Our October speaker is Sean Hogan, from Portland, Oregon. A Portland native, Sean is Director of Collections at Portland’s Hoyt Arboretum, and co-curator with Parker Sanderson of the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. He also founded, in 1995, Cistus Design, a company specializing in the design of both private and public gardens, and in 2000 opened Cistus Nursery, specializing in hardy tropical [I’m not exactly sure what this means] broadleaf evergreens, Mediterranean and southern hemisphere plants.

Previously, Sean had studied evolutionary taxonomy at university, but from childhood has been interested in horticulture. In 1988 he became Curator for the African, Australian\New Zealand desert, native cultivar garden and a number of special collections at the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley, then in 1995 moved back to Portland to take on his present occupations. His book, Broad Leaf Evergreens; Trees Shrubs and Climbers, is to be published by Timber Press next year.

Given Sean’s early interest in evolutionary taxonomy, and his moving back and forth between Oregon and California, it is not surprising that he has taken special interest in the Siskiyou area, the mountainous region that is mostly in Oregon but crosses over the border into northern California, an area unique on the west coast in having a different geological history from its surroundings, and thus containing many endemic species of plants within a particularly rich botanical diversity. It is also not surprising that Sean knows the Siskiyous very well, and it is on this subject he will speak to us the evening of October 18th. Not very distant from Vancouver, the Siskiyous from the car window do not look very different from our own British Columbia landscape, and they have a similar climate. At the same time these mountains are home to a great many native plants we do not have, but which grow well here under cultivation. The area should be of particular interest, then, to British Columbia woodland gardeners. Many plants originating in the Siskiyous, both woody and herbaceous, are extremely attractive as garden subjects, and they combine very well with rhododendrons. Clearly, Sean Hogan’s botanical erudition is considerable, as is the interest of his subject. We look forward to his presentation.

Sean Hogan