Royal Sonesta Tropical Plant Symposium

Saturday, August 4, 2007

9 AM-5 PM - 300 Bourbon Street

Vendors:

Tom Wood: Rare and unusual gingers and related plants

Parkway Partners: Palms for the Landscape

Mary Elliot: Passifloras, Bauhinias, etc.

Chris Kim: Unusual tropical flowering and foliage plants

Larry and Glenda Weed: Tropical ferns, etc.

Bios:

Tom Wood is a collector, researcher, hybridizer, and grower of plants in the ginger family. He has made numerous trips to the jungles of Southeast Asia, has discovered and named new members of the family, and has introduced numerous gingers to horticulture. He lives in Archer, Florida, near Gainesville. Mr. Wood is a world authority on Hedychiums, the butterfly gingers; in September, he is presenting a paper on the biology and ecology of Hedychium fragrances at an international fragrance conference in Switzerland.

Rosemary Sims has been an influential presence on the South Louisiana horticultural scene for decades. Her interest expertise has ranged from antique roses to tropical trees.

Kathryn Ostadal, a research chemist by vocation, is a very serious palm grower by avocation, with more than a decade of experience with palms in the Gulf Coast landscape. She is president of the Louisiana Palm and Cycad Society.

Larry Weed is the premier grower and seller of rare tropical ferns in Louisiana. At the last exhibition of the Tropical Fern and Exotic Plant Society, held at the Fairchild Tropical Garden this past May, Mr. Weed’s specimen ferns won twelve blue ribbons—and garnered a special award for being the exhibitor with the most first-place prizes.

Rod Gates has been the staff horticulturist at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans for thirty-three years. He specializes in tropical ornamental horticulture and has amassed collections of unusual and rare tropical plants in numerous genera, with an emphasis on palms, ferns, aroids, and gingers. He is three-times past president of the Louisiana Fern and Tropical Plant Society