WLS Home | WLS Schedule | WLS Presenters | WLS Session Topics | WLS Committee Members
The 2023 Western Landscape Symposium is proud to present the following speakers.
Keynote Speaker: Panayoti Kelaidis
Panayoti Kelaidis is a plant explorer, gardener and public garden administrator associated with Denver Botanic Gardens where he is now Senior Curator and Director of Outreach. He has designed plantings for many of the gardens at DBG, he is particularly noted for the plantings of the Rock Alpine Garden. He has introduced hundreds of native ornamentals from throughout the Western United States to general horticulture. He has taken seven collecting trips to Southern Africa researching the high mountain flora there, as well as travels to the Andes, Central Asia (Kazakhstan and Mongolia), the Himalaya (from both Pakistan and China) as well as travels throughout much of Europe from Spain to Georgia, Turkey and most recently, New Zealand. Many of his plant introductions are available through Plant Select®, (a plant introduction program he helped launch along with staff from Colorado State University and nurseries across America). He has lectured in over 140 cities in twelve countries, and has been featured in dozens of television, newspaper and magazine pieces. He has published widely in popular and technical horticultural journals.
In recent years Panayoti has been honored with the Boulder History Museum’s 60 Year Living History award in 2004, in 2003 by being inducted into the Garden Club of America as Member-at-Large, in 2002 he received the National Garden Clubs Medal of Honor and in 2000 he received the Arthur Hoyt Scott Medal from the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College. He has received four awards from the North American Rock Garden Society. In 2004 he was inducted into the Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Association’s Hall of Fame. In 2009 he received the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award of the American Horticultural Society.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mike Kintgen
Since a young age, Mike has loved and worked with alpine plants. Currently, Mike is the Curator of Alpine Collections at Denver Botanic Gardens where he is responsible for the management of one of the most significant living alpine plant collections on the North American continent. His work has taken him to many parts of the globe studying alpine and steppe plants. Mike completed a masters in ecology in 2018 at Regis university studying how precipitation gradients and soil pH drive alpine plant species richness in Colorado’s alpine tundra. Mike also holds a BS in Landscape Horticulture from Colorado State University and hopes to blend more ecology in to horticulture to make it more sustainable. (Photo credit: Scott Dressel-Martin)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tony Koski
Tony Koski has been the Extension Turf Specialist and a professor at Colorado State University since 1988. He teaches turfgrass management and advises turf management students in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. As Extension specialist, he works with all facets of Colorado’s professional turf management industry, including the golf course industry, sports turf, professional lawn care, and sod production. His research interests include landscape water management, weed control, turf fertility and soil management. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from The Ohio State University.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tammi Hartung
Tammi Hartung is an Ethnobotanical Herbalist and organic farmer with 44 years of experience. She, and her husband Chris, Own Desert Canyon Farm in Canon City, Co. Tammi is the author of five books, she is an international speaker, and blogs at desertcanyonfarm.wordpress.com. Her books will be available for sale in the Symposium Expo room.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Monique Marez
Monique Marez is a food systems expert with experience at every scale of the sector, from grassroots community organizing, to international policy. Her consulting practice, Eptimizo LLC provides strategic services to food businesses, governments, and non-profits in an effort to build a more resilient and just food system. She was raised in Pueblo, has worked in nearly 40 countries around the world, and holds degrees from Yale University and New York University. She received her permaculture design certification from the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Western Landscape Symposium Planning Committee would like to thank all of our speakers for sharing their expertise, enthusiasm and vision.