Rhododendron atlanticum blooming in the North Carolina Arboretum’s Native Azalea Collection, Photo credit Carson Ellis
Speaker: Carson Ellis, National Native Azalea Collection Curator at the North Carolina Arboretum
From grassy mountaintops to sandy river banks, native azaleas are jewels of landscapes and ecosystems across the southern United States. The North Carolina Arboretum’s Native Azalea Collection is a repository of their diversity. Featuring 15 of the 17 recognized species, the Arboretum’s Native Azalea Collection serves as both a conservation reservoir, horticultural display, and living laboratory.
In this presentation, Carson Ellis brings lessons and reflections from her first year as Curator of the Native Azalea Collection. Carson will survey the qualities and cultivation of the native azalea species that can be appreciated and grown in our region while also sharing her insights to public garden horticulture, naturalistic landscape design, and maintenance techniques for the ecological landscape.
Registration includes live presentation (either in-person or virtually), Q&A session and admission to Wing Haven’s gardens. A recording of this program will be available.
$25/Member (in-person)
$10/Member (virtual, live)
$35/Non-member (in-person)
$20/Non-member (virtual, live)
Photo by Emily Ellis
About Carson Ellis: Carson, born and raised in Asheville, NC, is a life-long explorer of Western North Carolina’s mountains. Her love for the natural world inspired her to pursue a career studying and cultivating native plants. Following undergraduate work in environmental science and horticulture, she completed her M.S. Biology at Western Carolina University, where she researched the pollination networks of high-elevation rock outcrop plant communities. As a horticulturist, she has worked with the Highlands Biological Research Station, Memphis Botanic Garden, and Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance, and recently joined The North Carolina Arboretum as the Curator of the National Native Azalea Collection. A lover of the arts, she enjoys painting, ceramics, and messing around on the mountain dulcimer in her free time. She considers the natural world her biggest source of inspiration and celebrates horticulture as the ideal union of art and science.
