Saturday, September 13, 2025
9:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
(Doors Open 9:00 a.m.)
Three Speakers. Three Presentations. Lunch.
Get Your Plant Geek On!
Registration
Plant Geek Saturday 2025
Saturday, September 13, 2025
9:30 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.
Doors Open at 9:00 a.m.
Tickets: $99
Rockhurst University Campus
Science Center 115
54th and Troost Entrance
Kansas City, Missouri 64110
See Building #25 on map.
St Ignatius Science Center is a short walk from the parking lot, North to the second building on left. It is possible to reach the lecture hall with no stairs.
Plants are where it’s at with gardening. That’s what a lot of us think. Yes, design is interesting, but wide paths and areas to entertain don’t invigorate the same way as the cool plants.
For those who love to collect interesting, beautiful plants, Gardeners Connect has created Plant Geek Saturday.
Think something like the Kansas City Garden Symposium but entirely focused on the plants for avid gardeners and collectors.
In this, the inaugural year of Plant Geek Saturday, we will focus on conifers, woody wonders, climbing and trailing clematis, and a lot of plants that don’t fit in any of those categories. Three plant geek enablers have been invited to entice us with an array of interesting plants. Even though some of these plants may seem exotic, they thrive in climates like ours.
Three Speakers
Three Presentations
Lunch.
Register online above or send check made out to Gardeners Connect to:
Gardeners Connect
PO 8454
Kansas City, Missouri 64114
Please include email address with check if available for quickest notification of registration.
Speakers.
Steve Owens
Grow Something Different
Peter Lowe is a horticulture education and community impact senior coordinator at The Dawes Arboretum based in Newark, Ohio.
What began in the early 1900’s as a 140-acre family retreat for Beman and Bertie Dawes had doubled in size and some 50,000 trees had been planted by 1929 when it was named the Dawes Arboretum. It now has nearly 2,000 specimens.
The Dawes has a notable conifer collection on the grounds, with 1,210 conifer taxa, which consist of 26 genera from five families (including Ginkgo). The Conifer Glen at The Dawes, in particular, features miniature, dwarf, compact and large specimens artistically arranged to represent a beautiful, wild valley or glen. It was begun in the 1990s.
The climate at The Dawes Arboretum is similar to that of our gardens. Newark is in USDA hardiness zone 6b. The Kansas City region straddles zones 6a and 6b. While Kansas City is largely in zone 6a, Powell Gardens and Olathe, for example, are in zone 6b. Newark gets an average of 41.7 inches of precipitation, while Kansas City gets an average of 39 inches. Newark does get a little more snow than K.C., an average of 18 inches annually compared to about 12 inches.
Peter Lowe
Conifers and Other Woody Wonders
Bustani Plant Farm’s motto is “Grow Something Different.” It is owned by Steve and Ruth Owens.
Based in Stillwell, Oklahoma, Bustani grows and offers a mix of native and exotic plants and hardy and tropical plants.
Gardeners Connect member Marla Galetti, not only has ordered from Bustani but also has visited the nursery and its extensive display gardens.
“If you can make the time, you have got to go,” she said.
Another fan is Scott Beuerlein, garden speaker and horticulturalist at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. In October 2024 wrote about Bustani Plant Farm on GardenRant.com in a post titled “A Harmonious Garden Born of Broken Rules: the Bustani Plant Farm Display Garden.”
Steve Owens is the visionary for the display gardens at the nursery while his wife, Ruth, keeps it solvent, Beuerlein said. The nursery breaks as many rules as the gardens, he wrote.
“Open for several weeks in the spring, and again in the fall, you will find no wall of pesticides, no gazing balls, gnomes, or doodads, no Christmas trees, no pumpkin festivals. Nope, besides the display garden, all you’ll see is a modest number of benches holding a carefully curated collection of really cool herbaceous plants.”
Bustani Plant Farms supplies some major public gardens, including Biltmore Estate Gardens near Asheville, N.C.; and Smithsonian Gardens on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Deborah Hardwick
Myths, Truths & Must Have Clematis
Deborah Hardwick has spent 25 years studying, collecting, growing and hybridizing clematis.
Her garden in Delaware, Ohio, is in the same USDA hardiness zone as Kansas City, 6a. She calls her garden “Hardwick Hall.” Her private collection of clematis is reputed to be one of the largest in the world. She more than a thousand clematis varieties, including global and native American clematis species.
Harwick’s interest in clematis has taken her around the world to meet plant breeders, and she has established import connections and friendships with clematis breeders, collectors and aficionados in several countries.
In her program, she plans to discuss “Clematis Myths and Truths with Best-Practice instructions for Superior Garden Results.” She plans to dispel the myths that surround clematis by highlighting the most rewarding and rugged cultivars and offering simplified strategies for their care.
She also plans to share what she considers some of the coolest clematis for plant geeks and connoisseurs.
Hardwick searches for varieties that are easy to establish, have strong stems, flowers that are colorful and durable, tolerate hot weather and are hardy. Clematis are known for their versatility, long lifespan and vibrant, exotic-looking blooms.
Plant Geek Saturday Schedule 2025
Saturday, September 13, 2025
9:00-9:30 Check-In, Mingle, coffee
9:30-9:40 Welcome
9:40-11:00 Speaker: Peter Lowe - Conifers and Other Woody Wonders
11:00-12:10 Lunch in Cafeteria
12:10-1:30 Speaker: Deborah Hardwick - Myths, Truths & Must Have Clematis
1:30-1:50 Break with coffee, cookies and bars
1:50-3:10 Speaker: Steve Owens - Grow Something Different
3:10-3:15 Closing Remarks
Venue.
Rockhurst University
Science Center 115
54th and Troost Avenue Entrance to Rockhurst University
Building #25 on map located to the right. Building is a short walk from the parking lot, North to the second building on left. St Ignatius Science Center. It is possible to reach the lecture hall with no stairs.
A 165 seat auditorium with table space for every attendee to take notes with a great view of the presentations for the day.
Onsite free parking.
Master Gardeners & Master Naturalist Continuing Education
Many Master Gardener and Master Naturalist organizations throughout the region offer continuing education hours for attending Gardeners Connect Events like Plant Geek Saturday.
Please consult your local organization for details and specifics to their continuing education requirements.
The following organizations have offered continuing education credits for prior Gardeners Connect Programing.
Want your organization to be listed here? Contact Brian Chadwick-Robinson, executive director of Gardeners Connect at info@gardenersconnect.org for details of offering continuing education hours for your organization.
