Lectures

The Garden of Club of Houston will host the biennial
      NANCY STALLWORTH THOMAS HORTICULTURE LECTURE
with Guest Speaker  –   Karl Gercens,  East Conservatory
Manager with Longwoods Gardens, Kennett Square, PA
on February 21, 2024 at the
St. Martin’s Church
717 Sage Road, 77056

Doors open for coffee at 9:30 am. Lecture starts promptly at 10:00 am and ends at 11:15.

Karl Gercens came to Longwood Gardens to begin what was going to be a complete conservatory complex renovation starting with the largest of all the glasshouses, the East Conservatory. This project was completely Longwood focused from design to plant selection with a Mediterranean and sub-tropical plant pallet. Being a part of this project from beginning to end was just the beginning; renovation projects that would soon follow, include the creation of The Greenwall, the largest indoor vertical garden at the time, the indoor Children’s Garden with its myriad of water features and bronze artworks, and the Garden Path, Longwood’s version of a beautiful glasshouse trial garden. Currently Longwood is engaged in the largest of all of its renovation projects titled, “Longwood Reimagined,” where all the smaller estate-style glasshouses are being replaced with an architectural marvel, showcasing Mediterranean flora. The West Conservatory will be the shiny new addition to the historic flower show displays at the Orangery & Exhibition Hall. Longwood Reimagined opens in October 2024 with aged olive trees, engaging new hedges of cypress and laurel alongside hundreds of hanging baskets and colorful seasonal plants changed throughout the year.

Renowned for using a pallet of colored foliage trees, shrubs, and perennials continues to enrich the exciting content of Karl’s professional lectures given nationwide and his horticultural classes offered at Longwood Gardens. Karl has been one of the instructors of the Professional Horticulture Program at Longwood Gardens for more than a decade. When Karl is not gardening, lecturing, or consulting you may find him judging at the Philadelphia International Flower Show, speaking at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival or lecturing to the American Hosta Society national meeting in 2024. Dozens more topics will be presented to local and regional societies with a focus on color, design and horticultural inspiration. Karl’s horticultural passion extends worldwide with frequent visits to public and private gardens in all 50 states and more than 30 countries! While at those locations, he takes vibrant and vivid digital imagery which he catalogues to share his experiences with others. You’ll find Karl’s images in national and worldwide publications as well as on his social media outlets. Facebook, Instagram and TikTok each capture a different angle of the daily horticultural inspiration that Karl experiences while Karl’s Flickr account is the main library of the 275,000 images uploaded thus far. All these outlets are available for you to browse when you need inspiration. The links to these are on Karl’s web site: www.KarlGercens.com and Instagram: karl_gercens_

The Nancy Stallworth Thomas Horticulture Lecture was established in 1995 and is held biennially in February. This event focuses on horticulture. Recent speakers have included Doug Tallamy,  Adriaan Geuze, William Cullina and Antonia Adezio.