Paul Cappiello - In Pursuit of Plants - Lessons From a Life Spent Collecting

MHG Meetings

Sponsored By: Metro Hort Group

Paul Cappiello began his plant collecting obsession early, as a result of growing up in a suburb of NYC surrounded by an ancient beech forest. Studying at Rutgers and teaching at the University of Maine, he honed his plant collecting skills. Now, after living 16 years in Kentucky scouring the Bluegrass county, North America and beyond, he has amassed a collection of some 12,000 taxa at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens. Paul will tell stories of his numerous plant collecting treks overseas and document with photographs of these amazing plants.

Paul Cappiello graduated from Rutgers University with a BS in Environmental Planning and Design and holds an MS and PhD in Horticulture from the University of Illinois. He is the Executive Director of Yew Dell Botanical Gardens in Crestwood, KY. The Garden is a former commercial nursery that is now a thriving botanical garden listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a preservation partner of the Garden Conservancy, and listed byHorticulture magazine as one of the top 10 Destination Gardens in the United States. Paul is known internationally for his work on selection, introduction, and evaluation of new ornamental plants for the landscape. He is a widely respected lecturer, writer, teacher, researcher, and designer and co-authored a book on the genus Cornus with legendary nurseryman Don Shadow.