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The American Horticultural Society (AHS) is a nonprofit, membership-based organization that promotes American horticulture. It is headquartered at River Farm in Alexandria, Virginia. [1]
Established in 1922, [2] the AHS is one of the oldest national gardening organizations in the United States. Today's organization resulted from the merger of three gardening groups: the current namesake American Horticultural Society, the National Horticultural Society, and the American Horticultural Council.
In addition to publishing horticultural reference books, the organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine, The American Gardener, which is a member benefit. The American Horticultural Society also publishes a monthly online e-bulletin.
The American Horticultural Society conducts various events annually, to educate and inspire gardeners. Each summer the AHS conducts the National Children and Youth Garden Symposium, which is a forum for educators, garden designers, community leaders, and children’s gardening advocates to network and collaborate on techniques and practices to engage children with the natural world. Education is further instilled in the Society’s internship program, [3] which hires interns in editorial/communications, member programs, and horticulture.
Through its national awards programs, [4] AHS celebrates outstanding achievements, encourages excellence, and inspires innovation in the art and science of horticulture. The Great American Gardeners Awards honor horticultural heroes; the AHS Book Awards celebrate great gardening literature, and Growing Good Kids Awards recognize outstanding children's gardening and nature books.
AHS offers a membership program to those interested in gardening and horticulture. Membership includes a subscription to The American Gardener, free admission privileges or discounts at 300 gardens and arboreta through the Reciprocal Admissions Program (RAP), [5] discounted or free admission to flower and garden shows, the annual Seed Exchange, and special discounts on programs and products.
In 1973, the Society relocated their headquarters to River Farm, overlooking the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia. The property was acquired by the AHS with a gift from Enid Annenberg Haupt, who stipulated that the historic property, once part of George Washington's estate, would be open for the public to enjoy. [6] The property is home to numerous gardens, including a four-acre Andre Bluemel Meadow and a Children's Garden. Annual events at River Farm include the Spring Garden Market plant sale, garden workshops for children, a banquet for AHS award winners, and a gala fundraiser each fall. [7]
The Board of Directors of the AHS voted to sell the River Farm property in September 2020. The proposed sale generated controversy both within the organization, and was met with resistance from the local government. Although the AHS had initially planned to dispose of the property by Spring 2021, that deadline was not met. [8]
The Horticultural and Corporate Partners programs join other allied organizations that help to support the Society's vision of making a nation of gardeners. In August 2020, the AHS partnered with Elodie's Naturals to teach skincare chemistry sourced from vegetables and plants. [9]
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a 250-acre (100 ha) site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, a greenhouse containing several habitats; and the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, which contains one of the world's largest collections of botany-related texts. As of 2016, over a million people visit the New York Botanical Garden annually.
Andrew Jackson Downing was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, writer, prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of The Horticulturist magazine (1846–1852). Downing is considered to be a founder of American landscape architecture.
The Gardens at Elm Bank, home of Massachusetts Horticultural Society, occupies 36 acres (15 ha) of Elm Bank Reservation, a 175-acre (71 ha) recreational area of woodlands, fields, and former estate property on the Charles River managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. The estate's entrance is located at 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States, with the major portion of the grounds located in the neighboring town of Dover. In 1987, the entire site was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Elm Bank.
The Ontario Horticultural Association (OHA) is a horticultural organization in Ontario, Canada. It was organized in 1905, established in 1906, and incorporated by the Government of Ontario in 1924 via an Act in the Ontario Legislature, which split the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies into the Ontario Agricultural Fairs Association and the OHA. Its founding motto was "Keeping Ontario Beautiful".
The Chicago Botanic Garden is a 385-acre (156 ha) botanical garden situated on nine islands in the northern Cook County Forest Preserves. It features 27 display gardens and five natural habitats including Mary Mix McDonald Woods, Barbara Brown Nature Reserve, Dixon Prairie, the Skokie River Corridor, and the Lakes and Shorelines. The garden is open every day of the year. An admission fee has been approved to start in 2022, not to exceed $35.
Master Gardener programs are volunteer programs that train individuals in the science and art of gardening. These individuals pass on the information they learned during their training, as volunteers who advise and educate the public on gardening and horticulture.
River Farm, permanent home to the American Horticultural Society (AHS) headquarters, is a landscape located at 7931 East Boulevard Drive, Alexandria, Virginia. The estate takes its name from a larger plot of land which formed an outlying part of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.
The South End Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust(SELROSLT) is a membership-supported, non-profit organization that owns, protects, and manages 16 community gardens and pocket parks in the South End and Lower Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is a member of the American Community Gardening Association, the Boston Natural Areas Network, the Land Trust Alliance, and a partnering grantee of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund.
Urban horticulture is the science and study of the growing plants in an urban environment. It focuses on the functional use of horticulture so as to maintain and improve the surrounding urban area. Urban horticulture has seen an increase in attention with the global trend of urbanization and works to study the harvest, aesthetic, architectural, recreational and psychological purposes and effects of plants in urban environments.
The American Orchid Society (AOS) is a horticultural society for education, conservation, and research of orchids. It was founded in 1921, and has an international membership. It is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. It has been called an "industry group". As of 2001 it was the largest special interest horticultural organization in the world. The AOS is the parent organization for local orchid societies in North and South America. It is affiliated with 600 orchid societies worldwide. A local commercial orchid grower, Robert Fuchs, said, "The American Orchid Society has the best orchid library in the Americas and orchid art work that is phenomenal." As of 2004 annual dues were $40.
Paul Allen Smith, Jr. is an American television host, garden designer, conservationist, and lifestyle expert. He is the host of three television programs. P. Allen Smith's Garden Home and P. Allen Smith's Garden to Table are distributed to public television by American Public Television. His 30-minute show Garden Style is syndicated by The Television Syndication Company. Smith is one of America's most recognized gardening and design experts, providing ideas and guidance through multiple media venues. He is the author of the Garden Home series of books published by Clarkson Potter/Random House, including Bringing the Garden Indoors: Container, Crafts and Bouquets for Every Room and the cookbook, Seasonal Recipes from the Garden, inspired by the abundance of food from his farm and a family of cooks. In 2014, Smith's television shows were successful at the Taste Awards with Smith returning to Little Rock with four Taste Awards. In 2015, Smith was inducted into the Taste Hall of Fame for his significant impact in the world of taste and broadcast entertainment. Garden Home won a 2017 Taste Award for "Best Green or Organic Program".
The Gardeners of America/Men's Garden Clubs of America (TGOA/MGCA) is a national organization with 31 affiliated garden clubs located in 14 states (2018) across the United States. The organization is also known as Gardeners of America (TGOA) or Men’s Garden Clubs of America (MGCA). It has its headquarters in Johnston, Iowa, a business suburb of Des Moines. It is a non-profit organization incorporated in the state of Illinois, and registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non-profit group. Most clubs include men and women members, and concentrate on gardening education, and community beautification and enhancement. At one time the organization had about 10,000 members.
A therapeutic garden or wellness garden is an outdoor garden space that has been specifically designed to meet the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the people using the garden as well as their caregivers, family members and friends.
Enid Haupt was an American publisher and philanthropist whose gifts supported horticulture, the arts, architectural and historic preservation, and cancer research. She has been described as "the greatest patron American horticulture has ever known" by Gregory Long, the president of the New York Botanical Garden.
Community gardens in the United States benefit both gardeners and society at large. Community gardens provide fresh produce to gardeners and their friends and neighbors. They provide a place of connection to nature and to other people. In a wider sense, community gardens provide green space, a habitat for insects and animals, sites for gardening education, and beautification of the local area. Community gardens provide access to land to those who otherwise could not have a garden, such as apartment-dwellers, the elderly, and the homeless. Many gardens resemble European allotment gardens, with plots or boxes where individuals and families can grow vegetables and flowers, including a number which began as victory gardens during World War II. Other gardens are worked as community farms with no individual plots at all, similar to urban farms.
The Andrew Jackson Downing Urn, also known as the Downing Urn, is a memorial and public artwork located in the Enid A. Haupt Garden of the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The Enid A. Haupt Garden is a 4.2 acre public garden in the Smithsonian complex, adjacent to the Smithsonian Institution Building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was designed to be a modern representation of American Victorian gardens as they appeared in the mid to late 19th century. It replaced an existing Victorian Garden which had been built to celebrate the nation's Bicentennial in 1976.
The Smithsonian Gardens, a division of the Smithsonian Institution, is responsible for the "landscapes, interiorscapes, and horticulture-related collections and exhibits", which serve as an outdoor extension of the Smithsonian's museums and learning spaces in Washington, D.C. Established in 1972 as a groundskeeping and horticulture program, Smithsonian Gardens currently manages 180 acres of gardens on the National Mall, 64,000 square feet of greenhouse production space, and the Archives of American Gardens, a research collection of over 60,000 photographs and archival records covering American landscape history from the 1870s to the present.
Sarah Gildersleeve Fife was a prominent force among women bibliophiles in the first half of the 20th century and a leader in gardening and horticulture, advocating the use of plantings around army bases and military hospitals.
The Woman's National Farm & Garden Association (WNF&GA) is an American non-profit organization dedicated to promoting agriculture and horticulture. Membership is open to men and women; chapters are active in the Northeastern United States and the East North Central States.