Episode X: Botanic Gardens are Horticultural Innovators with Ari Novy

Read the companion article here.

One of the most innovative things about botanic gardens remains the incredible diversity of plants in one place. In addition to being centers for horticultural education, botanic gardens can use their living collections—often consisting of thousands of plants—to inform research and conservation.

Our guest today is Dr. Ari Novy, President & CEO at San Diego Botanic Garden, previously Chief Scientist at Leichtag Foundation, and former Executive Director of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, DC 

Learn more about the San Diego Botanic Garden, as well as the Pollinator Project collaboration between SDBC and University of California Cooperative Extension. See also the Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden.

This episode was sponsored by:

GARDEN FUTURIST  

A show about innovative thinkers contributing to a climate resilient future through the power of gardens.

Produced and hosted by Sarah Beck, Adriana Lopez, and Adrienne St Claire 

Edited and directed by Kelsey Skonberg 

Sarah Beck is the executive director of Pacific Horticulture.

Adriana López-Villalobos currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia where she works as Curatorial Coordinator for the UBC Botanical Garden. She is originally from Mexico, where she completed her BSC and MSc, studying plant ecology and mating systems evolution, before migrating to Canada to pursue a PhD focusing on the genetics of species across their geographic ranges.

Adrienne St. Clair is a botanist working with Metro, a regional government in Portland, Oregon where her work spans conservation to restoration. Adrienne managed a native plant nursery for almost a decade before pursuing a graduate degree. She received her Master’s in Plant Biology and Conservation from Northwestern University and Chicago Botanic Garden where she studied the effect of horticulture techniques on native-plant genetics.

Kelsey Skonberg is a Community-Centered Video and Podcast Editor and Science Journalist in Everett, WA.