The SFA Gardens at Stephen F. Austin State University will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 19, in the Agriculture Building, Room 110, at 1924 Wilson Drive. Horticulturist Steven Chamblee will present “Garden Harmony 101.”
All too often, the garden master becomes a slave to the demands of her or his own creation, according to Chamblee. By properly honoring time, space, place, form and function, gardens that evolve naturally can be developed. Lecture attendees will learn how to re-establish priorities, alter traditional views of garden composition, utilize alternative resources and, ultimately, create the vision that was once just a dream.
Chamblee has been active in horticulture for more than 30 years. He developed his love for plants by transplanting trees with his father in the late 1970s and eventually formed Southern Lawn Care, a landscape maintenance company. In 1986, Chamblee joined the Fort Worth Botanic Garden as a gardener. He later enrolled in Tarrant County Junior College, where he earned his associate degree in horticulture. While working full-time at the Botanic Garden, he earned his bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Tarleton State University. He then received a fellowship in the prestigious Longwood Graduate Program and earned a master’s degree in public horticulture administration from the University of Delaware.
After graduate school, Chamblee served as the native plant horticulturist for the Heard Natural Science Museum in McKinney before returning to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden as grounds manager. As the education director for the Botanic Garden, he focused on developing a variety of self-sustaining educational programs. Currently the chief horticulturist for Chandor Gardens in Weatherford, he uses his collective experiences to bring vibrant artistic expression to the garden and inspired educational opportunities to the community.
Chamblee has studied public and private gardens in England, Denmark, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Hawaii and across the continental United States. He designs custom landscapes, serves as consulting editor and writer for Neil Sperry’s GARDENS magazine, authors a monthly e-newsletter column titled “Native Son” and is an adjunct instructor for Tarrant County College and Texas Christian University Extended Education.
Ann Phillips of Llano Grande Plantation in Nacogdoches will be honored before the lecture for her many years of support of and dedication to the lecture series and its speakers.
The Theresa and Les Reeves Garden Lecture Series is normally held the third Thursday of each month at the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture’s SFA Mast Arboretum. A rare plant raffle is held after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves lecture series fund always are appreciated.
For more information, call (936) 468-1832 or e-mail grantdamon@sfasu.edu.
