Professional Sections

APGA Professional Sections exist to promote networking among public garden professionals sharing a common interest and to help advance the mission of the Association. Professional Sections are discipline-focused (Education, Plant Collections, Volunteer Management, College and University, Native Plants, etc.), and bring together garden representatives for information sharing and networking opportunities. Professional Section members share their expertise through the Association’s eNewsletter and Public Garden articles as well as presentations at the Annual Conference, and may also assist in developing and providing professional development opportunities for APGA members. Each Professional Section has its own area of the website where it provides useful information and opportunities for interaction among Professional Section members. The Professional Section pages are available to members only.

For information about becoming a member of a Professional Section, email Sarah Maietta, Membership Manager at  smaietta@publicgardens.org, or for information about joining the Association, click on Join APGA located on the left menu bar.

College & University Garden Section
The College and University Garden Section examines the ways in which college and university affiliated gardens can serve their primary audiences of faculty, students , staff, and the general public through the development of collections, educational programs, interpretation, and research efforts.

Design and Planning Section
The Design Professional Section (DPS) provides a resource for planning and design professionals working in and with public gardens.

Development & Membership
The Development/Membership Section will provide a framework for fundraising professionals in the public garden industry to network within the industry, to learn from each other’s experiences, and to share best practices.

Education
The Education Professional Section supports the overarching mission of APGA by supporting the work, value, and achievements of educators working in public horticulture and plant-based education.

Emerging Professionals
The Center for Public Horticulture at the University of Delaware is organizing a new APGA Professional Section for Emerging Professionals. This new section will support people new to the profession of public horticulture by providing resources for networking, career development, continuing education and training.

Green Buildings and Landscapes
The Green Buildings and Landscapes (GBL) professional section of the APGA serves as a resource for professionals at public gardens throughout North America working to improve the environmental sustainability of their facilities, landscapes, and practices.

Historic Landscapes
The Historic Landscapes Professional Section seeks to promote the importance and understanding of historic landscapes to all professionals in the public garden community and to encourage agreement about one big idea, which is that every public garden is or will be historic in some way, either now or in the future.

Horticulture, Greenhouses, and Facilities (HGF) 
The Horticulture, Greenhouses, and Facilities (HGF) Section serves to unite those engaged in the care of plants, greenhouses, and the physical plants present at their facilities. It serves those who grow an array of plants whether present in landscapes, conservatories, and production greenhouses. Its target audience and common focal point is for APGA members who are growing and displaying plants, maintaining or renovating facilities, and other personnel serving in this distinctive sector of public horticulture.

Marketing & Communications
The MCPS strives to provide opportunities for networking, professional development and act as a resource for marketing and communications experts for APGA members and the general public.

Native Plants
The NANPO professional section is intended to be a resource to organizations that focus on the plants native to North America for display, collections, research, conservation, and land stewardship. This professional section is particularly of value to these organizations because of the, often unique, roles they play in their communities through: stewardship of natural lands and watershed resources; display, living collections, and/or herbaria resources focused on regional flora; involvement with in situ and ex situ efforts to conserve biodiversity; education/interpretation targeting the value of regional biodiversity; leadership in addressing issues of biological invasion and its impacts on natural systems and much more.

Plant Collections
The Plant Collections Section focuses on issues related to the curation and display of living plant collections. It promotes professional standards and the dissemination of information on collections acquisition and content, accessioning and labeling, plant exchanges, and coordination of collections to preserve the gene pool.

Plant Conservation
The Plant Conservation Section's purpose is to encourage public gardens to focus on plant conservation as a key mission area and to keep them informed of related issues.

Plant Nomenclature & Taxonomy
The Plant Nomenclature and Taxonomy Professional Section is a resource for education, information dissemination, research and discussion about plant names.

Small Gardens Section
The Small Garden Professional Section provides a forum for communication and problem solving issues specific to Small Public Gardens. The challenges facing smaller public gardens are often very different from those of large public gardens.

Technology and Innovation Professional Section (TIPS)
The purpose of the Technology and Innovation Professional Section (TIPS) is to assist and encourage the botanical garden community to make the best use of computer and other information technologies for diverse purposes, including management of collections, natural areas and facilities as well as membership, development, education, research and other purposes that support and strengthen the goals of organizations.

Volunteer Interaction
The Volunteer Management Section continues to provide professional expertise, guidelines and resources for volunteer coordinators at member gardens through the efforts of its Section members, and at its biennial Interaction Conference.

The APGA is committed to providing networking opportunities for all of our members. If you are interested in creating a new Professional Section, please contact Casey Sclar, Interim Executive Director at csclar@publicgardens.org or (610) 708-3016 to learn how.