Dr. Neil Odenwald

Sitting down with the man behind the Southern Garden Symposium ahead of its thirtieth anniversary

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CR: Over thirty years, how have you seen the Southern Garden Symposium distinguish itself from other symposiums?

NO: From the inception, we’ve aimed to be the best. In other words, we try to get good speakers—and this is worldwide. We get first-class people that are in the publications, garden designers and so forth. That’s our first requirement: to have good speakers. We haven’t spared any expense for them. So people have supported that. In St. Francisville [where the symposium is held], there’s a lot of gardening interest from the natives; and over time, it’s come to be regional. Even people from Texas and Mississippi come. It’s gotten to be very supported and popular.

CR: How was the symposium originally conceived?

NO: Thirty-one years ago, I was teaching at LSU. Someone knocked on the door—I didn’t know who this person was—he introduced himself as Larry Smart. He said, “Would you be interested in helping and supporting a gardening conference in St. Francisville?” I said, “Yes…” He said, “When can we get started?” I said, “Well, next year, maybe!”  It started with Larry, who is now deceased—he was the person who charged me over the years with the requirement that we wouldn't spare any cost to get the best speakers available at the time.

CR: Tell me about some of the speakers you've had over the years.

NO: We started very early with the people from England, like Penelope Hobhouse, Rosemary Verey, and John Brooks. Those are three of the big names in England. You start in England when you’re thinking about gardening. Then we’ve gotten people from Texas A&M: Bill Welch, Greg Grant. We’ve had big-name people across the United States.

That’s our first requirement: to have good speakers. We haven’t spared any expense for them.

James van Sweden, he is spoken of as pioneering the new style of gardening, which is much more of an organic approach. Pretty much cutting-edge people in the garden. Last year, we even had Bill Richardson [LSU Vice President of Agriculture] speaking on marijuana, for medicinal uses and all. He gave us a rundown on how big to grow the marijuana plants and the restrictions they’ll have for growing the marijuana plants. This year we’ll have Peggy Martin, of the Peggy Martin Rose. We’ve had people like Allen Owings. We’ve had Mississippi State people. Whoever’s in the news, we’ve invited. 

CR: For you personally, as a gardener, what have been some of the more useful aspects of the symposium?

NO: One thing I like is learning about any management style: how to make the garden manageable and not be a responsibility that overwhelms you. Something you enjoy doing that doesn’t burden you—“I’ve got to do this and I’ve got to do that at certain times.” I think any topics that give you an engagement with the organic and with nature—regardless if it’s in design or in management style (i.e. caring for the plants). As you know, gardening is my passion. So anything that has to do with the management of the garden is very important. Another thing is new plants—new introductions.

One thing I like is learning about any management style: how to make the garden manageable and not be a responsibility that overwhelms you. Something you enjoy doing that doesn’t burden you—“I’ve got to do this and I’ve got to do that at certain times.”

Any plants that are on the forefront; for instance, the Wave Petunia has become pretty popular. Well, I had to have some! We offer plants for sale at the symposium—in fact, we have plants, we have books, and we have the authors signing their books. We also have tools—we’re the specialists in Felco. They’re very good hand tools. It’s a Swiss tool. I think I’ve got them in every station across my garden. We also have a silent auction with prized things that other people tend to want. We bring in a couple of thousand dollars just from the auction and the plant sales.

CR: Tell me about the social events surrounding the symposium.

NO: We put on very nice galas. We try to identify a house that is a fine house, architecture-wise—old usually, antebellum. We try to find a garden that will complement. We don’t repeat very often—maybe every five or eight years. People are very generous with their contributions of gardens and homes. Thursday night, we have the speakers’ gala—that’s the committee and the speakers. We’ve got eight to ten different speakers each year. We don’t tend to repeat. 

[Read this: Four gardens to tour this spring.]

Then Friday night, we have an invitation-only gala. That’s a dress-up thing. Thursday night is more informal—we have a barn, but it’s a very nice barn. No cows or horses. Friday night is the real gala, at a big house with a garden usually. Then Saturday after the symposium at Hemingbough, we have a tea where everyone’s invited. And that’s at a house with a garden. We support places like Rosedown and Afton Villa and all those places that have gardens. We’ve done scholarships at LSU. We supported a park restoration in St. Francisville. Fifty, sixty thousand dollars at one time. For a small town, that’s pretty good.

CR: How do you find the balance between gardening being an occupation and a passion?

NO: Well, it’s both. Outside, here at home, it’s my experiment to be my own boss. When I was teaching students, it was a different hat. But I still pulled on the emphasis that I love nature. I want to impart that enthusiasm about nature before pulling them into the technical aspect of growing things and the creativity of design. At the symposium, we look at both design and horticulture. I personally enjoy that, and I work still on design consulting.

CR: How did you become a gardener?

NO: That goes back to being five years old, on a farm in the upper Mississippi Delta. It started with a five-cent pack of seeds. When I could get these seeds, I’d plant them and grow them. I had little parcels out beside the garage, right close to the chicken yard. Gardening’s been in my bones. My education started out in horticulture at Mississippi State, came to LSU for landscape architecture, and then went back to Mississippi State for a PhD. Gardening’s always been a part of my life. 

The Southern Garden Symposium will celebrate its thirtieth annivesrary on October 19 & 20, 2018, with the theme of "The Changing Nature of Gardening." Visit southerngardensymposium.org for details.

This article originally appeared in our March 2018 issue. Subscribe to our print magazine today.