, and works at the intersection of plants, design, and education to promote resilient, place-based gardens in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Chris Fehlhaber

Chris Fehlhaber’s goal is to raise the public’s consciousness and appreciation of
enriching, progressive horticulture and those who practice it. He believes we may all lead better lives by making the world a more beneficial and beautiful place. Chris is a gardener who writes, teaches, and speaks widely on plants and gardening and runs a design, education, and consulting service.

James Hitchmough

James Hitchmough is Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Sheffield, where his work focused on encouraging more species-rich, nature-like vegetation in urban greenspace. He retired in 2022 but continues to work as a design and management consultant in the UK (for example, the Knepp Wilding Garden) and around the world. When not writing or speaking at conferences and workshops, he is developing a new garden in rural Somerset. His latest book, The Dynamic Landscape, Design, Ecology and Management of Naturalistic Urban Planting (August 2025), is a complete rewrite of the first edition (2004) of this seminal text. See @JamesHitchmough on Instagram for a view into his world.

Call for Presentations

The Perennial Plant Conference Commitee invites expert speakers to present the 2027 Perennial Plant Conference on Friday, October 15, 2027.

We are seeking dynamic, expereinced, and diverse speakers to deliver engaging and information presentations on topics related to perennial plants that thrive in the Mid- Atlantic region.