Sandoz Society conference to emphasize horticulture

This year’s program, which will emphasize the horticulture of the High Plains, is being presented in conjunction with the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. The keynote speaker will be Roger Swain, known as “the man with the red suspenders” while hosting the television show, “The Victory Garden” on public television for 15 years. He will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 27.

Swain is the author of five books on growing plants and gardening. He resides in southern New Hampshire, where he has gardens and orchards.

Beginning Thursday morning, five presentations on horticulture and two sessions on Mari Sandoz’s original documents are scheduled. The horticulture workshops will be led by personnel from the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum and members of the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at UNL who make up the cast for the popular television show, “Backyard Farmer.”

Speakers on Friday and their topics will include Richard Voorhees, instructor of sociology and anthropology at Inver Hills Community College in Minnesota, “Cultural Geography in Sandoz’s Cheyenne Autumn;” Dr. Gus van der Hoeven, a landscape and environmental horticulturalist at Kansas State University, “Stop, Look and Listen: Our Home is on the Plains;” and Jim Locklear, director of the Statewide Arboretum, and Ron Weedon, CSC professor of botany, “From Jewels of the Plains to Great Plants for the Great Plains.”

Also on Friday, there will be a round table discussion on “Old Jules and the Vine” and a program by Lucinda Mays, CSC public horticulturalist, on the Sandhills honor garden that she has developed outside the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center on the CSC campus.

Friday evening, Paul Read, UNL professor of horticulture and viticulture, will speak on “Grapes and Wine in Nebraska,” or how grape production in Nebraska promises to provide economic benefits for the state.

Registrations for both members and non-members of the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society will be discounted if received prior to March 1. Registrations forms may be obtained from the Sandoz Center at Chadron State or online at www.marisandoz.org and clicking on the conference button.