Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group presents “A Love of Plants: Thirty Years of Designing Horticulturally Rich Gardens”

Please join the Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at 7:00 PM in the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1685 W 13th Avenue, Eugene, OR, for our guest speaker program presented by Richard Hartlage.  This month’s topic is “A Love of Plants: Thirty Years of Designing Horticulturally Rich Gardens.” 

Richard is trained in horticulture and landscape architecture. At the core of the work at Land Morphology is his love of plants and gardening. The firm practices in a variety of styles and planting plans which can be simple or highly complex. Richard will discuss mentors and where he looks for inspiration, what his process is for developing his plant-rich projects, and how he chooses and sources plants for their work. With his broad appreciation of a wide range of plants and long experience, he will share practical wisdom and a few pitfalls. The new mile-and-half long Seattle Waterfront Park and Yew Dell Botanical Garden will be heavily featured, along with his own garden, which was recently featured in The New York Times.  

Richard grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and is a graduate of North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science in Ornamental Horticulture. He received an Outstanding Alumni Award in 2010, and in 2018, the American Horticulture Society’s Great Gardeners award in landscape design. 

Richard Hartlage is the founding principal and owner of Land Morphology, which was founded in 2013, and is a studio of landscape architects, planners and horticulturists working in nine states on private residential landscape, public, and commercial projects. His award-winning, innovative designs are renowned as emotive, immersive spaces that incorporate sophisticated horticulture, artful detailing, and historical knowledge that heighten the human experience of the natural world. His passion for horticulture–cultivated over twelve years working in public gardens and estates and managing a landscape architecture studio for sixteen years–is applied to each design from the conceptual phase through development of maintenance protocol and beyond.  

Richard’s diverse span of work includes the Seattle Waterfront, Leach Botanical Gardens, the Herb and Vegetable Garden at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Chihuly Gardens and Glass, the Moore-Turner Heritage Gardens, and many private projects.  

His designs have been featured in many publications and recently, his own home and garden in The New York Times. Land Morphology projects have received many awards, and Richard was professionally honored by his Alma Mater, North Carolina State University, and other horticulture and design organizations.  

Richard has given over 500 lectures worldwide, teaches planting design in the University of Washington’s School of Built Environments in the College of Landscape Architecture, has written many articles on gardening and landscape design for national and international publications, and serves on many advisory committees and design juries. He has contributed to six books on horticulture and landscape architecture, including The Authentic Garden: Naturalistic and Contemporary Planting Design in Landscape Architecture, Field Guide to Chihuly Gardens and Glass, Bold Visions for the Garden, Coleus: Rainbow Foliage for Container and Gardens, Pots in the Garden, Plant Life: Growing a Garden in the PNW, and A Pattern Garden: The Essential Elements of Garden Making. 

In 2002, the sweet shrub, Calycanthus x raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’ was named by the J.C. Raulston Arboretum in honor of his hybridization efforts with this genus.  

For more information about the group or this event, visit our website at www.thehardyplantgroup.org/events or email us at info@thehardyplantgroup.org. 

This in-person meeting will also be broadcast live over Zoom to members who are unable to attend in person.  The Zoom broadcast will also be recorded, and a viewing link will be sent to members to access within two weeks of receiving it.  If you are interested in watching our Zoom broadcast and are not a member, please see the “About” page on our website at www.thehardyplantgroup.org/about to download our membership form to join. 

Doors on the east side of the building open at 6:30 PM for refreshments, browsing botanical samples, and socializing. Admission is $5 for non-members and free for members. Membership in the Hardy Plant Group is open to all and is only $30 annually.  There is ample parking in the parking lot, accessible from both Chambers Street and W 13th Avenue, with additional parking in the adjacent Looking Glass Center parking lot to the north, but please do not park under their covered entryway.  Overflow parking is also available in the first 20 spaces on the east and south side of Redeemer Fellowship Church, just across Chambers Street to the west.  View parking map at www.thehardyplantgroup.org/contact 

The Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) volunteer organization for gardeners of all experience levels.  The Group is dedicated to educating the community about perennials, shrubs, and other plants for use in the garden, sharing each other’s gardens, and fostering a love of gardening.  For more information, visit www.thehardyplantgroup.org.