
ABOUT THE EVENT
Our annual Garden Luncheon will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year! Please join us to hear from a featured speaker, participate in our silent auction and enjoy a delicious lunch at the Desmond!
Silent Auction opens at 10:30 am, followed by the luncheon and speaker from 11:30 am- 1:30 pm.
Tickets are $70. RSVP by Friday, March 8th.
Featured Speaker – John Friel
John Friel is the Marketing Manager for Emerald Coast Growers, a major propagator of ornamental grasses and perennials. A Past President of the Perennial Plant Association, he also served as a regional Director and Nomenclature Committee Chairman.
John’s column “The Perennial Cynic” first appeared in the Ball Publishing magazine “Grower Talks” in 2001.” He now writes “The Friel World,” a regular feature of Green Profit magazine. His byline has also appeared in the PPA Quarterly, American Nurseryman, The American Garden, Baer’s Agricultural Almanac, Lancaster Newspapers, Lancaster Farming, Fly Magazine, Tomato Magazine, Fruit Growers News, Vegetable Growers News, and elsewhere. John is among the “Who’s Who in the Perennial Industry” selected by Greenhouse Grower Magazine. Dr. Allan Armitage calls him “The best writer in horticulture.”
John has spoken for PPA, Garden Writers Association, the Swarthmore Perennial Conference, New England Grows, the erstwhile OFA Short Course, the OFA Perennial Conference, Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, the Far West Show (Keynote), Landscape Alberta, the International Plant Propagators Society, Master Gardeners, and others in the United States and Canada.