GARDEN SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERS
DR. CHARLES ALLEN – FLORA OF SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA: A PARADISE OF RARE & UNUSUAL PLANTS
Dr. Charles Allen is a Senior Botanist with Colorado State University stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana. He and his wife Susan own and operate
Allen Acres B&B, a nature-oriented paradise in west central Louisiana with field trips as a part of the amenities. Charles is a retired Professor
of Biology from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and a charter member and past President of the Louisiana Native Plant Society. He
served as President of the Monroe Beautification Board for several years and coordinated their Earth Day Celebration. He is the co-author of
the recently published Louisiana Wildflower Guide, Edible Plants of the Gulf South, Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines of Louisiana, and Grasses
of Louisiana. Charles has presented Edible Plant, Butterfly Gardening, Prairie and Wildflower talks to many groups not only in Louisiana but
also in Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Arkansas and Texas.
NELLIE NEAL – HEIRLOOM PLANTS WORTH REVIVING FOR TODAY’S GARDENS
Known as “The Garden Mama” to her radio audiences, Nellie Neal writes and speaks from a solid educational background coupled with a
lifetime of gardening successes and failures. She learned to garden from her grandfather in Monroe, LA and went on to major in English and
Horticulture at LSU in Baton Rouge (B.S. 1975). Neal has grown plants, bought and sold plants, tested new varieties and helped sustain old
ones. She has planted and maintained landscapes and movie sets, mowed lawns, watered greenhouses, waited on customers in garden retail
and taught gardening to students of every age. She is a member of the Garden Writers Association. She is the author of several books
including Questions and Answers for Deep South Gardeners, Getting Started in Southern Gardening, Ortho’s All About Greenhouses and
Organic Gardening Down South.
SUZANNE TURNER – THE GARDEN DIARY OF MARTHA TURNBULL, MISTRESS OF ROSEDOWN PLANTATION
Suzanne Turner, FASLA, is professor emerita of landscape architecture at the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture at LSU where
she taught for almost twenty-five years. She is principal of her own landscape architecture firm which specializes in historic landscapes
throughout the Gulf South and the southeastern US. She recently co-authored a book on historic Glenwood Cemetery in Houston, as well as
The Garden Diary of Martha Turnbull, Mistress of Rosedown Plantation. Turner received a BA in art history from Emory University and a
master of landscape architecture from the University of Georgia. She was co-founder of the Red Stick Farmers Market sixteen years ago.
LINDA ORTON – HYPERTUFA MAKING
Linda is a lifetime member of the Memphis Area Master Gardeners, a past Vice President and Treasurer of the MAMG, co-founder and
President of the Mid-South Hydrangea Society. She has presented programs on hydrangeas to the West Tennessee Research and Education
Center’s Summer Celebration and the master gardeners in Jackson, TN, as well as to the Jonesboro, AR master gardeners and the Quachita
Hosta and Shade Plant Society in Hot Springs, AR. She has made presentations on hydrangeas, clematis and English gardens to numerous
garden clubs in the Memphis, TN area and hands-on demonstrations of hypertufa making for the St. Tammany Parish Library. She has worked
for 38 years in the investment banking business to support her gardening habit of collecting hydrangeas and clematis and raising vegetables.
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