The Southern Garden Symposium

Presenting renowned gardening experts and a wide array of panels, few gardening programs combine top-quality speakers and historic plantation settings in quite the way that the Southern Garden Symposium manages to do. At plantations up and down the parish, nineteenth-century landowners devoted huge portions of their newly acquired wealth to imposing order upon the wilderness and created gardens of ethereal and lasting beauty. When this twenty-ninth annual symposium opens, prominent speakers will be in town to explore that heritage through workshops and lectures, interspersed with social events that celebrate classic Southern hospitality at its best. Medical marijuana, orchids, historical gardens, and invasive species are just a few of the topics on the docket. Reserve by October 13; space is limited. (225) 635-3738 or southerngardensymposium.org.